Dear diary ... South Africa and its corporate culture

Dear diary,

I have been here for about 7 weeks now. I have coached hockey, rugby and tennis weekly. I have been a referee at the under-12 5-a-side football tournament for local teams (including teams from the townships) organized by UTS. But my main project was a tournament with township primary schools from the same area and it took place on the wednesday a week ago.

On my first office day I could immediately notice that South Africa does not only have a different national culture, but also a very different corporate culture. Everyone moves quite slow, if you ask a colleague to do something small for you it can sometimes take ages. It might be the slow wifi but I'm pretty sure that's not the only factor. Communication can be annoying at times as well.

I got told to organize the tournament in the last week before the school holidays, since most schools would have no more tests then. My supervisor told me the thursday schools would be good because they are in close proximity of each other but he recommended to talk to a colleague. So I did and she recommended the Tuesday since that was the day last year as well. The next Tuesday I went to the school principal only to hear that someone from UTS came a day earlier to inform them about a different tournament in that exact same week. I found out that not only the Tuesday, but also the Thursday schools were involved in that other tournament. UTS just did not mention it to me. I decided to go for the wednesdays, but there was only one location available in that neighbourhood. No problem I thought, we'll take it, we have enough busses. But then I heard there was yet another tournament going on so we would not be able to arrange transport for the kids... They just forgot to mention all of that in advance, little weird.

Every phone call with the school principals was quite difficult as well. They needed confirmation for every detail sooo many times. "Which sports again?" Netball, rugby and football. "How many learners per sport?" 10, so 30 players in total. "What time?" 1 to 4 pm. "Will there be food?" Yes. "Which other schools?" Republiek and Sanctor. "Which sports again?" ... But, okay, fine, that will only make for a more smooth running tournament I thought. Nope, one school decided on the day itself, without letting us know, to only show up with their footballteam. In the group of volunteers and interns here, we often summarize this kind of communication (or lack of), with three words and a lot of dots: "Jup ... South Africa ...........

In the end the kids that were there loved it, the teachers even asked me when the next tournament would take place. I was not as happy, but I can be satisfied knowing that for South African standards it was good and shit like that just happens from time to time. I can relax more now, I am organizing one more fundraise and then my internship is pretty much finished. The schools have their first week of holidays now and we have been coaching on a holidaycamp for the township kids. I had two days of coaching cricket before I went to a cricket game myself yesterday with all the lads. Today the holiday camp finished and I had my last office day of March.

Last office day you say? Yes! Because tomorrow we can finally enjoy a holiday ourselves. There is nothing left to do here, so we are heading out towards Cape Town. We will hike Lion's Head for our fundraise, we will see Ed Sheeran, climb Table Mountain, go surfing, meet up with other ISMB interns, dine at V&A Waterfront, tan on the beach of Camps Bay, watch the sunset on Signal Hill, eat kudu, taste the best wines of Stellenbosch and so on!

How's that for a holiday? Ek kan nie wag nie! Cheers!

Oh btw, the fundraise link online, it would be awesome if we can send more kids to University so we can use every little bit. Every donation counts and remember, sharing is caring ;)

Baie Dankie