I managed to get a great night’s sleep on the plane last night.. I woke up about an hour from landing in Johannesburg. .. It’s a big sprawling city.. looks liek just about anywhere from this height .

A driver (great guy) was there waiting for me when I got through customs.. He whisked me directly to the meeting on the outskirts of town. We had a great conversation about politics here and in the US.   He talked to me about the unrest that’s going on here. It’s mostly about jobs.. the locals are angry because folks form other countries are coming in and working for lower wages.. It’s a sad story that gets played out all over the world.   Here’s the township of Alexandra where some of the violence is centered.

  He told me about th black and white issues and what it’s like to live here. (He’s originally from Zaire).. He even taught me a few words in Zulu.. It’s such a cool sounding language.. We also talked  about our families.. He told me about his kids.. and I told him about mine.. and I gave him a SamStone..

I got to the meeting facility about an hour after hte meeting started. We’d timed our meeting here to coincide with a local Technical Leaders conference. We spent half of today in our meetings.. and half of the day speaking at their meetings. It was a great crowd..

We had a good panel discussion where we heard about the fun and challenges about workign for IBM in South Africa. It was  a great group of people.. very driven and optimistic about the future. I really liked speaking with them

We broke for lunch and a few more meetings …

THen back for more talks.. Here’s my friend Hugh giving his great career advice talk.. Honestly I pick up stuff every time I here him do this.. (Listen twice as much as you talk.. that’s why we have 2 ears and only one mouth.. i’d do well to remember that one. )

At the end of the day there was a reception with live music . I got to talk to a bunch of the senior leaders here.. not only is it fun and interesting from a career mentoring perspective.. but I always pick up stuff I can use for my day job.. I get so much out of thee visits.

Like the chance to try South African dry cider.. Yum.. !

At about 7 our den mother, Carolyn herded us all into the bus to go get dinner.

Luckily there’s ‘s no sound track on this.. it’s some of IBM’s most senior technical leaders singing the theme songs from Gilligan’s island, , the Flintstones and the Beverly hillbilly’s.. and keep in mind that  I think only three of us on the bus were American.   (great what we export culturally .. no ? )

I checked into the hotel .. which is very pretty.. here’s the view out my door down into the lobby

.. and walked across to the mall across th street for dinner.. The mall is called Nelson Mandela Square..

.. and I must say.. it’s not the Africa that you read about in books..

A great stature of Mandela sits in the square..

.. AND NOW HE BETTER NOT STEP BACKWARDS.. BECAUSE THERE’S SOMETHING UNDER HIS FOOT !

We had dinner in a nice Italian place on the square.. We had fun.. and talked work at the same time.. Lots of our business gets done this way..

Then walked back to the hotel

OK.. I’m beat now.. Time for bed.. More of Africa tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see a little more.. Good night my friends.. Good night my family.. I miss you guys.. Good night Sam