The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.- H. W. Westermayer

It would seem that the ingratitude, whereby a subsequent sin causes the return of sins previously forgiven, is a special sin. For, the giving of thanks belongs to counter passion, which is a necessary condition of justice. But justice is a special virtue. Therefore this ingratitude is a special sin. Thanksgiving is a special virtue. But ingratitude is opposed to thanksgiving. Therefore ingratitude is a special sin. - Thomas Aquinas

Once, when my feet were bare, and I had not the means of obtaining shoes I came to the chief of Kufah in a state of much dejection, and saw there a man who had no feet. I returned thanks to God and acknowledged his mercies, and endured my want of shoes with patience. - Sadi

Buenas turkeys and happy thanksgiving, folks.

Haven't been able to get around to any decent blogging time lately and there certainly won't be any time before Saturday as I'm fully booked between now and then, unless I get a few minutes to put the finishing touches on the introvert's manifesto that I've mentioned previously.

Work has been going well, albeit a little behind schedule. I'm wrapping up my first deliverable and starting my second this week, and will definitely have to pick up the slack with this second one and knock it out a bit faster than originally planned, which won't be easy, as this will the more difficult one to write.

Its cool to be working so hard for a client that I daily wish I could do even better for. I could get used to this.

My new roommate and the consultant working on our project, Paul, showed up this week. We won't be rooming together til the end of the month, and until then I'm still in my own place with the deck that I will miss having. Turns out I didn't lose my apartment-with-great-deck karma when I came here. Actually, the one at the place Paul and I will be sharing isn't half bad either. Actually, we have two at the new place...

Zambia was pretty cool, the week before last. I'll be writing about that once I get the pictures up, etc.. Which, if we work chronologically, won't happen until after I've blogged Medikwe, Cape Town, and Kruger. Oy.

I was pretty sick the weekend after we got back from Zambia and thought it might be Malaria from Kruger or a really bad strain from Zambia, but the first test came back negative and I was feeling better a day or two later. Not sure what that was about.

I've been back on the running horse, pretty regularly - have been getting in 5 miles a weekday, but I figure that's close enough to what I was at before, given that I'm running at 5k feet higher than I was back in the states. It makes a significant difference, especially given that my route now is pretty much 100% hills. Its also a social experience here - there are a ton of bikers and a handful of other runners out from 5:30-6:30am, which is usually about when I'm running. The sun comes up at 5 here - wakes you up pretty dang early. Anyway, the foot is feeling better, and I'm enjoying being out again. And I met one of my neighbors last night, she's pretty cool and invited me to check out her running group, so now I have friends to run with, hopefully. She said they do 18-kilo time trials on weekends - 11 miles sounds just about right to me.

What else? Tomorrow is dinner with Gib, the guy who leads the entire Accenture Developing Partnerships group. I was in charge of picking the location, so we're going with the Butcher Shop, which is supposed to be the best steakhouse in Joburg. Looking forward to that.

Thursday Tracy (the other manager here on the project with me) and I are headed to the Webb's for a Thanksgiving dinner that evening. David Webb is one of the pastors of the Every Nations church I've been attending down in Joburg, and he and his wife invited us to spend the evening with them and a whole bunch of other Americans they are having over that night. They're from Virginia originally, I think.

Friday our client, Gerard, has invited us - Tracy, Paul, and I over to his family's place for a little impromptu Thanksgiving celebration with them. Their daughter is in school in the states and has educated them on the holiday - and they seem keen to the idea.

Saturday I'm going to catch up on work and enjoy an evening to myself for a change. And maybe blog.

Its raining here in PTA again. Not one of the epic thunderstorms like before, but rainign all the same. Hope it lasts til morning so I can run in it, but given that's unlikely - it only rains at night here for some reason

I just booked flights home (woot). Will be in the states for almost a month - which is in a way great and also a bit of a bummer - I'm loving it over here, so I might try to fly back a little earlier. Anyway, here's the plan as it currently stands (read: ticketed).

12/11: Depart Joburg (JNB) in the evening. Fly northwest for 6,000 hours.

12/12: Arrive NYC (JFK) early morning. Hopefully grab a shower / change at somebody's place, maybe meet up with some peeps for lunch.

12/12: Depart NYC (LGA) mid-afternoon. Arrive Denver (DEN) mid-evening.

12/13-14: Work in DEN.

12/14: Depart DEN mid-evening. Arrive Sacramento (SMF) late evening.

12/14-27: Home in Cali.

12/27: Depart SMF early morning. Be delayed ridiculously in O'Hare, have flashbacks to previous project. Arrive NYC (EWR) early evening.

12/27-1/8: Kick it NYC style. Jason and Jules' wedding on the 28th. Hoping to get a standby flight back earlier than 1/8, but this is unlikely, so I will probably be working out of the NYO for a bit.

1/8: Depart JFK early evening. Fly southeast for 5,900 hours.

1/9: Arrive JNB early evening.

I love my job today.

Retro- blogging is a term that I invented (as far as I know) when I started reading Brian's blog posts about our weekend adventures that he was finally writing, a good deal after they happened. I am now commencing the same, and I'm using my Flickr photo sets, which can be found here, as a guide.

