The beginning of the second weekend.

Today we get an extra hour and a half of sleep and only have to wake up at 7:30AM. Only.

We wake up and trudge off to breakfast. At first, all the normal things...yogurt, granola, cereal...and then Rooibos tea, sausage, and tongue. Apparently Rooibos tea comes from a prickly red bush comprised of a bunch of spindly stalks. They drive over it tractors which pinches the stalks causing them to bleed their essence. After being dried out in the sun, they are processed into smaller bits that you can then steep. Although I've had Rooibos in the US, I only come to appreciate the taste and various benefits. Rooibos has an extremely high level of antioxidants, does not contain caffeine, and I really like how you can steep it for a long time because it has no tannin.

On the weekends we have a cold breakfast which still includes a great deal of meat. On the weekdays we've had some amazing breakfasts starting with a course of fruit consisting of a mixture of papaya, lychee, strawberries, passion fruit or granadilla, and various other fruits. We eat some gooseberry or orange & aloe spreads along with fresh cream better and bread. We also have a meat course which varies between lamb sausages, ham, sausage & asparagus savory crepes with a cheese sauce. Along side we have some nice cheese sauces as well.

After meeting up with everyone else, we drive out to the Capetown waterfront and do some sightseeing and shopping. It is now time to look around, relax, and find small gifts for some of our supporters at home. The malls are modern with an assortment of many higher end stores you would see in the US. A group of us walk around the mall and find a nice restaurant. One thing that we've particularly enjoyed in South Africa is the calamari. It is so tenderful and flavorful that I've tried to eat it at almost every meal since my first taste. The calamari in the US is rubbery by comparison and it will never be the same for me again. As we head back to our cars, we bring out our umbrellas to fend off the incoming rain only to have them collapse by unusually strong gusts of wind. One of our number has to wrestle his umbrella into submission but it ends up warping under the strain of the wind.

Continuing with our day of relaxation, we head over to Groot Constantia, the oldest winery in South Africa. It is old and famous enough that apparently Jane Austen mentions the wines of this place in some of her books. This tradition continues as we peruse walls displaying the latest trophies coming from international competitions and other art. The wines we taste are well balanced though maybe not as intense as some California varietals. We pause for a moment to buy a couple bottles of medal winning wine not available for tasting before heading outside to look around.

As far as I can tell, South Africa is a land with many different types of terrain. Always off in the distance there are mountains with their heads in the clouds. These mountains seem to jut out of a terrain of gently rolling hills and plains showing the different textures and patterns of the crops planted on them. The vineyard pattern surrounding us is reminiscent of Napa valley in California minus the majestic backdrop of mountains. As we walk the property, we become absorbed in taking various photos of ourselves against this scenery and exploring the land around us. There are various buildings echoing the architecture of an era long gone made all the more striking by the weather. Though the day is overcast, the sun bursts out of cloud cover at various intervals creating a deeper constrast between light and dark. The constant feel and sound of the wind is broken up by the cries of a small dog guarding his property as we pass by.

The relaxation of the day is in contrast to the intensity of the week. I've spent everyday of the week (including unstructured days) with my client, delving into his business and personal life in order to understand him. We've had intense debrief sessions each day to examine different clients and ask advice from some of the more experienced trainers. Over the week, we've seen people grow as they learn to connect to their clients and South African co-consultants. Though I am going solo as a consultant on this venture, the help of experienced roving consultants has been readily available. Perhaps we started out a little frazzled as a group early in the week as we sought to get our minds around the work facing our clients. However, it is amazing how well we are matched to our clients. We've seen some people start out meek and gain confidence over the week in their manner. I know that I'm learning to become freer and less formulaic in my prayer as I become closer to some of the concerns of my client. Things aren't perfect but neither should they be if we are to grow without stricture into a structure set by God. And yet, the intensity of the week is affecting us all differently. Some consultants seem to be energized by the lack of sleep and others (me) are beginning to pass out quite easily at night. And so the release of this Saturday is needed by all for different reasons.

It is a good day.

Leaving for South Africa: Tired and crazy in the ATL

So a bunch of us took the same flights and left at 10:50PM from SFO. We tried to sleep during the 4 1/2 hour flight to Atlanta but when we go there we were dead tired because it was still 3:30AM PST. We were so tired that we were hanging out by this dinosaur bone exhibit and we were really amused by the fact that it was called a "Yangchuanasaurus".

