Multiple Entries

26.12.2007

I actually spent Xmas alone, yes I know…how sad, but it was not that bad. I watched movies online (I am legend, blow, sex and the city– don’t ask, I think depression!) and that occupied my day plus calling home. Today I was back at work only to receive an email that I should come back on the 6th Jan 08 – don’t ask!!

23.12.2007

I went to Geneva today, I was not going to work as usual but rather meeting someone for drinks, imagine I traveled 1h46min just to have a drink, anyway on my way back I decided to be polite and have a conversation with the guy I was sitting next to in the train, which is very unusual here because people don’t even greet each other, individualism a friend of mine calls it. Anyway by accent I immediately knew he was from north America, I did not want to assume that he was from the US because Canadians hate being mistaken as coming from the US.

We talked about business (he’s an engineer for aircraft engines – don’t remember the exact position), compared cultures with the guy (he’s mixed race) and evaluated the Swiss culture – funny how most foreigners I’ve met have a one liner i.e. ‘people here are so hostile if you can’t speak\understand the language’, I guess I should get an English – French and English – German dictionary, I am not giving up that easily, part of this experience is cultural understanding.

Have I mentioned that pedestrians rule the roads here (you just waltz into the pedestrian crossing and a car will stop and wait), try that in downtown Johannesburg – you will be minced meat! and that old people are so active – too active actually! My goodness some snail around town like there is no tomorrow and don’t forget when you cross the road here you look out for the tram, bus, bicycle, car and people, now imagine an old lady crossing the road with all those objects in mind, even I get confused because they drive on the other side of the road. In the evening when I got off the tram going to my flat, there was an old woman (she had a walking stick and looked fragile, so I would guess she is well over 70 years) who just crossed the road when pedestrians were supposed to stop – a tram and a car were actually hooting at her, I was paralyzed with fear and some people I was standing with were calling her to come back, weather she could not hear anymore or just plainly ignored us only she knows.

16.12.07

I love this country’s transport system, I can move around with ease because of the ‘on time’ trains, buses, and trams. On Thursday I took, with ease, a 1h30 train to Winterthur for team building which was something useful, learned more about the people I work with than 2 weeks ago when I landed and also got to know the people in the Winterthur local committee where it was interesting and a necessity to question the evolution of an organization and the people’s capacity to handle the change and still be able to deliver on the relevance. It was deep!!

When you are a visitor or on contract in a certain country, you want to find out about the culture, land-scape, the history and the people, you make sure that all your weekends are booked! Today we i.e. me, Ivo (Chairperson of AIESEC in Switzerland [AiS]) and Jeroen (Organizing Committee President of Career Days) went on a trip to Grindelwald (1034 m high) – a beautiful place where tourists and locals go to ski. There is also a mountain called Jungfraujoch (UNESCO world heritage site) which is called the top of Europe because it is 3454 m / 11333 Ft high above sea level, I gotta tell you the place is AMAZING, steep in price when I converted to Rands but certainly worth it - I can’t explain it you have to experience it for yourself.

05.12.07

My first offical day on the job today – wooo hooooo!

…. My flight from Jozi to Athens was not so entertaining, since I forgot all my novels in the car that brought me to the airport; I thought the movies in the flight would be ok, then sadly for 9 hrs I was made to watch some ancient movie of witches with no sound (apparently the flight had a sound problem)! I needed the alcohol to help me sleep but then my doctor's voice was banging at the back of my mind – so I lip-read the movie to the end. Then I took a 3hrs flight from Athens to Geneva, thinking how tasty a meal I would be for the Mediterranean sharks if the aircraft were to crash because I can't even swim to save myself.

Today is my first day on the job; I took a 1h46 train from Bern to Geneva, and then found ourselves in the wrong UN building (I should have asked for a Swiss tour guide and not Slovak – who hesitated to ask for directions even though he is clearly lost!), I am well dressed but clearly a rapid change from summer to winter is a bit too much coz my mouth was starting to freeze and I had difficulty in pronouncing words, so I kept quiet until we finally found the right building after an hour and my guide `gaan-ìng aan` about how this is not so cold.