I first arrived in Joburg in the afternoon of August 20th - a Monday, and spent the following week working with Leslie at our offices in Brooklyn (yes, irony, I am working in a neighborhood called Brooklyn). Leslie was off to Kruger that weekend, and I stayed in town to settle down and get my bearings a bit. Friday night I packed a bag and headed down to Brian and Jen's place. Brian and I went out for dinner and then hit The Blues Room afterwards, where we experienced some incredible music thanks to the fact that it was SA's annual jazz / blues festifal.

The next morning we woke up and headed for Soweto - the SOuth WEst TOwnships of Joburg, hence the name. Apparently the clever naming conventions for certain parts of cities isn't germain solely to Europe and the northeastern US. Soweto is where the Apartheid museum is. You might think you don't know any Afrikaans, but the entire world knows one Afrikaans word: apartheid.


The first thing that struck me when we drove up was how very empty the parking lot was. That was my first realization that Johannesburg, for all intents and purposes, is not really that much of a tourist town. The foreigners I've met here by in large part, so far, have been like me - here for work. The city simply does not have a tourism draw like Cape Town. 10AM on a Saturday morning and not more than a couple dozen cars in the parking lot. Sad, in a way, but at least we would have the museum to ourselves.

The tickets (you either got a white or a black one) determined which door you got to go in, and what you got to see upon entering. We were able to come back to the start of each, but it was an interesting design for the entrance. And the interesting design wouldn't end there - practicaly the entire museum was extremely well thought out - architecturally, aesthetically, artistically. When I got home I researched it a little and found that the design was undertaken by a consortium of architects, and the exhibits were similarly fashioned - by teams of curators, filmmakers, historians and designers. The whole museum, although it operates in a not-for-profit manner, was originally built by a private consortium as part of their bid to build the casino / theme park that sits across the parking lot from the museum.


I think the pictures say a lot, although I feel like I only got a fraction of the museum captured in them. It was a detailed, mostly dismal walk through the history of this nation, from its societal origins, to its dramatic shifts, to the mining societies and the following years of oppression. It began with the smack in the face of what life in the worst times - not too long ago - was really like: separate entrances, the endless signs, the quotes that simply shocked you at what passed for "normal" at the time. The word "classification" took on a whole new meaning.


Once through the entrance, the museum essentially did a flash-back to the roots of the people of South Africa, black, white, and "coloured" as they term it here - you're either one of the first two, or you are something else (a mix, or another race entirely). It didn't take long to move through the history of the country into the more modern times, when things truly started to spiral (not to gloss over the fact that the more ancient history wasn't a bowl of cherries either, of course).

Some of the worst parts of the earlier clashes of the 20th century were well documented, at least photo- graphically speaking. There was an incredible array of thoughtful, poignant photography of the strife and the people behind it. I recall being simultaneously shocked by the depravity that men (mainly of my own skin tone) would sink to, and deeply impressed by those rare white individuals who were willing to stand with the resistance and refuse to quietly accept the status quo of the time. I don't diminish the struggles that the black man has had in South Africa, but I can't, at the same time, imagine how alone those very few white men - who were fighting against "their own," after a fashion - must have felt.




One of the really gripping things about the experience was the transition from black and white stills to black and white video, to color video. Watching and listening to this piece of history in the same media that I would go home and watch the news on that very same evening was a definite gut check - the turmoil and turn-around that has happened here occurred, in large part, during my lifetime. The wounds are still fresh.


It was an emotional experience. It makes you question yourself and fear what your own sinful nature is capable of.

So I've actually been working on some posts but for various reasons haven't been able to get any of them to completion stage (complex material, lack of sufficient bandwith on the internet connection, etc.). Hope very soon to have some stuff up on my first few trips since getting here, but I'm off to Zambia for the next 3 days for work, and have no idea what connectivity there will be like. If not before then, it'll happen this weekend...

Picture time. Who wants to read what I have to type when they could be looking at pictures instead, right?

In the spirit of truly catching up, I'm going to rewind 2+ months to when I was still in the US, and still had a cell phone with a camera in it. What follows are a few selections from the stuff I saw in the past year or so that I may or may not have remembered to document for blog purposes.

Once I run through these, I'll start going through my flickr sets (to date) and begin putting together some recaps on what I've done so far...more to follow soon.


This is from the night before I left the states (we are working in reverse chronological order here, fyi). Peter, Jonny, and I went to see Rage Against The Machine playing one of their 4 reunion shows, in the McCovey Cove parking lot in San Fran. It was pretty much one of the coolest nights of my life. We got Taco Bell, I slept for 2 hours, then we got up and Peter took me to the airport and I came to South Africa. Best weekend ever.

This was on the BART platform heading into town for the show. It reminded me of NYC (where I've taken similar pictures), but it also had that out-in-the open BART station feel. Whenever I have a bad day I try to remind myself that I sleep in a bed.







Robbie and I went up to Mossy and Grandie's place during my last week home and Mossy cooked my FAVORITE. Yums.



