The other day I flew from Dar es Salaam to a place in Northern Tanzania, just south of Lake Victoria. This was my first trip out of the relative luxury of the big city and into the country. I had some ideas on what it would be like and I was a tad apprehensive.
The trip began with an intense search at Julius Narere Airport, an airport with a rather intense level of security. I made it through the front door in my socks and a hand on my pants to keep them up. My belt and shoes, the dangerous weapons that they are, got intensely scanned. On the other hand, no pun intended, my wrist guard with its thick, long metal bottom support was completely ignored! The reason for the wrist guard is a completely different story, suffice to say that my skateboard taught me a new lesson, again.......
Our plane was an old two propeller fifty seater job. Perhaps it should have bothered me but it didn’t. It was old inside and had seen many hard years at work. The carpet scrunched up under my feet as I tried to sit down and instead I managed to fall into my chair. My seat tipped forward and I hung in the balance somewhere between the floor and the seat of the chap behind me. Some clever law of physics intervened and I found my butt squeezing out of the back of the chair due to the base of the seat having shifted forward. It was all rather comfy!
The plane was remarkably efficient and we were airborne within seconds. In other words never judge a book by its cover! And in no time at all, we were approaching the landing strip in Shinyanga. Certainly not an ordinary airport....
For starters the runway was dirt. Now this cannot be something too extraordinary yet this would be my first dirt runway landing. With extraordinary skill the pilot gently touched down and taxied in no time at all to the airport buildings. So much for my fleeting concern about dirt runway landings! Now to describe the airport buildings as ‘buildings’ is perhaps an over statement. There was one solitary building that housed an impressive arrivals hall, about the size of a public toilet. I later found a departures hall that even had its own toilet. Oh yes, and there was a check in desk (just the one) and a security cubicle with just enough room to ensure that you could search the security guard as he searched you. I later heard that this was an impressive building by African standards, a little town called Kahama, to which I was headed, also had an airport and a container for its ‘buildings’!
I took a walk outside, which wasn’t too far seeing as I had only walked five steps since I was inside. I was struck by a beautiful baobab tree. Well not really but it really was beautiful to see this tree in life. With its grotesquely leafless fat limbs at odd angles and a trunk so large that it looked like it had been growing forever.
At long last I had arrived in Africa!
I turned and looked at the outhouse toilets. One for his and one for hers, shaded by a lovely tree. I looked at the solitary plane on the runway, with its one propeller lazily turning as it waiting for its next load of passengers. It would be only fifteen minutes from wheels down to wheels up, not bad for a small airport in the middle of nowhere. I then cast my eyes over the fire control station. The big fire engine looked good. The support vehicle behind it did not look so well with just three of its wheels missing. Perhaps I had missed something as I had just learnt that you should not judge something from the way it looks.
And this is Africa after all!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Seven and that is all!
I heard the most beautiful, descriptive and inspired thought the other night.
‘You only have seven summers with children
Giving it some thought, the first three to four years of your children’s lives are spent as babies and toddlers. They grow in leaps and bounds! Then your seven summers kick in. Seven short years before teenage hormones start to play havoc and parents become far less important than friends and girlfriends. If you are lucky you will get eight or nine, but you can only be guaranteed seven.
Summer is filled with thoughts of still late evenings, water sports, hiking, camping, time in the pool, picnics, and juicy ripe watermelons. All of the things that I need to be enjoying with my boys while we have those summers together. Those summers have been given to me to shape and guide my children, to provide them with skills and an unwavering example. Ultimately building father son relationships that will last for the rest of our lives!
How sad that most of us spend these precious few summers locked in our offices, tethered to our email, chained to our cell phones, just building those precious careers......
And then that time, that will never be again, is gone....
‘You only have seven summers with children
Giving it some thought, the first three to four years of your children’s lives are spent as babies and toddlers. They grow in leaps and bounds! Then your seven summers kick in. Seven short years before teenage hormones start to play havoc and parents become far less important than friends and girlfriends. If you are lucky you will get eight or nine, but you can only be guaranteed seven.
