Jesse’s Journey

Today I had 4-5 meetings (semi-)planned.

The first was delayed by over an hour, so I had to rush it and we will meet for drinks tomorrow night.

The second, well, the person didn’t show up.

The Third worked out, altho the person was a few mins late.

The Fourth person ended up being busy and sent someone else, who was higher up in the organisation (and Dutch).

And the 5th person never sms’d me, so we didn’t meet up.

Not only that, but the A/C didn’t work in my room last night, and the hotel manager wouldn’t do anything about it or to make me happy, so I found a 5th hotel to stay at. This one has A/C, a fridge, hot and cold water, and a TV. Not only that, but everything (seems to) work(s) and it’s the cheepest place I’ve been in in Dar!

It seems like all of the above has been my life for the past almost 2 weeks.
And I was thinking in the Daladala earlier “Gee, this is kinda nice here… I like it very much. I wonder if I could live here… and for how long…”
I don’t really see that happening, but I just think it’s interesting that after all this SH*T I’ve been putting up with, plus the heat and getting ripped off everywhere because I am a muzungu, I am still having a great time!

Cheers to that!

I made it back to Dar, and it’s hot here… quite hot. I had problems sleeping last night due to the heat. Found a new hotel for tonight, that has A/C. Sadly it doesn’t work very well, so we’ll see if i survive the night. If not, new hotel tomorrow!

This is just a short post…. more soon, when I have time.

But, I ended up getting 2 b-day sms’s which made me happy… although, I receive both after the 14th was over (for me at least).

Did a 2 day safari with 3 nuclear physicists. Saw many elephants and zebras, dikdiks and flamingo’s impalas, some ostriches, giraffes, hippo’s, a few rhino’s, warthogs and hyena’s and a mongoose!… other animals too, but i forget what. the cutest by far was the baby warthog! I loved it cuz it was so small and too cute for words!

Bus back to Dar yesterday, running around today and a mobile phones for development workshop with the world bank later , meetings tomorrow and thursday, then outa here on friday on the train for another adventure! whoo hoo!

More about the safari later…

So, I’m in Arusha, and after my third try, I’ve finally found an internet cafe that seems to work ok. The screens are big, the internet works, and nothing is crashing. Yet. And things don’t take forever to load, just a few mins.

Got to Arusha yesterday after a 9 hour bus trip. Got up at 6 am for the 7 am bus. I got in the shower and after a few mins I heard a knock at my door. Wondering what was going on, I finished my shower and answered the door to be told that my bus has problems, so I was being put on another bus next door to the first one, but it was to leave at 6:30, not 7. So I had to rush to get to the bus in time, and forgot my Hasten’s travel pillow at the hotel! D’oh.
Luckily I had the hotels phone number and asked them to hold on to it for me until I get back.

On the bus I decided to take the seat behind my ticketed seat because it was much more comfortable, and the bus was quite empty. At the time. We then drove to the main bus terminal and waited for the bus to fill up completely, so I got a person sitting next to me. It wasn’t just a person though, it was two people; a big momma and her kid who was about 1 and a half, or 2 years old. Luckily the kid was quite quiet throughout the journey, but the size for the kids mom and the already African sized (read: small) seats meant I didn’t have much room for myself. Luckily I was smart enough to bring my own food and drink on the bus, but I didn’t know that we would be stopping at a restaurant on the way, which meant that there was no reason for me to have spend over 9 euro’s to make sandwiches for the bus. hehe. I didn’t even have to bring drinks as we were given soft drinks (I drank my first ever Fanta Orange on the bus), water, crackers and candies! Live and learn I guess.

Got to Arusha and found a place to stay. It is over-priced, but nice sized and breakfast is included. I walked around last night looking for an ATM as the B&B took all my cash. While walking around I bought some maize from a street vendor which was better than the maize I had in Dar the day before!