I took this on what I honestly hope was my last trip through security at O'Hare International, ever. I had just gotten through another retarded wait in the priority security line, which is a joke in and of itself. But this was just too classic TSA to pass up. I was kind of afraid I would get nailed by security or the cops for taking pictures of them, but I went for it anyway. What you are looking at is TSA rookies, studying. Not in a classroom, no, they are flipping non-chalantly through their training manuals, at makeshift metal desks, in the middle of the busy O'Hare terminal 3. Wow.

Now we're back to pre-leaving-NYC. Suin and I somehow got into a mostly-empty Waverly Inn, on a Friday night, no less. Still not sure how that happened, but as you can see, we battled the Australian Tiger Prawns, and won.








I wish this one had turned out. It was so typical of Hoboken. It was one of those bar sidewalk signs advertising the specials inside. What was special about this one is that it pointed out that it was the anniversary of Alcoholics Annonymous, and then listed the drink specials they were offering to celebrate that fact.




There's a lot of great architecture in NYC, but this fuse of old/new construction, at 15th and 9th, is pretty much my favorite.














The marketing major in me loved this ad campaign on the sides of NYC's buses this past summer.










The appropriately French french onion soup that Tank ordered when we went to Tartine, the Monday after Memorial Day. We hung out in the village all day and I was reminded how much I love Manhattan.











If Cregan plays his cards right, Titus will be the next Tiger Woods and he'll be set for retirement (and maybe I can get good seats at the Open?). He's pretty much the coolest kid in Hoboken, I can't wait to get back and hang with the fam.










Typical NYC straightforwardness.

So the town where I'm actually based here in South Africa is called Pretoria. Its the executive (administrative) capital of the country (Cape Town is the legislative capital, Bloemfontein is the judicial capital). Its situated in the same province as Johannesburg, about 50-some kilometers north of it. Gauteng is the smallest province in ZA, and it is also the highest populated (roughly 10 mil?), and the best. They're fairly proud of their provinces here, which is kind of cool. (and no, I still haven't bothered asking why its abbreviated Zed-A)

Pretoria is situated in the highveld - well on the edge of it and the bushveld. The highveld is a high (surprise!) plateau area in ZA about the size of Belgium, and Johannesburg is also situated on it. I think Johannesburg is at about the same height above sea level as Denver, and Pretoria's at roughly the same height.

While its got less to see and do than a Johannesburg, based simply on its smaller size, it still feels fairly large and has quite a number of varying neighborhoods to be explored. I'm staying in the nicest one I've seen, to date, which is a blessing indeed - in a complex on a hill on the far western side of Pretoria, and the neighborhood is called Waterkloof Ridge. There are a lot of Jacarandas in the neighborhood, which makes it quite pretty - Pretoria is called the Jacaranda City, in fact, named for the trees that for a few weeks every year have the most amazing purple blossoms you could imagine (pictures on my flickr, soon). They are out in full force right now, so it is cool to be here for that.

Even in the nicest neighborhoods, however, all of the apartments / condos / houses / what have you are all situated within security complexes (read: surrounded by tall walls with electric fencing on the top - often with a night security guard at the front gates, etc.). And there are bars on every window and every door in your place, and that's just life here. You get home, you lock yourself in, until the next morning, when you let yourself out for the day. Its like a self-induced jail, but you just learn to deal with it.

That said it is quite a nice complex I'm in, and when I'm diligent I get out for a run in the morning on the hilltops above the city, which is pretty freaking cool. Still doing light runs because I haven't shaken the plantar fasciitis in the foot, which is now going on 3 months old. I should probably give it a name, since its like a part of me now. I think I will call it Rip. Rip, my foot pain. I miss my physical therapists.

The one big surprise I had about Joburg was that it is NOT a tourist destination. This first really hit me when Brian and I headed to the Apartheid museum - there weren't 25 cars in the parking lot, late on a Saturday morning. When people come to South Africa they go to Cape Town, or on safari. If they see Joburg at all, its only passing through the airport on their way to points elsewhere. And it really is a vibrant city, with much to offer (in a very South African way, mind you).

Pretoria seems a little more laid-back than Joburg. I feel more secure here - a little - not much - sense of less crime / more safety, but its not to be taken for granted. It doesn't feel so oppressively big that you could accidentally make a wrong turn and end up in the wrong neighborhood, whereas there are parts of Joburg where I have done just that. Pretoria feels manageable, which is a nice transition to the country. Not to say that I don't think I could handle Joburg - many people do it just fine...its just that I like it here. That's all.

April. Early April was the last time I got two blog posts out in as many days.

The shame.

Well, that streak is over now. What's next? More lists about posts that I'm claiming I'm going to write in the future, that's what. Its later than I had hoped to start blogging tonight so I'm not actually going to try to give one of these following topics the thought and effort that they deserve this evening, rather I'm going to preview-list them.

- The church in ZA (so far). Two things in particular I want to write about are the missional slant and an orthodoxy seemingly unaffected by western shifts of late (prophecy being one of the situational examples that comes to mind).

- Being here to witness how the country as a whole reacted to the Springboks' victory in the Rugby World Cup. It truly was the opportunity of a lifetime.

- The travel lifestyle and the lack of community it fosters. How I've dealt with that in the past, how I'm dealing with it now internationally.