Summer is filled with thoughts of still late evenings, water sports, hiking, camping, time in the pool, picnics, and juicy ripe watermelons. All of the things that I need to be enjoying with my boys while we have those summers together. Those summers have been given to me to shape and guide my children, to provide them with skills and an unwavering example. Ultimately building father son relationships that will last for the rest of our lives!
How sad that most of us spend these precious few summers locked in our offices, tethered to our email, chained to our cell phones, just building those precious careers......
And then that time, that will never be again, is gone....
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Breakfast
If I look up, just over the top of my fresh mulberries and pineapple, I can see the world and it is alive.
There are two ladies hanging up washing on the top floors of their apartment blocks. On one line, there are some brightly coloured shirts and much stuff that once was white but has long been grey. The line sagged before the washing was hung and now it sways precariously in the wind, threatening to set its hangers on, free. The other lady has filled her line with linen. Perhaps today is washing day. If I look closely there are lots of lines and lots of washing. All of it lapping up the heat and the warm sea breeze that seems to caress this land every day.
Down on my right, just past the mulberry that fell off my bowl and onto the counter are two Muslim boys. They are both wearing their white fes’ and full white body robes. Just like any kids, they are running around in their courtyard playing a game. I try and imagine what it may be, but just end up thinking about my own boys, far away.
While I dribble honey onto my croissant, I notice the yard way below. It is now half filled with building materials. Obviously its time as a dusty parking lot is coming to an end and bright plans are in its future. A child squeezes through a gap in the corrugated iron fencing and darts between the mounds of sand and stone, intent on a shortcut to the adjacent street. An old truck loaded with material and coughing with effort, tries to find a way to park its rear in the right place without its rear parking on one of the cars still parking there. It looks to be a complicated manoeuvre and highly unlikely to be complete by the time my honey is a memory.
I try counting all of the bustling construction sites and give up at six. This is a very big number for me, but not the reason I only take two boiled eggs. Buildings are built differently here and nothing seems to ever get finished. Somehow, even though this is not remotely possible, it seems that they build every floor at the same time. Or at least that is how it looks, every floor unfinished to the same degree. New floors are held up by stalactites or are they stalagmites, so it seems as hundreds of skew, warped poles are wedged under the shuttering to keep the next floor up. Men stand around and chat. They tap their feet on the edges of the floor on which they are standing, oblivious to all the other floors of air that separate them from a very bloody nose.
Well who eats mulberries for breakfast, you may be asking. Well in Dar, they seem to be here every morning. And eating them, certainly makes me feel like a kid all over again!
There are two ladies hanging up washing on the top floors of their apartment blocks. On one line, there are some brightly coloured shirts and much stuff that once was white but has long been grey. The line sagged before the washing was hung and now it sways precariously in the wind, threatening to set its hangers on, free. The other lady has filled her line with linen. Perhaps today is washing day. If I look closely there are lots of lines and lots of washing. All of it lapping up the heat and the warm sea breeze that seems to caress this land every day.
Down on my right, just past the mulberry that fell off my bowl and onto the counter are two Muslim boys. They are both wearing their white fes’ and full white body robes. Just like any kids, they are running around in their courtyard playing a game. I try and imagine what it may be, but just end up thinking about my own boys, far away.
While I dribble honey onto my croissant, I notice the yard way below. It is now half filled with building materials. Obviously its time as a dusty parking lot is coming to an end and bright plans are in its future. A child squeezes through a gap in the corrugated iron fencing and darts between the mounds of sand and stone, intent on a shortcut to the adjacent street. An old truck loaded with material and coughing with effort, tries to find a way to park its rear in the right place without its rear parking on one of the cars still parking there. It looks to be a complicated manoeuvre and highly unlikely to be complete by the time my honey is a memory.