So a Yangchuanasaurus is a hybrid name because it was discovered in China. Trust me, this is an amazingly funny at 4:30AM PST so we resorted to posing like we were a predatory type of dinosaur. According to wikipedia...it is somewhat similar to an Allosaurus. So we have evidence of ourselves being silly...and we also created some new amazing retorts like:

"You're such a Yangchuanasaurus."
"Stop being such a Yangchuanasaurus."

BURN.

So I blame my teammate Karen who decided to buy us all a huge cup of sweet tea so we could experience the ATL. It is pretty sweet and not bitter on the palate. It must have been the sugar...

But we clearly didn't learn our lesson as we decided to visit the Coke museum. We walk around the museum, dropping in and out of consciousness at random intervals. There was a huge, fluffy Coke polar bear walking around that started looking extremely comfortable whenever my eyelids started drooping. We took quick naps in the flat, cushy seats of the Coke theater. We partook of the sugary goodness (and crashes) of the 64 different Coke products from different countries. A couple impressions:

Beverly. Sold in Italy, it initially starts out ok on the palate like habanero peppers. Like habaneros, after 2 seconds it will burst into full bloom on your palate. Unlike habaneros, it will burst into the taste of grapefruit rind. Everyone consistently tasted this one and broke out into blehhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

African drinks. With the exception of Sunfill...these drinks were extremely IN YOUR FACE. Strong and sweet. Kiwi and Mango flavored Bibo from South Africa is a textbook case.

Favorites: Kinley's Bitter Lemon from England. White Peach Nestea from France.

After filling up on drinks from different continents, we made our way back to the airport to pass out on the plane.

Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches...

So I don't know why these words from a Presidents of the United States of America song popped up in my head today...but they did.

I remember seeing the music video to this song when I was a sophomore in college when I was in a music dorm. I had joined a rock band that year and was learning how to improvise music on my violin. Here are some of the lyrics to this song, which is mysteriously called: Peaches.

Movin' to the country, gonna eat a lot of peaches

I'm movin' to the country, I'm gonna eat me a lot of peaches

I'm movin' to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches

Movin' to the country, I'm gonna eat a lot of peaches

Peaches come from a can, they were put there by a man

In a factory downtown

And if I had my little way, I'd eat peaches everyday

Sun soakin' bulges in the shade

Now I don't pretend to understand these lyrics. I saw some lyrics to some other songs by the Presidents online and they have a similar quality of nonsensicality about them. Brilliant!

But it does remain that I'm leaving this week to go to South Africa to help local businesses. As a team, we are actually staying on a farm...so technically I am moving to the country for a little while. Now I don't know if I'm going to go eat a lot of peaches but I will go enjoy whatever fresh produce there is to be had. Apparently, South Africans are big on huge meat buffets.

Now I know the trip isn't going to be all fun and peaches. In fact, my recollection of the music video has the one element that makes everything better. This element can even slice bread:

Ninjas.

For some reason (brilliance no doubt), ninjas do backflips into the video from out of nowhere. I don't recall exactly how many there were or what they are doing to the guy moving to the country, but it is obvious to my perfect memory from back in '96 (or maybe '97) that they are threatening the peaches.

So you can see now that this music video may be a good allegory for what is going to happen in South Africa. I'm moving to the country to help people in local businesses there bear professional, personal, and spiritual fruit. And while I am going to help fruit to be borne, I will inevitably partake of some of it too and be changed when I come back to the US.

Now you may remember the story of the Tree of Life, where Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden for partaking of the fruit that would give them knowledge of good and evil. Continued access to this tree would have given them immortal life, but they were cast out to live by the "sweat of their brow" (Genesis 3:19-24)

It occurs to me that everytime we do things that build up our character and experience, we learn more about the separation between good and evil. We have the continued choice to choose between both but hopefully we would choose good. It seems as if our relationship with God allows us to toil to bear fruit on a spiritual Tree of Life where we learn over time to discern what to do. Sometimes our actions allow others to partake of the fruit we bear. Sometimes we are gifted with fruit from others.

And there will be ninjas. We learn to protect our peaches from ninjas with various skills. I fully expect to have to fight ninjas off while I'm out in the country. At some point in my life, I realized that I could not just study and read in order to gain knowledge. It took me a while to figure out that ninjas would just laugh at me if I threw books at them. So learned that I had to toil away in order to allow fruit to be borne and truth to be experienced.

Peaches, the song, even has a happy ending for us:

Millions of peaches, peaches for me

Millions of peaches, peaches for free

Millions of peaches, peaches for me

Millions of peaches, peaches for free...Look out!

Praise God.
Praise God for ninjas.
Praise God that I have a black belt in kendo to fight the ninjas off with.