- Book recaps on a few other ones I've finished recently.

- At least a couple of other things that I can't think of at the moment. I really need to start carrying the mini-notepad around with me again.

I am going to make (yet another?) attempt at returning to semi-regular blogging. I think weekly is an ambitious first goal.

And I do think this is actually a good time to give it a shot, now that I'm done with my first 2 months which involved some sort of travel almost every weekend. Which was fine, and in many cases awesome. I've been on 3 safaris, saw England, Kenya, and Tanzania for the first time, saw Cape Town and areas surrounding, and have gotten very familiar with Joburg (headed down there for my first official braai, after which I'll be watching the Springboks take the rugby world championship.

Also, I have a South Africa 2007 iRB rugby ball that my friend Carolien, who knows famous rugby players, is going to get signed by Brian Habana. Contingent on them winning tonight, it will become either the coolest thing I've gotten on my trip yet, or the second coolest (the lion's tooth from Masai is pretty freakin cool).

So, here's what I have planned in the near future of the now-undead blog. Let's hope.

- Finishing up a few of the drafts I've had sitting out there for months on end, including a quasi-book-report written when I finished "A Sacred Romance," and one of those list-of-things-i-like posts, which I just barely started back in May.

- Pictures from the trips. I'm going to try to pull out some of the best ones I've gotten from the trips so far, and perhaps get some brief synopses of said trips typed out as well. And link back to the flickr sets, for those who haven't seen them yet.

- Pictures from my cell phone, before I left the states. Kind of a reflection back on some of the good things I've missed since I left.

- The introvert's manifesto. More on this soon. I've been realizing a few things since I got here.

- Thoughts on ZA so far - which will probably turn into reasons why I really like it here.

I'm looking forward to a few weeks of settling down in Pretoria, catching up on local life, organizing the general disarray, catching up on my guitar and Afrikaans.

Its 1340 in the afternoon on a Sunday and I'm sipping Cap 'n Coke in the biz lounge for South African Airlines, due for a 1540 flight back to Joburg.

Its been a long, long couple of weeks. But good. Mostly.

Last time I posted I was headed off to Cape Town with Brian for the weekend. It was a good weekend. We got in and found our place down on the shore, not far from the Cape, and had some drinks in the local bar a few doors down. There was not much food to be had, arriving at the time that we did in CT. The next morning I tried desperately to wake Brian for our trip out to Seal Island to see the Great Whites breaching, which he had so wanted to do in the first place, and I had been rather skeptical about. But he wouldn't get up, so off I went in the dark to the docks, where we met with our boat and headed off to the middle of the bay.

The breachings were incredible - massive sharks coming full out of the water in hopes of coming back in with a seal in their maw. We spent the rest of the morning tooling around looking for more sharks, then whales, then back to port. Brian got back from a whale-watching trip he had taken instead, and we drove down to the southern tip of Africa - Cape Point. We hiked it a bit, took pictures, and then drove back to the hotel, where we picked up our luggage and departed for Gansbaai.

Gansbaai is home to the best Great White cage diving on the planet (I might mention that Seal Island is home to the only regular breachings on the planet). We spent the night in a room with an ocean view, the sliding glass door open, sleeping in the frigid sea air. The next morning we hopped our boat out into the straight, and when we dropped anchor and had the cage in the water, Brian and I were the first to volunteer to hop in the cage.

Skydiving was pretty cool but I've never felt my humanity more viscerally than in that steel cage, when the 20 foot long beasts of instant death showed up to eat our tuna treats. At one point, one of them came near the cage, and I got a feel of its massive, slimy torso. I'm pretty sure it didn't notice me. So...yeah. That was incredible.

After that we headed to Franshoeck, in the heart of the ZA wine country. Spent a nice night there and then did a couple of wineries, one of which had a fantastic cellar tour complemented by THE BEST Pinot Noir I have ever tasted.

Then, off to Cape Town, where we hiked Table Mountain in the afternoon. A small hike compared to what I'm used to, especially beginning so close to sea level, but it was a respectable climb, and Brian and I made it up in fantastic time, and got some great shots of the city from above.

I made a stupid, stupid mistake of recording over some of my shark footage on the way down. When I'm smart some day, I'll invent a way to make the camera ask you if you're sure you want to record over this footage you already took. Que sera.

Went out in Cape Town that night. It was...interesting. There was billiards, then tequila and mexican food, then dancing in some club where Jenny and I were among the very few whites left (Brian had left for another area more suited to his particular social circles). The next day we had brunch down by the water and then off to the airport.

It was a good weekend. A great Friday - an epic one.

The following week the new consultant showed up. More on that at some...later... point. I tried to teach her to drive a stick after a long week of work - that was my Saturday. Sunday we joined our wonderful client lead, Gerard, for a trip to see the Johannesburg Symphony Orchestra (of which he is a member) perform. That was pleasant.

Another week of work, peppered with various "issues," and then it was off to London for the weekend, as I had training for my ADP program on Mon-Tues of this past week.

