Short drop to North-Coast

Holiday mode

Oh my its weekend, 3 whole days of stressfree chilling and no sign of work, this can’t be bad. We had packed our stuff already on Thursday and were ready to start our engines around 4am on Friday morning. We were headed for Umhlanga, a city on the North Coast just above Durban. Excited but dead tired we started the 8 hour drive to the coast, back seats sleeping and the front seats staying awake.

On the road

Avoid Wimpy's! I’m telling you, we stopped to have some breakfast at a gas station and what we got was cold burgers and raw fries, lovely. Almost everyone disappointed on their burgers we were ready to hit the road again. The one driving until this point was in desperate need of sleep so change of drivers and we were back on the road. The scenery was breathtaking with hillsides from the LOTR movies. The other cars were clearly heading for vacationing like us. Many cars were dragging their asses from the weight in the trunks. Also many were filled with laughing and partying kids that had taken their matricular exams. Going to the coast for a three week long party tour is a strong tradition here. After some fun with the others on the road and naps we had made it, Umhlanga it is baby!

Umhlanga

Umhlanga Rocks has many luxury hotels and apartments right on the beach including the Cabana Beach Hotel, the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Umhlanga Sands Hotel and Pearls of Umhlanga apartments. Many of these have views of the landmark lighthouse.

Once we got there we just dropped our stuff at the clean and cozy B&B, Villa Calla, and went to check out the beach. Everyone was thrilled to finally get a touch of the ocean. Everyone was playing in the water like little kids and having the time of our lives. Later on that day we had a little incident with our car, and it had to be left to Umhlanga. This was a slight knockback to our holiday mood, but we took care of everything necessry straight away. It was easy to get back to holiday gear at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping . The amount of shops was tremendous and everyone found something there. For example the highest indoor climbing rock in the world. The evening came soon and after enjoying some quality time with the group at the Villa Calla bar we were ready to check out the nightlife of Umhlanga.
Normally you really can’t walk around after dark in South-Africa , especially all alone. It’s said to be dangerous and shouldn’t be done. That’s why we were so excited once we heard from the owner of Villa Calla that in Uhmlanga you can walk anywhere at anytime, it’s not dangerous. Of course we wanted to check if it’s true on our first night. And yes, it was! After several beers no one still came to ask for our wallets.

The next day after a wonderful breakfast, we headed back to ocean to body board. It was pretty cool but the waves were not big enough to lift these big boys. Even the lifeguard told us that the waves are too small and we should use flippers to get on the wave. After some bruises in our chest we gave up and orientated back to Villa Calla.

We had some uncertainty of how to get back to Pretoria, since our car had to be left at the garage. After checking out the possibilities we opted rather to rent another car than to sit 11 hours on the Umhlanga-Pretoria bus. This ment we would have enough space for everyone to enjoy the ride and more kilometers for the drivers to drive.

It was hard to even hear our own thoughts since our bellies were moarning for food, and we decided to find some cozy restaurant. We didn't have to go far because there were a lot of restaurants near by. Oh Lord, some people really can make food!! Salads, stakes, pizzas you name it, they all tasted fantastic!

After the excellent dinner we went to the beach to walk around and enjoy the views. Some of us also ended up buying tickets for a local party to celebrate some more. Most of the party animals were at the age of 18-21 and the spirits were high! Dancing, drinking, yeah babe, this is what we have been waiting for after all those weeks of hard work!!

Early Sunday morning we jumped out of our beds, some feeling better than others, and thought we'd go to the beach one last time. It sure was worth the early wake up, although the body board rental was opening a bit too late for us. We just used our own bodies to ride the waves. All were sad to leave the beach so soon, especially since for the first time this weekend the sun was shining.

Back at Villa Calla we packed our stuff quickly and it was time for goodbyes. Big thank you for our host Janelle, she did so much for us and was lovely right from the start. A taxi took us to the Durban airport and it was time to drive that VW back home to Pretoria. Avoiding Wimpy's of course for the whole trip back.

Creating contacts

Just before the trip we were briefed about the task and goals that our group should achieve in South-Africa. Our main purpose is creating contacts to local organisations and companies. Now, after the first two weeks we can say that creating those contacts has really been an eye-opening experience in many ways.

We had our own doubts about the way to approach local people and organisations and especially how they would respond to our presentation. Surely our uncertainty is quite understandable with South-Africa being on the other side of the globe. Also we started making the contacts from nothing. On the day we landed we had only one meeting arranged in South-Africa.

When still in Finland, we started to create the contacts, We sent e-mails to Finns who already had been in South-Africa. These people we found like you find everything else nowadays: by googling. We believed they might have ideas on how we should approach the local people and maybe even which ones to start with. From them we got our first contact at the Finnish Embassy. At the embassy we were given lots of time and attention. Because of the people working there we felt right at home already on our first night in Pretoria. The following day we visited the South African offices of an international ERP -provider, SAP. From there, we also got an excellent welcome and lots more contacts. After our first two presentations we had plenty more people to approach. The start for the project could not have been better.

First phone calls: exiting.

Generally the way how the contacts have come up seems to follow a certain pattern: someone knows someone and so on. So after almost every appointment we have at least one more person to approach. Although we have the contact information, the first approach is always the hardest, getting in touch with the person and deciding a time to meet. The way of how we should approach people here in South-Africa was also a lesson to learn. Once you get over the sometimes not so good phone connections and funny receptionists, there is still the e-mail culture. Although e-mail is as common a way to be in touch with people here as it is in Europe, there are some differences. Quite fast we learned that making a preliminary call before sending e-mail is essential. Many of the local people don’t like to read e-mails without knowing the sender, or at least won't answer them.

After getting the contact the arranging of the appointments has been surprisingly easy. Almost everybody has been available in a few days and everybody also has been very open-minded and polite. In general we can say appointments have been very fruitful and we have gotten plenty of new aspects for our project.

Now, when most of the meetings are already behind we can say that all those expectations and doubts we had before the trip about how the meetings would go have cleared away. We have approached many highly educated people in a totally different culture and everybody has given us ample time and has taken us seriously.

Golf in South-Africa

We got two golf-addicts (Tomi & Visa) in our group and every once in a while we try to pack our stuff and hit the greens. Turkish Airlines is awesome when it comes to golfing, we got our bags in for FREE. Anyway, what can I say, beautiful courses and buildings, cheap green fees (10€) and the weather is astonishing. Courses are mainly super-good and the greens are fast as Maurice Green. There are plenty of options when choosing the golf course.

Sounds perfect if you only scratch the surface. As we have played few rounds, we have noticed that the golf-culture is a bit different here. Of course, with a lot of tourists playing we may get the wrong picture, but still, three times the golf-ball landed 3 meters away from us and no one shouted FORE. Also some people hardly use pitch forks, which is a shame if you notice your ball lying on a ball-mark. But mainly, everyone is very nice and greets as you walk by. If there is something here to learn for the finnish clubs, it would be that in S-A, student-prices are half the normal price, which you barely ever see in Finland.