Suisse

You know how cliché is ‘the world is your play-ground’, well I guess those clichés sometimes do come back to our lives and make impact as they were initially intended.

I’m off again to Switzerland for a 7 month internship with the United Nations food and population agency in Geneva (wasn’t sure on how my Mother was going to react since I was stuck in Egypt not so long ago and had to ask her to bring me home). For some reason I was excited that I made it out of the 7 candidates I was competing with from Nigeria, Canada, Cameroon and Mexico but then the financial aspect of my trip brought me back to mother earth, but I’m happy anyway that I’m returning back to the neutral country.

I will be living in Bern, the capital city, taking a train for about an hour every day to work in Geneva, so I’ll have a bit of 2 cultures i.e. living in the swiss-german part and working in the swiss-french part.

To all my friends, readers of my blog, acquaintances and colleagues thanks for the support given – especially those that came through for me and my team during AfroxLDS’07 (If you’re an aiesecer you’ll know what that means), to my colleagues for my cushioned entrance at PWC due to their friendliness.

Well keep on reading this blog as it will get more interesting as I update you about my day-to-day life with the Swiss.

As we say in Sesotho (for those of you I’m temporarily leaving behind):

Khotso, Pula, Nala – Peace, Rain and Prosperity.

Ps: Yes I will have a Swiss bank account, so if you want to put your money in it – I’ll be more than happy to hold it for you with only the following 3 conditions:

· Should be more than a million $ (not Zimbabwean dollars…okay!)
· Leave it in my bank account for atleast 6 months (so that I can earn interest on it)
· Should have been legally obtained (pick-pocketing is illegal)

If you don’t fall in this category it means you’re broke like myself and I therefore don’t see any business sense, just joking – I have my price and willing to negotiate.

In conclusion, I do charge a commission – I am in the capital of capitalism after-all :)

‘I am because we are, since we are, therefore I am’ – John Mbiti

I’m reading the book ‘country of my skull’ by Antjie Krog (been looking for the book since 2004 and finally have my hands on it). A great book – has won many wards nationally and internationally.

…Came across very sensitive, insightful and informative issues, the book is about our South Africa history – Apartheid, how the core of South Africa’s being, race (black and white), was what provoked actions in the past, has formed our present identity and has shaped our perspective of the future.

Two prominent figures in the country, Thabo Mbeki (current President of the country) and Bishop Desmond Tutu (noble prize winner) dissect the words reconciliation and forgiveness. Tutu says ‘reconciliation is the beggining of a transformative process (one must be able to transcend one’s selfish inclinations before one can transform oneself and one’ society) for Mbeki it is a step that can follow only after total transformation has taken place’.

South Africans have a notion that we live in/ are building a rainbow nation, and I battle with that as we still don’t understand each other. Things still look the same for me, everything is still divided by race, from the food we eat, neighbourhood we live in, shops we do our grocery in and cars we drive, there is still a huge gap that can only be bridged by cultural understanding. It seems we tolerate each other because we need to coexist for our survival and that’s it! Weather this coexistence is reconciled and transformed still remains a debate.
A black friend of mine said that white people will never understand nor appreciate how black people bend their backs to accommodate them till and how they (whites) cannot do the same – this reminds me of Nozipho January-Bardill’s statement when she said ‘reconciliation will only take place the day whites also feel offended by racism, instead of feeling sorry for blacks’.

In a sense I understand her comment but do we need to go that route so to make a point or make another person realize where you are in terms of thought? I didn’t realize the complexity of the words truth, reconciliation, and transformation especially in the South African context until I read this book.

I’m due to represent the country yet again abroad, but for a longer period of time – this time, I wonder though how I am supposed to represent the country and my culture. There is no harmony between the individual and the community, I cannot be as we are not, and since we are not, therefore I am not.

…what is this rainbow nation we are talking about and trying to build, has it begun, has it worked, will it work and how do I represent my country’s identity?

Anybody out there….

Struggling to attract Talent

This morning I read an article on mail and guardian newspaper that says South Africa is struggling to attract talent despite our flexible labour markets and decent foreign direct investments inflows, I question where our South African youth is and what they are doing with their lives.