It was an overnight flight from Joburg, so I arrived Saturday morning and collected my bags, then took the train to Paddington and a cab to the hotel. Once showered, I met up with Grant and we kicked around Chelsea and Kensington a bit. Fish and Chips in a pub watching rugby - on my list of things that God made because He wanted me to be happy. I left Grant later in the afternoon, tubed it to Westminster, saw the abbey (from the outside), crossed the river, walked up the South Bank, crossed back, wandered through the theater district and then tubed back to the hotel. Met Brian and a few of his very fun Londonite friends out that night for bad Chinese and good drinks after. Last call in London is midnight. Go figure. Also, just my style.

Sunday was church, with Grant, nestled just behind the Girken (sp?). Jenny showed up, which was, well...great. Out for lunch in Borough Market after that for more F&C at a nice brewery, which was even better than the day prior. Grant took off to look at places with a realtor and Jenny and I had a nice afternoon walking around and seeing the sights - London Tower, the bridge, more South Bank, Sir Francis Drake's schooner, back across to St. Paul's, more of Hyde-be-a-utiful-Park, then met Brian and friends for drinks and dinner back in Convent Square.

Monday and Tuesday were spent in training. Tuesday night was off for Heathrow again and an overnight flight to Nairobi. Wednesday morning we (Kemi, the consultant, and I) arrived, showered, and headed in to WV's offices. Had a couple of good days of meetings, capped off with a dinner at Carnivore, the biggest place (and most famous, et. al.) for exotic meat in Kenya. The most exotic they had that evening was Ostrich meatballs and Alligator steaks.

The trip I had arranged to Masaai Mara fell through that evening, so I asked at the hotel if they could help me arrange another. They had a girl there in the morning, who quoted me a price that sounded reasonable, but I later found out was exorbitant.

Anyway, Friday morning we (a number of young traveller types and myself) drove out in a Mutatu (taxi mini-van turned "adventure vehicle") from Nairobi to Maasai Mara. About a 6 hour drive, most of which was over roads that in the US would be considered extreme off-roading. Saw a lot of south-western Kenya.

We arrived in the park Friday evening in time for a game drive, then back to the camping village (tented units with beds in them). Decent food, early bedtimes, early rising for morning game drives. Saw the same as in ZA - zebra, wildebeast, giraffe, elephant, lion, etc.. And then yesterday afternoon, we found my Cheetah, which made it all worth it. She had a little baby with her. It was cool.

After this morning's drive (less than stellar), I caught a prop plane back to Nairobi, then through more traffic and streaming sidewalks of people who occasionally noticed my open window as evidenced by shouts of "Wewe Muzunga!" and my taxi driver laughing. Picked my luggage from the hotel and then he dropped me off at the airport...which brings me to where I am right now, about halfway through a drink, with ice, for a change. Next to a bathroom, with real toilet paper. In a lounge, with other white people.

South Africa prepared me, but Kenya is really "real" Africa. I'd say of the people I saw, about 0.005% were actually not black. I saw many Maasai and got to tour a village. It was really an incredible experience that made me re-examine a lot of things. More on that soon.

Back to ZA.

So I'm in South Africa now. Sitting in the Joburg airport, headed to Cape Town.

Everything kind of happened real fast and then all of a sudden I was here. Then things kept going real fast and now all of a sudden I've been here almost 3 weeks, which have seen a lot of stuff I need to write about. So why haven't I?

I've been vainly holding out hope that I might finally get my own domain up and running, but I'm using a HORRIBLE hosting service that has made the whole process mind-bogglingly difficult, and I just haven't had the time to sort it all out.

Sort it out. That's a common phrase down here, which I like. Say I owe someone some money - "I'll get you sorted out next time I see you." Something like that. I like it. Others I'm digging are "Pleasure." They say that instead of "You're welcome," except they say it with their distinctly beautiful South African accent. I might not get the accent right, but I'm adopting that term too. One that I'm not adopting, because it was already a part of my normal vernacular, is "Howzit?" as in "How's it going?" There's no "going" involved here, just the "Howzit?" and it seems to be a very accepted form of greeting around here. I didn't use it much in the states, at least not verbally, but definitely online, and I'm using it plenty here, and it feels great for that first 5 seconds of the conversation where they say "Fine thanks, and yourself?" and then I start talking with my American accent and they realize I'm not from here. I'm also brushing up on a little Afrikaans, but I'm trying to figure out how it fits in society here - whether its really considered the language of the oppressors, or its generally acceptable, or what. Its hard to tell - I think most blacks speak it but I get the impression its out of a historical courtesy or perhaps necessity.

So there's that. One small facet of assimilating to the new culture. I'm a minority now - the country is about 80% black and 10% white, and when you leave the metropolis, that number starts to skew even further to the extreme. Most people you'd interact with speak at least some basic English, as would be expected, the level of comprehension declines in a fairly correlated fashion with the level of economic success.

Economic success. That's an interesting one here. I'd estimate about 20% of the population have something of the sort, and that number includes most of the 10% of the population that is white. It seems like a country with promise - given its recent history - if they could find a way to create the jobs that are so desperately needed here, you get the feeling that they could quite quickly pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

In the meantime, there's the driving community and the non-driving community. You pass them on the side of the street no matter where you go or when you go there. Its two very distinct cultures, where race is only the first difference, to be sure. More on that soon.

