Day 4 Johannesburg Botswana “The boys downstairs…”

Holy crap…today was not my finest performance. Working on 2 hours of sleep, visiting 2 companies and driving 6 hours is not a good idea. We went to Dell in the morning to learn about the South African division and their challenges/distinctive traits. Since I am very familiar with Dell’s North American division, I thought this was an interesting visit. They discussed their BBBEE rating as well as their second tier position to HP and the actions they are taking to stay competitive in South Africa. After Dell, we visited Coca Cola South Africa and learned of their community outreach efforts. Pretty interesting stuff, but again…I was working on 2 hours of sleep. Painful.
The bus ride to Botswana was surprisingly fun. I sat in the back with Sam, Leins, Drakeley, Westy, Pajer, Marcy and Federico, who spent most of the ride making up songs in a David Ruddick accent and poking fun at previous comments made by people on the trip. Mix in some massages, naps and dancing in the aisle and it went by surprisingly quick. I love my friends. We could be sitting in a box for 16 hours, and I would be laughing my head off the entire time. Good people.
Customs wasn’t quite what the President of the football club described. My heart was beating really hard because I was worried that they wouldn’t pass me through because of my page situation. Luckily, I cleared with not even a smile or smirk from the “friendliest customs officials in the world”. Hmm. Suspect, Mr. President.
We made it to Botswana where, unfortunately, our hotel left much to be desired. It feels like a hostel, which I retired 8 years ago in Europe. Our bathroom has roach spray in it and the blow dryer wouldn’t turn off. Federico said he planned on sleeping on towels, which made me laugh. It’s not that bad…I feel like I’m in real Africa.  We had dinner, which meant I ate vegetables and rice because I didn’t want to eat crocodile tail and weird meat. (All of guys were eating ostrich jerkey on the bus, which grossed me out.) The people seem nice here in Botswana and I think the currency has a funny name. Pula. Has a cute ring to it. This is my first night off, which is a nice change. I think we will be playing many games of Uno and card games here in Botswana over the next couple of days. Should be a nice pace before we head to Capetown…which is promised to be A-mazing.  Cheers.