All of you are well-off than the average youngster on the streets because you are at tertiary institutions busy being educated – but it’s said that talent is lacking. I look at their explanation of talent ‘people with skills, education and competency’, then it strikes me that actually if that’s talent then yes it is lacking especially skills and competence, let me tell you why;

Skills - communication, presentation through PowerPoint and verbally, business etiquette, selling, etc. . .
Competence – the ability to perform the above mentioned skills with minimal training and/or lack of supervision in an excellent manner in order to secure a ‘deal’.

. . . are what companies are looking for in an individual who are about to entered a job market and you will agree with me that there is no subject called ‘skills acquiring’ or ‘competency developing’ in your curricular but you still have to acquire them – and its not a choice if want to be employed.

I joined AIESEC because I wanted to see the world, it retained me because I realized that there is a lot I still needed to learn from thinking of an idea – putting it on paper – turning it into a project and seeing it through, and I got an opportunity of meeting spectacular people across the world.

The reason I write this email is that there has always been a continuous non-seriousness of members in running their operations, being unable to identify and exploit opportunities in an efficient, effective, productive way.
In my roles I have come across a member being invited to come to a conference to come and speak with the CSI manager of Cadbury Schweppes in South Africa about their projects – and a response I got was ‘no thanks’, another was invited for a strategic meeting impacting the national operations and the response received was ‘I’m afraid of joburg’.

In fortune magazine’s (Oct 8,2007/no 17) top companies for leaders:

Proctor and Gamble needs to have people in touch or have social intelligence.
Nokia (The number 1 ranking of the 20 best companies for leadership in Europe) wants people who will connect plans for their personal development.
Hindustan Unilever helps attract and nurture leaders.
BBVA (spain’s 2nd largest bank) identifies managers who’s style is participatory and not coercive.
Infosys Technologies expects members to debate discuss and critique.

If our current leaders still struggle to display qualities of skills, competency, intelligence that we say we’re developing – it means there is a problem!!!

That is why I think the terms Talent Management and Talent Development should be closely looked, in my opinion chapters need to seriously do talent development from recruitment stage especially now that chapters have been engaged in pocket recruitment. People who come in to the organisation should display emotional intelligence, willingness to learn through integration, preparation to solve problems – in that way the People development responsible can place the right people in the right jobs, coach the individuals, mentor, coach and empower.
Chapters don’t have talent to manage as yet.

It's Great to be a Souf Efrikan

This is a great country because:

1. You can eat half dried meat and not be considered disgusting

2. Nothing is your fault, you can blame it all on apartheid.

3. You get to buy a new car every 3 months and the insurance company even pays for it.

4. You can experience kak service in eleven official languages.

5. Where else can you get oranges with 45% alcohol content at rugby matches?

6. It's the only country in the world where striking workers show how angry they are by dancing.

7. You're considered clumsy if you cannot: use a cell phone (without car kit), change CDs,
drink a beer, put on make-up, read the newspaper and smoke,
all at the same time while driving a car at 160 kph in a 60 kph zone.

8. Great accent. (!!!)

9. If you live in Johannesburg, you get to brag about living in the
most dangerous city in the world.

10. Burglar bars become a feature, and a great selling point for your house.

11. You can decorate your garden walls with barbed wire.

12. The tow-trucks are the first on the scene for most major crimes, without being called.
The police you have to call about three times.

13. Votes have to be recounted until the right party wins.

14. Illegal immigrants leave the country because the crime rate is too high.

15. The police ask you if they must follow up on the burglary you've just reported.

16. A murderer gets a 6 month sentence and a pirate TV viewer 2 years.

17. The prisoners strike and get to vote in elections!

18. The police stations have panic buttons to call armed response when they are burgled

19. Police cars are fitted with immobilisers and gearlocks!

20. Condoms for free - shopping plastic bags for sale

Ja nee!! Dis lekker hier!!

IC2005 in india - india as an emerging market!!

Good-bye AIESEC

How do you know when something feels right and when you should act on it? See you can manage/block emotions for a certain period of time but then they will always catch up with you no matter what – and for me these are the days.