Weekend 1 was spent going down to Joburg to visit Brian and see the Apartheid museum. Weekend 2 was spent going to Madikwe Game Reserve in northern ZA (they call it "Zed-A" here, abbreviated ZA, rather than SA), where we were just south of Botswana. This weekend I'm off to explore Cape Town and the surrounding areas with Brian, and do some shark diving. So not much spare time to write, but I plan to finally have a weekend in Pretoria next weekend. Then its off to London, then Nairobi, then back here but off to Kruger National Park...

This website just isn't going to get set up. 3 weeks in and I still haven't sent out the "Hey I'm in Africa follow me on my new blog" email to everyone. We shall see. I've got Apartheid pics up on Flickr and will have the Safari ones there soon. Everything beyond that is just hopes and wishes at this point. But at least I've written something, now.

[21:20] FifthTigerofAsia: so tell me about the trip details

[21:20] davechkjr: this thurs night (hopefully) i get back to NYC from Chicago. Friday / Saturday are packing / moving into storage / going away party.

[21:21] davechkjr: Monday morning I leave for my last week in Chicago, then I fly home to Cali.

[21:21] davechkjr: Spend a week or so there, then on 8/19 i get on a plane for Johannesburg

[21:21] davechkjr: where I will be til April

[21:21] davechkjr: maybe a trip back for Christmas / New Years

[21:21] davechkjr: i just need to copy/paste that to my blog so people know what's up

A question to ponder...

Are you a prostitute or are you a consultant?

1. You work very odd hours.

2. You are paid a lot of money to keep your client happy.

3. You are paid well but your pimp gets most of the money.

4. You spend a majority of your time in a hotel room.

5. You charge by the hour but your time can be extended.

6. You are not proud of what you do.

7. Creating fantasies for your clients is rewarded.

8. It's difficult to have a family.

9. You have no job satisfaction.

10. If a client beats you up, the pimp just sends you to another client.

11. You are embarrassed to tell people what you do for a living.

12. People ask you, "What do you do?" and you can't explain it.

13. Your client pays for your hotel room plus your hourly rate.

14. Your client always wants to know how much you charge and what they get for the money.

15. Your pimp drives nice cars like Mercedes or Jaguars.

16. Your pimp encourages drinking and you become addicted to drugs to ease the pain of it all.

17. You know the pimp is charging more than you are worth but if the client is foolish enough to pay it's not your problem.

18. When you leave to go see a client, you look great, but return looking like hell (compare your appearance on Monday AM to Friday PM).

19. You are rated on your "performance" in an excruciating ordeal.

20. Even though you get paid the big bucks, it's the client who walks away smiling.

21. The client always thinks your "cut" of your billing rate is higher than it actually is, and in turn, expects miracles from you.

22. When you deduct your "take" from your billing rate, you constantly wonder if you could get a better deal with another pimp.

23. Your pimp seams to often abuse you, forgetting that without you, he would not have a business.

24. You do all the real work, but the pimp has a higher stigma and more money, and really just has to "coordinate" the work for you. Sometimes, you wonder if you could just make more money pimping out yourself.

25. You get so brainwashed into the lifestyle, that you don't realize that life can be better, until it is too late.

26. Personal time, or a work/life balance, is meaningless to your pimp, all he cares about is satisfying the clients, despite how many times he tells you he loves you.

27. After a few years, you find that all your non-prostitute friends are no longer your friends, because you lost touch and your schedule and lifestyle was difficult to manage, and you find that you associate primarily with other prostitutes.

28. The turnover rate is ridiculously high. Everyone thinks they can do it for a few years, no problem, but after just a few clients railing you, many break under the pressure, or quit for a better life.

29. Most of the time, your job could be performed by a well-trained monkey.

30. You thought college was a waste of time.

(From a work email - I couldn't keep it together at my desk, reading this. If you haven't worked in the industry, I suppose most of the humor here will be lost on you. And I wish I was you.)

Links, yo. Links.

This Google goodness is a little older, but still interesting.

I can't wait to be one of the last living humans with nobody left to say "I told you so" to. (No, seriously.)

Still a few good summer mini courses left to check out via my church. Nice job, Justin.

South Africa time: lotsa safaris to plan, not to mention the shark diving. Also, South African culture (thanks Ang). Also I've been spending time researching my vaccinations and visas. Also, not SA specific, but I'm hoping I might be able to see Zimbabwe while I'm over there. So far its a strong chance I'll see at least Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, and Zambia. Also, Africa's potentially largest game park.

Saw Geni a number of months back but now it looks a little better.

Ocean's 13 writers doing Entourage for Wall Street (this should be like 10 times as good as the LA version).

My birthday is coming. I'm just saying. Please note that was 4 links, not 1.

How not to suck at socializing. Speaking of which, there's a couple places I'd like to check out before leaving the city.

Last, 33 things you didn't know had names, and some weird coincidences.

Had dinner with Christie last night and she semi-inspired the all but dead blogging flame in me to get back into the swing of things in preparation for the upcoming project in Africa. Which is a good thing, but one more thing on the stack of a million and two things to do between now and leaving for the opposite side of the planet. But I am going to give it a shot all the same.

