I work at RCI in Indianapolis Indiana and have been selected to participate in the Global Guild Exchange Program. My international assignment is to work in the RCI Johannesburg office in South Africa for 6 weeks!!!!
25 September 2003- I left Indianapolis on Thursday at 1pm and after a long journey of 16 hours I arrived in Jo’burg on Friday afternoon at 3:30pm. The Jo’burg office had arranged for me and another colleague from our office in Canada to stay at the Heatherdale Guest Lodge, which is a B&B located in the area of the North Riding suburb. Donny and Sandra Thistle, the owners of the lodge, had arranged for their son Leon to collect me from the airport. I really had been apprehensive about the logistics of me getting to my accommodations, but when I saw Leon standing outside the luggage area with a sign that had my name on it, I was very relieved!
As we left the airport, we were greeted with bumper-to-bumper traffic. (South Africans drive on the left side of the road) I understand that heavy congested traffic is a way of life in Jo’burg especially during the morning and evening rush hour. After an hour’s drive, we finally arrived at the Guest House. Sandra, Donny, and six very large dogs welcomed me. I was served cookies and tea under the cabana by the pool.
Later in the evening Sandra and Donny invited my colleague and me to have dinner with them at a restaurant in Northgate called the Greek Sizzler. I believe their specialty is lamb dishes. I ordered the leg of lamb with side dishes of butternut squash and roasted potatoes. For starters they served warm pita bread with a fish egg spread that was surprisingly quite good . . . so much for losing weigh in South Africa!
27 September2003 -- Saturday afternoon Lynn, one of our hosts who live in the town of Krugersdorp, invited us to her home for a typical South African braai (bar-be-que). As she was driving she said, "I almost missed the robot" I looked around for something that looked like R2D2 or C3PO from the movie Star Wars but I did not see a robot. She laughed and explained that traffic lights are called robots in S.A.! She also went on to explain some colloquialisms. For instance when someone says they will complete a task ‘’now now " it means not right away but sometime soon, if they are going to do it "just now" it means much later.
At Lynn’s house we had an opportunity to drink S.A wine and to taste the national snack, Biltong and Dry Wors. Biltong is like beef jerky cut into small pieces and Dry Wors is a spicy sausage that has been dried and is easier to chew.
28 September 2003- Sunday morning we went to brunch at a restaurant that overlooked the Cradle of Humankind. The restaurant was built on the side of a hill and had break taking views of the African savannah. The savannah has rolling hills and the vegetation is golden, the color of a lion. In the distance we could see giraffes eating leaves from a tree and Rhinos at a water hole. The Cradle of Humankind is the area where the skull of a 2 million year old female Hominid was found. We were told that a Hominid is a species of early pre historic man. The area also has fossils dating back 3.5 to 1.5 million years ago. There are caves in the area and an under ground lake. Local tribes people believe that the water from the lake has medicinal qualities.
After brunch Lynn had arranged a surprise for us. A game drive!!! The guide, Peter was very knowledgeable about the vegetation and the history of the area. It is amazing how the animals blend in with the surrounding environment. If animals do not move sometimes they cannot be distinguished from a tree or a bush. You must look very hard to see them. We saw Rhinos, giraffes, zebras, jackals, kudu and wildebeest. Just before sunset we stopped at a very scenic area in the game park. Opened a bottle of chilled wine and watched the sun disappear over the mountain top . . . we had pleasure of participating in another South African tradition, having a "sundowner."