Speaking of the day before, it was spent mostly preparing for my trip to Arusha and setting up appointments for next week. (After finding more relevant organisations in Dar I’ve decided not to go to Dodoma, and am not even going to stay in Arusha until Tuesday as was my plan, but I will be going back to Dar on Monday.) On Wednesday I also went to the Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology, and was at a hospital to meet with someone there when a transformer exploded just outside. It was a CRAZY experience, as I was on my way upstairs to find my contact and I heard a funny noise outside. At first I thought it was a weed-wacker, but I couldn’t figure out why it was so loud…. and then I realised that there was no grass nearby! The staircase I was no had a window to outside, so I glanced through it and saw a whole lot of sparks coming from a telephone pole, and at the same time, heard a whole bunch of people running down the staircase towards me!
I turned around and ran downstairs as well, and got to the doors just as they started getting full of people. As I was trying to get outside the noise got louder, and the there was a HUGE bang from the transformer exploding, and then a power cable falling to the ground just outside the hospital property. This explosion visibly scared everyone as they all jumped in the air, and soon afterwards some people started screaming, others hollering, and still others crying. Walking around the hospital ground after this I realised there was no way I was going to be asking anyone anything… so I left, only to find out the power had gone out around the city. Fun!

Speaking of fun…. (yes, the theme of this post is connections…), last night when I was trying to find an internet cafe after getting some money, someone asked me for money. Now, I have made a point of not giving money to people who ask for it and offer nothing in return, but instead sometimes buy stuff from people selling things at the side of the road. If I were to give money to everyone that asked, I would be more poor than them!
So, this guy asked me for money, I said no. Then he started walking beside me, asking me for money again and again. I replied ‘no, sorry’ again, but this didn’t phase him and he asked for money again and again and I kept saying no. Annoyed, I started walking faster, so he did too. Then I looked around and pretended to cross the street, but he would just shadow me, just repeating his requests over and over. I hadn’t had that happen to be before, so I was wondering how to get rid of this guy, and started remembering what I had read about how Tanzanians don’t like people making scenes. I realised that I hadn’t been forceful enough towards him for me to suddenly make a scene, so I realised I should just try being forceful. I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, close to another bystander, looked at the guy who was bothering me straight in the eyes, and said to him in a harsh voice, “Please leave me alone!”. As I was saying the words I was surprised at how determined my voice was, and also noticed I was using my hands to emphasise every syllable, something I haven’t really noticed myself do much before.
Well, it worked. As soon as the words were out of my mouth he looked around for a moment, said “ok”, turned around, and walked away. I was amazed, and quite relieved.

And today is Nov 14th.

I am many thousands of KM’sfrom everyone I know well, and it’s a bit lonely. I had put both of my phones beside me as I fell asleep (at 10:30!) last night, despite knowing that no one I really know has my Tanzanian phone number, and that most people probably won’t send any messages to my NL number because they probably assume I don’t have it around (and I don’t blame them). Even people I know in SA don’t have my Tanzanian number, and since the SA card is pre-pay, it won’t work here…
But, I did get a birthday e-mail from a friend in Vancouver two days ago, and I see I got some birthday wishes no facebook, but it’s not the same.
At the same time, I don’t particularly like my birthday, except as a reason to go out with friends.. but that’s difficult here. I did tell one person it was my birthday, a sales person, and she wished me happy birthday. Probably the only one I’ll hear this year…
Hmmm, I am not usually sentimental, except when it’s not there…. interesting.

Speaking of birthday, I’ve decided to give myself a Safari as a present. I had been thinking about it for a few weeks now, and decided today I really wanted to see what I could find.
This morning, after my meeting (which I had expected to be two separate meetings, but got merged into one as the two people work for the same organisation, just in different area’s), I went safari hunting.
I first started looking for all the ‘recomended’ budget safari operators which are discussed in my guidebook, but none had any tours I could join leaving tomorrow. I wanted to join a tour because some of the park fees are ‘per vehicle’ and I would have to pay for the tour guides all myself if I went alone. One place I went quoted me a price of $900 (US) for 3 days. Ouch.
Walking around to different places, the answer was always no, they couldn’t help me. This got me stressed and depressed. I realised I could maybe try at a backpackers and see if anyone was organising their own safari’s and wanted another person to join. The first place I went to has it’s own safari operator, so I asked them, and they said they had one leaving tomorrow, with 3 people between the ages of 23 and 35, and they were going for 3 days. I had realised that I wanted to only go for 2 days if possible, but would do 3 if I had to. I asked more and more questions about the trip, and after a while I was told that the 3 others had only signed up for 2 days to save money, and were going to ‘maybe’ do a third day. This made me really happy, and when the sales person said that when a Muzungu (white person) says ‘maybe’, she knows it means no. hehe.

