Welcome to Heaven!

For those who still question my adventurous ways (tsk tsk), this weekend marked a substantial milestone in my ubuntu adventures: 16months after first stepping on the soil of the motherland, I can now say that I have been to (or at least travelled through) each one of south africa's provinces. The final leg happened this weekend when I took a quick and extremely nice roadtrip to durban/kwazulu natal.

Factoid of the day/week/year: Zululand means Heaven (more or less) in Zulu, so just to make sure that everyone travelling to the region knows this, there is a HUGE sign as you enter the region that reads: Welcome to Heaven. Thats awesome...unfortunately I couldn't get to my camera quick enough to get a snap. I did get a chance to take a few pics. The landscape is simply beautiful (rolling hills, mountains, beaches with the reallly nice beach breeze). More importantly, the people just seemed sooo much friendlier than other places in SA. Definitely, it was more integrated and racist (i felt) than other places. I think i could probably see myself living there, tho what would i do for money :/ ...

some pics:






to see lots more pics, click here

post posts: I STILL can't stand strikes. but to clarify my earlier position, I am totally in favour of workers being paid a living wage and working under acceptable conditions. however, i have to believe that there are other, better, and more innovative ways to achieve this than to simply strike. strikes tend to do no good and only really benefit the union organizers and those at the top. and its these guys at the top that ensure that the lowly workers are as little educated as possible so that they don't understand that a stoppage in work will cost the economy millions, an increase in salaries and bonuses (in the case of construction workers, the dispute was b/w 11 and 13%...wtf??!) will only put more strain on the already depressed economy, which may lead to higher inflation, which may lead to higher taxes, which may lead to those taxes being passed on to the citizens, which may lead to even higher food and essential products prices. nope, all the organizers want the toi-toi-ing workers to know is that their R100/per hr wage could be raise to R111 or R113, and we all know that 113 is light years more than 111. in the case of doctors also striking, i also dont agree, but agree that those in the healthcare industry need to get paid decent wages and work in favourable conditions and with adequate equipment. but lets start using our god given brains to think of better ways to negotiate these things than to allow sick people to die because we want better pay. all this while the head of the unions live comfortably in their mansions, driving their black mercedes. i will now proceed to step down my soap box.

world cup fever

my third year in high school (junior yr) was by far the best/most enjoyable/most successful in terms of my school soccer/futbal team. truthfully, our soccer team throughout high school was not the best; most times we stunk. But junior year was different. starting from the summer camp, we knew we could have an alright year, and an alright year for us was really like winning the super bowl! (to any u city lions out there, im promise im not hating - go lions!) anyway, earlier that summer, i had decided i was sick of riding/warming up the bench and appearing as a substitute and wanted to be a full time player, so i enrolled myself at a soccer camp that was running next to my house using the little cash i had saved up. the camp def helped me more with confidence and a bit of skill and led to me taking over the starting right back position and, by the end of the season, being rewarded the most improved player award.

all that was not really my point. the point i was trying to get at came the very first match (if i remember correctly). this match was against our bitter rivals (tho we liked to think of it as a rivalry, we pretty much got our assess handed to us whenever we played them...but hey, we always played them hard!). so we prepared to play this team at our home turf (which also meant nothing cuz we usually just had a handful of fans (like 2-5), max!). that match turned out to be the most unforgettable match and one of the most unforgettable moments of my high school career. not only were we better prepared than our rivals, we out played them the entire 1st half and then kept up the lead amidst massive amounts of pressure in the second half. I dont really remember what the final score of that match was (2-0??), but we beat them. and convincingly. no one could remember the last time we beat them. the feeling on that field that evening was ridiculous - unlike any emotion i had ever felt to that point. guys were doing flips, hugging, kissing whatever they could find, rolling around, doing anything crazy u could imagine (well almost). another side note: i remember coach made us run laps after the match (usually reserved for when we lost) just so we could calm down. it didn't work tho. none of us wanted to leave the pitch that day. when we eventually left, we gathered again at the parking lot and started honking our horns and playing loud music. i remember when i finally left with some friends, we were still hooting and playing "we will rock you" as loud as we could. that euphoric feeling lasted pretty much the entire season as we kept up the energy and achieved much more than was expected.

about 2 weeks ago, i went to a confederations cup match (brazil vs. italy) and a couple days later i watch on tv as south africa played brazil. the euphoric atmosphere that permeated all of joburg and indeed all of south africa reminded me a bit of how i felt walking off the soccer field that summer night, junior yr. there were people jumping up and down, shouting, blowing the vuvusela (a staple of s. african soccer that will stay and thrive for good...suck it spaniards!!), hugging, celebrating shoulder to shoulder to people of different colours and cultures that they might not otherwise interact with. (another side note: one of the reasons i LOVE the game of futbal is its amazing ability to bring people of different persuasions together; just look at the pictures from the matches). even from the airport, as i was making my way to s africa, you could feel this excitement. on the highways, there were people driving and blowing their vuvusela's and waving whatever flag. on the radio, people could not get enough commentary on anything futbal. this lasted all of the confederation cup! and it was amazing! and, judging by the billboards, radio and tv ads, petrol station remakes, flags, etc..., i get a feeling that this will last until next year's world cup. my friends that went to games also get this feeling. it was truly an awesome showcase of a bit of what we can expect. does it show that im just a bit excited about this??! (oh and i got my wc tickets already!!)

i woke up today to news that workers in sa (esp those doing world cup projects) have decided to go on strike over a 3% difference in pay raise. hmm. i think i'll just hold my tongue a bit on this one, except to say that i really HaTe strikes. anyway, i'm sure this will once again fuel speculation that the stadiums, etc will not be ready for the world cup. but fyi, fears that countries will not be ready to host the competition have been around for almost every world cup that's been held, going back to the very first one in 1930 in Uruguay. during the first world cup, they actually had to move some first week matches to other stadiums because one of the major ones was not ready. i'm pretty sure that will not happen here in sa. there's way too much at stake and too many people with too much invested for everything not to be more than ready. I am confident that sa will shock the world at how awesome the games will be. finally, while doing my extensive research on this topic i learned that out of the 18 world cups held, the host country has won it all 6 times. thats a 33% shot. there's hope south africans!! well, im calling it here: there will be an african team playing in the finals! im not saying who it'll be...tho we all know how formidable the green white and green are...here's so Fut-bal Fee-vah

post post: haven't done one of these for a while, but here's to my friend, steph, as she embarks on an adventure to uganda - a truly amazing country with truly lovely people. good luck steph and hope you enjoy every bit of it and hopefully we'll get a chance to meet up in aa-fri-kerr!