Thought I’d contemplate because I’ve never really allowed myself time to do that this past 12 months – actually I have never had time to myself, when thinking about it I have spent energy on AIESEC 24/7 for 2 years – was it by choice or default is another topic for another day.

I guess I’m not over the fact that the end has come for me in getting my hands dirty, it just feels strange – I have been extremely bored doing nothing for the past one week, even a friend of mine was shocked to hear that I HAVE NOTHING TO DO coz ever since I joined AIESEC there was never a moment where I would sit and idle – everything was always a rush , I had 12 months to think about global issues & how relevant they were to my immediate society, people to network with who could be enablers to our coarse, projects to do that are impactful to people, managing people who carried out these duties, and of all this bring tangible results… that was the fuel of my being…of my existence for the past couple of years and now I have to re-focus that existence, it’s like I have been told to live another life all over again and don’t know where to beginning.

Well I start working for PWC this coming Monday, I hope it will re-energise and motivate me again, and since they are a global organisation I guess I will find passion again in one aspect or another.

….okay this is a kinda good-bye to an organisation that has taught me all that I know – yes all that I know. I joined when I was 17 years old and now I’m 23 so you can imagine! I’m not very good at expressing myself emotionally and those who know me will agree totally – but I saw it fitting to write this as it has been bugging me for some time now.

To all the people I have met – I truly appreciate your acquaintance, you have added a wealth of knowledge to me when you spoke about your passion, country, and what you thought about life in general. Till we meet again – keep well.

Khotso, Pula, Nala – Peace, Rain and Prosperity

Some of my favorite Pics

My team

Wits Interact promotion

The AfroXlds2007 networking dinner picture at the Gordon Institute for Business Science in Illovo.

Some of my favourite pictures, the Taj Mahal in India

Still in the MC house after the MC 0708’s first conference which I also facilitated, glad to see how I still made impact in people’s lives – got such a lot of positive feedback – maybe it’s because I was smiling in my sessions this time as I was just a facilitator and not multi-tasking like previous times where I’d have to be an OC member, facilitator, and be MCP at the same time.

Anyway, the last international trip I took with AIESEC in South Africa was International President’s meeting and it was hosted by AIESEC in Egypt.

What a chilled out conference it was in terms of Agenda compared with the last one I attended, but for me it was till a lot of work anyway. I was chosen as the African region representative for the panel of interviewers for candidates who want to work for AIESEC international – trust me that is a lot of work.

We sat for 2 days in one room of the hotel interviewing candidates from about 9h00am till about 00h00am with very little break between as there were 20 candidates to go through – but I enjoyed the experience, it was one of my highlights towards the end of my term.

I went to Egypt with the incoming MCP – Unati and she has her own story to tell about Egypt, it was different from what I expected and I’m glad that I got to go.

After the conference we hanged-out with a Diplomat from the SA embassy (and he has a nice house as compared to the ones I saw In Egypt – I think the government pays them wellJ), I got to go to Port Said ( a town at the corner of the Mediterranean sea and the Suez canal) , the Pyramids, Red sea (our hotel was on the beach of the red sea – so you have breakfast overlooking the blue beautiful liquid ).

I recommend anyone to travel – you learn so much – it’s like a baby given toys to play with - they look so excited and want to touch this and that, bite, etc and that’s the feeling I get whenever I go out of my country.

The world is your oyster - would you like to have at the tips of your fingers?

Avensis

This picture was taken when TOYOTA lend us a car for our Annual General Meeting in 2006, the car was an Avensis – top of the range car if I may say so. When we went to collect it, I thought we were going to be given a tazz but we got an Avensis instead – you should have seen the look in out eyes….

…and then we got an accident, it was the most painful and confusing 3 days of our lives – you should have seen us – we locked ourselves in a room with all the alcohol that was sponsored and drank our sorrows away. I still remember clearly that period – if I never left office in the two months that followed after that – then I can handle anything that can come my way with the help of God.

Just sharing some of the thoughts going through my head at the moment – The 2 years term in this office taught me a lot about life and people, and some of the lessons were not so friendly but I thank God that we were able to survive.

I’m sure my team-mates will agree!!

