Get your own Free Home PageMonday, June 26, 2006 10:16:58 PM Ah, where to begin. I just returned from South Africa and Zambia. What a glorious trip! Last Wednesday I started thinking about keeping a journal, but of course by then it was too late. Had I been keeping one, I would have written too little anyway. I'll rely on my 453 digital photos to jog my memory as I write this history. It will be a memoir, not a journal. So here are my memories of the Liberty League Summit Conference and all that transpired in its general vicinity. 6/9/06 Three Fridays ago, as I prepared to leave San Francisco, pressures on the job gave me an added incentive. At precisely 5:00 pm I was out the door and on my way back to the condo. Thursday Margaret and I had packed (Margaret mainly, with me watching), and the car would pick us up at home at 7:00 pm. Back at home I took my last shower for days and dressed in travel clothes. The trip to the airport was fast, easy and effortless. There were virtually no lines at the airport, and by an hour before our 9:15 pm boarding we were checked in. At the airport we dined at Perry's, which was decorated to look just like the one downtown. The dinners were much better than the fast food I had expected at the airport. SFO has better quality restaurants in the terminals on the far side of the security gates. We took Delta to Atlanta; I believe it was a Boeing 767. In this case we knew the 5 hours to Atlanta was just the first leg, and there would be many more hours in the air to follow. After 4 hours in Atlanta we caught South African Airlines, an Airbus 320. It was huge. Margaret wanted me to take a photo in Johannesburg, but there was no way I could fit the plane and her into one frame meaningfully. One very nice feature of the Airbus was a personal digital television screen on the back of every chair, and a wide selection video-on-demand movies. I managed to catch a couple of movies at times of my own choosing, including the simple but sentimental Eight Below that I had been looking for. Yes, I cried, but only Margaret could see it in the dark. Seven hours of sitting took us to Ilha do Sal in Cape Verde. The longer we rode the smaller the seats became. One passenger said that at some point we would be lying on the cabin floor, but that never happened. Cape Verde had a short runway, and the pilot put his all into stopping the plane before we wound up in the Atlantic Ocean. A 9 pm landing, and an hour on the ground for fuel and restroom maintenance, we never left the plane. The airport was so small it had no taxiways. We just turned around and taxi'ed up the runway to the turnoff for the terminal. I would see a small airport like this in daylight when we reached Zambia; for now it was just a gas station in the dark. I could see a town as we approached, but I had no idea what Cape Verde was, other than a group of islands in the middle of the ocean. Three military transports were parked near the terminal, and our plane just pulled around in front of it. After the gas and restroom supplies were loaded, off we went for our second oceanic leg, another 8 hours. Johannesburg, by contrast, had more runways and taxiways than Los Angeles. We landed and pulled into a parking space without effort. Yes, a parking space. As we walked down the covered mobile stairway we boarded busses to get to the terminal. Customs was a breeze; we met our driver and took off for the Palace of the Lost City. The driver made sure we had South African Rand in our possession before we left, but later we found the ATM in the entertainment center. Two hours of driving across the South African countryside reminded us of Arizona and other places in the U.S. Farmland and grassland were plentiful, and the mountains were low and smooth. But there were cliffs and plugs of red rock in between, and we got a beautiful show going into the Palace. Shanty towns clustered around highway intersections, and the driver pointed out that most of them were associated with the open-pit platinum mines. We saw a few as we crossed the North-West Province. Tipping, what to tip? At the Palace everyone said it was strictly our discretion, but Margaret had found a guideline on the web that said 10%. Some people honestly did not understand when I tried to tip them, but a porter at Johannesburg International Airport said he charged 5 Rand per bag (after providing the service without mentioning it). We arrived at the Palace at 1:30 pm Sunday, and our room was not ready. So we went to the poolside restaurant and enjoyed the first of many, many buffets, complete with traditional South African barbeque (they called it braai). South Africans grill without the sugary sauces that we use, and the meat tasted fresh and natural. We wandered around for a while enjoying the fantasy architecture of the Palace. There were fountains and sculptures everywhere. Around 2:30 pm SUNDAY we checked into our room, and we blissfully slept for the rest of the day. After two days in the air, we were glad that nothing was scheduled for Sunday afternoon. 6/12/06 Monday we arose around 5:30 am, which was 8:30 pm Sunday in San Francisco. My body clock was totally deranged, but Margaret was keying hers to the daylight cycle. This far from the equator the sun was rising later and setting earlier than in S.F., so we were sure to get plenty of sleep. We went happily to our first breakfast buffet at the Palace. The Crystal Court was magnificent! Glass walls, 50-foot ceilings, and a dozen tables with everything that anyone in the world would call breakfast. As often happens at an all-you-can- eat buffet, I had two breakfasts instead of one. A plate of fruit from around the world was followed by scrambled eggs, potatoes and bacon. Bacon here was sliced irregularly, but did pass the test. All the staff were very friendly and eager to serve us. As we toured the gardens and checked in with the conference registration, we enjoyed more of the fantastic architecture. Elephant tusks, fantasy animals in concrete and bronze, and regional masks and decorations were everywhere. High ceilings were a hallmark of the hotel. As an ad I read later on Air France would say, "What is luxury without space?" My head felt stuffy, so we went to the pharmacy in the entertainment center, and picked up cold tablets that had about five drugs in them. Ten effervescent tablets for about $30, they weren't cheap, so I expected great things from them. It was fun reading the label, which was in both English and Afrikaans (a close relative of Dutch). The cognates between the two languages reminded me that the English we speak is very modern, and that the middle-age people in England spoke other languages. At lunch in the entertainment center we