One thing that I've been kicking around in my head is exactly how I'm going to blog when I am in fact there. I want to keep this blog going, but I'm seriously considering a different, trip-specific blog that can be its own entity, of sorts. Then I suppose I can just figure out how to RSS all my posts there onto this one, and add personal posts here that I don't want to share on my more at-large trip blog (which I'll be making known to colleagues, etc.). So I need to figure out how to jones that.

Also, I'm going to try to do a more feature style for that blog. Some of the features will certainly be places I go and things I see, but I also want to run features on the prominent characters I meet during my travels and what's unique about their lives / world-views / etc.. I'd also like to do regular features about how the trip is changing my pre-conceived notions and perhaps even my world-views. And lastly I'd like to of course feature my insight into the statistics and demographics and whatnot that make up the dark continent and the western (mis?)conceptions that we hold of it. I'd like to write about how I think change would be best pursued there and use it in a sense to work towards planning out my next steps after returning home.

The ADP program asks its participants to return to their home country and spend the year following the ADP project back in the paid practice, so that ADP won't be charged with your attrition should you decide to leave the company. I hope to find a local project in NYC for that year and use it to figure out whether I want to return to school or find another path into more long time international development work. Dave's got me thinking about the GRE's and a masters in International Economics. He's also got me thinking about constantly growing my stack of play chips in Full Tilt. I've pushed 500K recently. Once I hit my first mil, I'm going to throw a hundred bucks in there and see what I can do with it.

Project was down last week so I got to stay home and procrastinate training and packing that I really should have gotten done. I did get to some of the packing later in the week, and tied down a storage unit. Packing up boxes really helps the reality of things start to sink in. I am going to Africa. I am going in little over a month. It is going to happen. Wow.

Also, watched fireworks on RI with Dave and Jon and AM and Ang and Amber and Ben and other various friends. Saw Tim's fiancee's show Cigarettes and Chocolate on Tuesday and caught drinks with the kids after that. Hung out with Suin for the first time in like 4 years. Started Band of Brothers again. Read a lot. Played a lot of FT. Good week.

Blogging, as it was intended from before the concept of time even existed, from my rooftop deck, beneath the illumination and noise of the GLBT parade. I will leave it to your internet search techniques to discover the origin of said acronymn, but to my memory the acronym is correct and these fireworks are rainbowically correct as well.

I like this day of the year simply because they feature (usually) the best fireworks display from our particular city view. I suppose, should I move at some point to the West Village, I should have a similarly wonderful point of view, however subjected it may be to the exuberant festivities I in no way doubt are taking place in said neighborhood at this moment.

The fireworks show was exceedingly short this year. This is surprising. There was nothing even nearing a grand finale. Interesting.

...how about some links?

I want.

I am.(Sometimes.)

I agree with...

I need a career in...

I want. (do that a lot lately, eh?)

I want to go to... (and I might mention all my so-called-friends have alreay gone without me...)

I enjoyed.

Juuuuuuust cruising in under the deadline that would have been a month sans writing anything at all.

Wooooow.

Anyway, gotta new approach. Gotta have one. Its like this: something's better than nothing. So here's a preview of the new format:

- ADP wants me for a World Vision project, based on South Africa, starting in August. Its very surreal at the moment. Have to get the current project to let me go, first, but that's like the last thing before packing up all my stuff on the week of 4th of July, and then I'm gone, til some time next year. So...yeah.

- Had another really great day just enjoying the West Village. Beautiful weather for it, went to Nicole's church and then brunched after. I really, really want to move to that nabe when (if?) I come back from South Africa (if means if I go, not if I'll come back or not. I'm coming back. At least for a while.).

- I haven't even tried to write anything of mildly theological substance lately, but I'm ok with that. I've been learning a LOT this past year or so and I feel like an athlete coming back from a season off for injury or something. Not to say I'll get back on that soon, but I at least hope to.

- Camera broke on the last trip to Young Life camp. Gotta get a new one quick. Need to throw some pix up, too.

- Youth group is winding down for the summer break again. 5 years - in a beautiful heartbeat. Wow. Speaking of which, we're headed to New Orleans this summer for another rebuilding trip. Appreciate your support...more to come on that.

- Still stuck in Chicago every week in the meantime (that pretty much covers the rest).

I love Thursday nights, when the plane finally touches down at EWR. There's work to be done on Friday, but Thursday nights, no matter the Air Traffic Control delays, I am home. I love standing outside the terminal and breathing the warm port air, I love the local car service in Hoboken that knows my voice on the phone and is always waiting to get me home.

And I love the city lights coming into view as we speed down the 1&9 towards the Holland Tunnel. That is the best part of my week.

I'm not ashamed to say I love getting into Hoboken and cruising the streets towards home, especially on those nights when we're not getting there too late. I love it for the same reason I've loved this crazy little town ever since I first moved here - you can not get home without seeing pretty girls who are also trying to get home, or to the next bar, or what have you. Its just nice living here with them.

But damn, do I hate Friday nights.