I try counting all of the bustling construction sites and give up at six. This is a very big number for me, but not the reason I only take two boiled eggs. Buildings are built differently here and nothing seems to ever get finished. Somehow, even though this is not remotely possible, it seems that they build every floor at the same time. Or at least that is how it looks, every floor unfinished to the same degree. New floors are held up by stalactites or are they stalagmites, so it seems as hundreds of skew, warped poles are wedged under the shuttering to keep the next floor up. Men stand around and chat. They tap their feet on the edges of the floor on which they are standing, oblivious to all the other floors of air that separate them from a very bloody nose.
Well who eats mulberries for breakfast, you may be asking. Well in Dar, they seem to be here every morning. And eating them, certainly makes me feel like a kid all over again!
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Time with the Family
In trying to simplify my life I am going to use a visual cue (thanks Bro A):
>
You have all seen the sign and for some it makes a whole heap of mathematical sense when applied to numbers. But how about when we apply this to the fabric of our lives. Part of the question that I want to answer for myself, is what is more important in my life and how I am living my life to reflect that?
While I was still at work, I yearned for more time with my family. Only 8 months ago, I gave up my career in order to go and chase that time. For me, this is one of the key parts of the greater than equation and far more important that a guaranteed pay cheque, power, prestige and the promise of future glory.
Reality has proven to be rather interesting. I have been able to play sports with both my sons and watch them in action. I have been able to fit into their lives and play with them at their best times and on their terms. I have become a real meaningful part of their lives and have managed to get down to their level and relate in a way that I never thought possible. I have also been a force of discipline in their lives, something that they have both enjoyed and hated (probably more hated). It took only three days for my youngest to ask when I would be going back to work!
On the other hand being there 24 / 7 was negative in that I became a very uninteresting piece of the furniture.
Strangely enough my being home was incredibly difficult for my wife. All of a sudden, there was no escape from me! After working at home for seven years, she suddenly had to share her office and company with me. Paradoxically while I had found my freedom, she had lost most of hers. This was not something that was expected and something that we have had to work through. Now, I would hate to have it any other way!
Part of the reason for grasping my latest consulting life was to ensure that I became exciting again and that my time at home became more valuable for all. Just last week, my wife and I had lunch together outside in the garden. Yes, the sun popped its head out from behind the walls of clouds for just a moment. The rain held off and the garden looked magnificent in its just washed splendour. Birds flitted here and there and our stream rushed seaward in its endless quest to get there. And my wife and I shared this incredibly beautiful moment in time together.
For me, just that moment made all my recent decisions and my life worthwhile!
I still feel that I am bunking reality, but it is a feeling that is rather marvellous!! I am slowly finding the balance between my family and my working life. By no means have I got it right but I have tasted the sweetness of many incredible family moments filled with pure joy and now there is no turning back....
>
You have all seen the sign and for some it makes a whole heap of mathematical sense when applied to numbers. But how about when we apply this to the fabric of our lives. Part of the question that I want to answer for myself, is what is more important in my life and how I am living my life to reflect that?
While I was still at work, I yearned for more time with my family. Only 8 months ago, I gave up my career in order to go and chase that time. For me, this is one of the key parts of the greater than equation and far more important that a guaranteed pay cheque, power, prestige and the promise of future glory.
Reality has proven to be rather interesting. I have been able to play sports with both my sons and watch them in action. I have been able to fit into their lives and play with them at their best times and on their terms. I have become a real meaningful part of their lives and have managed to get down to their level and relate in a way that I never thought possible. I have also been a force of discipline in their lives, something that they have both enjoyed and hated (probably more hated). It took only three days for my youngest to ask when I would be going back to work!
On the other hand being there 24 / 7 was negative in that I became a very uninteresting piece of the furniture.
Strangely enough my being home was incredibly difficult for my wife. All of a sudden, there was no escape from me! After working at home for seven years, she suddenly had to share her office and company with me. Paradoxically while I had found my freedom, she had lost most of hers. This was not something that was expected and something that we have had to work through. Now, I would hate to have it any other way!