So, tomorrow I am off for 2 days of camping Safari… the first day at a park close-by, and then the second day at Ngorogoro Crater, which is where I really wanted to go after all. I am happy, and I hope it goes well! I have no idea who the company is, if they are any good, or even legal, nor do I know who I am going with… that’s 1/2 the fun of it though!

Today I made friends with another Kim and had a blonde girl wave a me! Pretty good eh?

Sadly, one was a guy, and the other was about 8 years old.

No points for guessing which is which.

I have changed hotels though. Got up this morning after an OK sleep. I went for a shower, but there was no water. So I started slowly packing my things, as I didn’t have to check out till 10 and couldn’t check into the other place until 11, and it was just after 9.
Then the power went out, which meant the fan stopped working, which meant it got pretty damn hot, pretty damn quickly as the sun was facing the room. So I packed quicker, and brought my stuff over to the other place. They wouldn’t let me check in, and my plan of using the internet to pass the time was foiled by the lack of power. So I went for a walk.

That is when I met Kim. He is just another flycatcher, just like the 100’s of others who follow white people and try to chat them up and then try to get money from them by offering goods or services. Well, Kim talked with me and didn’t leave my side after I told him I had no money to give him, so we just walked.
We found the Zambian Embassy and asked about a visa for Zambia. I got some money from the ATM, and then Kim followed me all the way back to the Safari Inn and we exchanged details, in case I wanted him to acquire something for me (like a taxi, bus tickets, etc..). The power was back on by the time I got back to the Safari Inn…

My new room is SOO much better than the last one. There is space enough to give the fan room to move air around, the shower works AND has hot water, AND it’s private. I have my own toilet and toilet paper. There are power outlets. All for 2000 schillings more! Me happy.

After a shower and a change of clothes, I went to the TaZara railway station and inquired about tickets. They wouldn’t sell me one because it was too early, but I did find out that the time table has changed, so they fixed that for me, and then showed me how much the ticket will cost. Now I just have to figure out where/how to get one as I am not going to be around the other times the station is open between now and when I leave. Maybe Kim can help…

Went to my meeting after that. Sadly the numbers on the street didn’t go in sequential order, so I ended up getting out over an kilometer early and had to walk 20 mins to the CORRECT location. I lived though and had a nice meeting. Not only that, I got a tour of the facilities (oldish house, across the st from the ocean! Why do NGO’s always have such nice digs?) and got a few leads on other organisations working on mHealth in Tanzania! WHOO HOO!

The plan was to walk to the two hospitals from there, so I started off and came across one of the organisations that I had just been told about, so I went in and asked is so-and-so would be able to meet me. Well, he was, so I went up and we chatted a bit, and he asked me to e-mail him so we could set up a time to have a real meeting. Whoo hoo!

Then I continued walking towards the hospital, but went the wrong way and ended up at a place called “The Slipway”. I thought it was in a strange location, but when I got closer I realised that I had been there 5 years earlier with all the NGO people I had spent a week on Sunset Beach with! More memories came flashing back, so I got a warm macaroni dish and some juice from Shoprite (my cheepest dinner here so far, at less than 2000 schillings!) and sat at the side of the water remembering my trip here back in 2003.

I walked and took a Daladala (bus) back to town after that. Walking from Posta terminal I got some Maize-On-The-Cob which despite having lemon, salt and spices on it, was good. I then walked by the Sugar Cane Juice place I have seen many times, but hadn’t gone to because it was always full. Well, this time it wasn’t full, so I ordered a large glass, paid the guy, and took a sip. The result was amazing… 

It was like an orgasm in my mouth…

I wish I could have that feeling all the time…. the coldness of the sweet juice, cooling off my spicy tongue, and then flowing down my insides, cooling me from the core.

It was SOOOOOOO good.

I stopped at one glass though… more tomorrow, for sure.