Most of them, at least lately, I've had to work late, and then I order in and fatigue takes over and all of a sudden its mid-Saturday morning. Before that, when I was slightly less crazy, I'd wrap up late in the afternoon and head into the city to plan Sunday's lesson with Cregan at the church offices. Then maybe I'd hit the movies with Dave or meet a friend out for dinner.

But every once in a while I get roped into something in Hoboken on a Friday night. Tonight it was Matt's wedding rehearsal and the ensuing dinner. Rehearsal went smooth, then we were down to the waterfront for a nice dinner, and then it happened. Snuck up on me without a forethought, it did - my first walk home through the streets of the Bo on a Friday night in months untold.

And every one of those pretty girls is out with her boy. No one is single in this town on Friday nights. Cute couples on the river walk. Drunk ones on the main strip. Trendy ones having dinner at the nice restaurants. Cancerous ones having smokes on their stoops. Walking out, walking home, going shopping, coming home from work, out for a run, hopping in the car, they are just freaking everywhere.

A million reminders of how. alone. you. really. are.

I don't doubt the existence of infinite love and grace. Its just sometimes I think God maybe is capable of hating me in some cosmically simultaneous way.

Wow. Last published on April 22nd? Seriously???

I used to write. Now I just check back in on this thing like some forgotten friend that you keep saying "man we really need to grab a beer sometime" when you run into him from time to time.

And I hate how I have to start every post like this these days, so next time I'm just not going to, regardless of how long it takes me to get to next time.

Church was interesting today - TK preaches a morning service on the west side and there was a bike race that shut down all of 5th Ave. thus preventing him from getting to the east side service in time for the sermon. So the scripture gets read, and Bisgrove gets up, adjusts the mic, and says "I got nothing." 3000 people laugh, somewhat awkwardly. He actually did a great job of ad-libbing it, got us all to sing Amazing Grace acapella (sans the actual words/music in front of us), and then decided to proceed with the communion that usually comes after the sermon on the first Sunday of the month. Communion complete, still no preacher. Bisgrove leads us in a prayers-of-the-people of sorts and then we start the final communion hymn one more time, planning to dismiss after that. TK shows up on the last line of the last verse and gives a great sermon from Esther, a book that does not make mention of God.

Last night was the membership dinner / meeting that I think is one of the best ideas the church ever had. They rent out the Metropolitan Plaza and combine our annual meeting to elect officers and such with a delightful hors d'oeuvers hour followed by a dinner, complete with an hysterical emcee (who happens to be the guy who's behind the mask in those creepy Burger King commercials). And that's followed by lots of presbyterians and wine and dancing all mixed up, if you can buy that one.

What else? Oh yeah, Robbie was in Chicago. We went to hear Michael Medved speak. The guy is good intentioned but he'll never really be ineffective because his big moral platform doesn't really have any bastions supporting it. I kind of thought that was the case so when Q&A came I gave him a pointed question to prove it. Which he did, in turn. Too bad.

We went out to Morton's and blew my whole week's per diem on one dinner, since I never get to see her, and that was just a blast. Hopefully put some meat on her tiny bones before sending her back off to Mexico. And then after dropping her off I got that ticket that I so deserved from the day before, 10 states away. I don't think I deserved this one so much though, so I'm gonna fight it. Go me.

The last few weeks have been a LOT of work, little sleep, and trying not to work much on the weekends. I got a pretty darn good performance appraisal, which was nice and I think perhaps somewhat deserving - I've worked hard with half the team I was supposed to have, and I'm still fairly close to delivering on schedule (ok, the last part is iffy). I don't like flying to Chicago every week but I'm still hoping that a role with ADP will crop up by mid summer and remedy that situation. If not, who knows?

I know I don't.

Two weeks just like that.

Slipping, I am just plain slipping.

Let's see if we can remember some of it real quick...

Today was church and youth group and then some reading on the deck in the sun (picked up a big thick Cosa Nostra history called "Five Families"). But, I woke up in Fairfax, VA this morning - early, and then set a land speed record from Jack and Rebecca and Gretta's place to mine, caught a shower, and then couldn't find parking so I missed most of the service when I finally got into the city - argh.

Had a brand new red Mustang with a big ol engine and how I'm not in jail after this morning is proof of the grace of God. Speaking of Grace, I drove down yesterday afternoon to surprise her at her birthday party, so that was good times with old faces.

Friday night I went to a Wheaton Alumni event at the Harvard Club where Dr. Jerry Root - one of the leading scholars on C.S. Lewis - spoke. I was in attendance at the behest of my grandparents who a) both went to Wheaton and b) are good friends of Root as they used to attend his church in Santa Barbara. He was a really nice guy and very eager to talk with me when he heard who I was. Headed out to Karma with the Daves and Chrissy and Jen and some of her friends, and I will never step foot in that bar again ever (hint: fumes).

Before that was another insane week at work.

Before that was last weekend, when I was...sick for the 4th time this year. Freakin travel and airplanes and whatnot. So that was a bust.

Before that was another insane week at work.

And before that was Easter, when I last wrote.

This next week should be another insane week at work. Funny how they keep happening like that. Gives me precious little time to sleep or read or work out or enjoy being alive.

But Robbie is in Chi-town for a wedding so I'll have dinner with her tomorrow, that will be fun.