Part of the reason for grasping my latest consulting life was to ensure that I became exciting again and that my time at home became more valuable for all. Just last week, my wife and I had lunch together outside in the garden. Yes, the sun popped its head out from behind the walls of clouds for just a moment. The rain held off and the garden looked magnificent in its just washed splendour. Birds flitted here and there and our stream rushed seaward in its endless quest to get there. And my wife and I shared this incredibly beautiful moment in time together.
For me, just that moment made all my recent decisions and my life worthwhile!
I still feel that I am bunking reality, but it is a feeling that is rather marvellous!! I am slowly finding the balance between my family and my working life. By no means have I got it right but I have tasted the sweetness of many incredible family moments filled with pure joy and now there is no turning back....
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Time to Think
It was a pretty long question and went something like this:
“OK, so you gave up your career, your job, your income in order to find a life that you are passionate about. Effectively you have made massive changes in your life in order to add what you feel is real value to the world. When you sacrificed all that stuff, you thought you were going to gain a heap of other stuff. Was the sacrifice that you made really a sacrifice and did you gain what you thought you were going to gain from this change in life direction?”
I suppose the shorter version of the question is; did it work out the way you expected and what now?
To add additional fuel to the fire, my wife and I went out to a dinner party last night. The dinner party was heaps of fun but one of the guys I knew introduced me to a guy I did not know in a way that bothered me immensely. He said, this is Mark, who left corporate life to find a better way and is now back at it working harder than ever.
Oops – perhaps the time has come to do more thinking. Have I really made this incredibly difficult decision to give up everything that is regarded as normal, so as to live the life I always wanted to live, only to end up back where I started?
I now have my very own thinking project. Strangely it excites me that eight months down the line I am in a position to re-evaluate my life and my decisions. Do I continue going with the flow or do I make some more changes to ensure that I am able to add the value to the world that I want to add? Am I on a short term diversion with great long term prospects for my value plan or is it just a diversion? Do I still want what I wanted? What has been good and what not? Did I sacrifice anything or did I just ditch the bad stuff in my life? Where to from here?
Time for me to think and grow and plan and change!
Man, life is exciting! Stick with me as I try and answer some of these questions.
“OK, so you gave up your career, your job, your income in order to find a life that you are passionate about. Effectively you have made massive changes in your life in order to add what you feel is real value to the world. When you sacrificed all that stuff, you thought you were going to gain a heap of other stuff. Was the sacrifice that you made really a sacrifice and did you gain what you thought you were going to gain from this change in life direction?”
I suppose the shorter version of the question is; did it work out the way you expected and what now?
To add additional fuel to the fire, my wife and I went out to a dinner party last night. The dinner party was heaps of fun but one of the guys I knew introduced me to a guy I did not know in a way that bothered me immensely. He said, this is Mark, who left corporate life to find a better way and is now back at it working harder than ever.
Oops – perhaps the time has come to do more thinking. Have I really made this incredibly difficult decision to give up everything that is regarded as normal, so as to live the life I always wanted to live, only to end up back where I started?
I now have my very own thinking project. Strangely it excites me that eight months down the line I am in a position to re-evaluate my life and my decisions. Do I continue going with the flow or do I make some more changes to ensure that I am able to add the value to the world that I want to add? Am I on a short term diversion with great long term prospects for my value plan or is it just a diversion? Do I still want what I wanted? What has been good and what not? Did I sacrifice anything or did I just ditch the bad stuff in my life? Where to from here?
Time for me to think and grow and plan and change!
Man, life is exciting! Stick with me as I try and answer some of these questions.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Madness
Wow, have I lost a serious amount of time? The last two weeks have seen me climb under my rock and focus on nothing but work. And as they say, all work and no play makes me a very dull boy. Suffice to say that I will not bore you with the details of deadlines met and missed. Of presentations that were brilliant and others that were far from it. Or even the hassle of completely missed agendas within one organisation. All of that stuff is going to stay under my rock!
Instead I have a whole new thought paradigm on the go. Perhaps it has been all of the work behind my PC that has given me the urge to go out and build something with my hands. Something that I can look at, touch and even smell. My wife thinks the idea is a little too far out there. My kids think I am a hero just for thinking it up. The neighbours will wish I hadn’t!