Poland

Recalling some of the travelling, I came across this picture with the SA ambassador in Poland, Mrs Febe Potgieter-Gqubule. It’s an added benefit when travelling in a foreign country I guess – meeting people from your home country. Peeps in the pic are

• Boitsheko Manyeneng – AIESEC in Botswana President
• Elias Monareng – Local Committee President, University of Free State – QwaQwa campus.
• Thisile Mtyeku – Local Committee President, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University
• Mark Alexander – Vice President People Development, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
• Mrs Febe Potgieter-Gqubule - South African ambassador
• Abey Tau – AIESEC in South Africa National President 2006/2007
• Elrine Woods – Local Committee President, University of Johannesburg.
• Themba Melato – Local Committee President, Walter Sisulu University – Ibika Campus, Butterworth.

We also had the opportunity to meet Mr Lech Walesa, former President of Poland (1990-1995), Solidarity for the Future. He addressed the delegates of International Congress to kick off the start of the day.

But after a horrible experience I had I Poland I wonder if I wanna go back to it again - the people were very unfriendly (outside the AIESEC network).

Netherlands

My first international President’s Meeting (IPM2006) held in Amsterdam and second time in Europe, boy was it cold – yeah snow cold!!! The 1^st picture is of Jeanne, Ildi and me and the 2^nd is the Dutch princess – we had to stand when she came in and I was not in the mood but when you’re in Rome you do what roman’s do, right!

Now when we talk about meeting of the brains we talk about IPM i.e. AIESEC was present then in 90 countries and 90 national presidents of AIESEC countries meet for 10 days to discuss the global direction of the organisation.

Sessions start at about 09h00 and end at about 10h00, then we have parties till odd hours of the morning but you got to be at morning plenary by 09h00 so my body got used to sleeping about 4 -5 hours maximum yet be at your sharpest because we always have company representatives coming to run sessions. That is where I met some of my greatest friends across the world – I miss you guys where ever you are!!

Now the interesting part came after the conference when we went to the red-light district, now if you don’t know this is the famous ‘hooker’s’ district – I heard that other Europeans come in for the weekends to this place , Ohh yes dagga is legal as well in Netherlands so you can imagine the collaboration on Friday nights! There you will find about anything sexually defined, prostitutes are on display - literally like clothes on a plastic model for a clothe shop, I was shocked out of my skull, post-cards had …well…drawings on them – not the kinda post-card you’d send home maybe friends! And the final shocker is that prostitutes PAY TAX now that was just …just …well awesome! I mean where else do they have such disciplines except in Europe.

Anyway everyone owns a bicycle in Netherlands, a mother can do grocery shopping – put it on the bike with two kids at the same time and still ride home…..trust me I kid you not.

I stayed with one of our old trainees Amelia from Australia, if you want the coolest, calm person to talk to then that’s her! She was a great host and I will never forget her hospitality. Now she’s back in Australia – hey Mills.

What do I do?

I just realized that I have been going on and on about my departure but some of you don’t even know what I am leaving!!

..well I work for an student run organisation called AIESEC, what we basically do is run an exchange program that enables students and recent graduates the opportunity to live and work in another country at the same time deliver national and international conferences to our membership that help them recognise their potential for leadership positions in great projects that we run or in organisations that we partner with. We provide the platform for young people to discover and develop their potential so as to have a positive impact on society in over a 100 countries/territories where we are present.

The picture on the side explains how we go about developing this potential, it’s quite a structured, detailed process that assist in discovering oneself. Let me explain it a bit:

Introduction to AIESEC – this is the recruitment at the begging of every year where there are stands during orientation and we make you aware on how you can have that international internship during and after your studies, how you can travel and meet new people over conferences and how you can develop skills practically in being responsible for a project.

Taking Responsibility – This is the part that is most exciting when you have just joined, everyone has a passion around a certain issue in life - it can be around energy, finance, entrepreneurship, HIV/AIDS, education or something not mentioned here and this is the stage where you come up with an idea of an activity that falls under any of those topics and making it have impact and yield positive results for your community and the people around it plus you and the people you were working with.

Have you ever started something small, you watch it grow and it becomes big, so big that when people see it or partake in it – it changes their lives? Well this is where it can all begins.