had a hunger for a snack, but knowing there would be a full dinner at the welcome reception, we found our way to Squire's Loft. As I looked over various African specialties, including crocodile carpaccio, I remembered the PHS warning about "adventurous eating." I decided for the moment to go with something that I understood, a cheeseburger and chips. The choice of toppings for the burger included tomato sauce, cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and monkey gland. After laughing and making up stories about the monkey gland, I ordered cheese, which turned out to be a cheddar. We both wondered whether monkey gland would be classified as adventurous eating, as we assumed it would have been cooked. In the evening the Liberty League reception was a simple affair. It was a buffet dinner, as we expected. The speakers, including Shane Krider, congratulated us as the leaders of the leaders, taking the initiative to go all the way to Africa to attend the conference. Conversation with other attendees revealed they came from English-speaking countries all over the world, and for many of them it was their first conference. How inspiring it was that so many would position themselves for maximum profit potential going into the business! 6/13/06 Tuesday morning when I awoke, the congestion from the day before resembled full-blown flu, and was I ever disappointed! Margaret reassured me that I did not have to attend the conference every day, that she would be there. My charge was to recover before the playtime began. After breakfast we went down to the pharmacy and picked up some genuine, 100% 20 mg pseudophedrine, branded Sinu-Med, in a package that looked similar to Sudafed in America. We knew this would clear up that congestion. Then I went back to bed and slept all day. Margaret came back in the evening, telling me that the day's lectures covered subjects we already knew. The presentation had consisted mostly of tax advantages for businesses, and an exploration of how the government would help us with tax breaks if we diligently pursued our business 24x7. After all, the government wanted to encourage revenue, and wealth created jobs. 6/14/06 Breakfast was, surprise surprise, a buffet -- the beautiful 12-table buffet we had seen before in the Crystal Court. By now I had enough experience with South African English to realize that, although English-speaking countries had a similar foundation, there were many subtle differences in usage and definition. It was at breakfast the thought crossed my mind to keep a journal, and at the same breakfast I dismissed the thought. My place in this whole play was to observe and enjoy, to appreciate the bounty and the first-class service. We found that the Palace employees loved to serve, really loved it! I did surrender to the desire to write down a few terms to illustrate the different uses of the English language, and over the two weeks we were in Africa I managed to fill a few post-it notes. It was worthwhile to remember that, although English sounded much the same, there were significant differences in the definitions of the words. When I began to get the feeling that I was back in California, I would remember that an unexpected definition could bring us to the other side of Alice's looking glass. African English American English --------------- ----------------- robot traffic light waitron waiter or waitress starters appetizers mealy maize corn mealy corn (like polenta) chips French fries crisps chips tomato sauce ketchup take-away take-out tariffs prices docket invoice (check) queue line tendered bid or contracted bucks Rand tissue Kleenex Come again? Excuse me? flip helicopter tour "a hard mountain to climb" "a tough row to hoe" "gets people up on gets people aggravated their hind legs" just now next spa health spa laundromat coin-op laundry bombom applause braai barbeque boma picnic ground biltong jerkey boss boss (just like the deep South) pands ponds or lakes transport taxi or limo kids check-in child care dustbin trash can hired rented broom gate egg lifter spatula cork extractor corkscrew braai tongs barbeque tongs Weber gasbraai Weber propane barbeque "How is it?" "How are you doing?" "Is it?" "Really?" "South Africa" is pronounced as one word, with the accent on the second syllable, like "sethafrica." Later, at the bush lodge, some things showed up in the inventory that I didn't expect, although we probably call them by the same names: a toast rack, and a sachet holder. We were in South Africa to attend the Liberty League Summit Conference, and the day's general session started with a lecture on credit ratings and how to improve them. "How timely," I thought, as many people (including ourselves) might have stretched their finances a bit to get to this place, about as far as one could go to the opposite side of the world. We resolved to check our credit reports when we returned to America. After the lecture on credit ratings, we were treated to a presentation on financial strategy. The point given was that the conventional approach to wealth building may not necessarily be the optimal one, and a case study was shown comparing two investors. One investor used a conventional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, and the other used an unconventional mortgage and invested the difference in alternative vehicles. If the assumptions played out correctly, the person with the fixed-rate mortgage accumulated about $1 million in 35 years, but the person with the unconventional approach accumulated twice as much. At lunch we were invited to publish reviews on the internet, and Margaret had a photo opportunity with two of our favorite members of the Executive Marketing Council. We'll see Margaret on the Council some time soon! Lunch was a catered affair, and we had a chance to meet other associates and compare notes. In the afternoon we roamed the Sun City grounds, looked for monkeys and baboons, and discovered the casino. Margaret showed me the beautiful Greek theater and the elephant-lined Bridge of Time on the way down to the entertainment center. That evening we went out in search of genuine African food, and found Calabash, a restaurant at the Sun City Hotel. Again we joked about "adventurous eating," when we saw there were as many raw dishes as cooked ones. We stuck to the cooked dishes, and tried roasted kudu (an antelope), roasted warthog, and baked kingklip. When the staff told us kingklip was a fish, I asked whether it was a saltwater fish. No, they said, it was caught at sea and packed in ice. We were delighted to find that South African food is mild (bland, even). 6/15/2006 Orchid 6/17/2006 Safari Survival Kit
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