I want to build a skateboard half pipe!
Perhaps it has been the solid days of rain in Cape Town and the total lack of surfable waves that has driven me to this point. Either way I am rather excited. A quick check on Google yielded a 14 page document on exactly how to make this happen. Now to find the time to strap on my tool belt, power up my machines and make some dust fly.
And you thought I really had become boring! Be prepared for the photographs, and the copies of the doctors bills and heaps of pain medication......
Instead I have a whole new thought paradigm on the go. Perhaps it has been all of the work behind my PC that has given me the urge to go out and build something with my hands. Something that I can look at, touch and even smell. My wife thinks the idea is a little too far out there. My kids think I am a hero just for thinking it up. The neighbours will wish I hadn’t!
I want to build a skateboard half pipe!
Perhaps it has been the solid days of rain in Cape Town and the total lack of surfable waves that has driven me to this point. Either way I am rather excited. A quick check on Google yielded a 14 page document on exactly how to make this happen. Now to find the time to strap on my tool belt, power up my machines and make some dust fly.
And you thought I really had become boring! Be prepared for the photographs, and the copies of the doctors bills and heaps of pain medication......
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
HOME Bru in Lusaka
I am an African!
I wrongly believed that South Africa was really the place to be in Africa. But it now seems to me that my home country is really just Africa light! To my amazement, I have discovered that the lands further north are full of interest and allure.
I was privileged to spend most of last week in Lusaka in Zambia. Just as Accra in Ghana surprised me, so too did Lusaka! It was not the deepest darkest Africa that I have imagined for all of my life. Instead I could have been in Nelspruit.
As usual, I got to go and see places that no tourist would ever get to see. My immersion into the local culture was completed this time with a stop in a bar. To be honest, we did not stop in only one bar, after all we were there to understand the retail liquor trade. This particular bar was in a very poor area but what made it special for me was that we stopped in an tested their local brew.
Africa is not the cleanest place and this bar was no different. Their Chibuku was brewing in a big blue drum. When we asked for a tester, we were given the bottom end of an old plastic milk carton. The communal cup! There was no way I was going to touch the thing for fear of a thousand different and equally vial disease possibilities. Then, I was handed this magnificent receptacle. And like any good boy, I lifted it to my lips and drank to the cheers of all the locals.
Oh, it was vile! Yet this is considered something worthy of a breakfast drink! The equal to orange juice, I think not!
I am still alive today, none the worse for wear. I am also a little less sceptical about dirt and disease, and am ready to meet my next home brew with far more anticipation!
I wrongly believed that South Africa was really the place to be in Africa. But it now seems to me that my home country is really just Africa light! To my amazement, I have discovered that the lands further north are full of interest and allure.
I was privileged to spend most of last week in Lusaka in Zambia. Just as Accra in Ghana surprised me, so too did Lusaka! It was not the deepest darkest Africa that I have imagined for all of my life. Instead I could have been in Nelspruit.
As usual, I got to go and see places that no tourist would ever get to see. My immersion into the local culture was completed this time with a stop in a bar. To be honest, we did not stop in only one bar, after all we were there to understand the retail liquor trade. This particular bar was in a very poor area but what made it special for me was that we stopped in an tested their local brew.
Africa is not the cleanest place and this bar was no different. Their Chibuku was brewing in a big blue drum. When we asked for a tester, we were given the bottom end of an old plastic milk carton. The communal cup! There was no way I was going to touch the thing for fear of a thousand different and equally vial disease possibilities. Then, I was handed this magnificent receptacle. And like any good boy, I lifted it to my lips and drank to the cheers of all the locals.
Oh, it was vile! Yet this is considered something worthy of a breakfast drink! The equal to orange juice, I think not!
I am still alive today, none the worse for wear. I am also a little less sceptical about dirt and disease, and am ready to meet my next home brew with far more anticipation!
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