Do the math

We left Johannesburg last night, about 9:20 PM. We flew for 16 hours, and covered 8,700 turbulent miles before touching down in Atlanta this morning at 6 AM. So let's see - that is 9 PM, plus 16 hours of flying during the night, means that it is 3 PM, yet we were on the ground at 6 AM?

With body clocks stuck somewhere over the Atlantic, we are once again safe and sound in South Windsor. Kudos to Delta for excellent service and on flight arrivals. I notice that the International leg of our journey attracts the granny brigade of cabin crew. No matter, with creaks and groans they catered to our needs and we arrived well-fed and watered.

It was a very successful and fun trip, and I can't wait to visit South Africa again.

Swapping stories

Presentation at PMSA in Johannesburg went extremely well last night. Great audience. I enjoyed swapping stories with like-minded project managers and learning about PMSA.

Project managers in South Africa face many of the same challenges that project managers in the USA face, including non-standard operating procedures across departments and cross-cultural challenges.

Project managers in South Africa face a challenge that we don't even consider in the USA - the horrendous cost of Internet access. In South Africa, users pay by the kilobyte of data download for Internet access, which makes it very expensive to work remotely. In the USA, Internet access costs are non-material and thus we have more opportunity to work from remote locations, increasing our flexibility. There is seldom a reason to go to the office in the USA, as Project Managers can work from any location that provides good Internet access.

Project managers are in demand in South Africa, and there are many positions open, unlike the current employment situation in the Hartford area.

We are heading back to Connecticut on Thursday after a productive and pleasurable three-week trip. Looking forward to sleeping on our own beds again the conveniences in the USA, including a Caramel Latte.

Homecoming - PMSA style

This afternoon, I have the pleasure and honor of speaking at the Project Management South Africa meeting in Johannesburg.

The meeting venue in Selby, is a few minutes away from where my office was when I worked at the Standard Bank, in 2000.

Looking forward to sharing firsthand experiences of project management in USA, and in turn, learning firsthand experiences of project management in South Africa today.

Oh! If the Botha Family Bible could talk - what stories it would tell

Today, I inherited our family bible. We believe it has been in the Botha family for at least 150 years, handed down to the eldest son of each generation.

The title page begins with "BIBLIA, dat is De gantsche H. Schrifture, vervattende alle de Cononijcke Boeken des Ouden en des Nieuwen Testaments."

Published in 1690 by Hendrick end Jacob Keur in Dordreght and Marcus Doornick in Amsterdam.

The family legend is that this Bible accompanied an immigrant fleeing from Holland to start a new life in South Africa. Later, it was a daily companion as a family endured the trials of the Groot Trek in search of a better future before settling in the Bloemfontein area of Orange Free State.

My grandfather's father read the bible to his family ever evening after dinner and the Dominee always read a piece from this bible when he visited his gemeente. During the Great Depression, Oupa Botha brought the bible to Springs, when he left the family farm and moved to the Witwatersrand to find work.

An unusual twist to the story is that my grandfather (Oom Bill Botha) was not the oldest son in the family. However, the oldest son went off the fight in the 2nd World War and left the bible with my grandfather for safe keeping, should he not return. For whatever reason, the bible was never returned to it's traditional custodian after the oldest son returned from the war.

Fast forward to 1966 when the bible passed to my uncle for safe keeping, who since passed it on to his daughter. Today, I am honored to receive the bible, and will take care of it until my son is ready to care for it.

The five inch thick bible will travel with us, back to Connecticut for the next period in it's life. It is in printed in Dutch, and reading this bible requires a lot of mental effort.

Oh! If only the Botha family bible could talk - what stories it would tell of it's journeys and owners over the past 320 years? It provided companionship, faith, hope during long nights at firesides on the Groot Trek, consolation during Boer wars and celebratory scriptures for new births and weddings.

What are you doing to make legends for your family? What will your great grandchildren talk about in 2174? Will they have a family bible to pass on down the generations? Will it be worth travelling 8,400 miles to accept into their care when it is your time to pass on a legend to the next generation?

First impressions of our home country

We are here!! Writing from Vereeniging, South Africa. The flights from Hartford to Johannesburg were uneventful. Kudos to Delta for on-time departure, arrivals, customer service and an all round good job. Both flights were filled to capacity. I saw first hand the impact of the stupid management decision to charge passengers for checked baggage on domestic US flights, which now causes cabin crews to deal with excessive volumes of carry-on luggage. Even the pilot was forced to put his bag next to his seat in the cockpit, because the cabin storage areas were over capacity.