Leadership Role – When you have gained a strategic skill, can think sharply and make a decision that benefit others positively, and have the ability to lead others then this is where you assume that role within a project like being a project leader or president of the club/society/organisation or as we say in AIESEC the Local Committee President or Executive board member or joining the national committee.

Work Abroad – this is where you can go and do an internship overseas in either technical, management, educational & developmental studies or work in another country on the same project you were working on while you were here.

Head for the future – when you prepare to leave the organisation and have gained all the necessary skills to make impact out there, skills such as being an active learner, culturally sensitive person, entrepreneurial, socially responsible, etc..

Once you have passed through this talent development process with AIESEC then you will be a desired individual in the job market as you will have had a far more in-depth experience in solution oriented thinking than an average graduate.

The reason why I joined:

There is a need for solutions, new ideas, ways of doing things in the world of today and that is where us the youth come into play.

Our environment needs values driven leaders – people who can and want to make a difference! People equipped with the right set of knowledge, skills, attitude, and people with a broad knowledge of world issues and real meaning of diversity.

This is what AIESEC has been for me, a platform where young people can become and be driven leaders of tomorrow!

Remember that we are young so our learning experiences are coupled with fun, building a global network of friends who have the same passion as us.

Everyday at least 10 young people across the world fly to a new country to start a life changing experience, I lived in a house in Auckland park, Johannesburg, South Africa and of 10 people in the house there we only 2 South Africans - every evening at the dinner table – through those conversations my mind opened to the world and I started to think globally with the pursuit of acting locally.

A serious of events in our lives lead us into a process of inner transformation and as a result we follow a dream, when you cross that threshold, the most mysterious things encapsulates one’s being.

All of our experiences have formed an essential part of our developmental path, helping us to shape into what we are in the process of becoming and that is the essence of a learning organisation – development of not only new capacities but also fundamental shifts of mind, individually and collectively

This is AIESEC - a ride I have thoroughly enjoyed!!

Beautiful smiles in Stellenbosch, South Africa then decisions ….decisions!

In writing this note I was going through photos of my trip down to Stellenbosch (beautiful part of the country where the wealthy drink wine the whole dayJ ) for our Annual General Meeting 2005, the girls were on their way to the Gala dinner and the boys were just being boysl – check them out.

I keep on counting the days I have left towards finishing my term and a long AIESEC career, surprisingly I’m also getting calls from people I have not heard from in a long time – it’s like they know that I’m about to be back in the real world again where it’s a life of give and take and nothing else. That brings me to a dilemma of weather I should settle for a job here in SA (start a career path that will be beneficial for me financially and therefore I can assist my brothers as they are in University at the moment) or go on a traineeship (get an international experience and come back home with a global perspective therefore being more valuable in the market for a better job).

I argued with a friend of mine as he says that I should just settle for a job here in SA and just go on with life, my only problem is that I have lived my dream in AIESEC by travelling the world, working flexible hours with deadline and not office hours and dealing with impacting projects focusing on community and youth development, now should I just give that up with a permanent job or continue to live my dream and travel one more time – hoping that will change career path? Even with a job here in SA the question is should I settle for a ‘bliss paying job’ or ‘a job that brings me satisfaction’?

He went to say that I’m being stubborn and that I don’t have the luxury to have such high choice demands – but hey they say life is what you make of it – isn’t it?

I hope by end of this month I would have made up my mind

I then came across an interesting article in the mail & guardian about British teenagers not needing friends anymore … well I guess its hard not to in this ever advancing technological era where one can chat over mixit on their cell phones or a new more advanced product called yat, you’ll always find the person next to you clued to their phone for one reason or another and getting more and more anti-social.

I just hope though that we do not loose our human relations with these changes as I still value talking to someone and reading their facial expression about what I’m saying or hearing how their day went and perhaps having a blissful day because the smile they had when hearing their story brushed off on me. That for me is the beauty of human contact and that is something that technology will never be able to mimic as it is too valuable and unique to the human spicy only.