Got home after that, organised and cooled myself off a bit under the fan, then came to internet to send off e-mails to those who’s contact information I was given today. It took 45 mins to get g-mail to work here though, so that was annoying. But, it did in the end, and the important e-mails have been sent. After this I’m going back to the Inn and get organised for tomorrow…

Arusha Thursday, meetings there Friday, fun on the weekend, and back to Dar Tuesday is the plan. I’ve nixed Dodoma as I can’t find any projects or reason to go there, it would take a while, and I’m finding more and more things to do here in Dar.

Now, if only I could find a way to get a train ticket…

So, today went.

I’m not sure it went well, but I got a bunch done, so that is the main thing.

The day started off at 2:15 am when I was woken up my myself scratching an itch, and then another one, and another one. Wondering what was going on, I woke up a bit more and saw that the time was then 2:45. Thinking that was strange I just turned over. Once I had that, the itching continued and I was having visions of the small ants that I had seen in my room earlier in the day were biting me.
I threw away that idea as crazy, and tried to sleep again.

Some time after 3 I got up and turned on the light because I couldn’t stand it anymore. The sudden light was intense, but not as intense as the realisation that there were quite a number of mosquitoes all over my room.
At first I went about trying to kill them, but realising that would be difficult I decided I should just put the moquito net over my bed. So I did. While doing this, I noticed that there were many holes all over the net and there was already a mosquito inside as I was preparing it! Luckily I have my own net which I bought in Cape Town, so I started putting it up.

While putting it up I put the extra netting over the edge of the bed,. On a couple corners there was no room, so I had to move the bed. This worked for the first corner, but when I tried to move the second corner it wouldn’t budge. I had to trying a different angle, so I took the bottom of the bed frame and jerked it, taking the frame off the bed-post, and having it fall on the floor. Not exactly fun at 3 in the morning with mosquito’s surrounding you and trying not to make too much noise so  didn’t wake up other people.

I finally got the bed back together, the net up, and tried to sleep. All that excitement and work got me sweaty, and with the net up, the air current from the ceiling fan was limited, so it too another while to get back to sleep…

In the AM I was able to make some phone calls, print some documents, find out some info from the tourist info place and the Canadian embassy, and then just happened to find one of the locations I was going to look for in the day. That was a nice surprise as the WHO and National AIDS Prevention offices were there as well. Sadly, none of them could really help me, and in the end I was told to go talk to the Ministry of Health.

Well, that just didn’t work at all, because I am not officially affiliated with any development organisation (like with a letter or something), my letter from UvA only states that I will be doing research in South Africa (not Southern Africa as it should state), the woman there wouldn’t talk to me. Not even answer one of my questions and when I asked her for her business card, she refused to give it to me. I then asked if she wanted a copy of the final report considering it was the Ministry of Health and I was doing research on health care within the country. She said she did want a copy, and I should send it through the embassy. Asked how she would get a copy since I didn’t have her name she said she didn’t know.

ARG!

But, I did talk to another hospital after that which was helpful. And a clinic that was helpful, but cant help me.

And I found a new place to stay in for tomorrow night. 2000 shillings (1.25 euro’s)  more, but much bigger and with it’s own bathroom!

After all that I went walking some more and found a couple supermarkets. Wow were they expensive, as many of the items were 1/2 the price in South Africa (although, most of them were South African products…). I bought some corn-twists and some doughnuts.

Had dinner at a place that my guidebook said was expensive and stingy, and they were right. I asked for boneless BBQ chicken and was told they didn’t have any, so to try another chicken dish which didn’t some with fries but was the same price. I said no, I would look for something else. Just when I was about to decide on Chow Mein, the waiter came back to say that the BBQ boneless chicken was available after all. Strange. Plus the fruit punch I had was 2.5 times more expensive than where I had been the previous night.

Hmm, I’m doing quite good considering all the craziness that has happened today… it seems like a lot of bleh, but it’s all just part of the experience. Tomorrow can only be better as I am gonna buy a ticket to Zambia and have a meeting in the afternoon with an NGO that seems to have some information for me! Sweeeeet!

48 hours ago I got to Dar.

It feels longer.

But in a good way.

It’s hot. I have only stopped sweating and feeling sticky when in this internet cafe or during, and for about 30 seconds after, a shower. I can see an obvious tan on my arms already, and I have used sunscreen both days.