We were blessed with a humorous chief flight attendant on the leg from Bradley to Atlanta. One example: as we touched down in Atlanta, instead of the lifeless "Please open the overhead bins with care as luggage may have moved position during flight", he announced "Be careful when you get your luggage because as we all know - shift happens".

This same flight attendant checked the passenger list in first class when we left Bradley airport, presumably to confirm that passengers belonged in first class. Then he checked the list again just before landing, and one wonders if he thinks that someone disembarked during the flight?

The 15-hour flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg was pleasantly tolerable, despite the painful lack of leg room. The personal media entertainment centers for each passenger and the increased headroom on the B777-200 made it a far superior trip to the aging 747's that KLM operated on our last visit. My wife and I commented this morning that we feel less tired than on any of the previous trips to South Africa.

I am in awe of the modern flying machines. A singled 15-hour flight is a very long time to sit in a metal tube at 37,000 feet, yet I marvel at the technology that allows 250 people to travel 8,400 miles in only 15 hours, non-stop. As a good friend told me before we left home "It sure beats walking".

We flew in over South West Africa. I got chills as I realized that the first time I flew over South West Africa in 1984, it was for a different purpose, namely my first trip to the operational area in the South African Defense Force. It has been 25 years.

This time I flew with my family in a B777-200, listening to MP3's from www.NYNSA.org, instead of holding a rifle, dressed in military uniform, hanging on to webbing in the cargo hold of a Flossie (C130-Hercules). Times have sure changed and wanting to pass on the memory and a learning lesson to my son, I shared the facts with him. He looked at me as if I was from a different planet when I told him that I first flew over South West Africa 25 years ago.

My wife and I went shopping this morning, to obtain local currency (South African Rands) and purchase local delicacies - biltong and droe wors (Dried sausage). Security fences have been erected, with gates, around all malls and shopping centers. We had forgotten the double security doors that you must pass through to enter the Standard Bank. Security guards are on patrol inside the malls now, due to holdups inside malls in the recent past, including one incident where 15 criminals sealed off a mall and forced all shoppers and shop keepers to empty their wallets.

On the ride from the airport last night, we were stunned at the amount of new shanty towns that have sprung up. More people than ever are living in poverty, without water or electricity.

I am connecting to the Internet via MTN with a 3G cell network modem. Surprisingly, the Internet access speed is comparable to my cable highspeed Internet in Connecticut. Time will tell how feasible this 3G connection is for our visit in South Africa, because we are paying by the Megabyte of data transferred. So far, the 3G connection is light-years ahead of the dialup modem connection that we normally tolerate on these visits.

We are about to experience a Highveld afternoon thunderstorm, and look forward to a BBQ with juicy steaks and fresh boerewors for dinner.

What a coincidence

Mark Hehl presented a content packed speech at the SNEC-PMI monthly chapter meeting last night. His topic was "How to become a successful independent consultant". Mark shared with us how he attended a workshop about 30 years ago and the idea of being an independent consultant stuck with him, until he acted on his idea in 2002 and left the corporate world. Coincidentally, many of our audience members are considering becoming independent consultants in the current economy.

As Director of Marketing for SNEC-PMI, I had the pleasure of talking with the State Director of the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) - Ginne-Rae Clay. We discussed ways that SNEC-PMI and SBDC can work together in the future and bring project managers together with small business owners. Such interaction will benefit both the project managers and small business owners for a win/win outcome.

This is a particularly promising partnership, because so many project managers are currently out of work and looking for ways to apply their project management professional skills in service of our communities. Coincidentally, the SBDC presents workshops on similar topics as Mark's presentation last night.

Coincidentally, the new SNEC-PMI vision is "Making Southern New England better through project management". Here are three coincidences in one evening.

I am sitting in Bradley International airport today, waiting for a flight to Atlanta, and then on to South Africa. I enjoyed the SNEC-PMI chapter meeting last night, and will be speaking to project managers in South Africa in November. Was it destiny, or coincidence that a ex-South African would find himself in a meeting where the universe was clearly showing a path to growing my global, independent consulting business?

Look around your life. What would you see if you believed that "There are no coincidences in life"?

How will you act, and which opportunities will you embrace if you believe that there are no coincidences in your life. Is the universe trying to show you your destiny? What do you simply need to open yourself to, in order to follow your path and fulfill your purpose? Or is it just a coincidence that you are reading this blog posting? I think not.