For the past six mornings, I’ve woken up at sunrise and listened to the sounds of unfamiliar birds. Noisier. Bigger. More tropical. I’m in Johannesburg, South Africa this week and next (then most likely back again for a while longer after going home for a week). I’m here for business, but I won’t waste any time describing that. Instead, I’ll just comment on a few things I’ve learned thus far.
For starters, it’s a long trip: nearly 9,600 miles and 24 hours total travel time from 
Denver if you go on Delta (which is via Atlanta and Dakar, Senegal). This is about twice what it normally takes me to get to London. It’ll be a bit longer going back even as we’ll be flying against the jet stream. Africa is a a big place… it took as long to fly from Dakar to Johannesburg as it did across the Atlantic from Atlanta to Dakar. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me, but it’s nothing I’ve ever thought about until this past weekend when I made the trip here.
Johannesburg is a study in contrasts, both surprising and stereotypical at the same time. Jo’burg (as the locals call it… or sometimes Josey) sits at an elevation in excess of 5,500′, which was unexpected. Unlike Denver where the elevation doesn’t seem to moderate summer temperatures and 100+ is common, summer here usually means upper 70s. Very pleasant and not very humid. Obviously, it’s summer here as I’m some 1,800mi south of the equator. Winters are similarly mild. The city was founded in the 1880s as part of the Witwatersrand gold rush, not unlike Denver’s founding in the 1850s. There are literally hundreds of thousands of transplanted trees and the terrain is rather hilly to the west of the city center: it reminds me a little of Redding, CA.
I was also surprised by certain similarities between here and America. I’ve eaten burgers and pizza more than once each. The newspapers are written in American English vs UK English (spelling, vernacular, etc). I turned the radio on the other evening and out came The Fray’s ubiquitous song “Over My Head”. With the current exchange rate of about 7.6 South African Rand to the US Dollar, prices for food and fuel are both close to what you see in some of the less expensive parts of the US.
But Johannesburg remains caught in its post-apartheid “recalibration”. The division between “have” and “have not” seems to be distinct. This is not to say division along racial lines as there appear to be plenty of people of color in the “have” category. Rather, it’s whether or not you can afford a car and a home in one of the areas that used to be predominantly white before the lifting of apartheid. And hired help: I’m staying in an upper middle class area, certainly not the top echelon, but still everyone seems to have a gardener. So high levels of economic disparity remain.
There’s also no mass transit to speak of other than the pervasive mini-vans shuttling people around, so acquiring and getting to higher paying jobs appears to be part of the challenge. No one seems to be out much at night, especially during the week: most shops close by 6 or 7pm and restaurants by 8 or 9pm. Apparently, this is driven by safety concerns. In fact, most restaurants in are in malls which I suppose is to take advantage of security at those locations where there are often toll booth-style gates to access parking lots and there are folks patrolling lots on foot watching for car break-ins.
Still, despite the challenges, South Africa (and the continent in general) is on the grow. Infrastructure projects are occurring everywhere you look, improving communications and transportation dramatically. It’s also a great mixing pot: there are 11 official languages recognized in this country alone and many more that are unofficial. Each day, the people I’m working with speak in English, French, Hebrew, Afrikaans, various Indian dialects and a variety of Bantu languages. Bantu is a family of over 500 (!) different languages which are spoken primarily in the southern part of Africa. Lucky for me, English is the common ground or I’d be in deep trouble communicating.
I am staying in a B&B since there aren’t many hotels in this area. The proprietors are a Rhodesian woman (Rhodesia is now known as Zimbabwe) and 
a German man. The place is very nice and very large. It sits on an acre right in the Fairland part of Jo’burg. However, it has a 10-12′ stucco wall around it with concertina wire strung around the inside edge. There’s a big steel gate securing the entrance. I was given a remote control for the gate upon my arrival as part of check-in (not quite the same as a card key for a hotel room door). Augmenting the physical security is a Pekinese and a pair of gorgeous female Rottweilers. Very secure, but something I’m unaccustomed to. BTW… the B&B is called Rockridge Manor. If you’re ever in need of accommodations in Jo’burg, I can highly recommend it.
So far, the other guests have included a German man and another American. Next week will be a couple more Germans, yet another American and apparently a production crew from an Indian film studio. Should be interesting. Having three American guests in two weeks has been unusual lately: the proprietors said visitors from America dropped off radically after 9/11, but have finally begun to pick up again.
Today is Saturday and I have some work to do, but tomorrow I’ll have an opportunity to explore a little, get some authentic African food and perhaps find some more to write about.