Last nigh was another difficult night for sleep. Since most of the city shuts down after dark, and I am not the type to go looking for bars/clubs to drink in while in foreign city’s, my evenings have been pretty lax. Internet and reading was the order for the last two nights, and I don’t think tonight will be any different. All that relaxing before bed gives my brain a rest and the oppressive heat brings down my comfort level. The combination of these two work together to lengthen the time it takes for the ZZZ’s to catch up to me…

While waiting for sleep last night, I turned on my mp3 player and listened to some September (that I received just before leaving Cape Town) while trying to sleep. It was surprisingly interesting and catchy, and some of the lyrics really hit home, so it didn’t help me sleep at all, but only think! D’oh.

I did fall asleep eventually, and woke up (for the second time, after the 6 am call to prayer) to a sun-beam heating my leg. I got up, went and found a supermarket to find some breakfast, and then went to Mwenge market, the wood-working and arts & crafts market about 5 km from the city centre. I took a Daladala there which was just as fun as I remembered it (since being stared at by 8 year olds is always an interesting experience). The market itself was kinda dead, but it was Sunday morning, and many shop keepers wanted to give me ’special deals’ because I was their first customer of the day. Sadly, special deal often means 5X the normal price so they don’t need any more customers the rest of the day!

I found MANY things I wanted, but ended up with a few knick-nacks (not the South Africa snack-food) for myself and some gifts for people who are special to me.
Not only that, but I got, what I felt was, a good deal on a few of them. Two different things I was quoted a price of $30 and found them for less than $5 in other shops.
I was there about 3.5 hours and I realised that 1/2 the fun I had was catching some of the shop-keepers in their own lies, as they would say that one stone was really cheep, but the one I wanted was expensive (when I knew the reverse was true). So I put down the ‘expensive’ one and picked up the expensive one asking for it for less than the ‘cheep’ one. They didn’t like that.

Time is about to run out… so no spell checking today (fixed now!)… and hard work tomorrow! Let’s hope I don’t melt!

It’s wild being back here again. So many memories come rushing back from my previous trip. Things, ideas and people that I haven’t thought of for years. Makes me wonder how everyone is doing these days.

At the hotel I asked about the Dutch girl and Tanzanian guy, but they had no idea who they were. I kinda had this weird thought, that like a movie, them and the other people I met in Dar in 2003 would just coincidentally show up back here again, just now, and we would run into each other. Sadly, I know that life is not a movie, but it was still a cool idea.

I walk around town and it all looks foreign, yet strangely familiar. One road I was walking along brought back strong memories of…. something. I am not even sure what, but I saw a bank on one corner and knew exactly where I was. I see the Daladala’s driving around and remember by their colour stripe where they go to. At the ferry to south Dar I saw a snack shop and recalled having ice cream there, waiting for the ferry to arrive so we would hop on it. Walking around town people would great me with Swahili phrases and my (limited) Swahili came back to me…

It’s been 5 years since I was here. (Northern) Spring 2003. At my hotel I saw the cleaner who can bend in an interesting 90 degrees to get himself closer to the ground, and I remembered that he had been here before. 5 years he’s been cleaning. I wondered what has gone on in his life in the past 5 years. He’s still doing the same thing, while I completed my trip around the world, working for a while in Auckland while doing that, then getting back to Canada, doing 2 semesters of Langara in Vancouver, I got accepted to RA, went there AND completed it, and now am over 1/2 done my Master’s programme and am back in Dar.
I can only imagine what he has done.
5 years. It’s been almost a lifetime for me… yet others’ lives haven’t changed much at all…
Makes me realise how lucky I am, but also worries me too. I’m not sure why, but it does. Maybe I like change too much and want the next 5 years to be just as ‘full’, but am worried they won’t be. Maybe I feel sorry for those who aren’t able to have as much change in their life as me. Maybe both.

But, my (personal) mission for the day has been completed; I got a sim-card, put some money on it, saw the fish market and Karikoo market as well, got to know the city again, found an ATM that takes my bank card and therefore gives me money, went to the ‘best’ bookshop in town (which is lacking…), and sent off some e-mails in preparation for Monday.