Good times in India

The team that i worked with from 2005 - 2006. . .that picture is taken on some grounds in front of the Taj Mahal - India, we were dripping sweat - it was so hot that you needed a litre of water every hour. That is where International Congress 2005 was held.
We landed in Bombay - i think 2 weeks after those heavy storms they experienced, took a 30 hrs train ride heading to Agra where the conference was held and boy did we have a cultural experience on that train - we had Indian tea (called chai), learned some words and interacted with the 2 guys we where sharing the compartment with.
The country was totally green and amazing, but you could see the poverty that had sheltered it, i mean people slept on the hard concrete floor at train stations with no blankets - but i guess with that heat you don't really need it!

We got to the hotel early hours of the morning, having not bathed for those many hours and we had to wait to be checked in first which happened 5 hours later - so i was not that thrilled to give people hugs:)


Anyway, i liked India - the culture is rich and still preserved, i hope to make it there again.

Germany

When what seems impossible becomes possible, you step up to another level in life of wanting to achieve more . . . 5 months later I sailed out (not literally though) to Germany – my first international conference and it was amazing. So many people, so many cultures, the awesome hotel, it all sinked in slowly during the course of the 12 days in Hannover. The connection and network became bigger – the world suddenly opened up right in front of me and said: grab me!!

This photo was taken at Global village (me & Ellinoora Vesala – VP PD/F 0405), I didn’t know that 2 years later it would be one of the most used photos in the network – kinda cool being famous and all, just kidding!!

Don't mind the outfit, not specific to any culture in SA really - i just grabbed something that looked African and it seems to have worked out fine.

My first time. . .Switzerland

I was chatting the other day with Igor from Brazil – he spent four months with us as a CEEDer, he had just read the first posting on my blog. Told me to write more about my adventures and philosophy, etc… I was having difficulty in what the next article/edition is going to focus on – after 23 hours of thinking I found a starting pointJ.

Six years it has been in this organisation (…well for us South Africans – our year is Jan – Dec so we always have 6 months of nothingness before you get into office, so if we were going according to the international academic year cycle you would remove 1.5 years from that 6 years!), as I am to exit as the Member Committee President of AIESEC South Africa, I look back at some moments in my AIESEC Experience that were a memorable for me (there are so many so I’ll tell you those I can remember), I have extracted the following writings from my journal written in march 2004 , the 1^st time I went abroad – on a CEED to Switzerland:

‘Switzerland is a first world country, I always had the impression that it has everything, well according to me it does and some even surprised me. The first thing that shocked me was the public phone in the airport, I stepped in the telephone both (Swisscom) and realized that I could send an sms, an email and phone - all on a public phone, even when I was sitting in the airport I had this sense and smell of wealth about the country, I then knew I was far from home.

One has to remember I come from a developing country that has both the features of a first world and a third world, landing in a place where poverty doesn’t seem likely – and poverty I heard of in comparison to South Africa sounded like the basic standard of living which is experienced mostly by immigrants.

Life in the country is good, expensive with an extreme low crime rate. The trainees I met from different countries made me realize that in Switzerland one earns according to the standard of living despite the high taxes.

The transport system is very developed – the train (which is for longer distances) connects to almost every city, town, and village in the country. The buses are used pretty much for within a town or city and buses going on long distances were usually on special hire, the alternative for a bus within a town would be a tram i.e. a smaller cable train.

Communication is very much advanced too, every train, bus, tram has intercom and I also realized almost every household has a computer with Internet and those who can afford would buy a laptop – which is mostly everyone J. In a public phone I already explained my amazement and now that I am back home I see the vast difference between the two countries in just these two aspects.’

…I spent two months there and they were & still are the most memorable times of my life. . .will tell you more about my adventures next time, thanks for reading - grazie mille (thanks a million in Swiss Italian).

Genesis

Most people I know, of which I have met through AIESEC have blogs, and I never really understood why – my thinking was why would someone talk about their inner thoughts online. Well after one year I realize it is more than that – it’s about interacting with people all over the world, letting them know what you are upto and giving a visual insight of where you are as well.

I always preach; ‘we live in a global village’. . .so let me bring an interactive, insightful time from Fourways, Johannesburg, South Africa to this global village.

I’ll be waiting for your feedbackJ