Now my question is; what do I do tomorrow? Head off to Arusha right away to meet the people there and possibly go to Lake Victoria as well in the hopes of having another interview there, or wait here for people to get back to me and plan from there. Normally I would sleep on it, but the bus to Arusha is 9 hours long and it needs to leave pretty early cuz buses aren’t allowed to travel at night.
At this point I’m planning to get to know the city better tomorrow, go and visit local hospitals/clinics/agencies Monday, head to Arusha later in the week, and see about the Lake. If not the lake, then Dodoma…

I hope I can sleep better tonight than last; the heat is pretty intense, and the call to prayer at 5 am is equally so…

Well, it’s really spelt, Dar, but the original song lyrics for “Back in the USSR” has two of the same letters in the centre, so I am doing the same!

I made it. After a productive day yesterday (in that I networked at the conference, sent off some important e-mails, had a nice chat with a ‘friend’ (for lack of a better word to describe the intricacies of the relationship), and had an intense goodbye chat with Rene), I got up early this morning and finished off packing. Drove my stuff to LF, dropped it off and headed to the airport. Got there, parked the Bakkie in a sport that is almost as far away from the domestic terminal as possible, but since I didn’t know that that terminal had its own parking lot, Kev and Gav will have a whole lot of walking to do when they get back Sunday.

Checked in (after having to wait in line… which I haven’t done for a LONG time and it reminded me how spoilt I am when it comes to flying) and went through security. Did some window shopping before the plane left, but picked up the Economist magazine so I had something to read. On the plane I had one of the only free seats in the whole plane beside me which was great cuz it meant I had some room.

Got to Jo’burg and had to walk forever, including going outside, and through a parkade, to get to the international terminal. Got there, went through security again and had no problem bringing my full water bottle through the x-ray machine a second time. In Cape Town they asked to look at my mini camera stand, but not the water. In Jo, they left me alone, but found the unopened drink container of the guy behind me and threw it away from him.

After security I looked up to see when my flight left and it said:

SA186 Dar Es Salaam 14:35 CANCELLED

That sucked.

Until I realised that my flight left at 14:55…. and was on time. yay!

Uneventful flight.

Arrived in Dar and had to pay $50 US to get a tourist visa, then found my bag and tried to get money out of the bank machine, but it didn’t work. All 3 bank cards I tried didn’t work, so that was annoying. Luckily I had some other US$ so converted some of those so I could pay for the trip to town and my accommodation.

Found a taxi, talked him down in price by 20%, and we drove to town. Nice guy, but I don’t think he understood 1/2 the things I said. Got to the hotel and all the memories from 5 years ago came rushing back. So nice to be here again. The room I stayed in before was taken, but I am in the one beside that, where the Tanzania guy and the Dutch girl I met before were staying in. Warm here, but I have a fan (and a balcony!) in my room. Already found some cordial and chips… now on (REALLY REALLY slow) internet. Am finding that SA internet is quite good in comparison!

Gonna get a SIM-card tomorrow, get to know the area, maybe go to the market and see what kinda preparations I can do for the work week.

So, Obama won.

I had hoped he woulda won by more, but hey, I don’t know if I woulda been satisfied unless he got more than the 11% gap which i saw projected on Sunday. It dosen’t really matter in the end anyways, because look at Georgy; he didn’t even win the popular vote and was elected by a corrupt Florida senate  and ran the country (poorly) as if he had received 100% of the vote! Here’s to hoping Obama does better…

I do wish I coulda stayed up and watched it on the international news channels until 7 am like a few other people I know did. I was SOO tired last night and I don’t have any international channels. I do have internet now, so in theory I could have watched live-streams online, but that’s not the same as TV, and I have limited bandwidth here, so 5-6-7 hours of online streaming video is almost a whole month of allocated data! Woe is me.

But, in stead I slept. Woke up at 7 am even, but didn’t want to get up. So, instead I turned around and had a dream about the election. I’m not sure what it was about, but I remember feeling like I was on the edge of my seat with excitement. I was so excited that it woke me up… so I looked at the time and thought I saw my phone say that it was 7:27. Confused, I turned over again, just in time for my 9:30 alarm to go off!

OK, enuff election stuff. It’s not like there haven’t been black presidents before!

On to the conference.

It’s in Stellenbosch, about 52 km’s away from here. I had been warned that the traffic might be really bad getting there, so Monday morning I got up at 7 and left here at 7:30 in the hopes I would arrive by 9. Well, there was NO traffic leaving the city (like I had expected, but had been afraid I was wrong) which I was happy about. On my way there I past Mitchell’s Plains, the township area I had been given a tour of last week, so I kinda knew where I was. Then getting off the N2 highway and onto a smaller highway I passed a Zebra. And an Ostrich. And then a whole bunch more of each! It was a Zebra/Ostrich farm… very cool.

I arrived at 8:15, before the doors were even open! So, I went in and no one was there really, so I went to the desk where the name-tags were and looked for my name. I couldn’t find it, so I asked and the person said she hadn’t heard of me OR Rob… and everyone knows Rob. After a min it turned out that there were two conferences going on at once and the name-tags for the ResIST one weren’t on the table. I was able to find one of the organisers who told me he talked to Rob the night before and that I could sit in on the meetings that were being held, but Rob wouldn’t be around until the afternoon and I should maybe first walk to his accommodation. This, I did, just in time to see him walking in the hallways to go for breakfast. 

After chatting a bit, during which he suggested I might want to attend the meeting on emerging technologies, I went back to the conference centre just in time for the meeting to start. It was great as it was a bunch of people who had done research on various emerging technologies in countries around the world inluding cell phones, free and open source software (FOSS), genetically modified maize, and cell cultures. The meetings were long, but they helped me think about my research a bit more which was quite helpful.

At night we went to a place called The Fish Monger, down the street. Knowing it was a seafood restaurant I checked the website and read the menu. I saw that there were non-fish options, so decided to join in. When we got there it was announced that because our group was so big, we would have a set menu of fish. I told them I couldn’t eat fish, so they asked what fish I could eat. I replied that every kind I had ever tried I had had an allergy too and if I could have the chicken on the menu. The response to that was that they don’t have any chicken on the menu. After a bit of dialogue, it turns out that the menu online is only valid for Johannesburg and they only have fish in this area. *sigh*.
I waited around for a little while, until the main course was brought out, and left…

Yesterday morning was a meeting of everyone in the project together, in a big room, all presenting their work and receiving criticism from each other as it was a preparation for today’s speeches in front of a audience full of big names around South African research policy. T’was interesting enough, but not as good as the first day. 
Then, the afternoon included a wine tour to three various wine estates. It was strange because the wine wasn’t that great at any of them which surprised me. It was beautiful there and I took some pictures of the views. Also, at the last estate I bought some dark chocolate. Haven’t tried it yet, but it’s name has something to do with Madagascar, so I am curious!

After the wine tour we dispersed for 1/2 hour and then met up again to catch the bus to dinner. We got on the bus, someone told us to head off, so we did. After a couple blocks we passed two people walking who were part of the group, and then there was another one on the next block. So, we had to turn around and get them. Strange… and not so well organised!
We made it to Moyo in the end, which was about 5-10 km’s towards Cape Town and I was kicking myself for not driving myself there so I couldn’t have to go back to Stellenbosch afterwards to get the Bakkie. But, dinner was great. Again, a buffet of meat, salads, chicken,  desert, fish, and some other game. Quite good and the atmosphere was great too. There wasn’t the dancing that was at the other Moyo in Johannesburg, but there was (some) live music and singing. 

Headed back home last night… realised I was SUPER tired and wouldn’t be able to make it all night for the election, so went to bed.

I’m taking this morning off since it’ll be very much the same as yesterday, but was suggested I try to come in this afternoon. So, I’m off to shower now, and then see about changing some Rands into Dollars…. here’s to hoping I get a good rate!

Just finished wine tour. Wait till 6, when our dinner trip starts. I gotta go park the bakkie somewhere in a min because the conference location isn’t open past 5:30…

Wine tour was ok, but I just wasn’t feeling it. Maybe cuz I knew I had to drive home tonight, so couldn’t go all the way… but the scenery was nice and good getting to know the ResIST people a bit more.

This morning was interesting in the meeting. Learnt a bunch, and 4 hours was just enough time. Not so much that is useful for my thesis (unlike yesterday which seemed to be a gold-mine!), but interesting anyways.

Tomorrow more of the same. Yay!

Ohh yeah… election day…. I can’t wait to find out the results… it’s killing me already!