Anyone know how to bake chips?

The only -- only -- plain salted corn chips I could find in SA. $4.50 for
250g.

At least El Greengo is the "smooth one."

I'll be home for Christmas...

After six weeks here in SA, here’s what’s on my “to eat/do/experience list” in the U.S.:
-Grapefruit by the dozens
-Pure OJ. Not cut with apple, pear, or grape juice.
-Texmex
-Sandwiches: tuna fish sandwiches with dill relish and turkey with cheese and pickles
-Timed stoplights
-Being a passenger rather than a driver and getting to stare out the window
-Not paying for parking at every single place
-Football on the couch with other fans
-People and places with whom I have a long history

And here’s what I’m looking forward to coming back to:
-My balcony view across the valley, alternating enjoying the perfect weather and watching ferocious Joburg storms
-South African braais
-Al fresco dining culture
-Driving a manual
-New stories and people

Construction in Nigeria

I had a chat with a guy on a plane who was an Aussie working in construction in Nigeria. His project was for a Western group that was building this to Western building codes, which is a tall order. Some highlights from our conversation:
-Nigerians don't take care of any building. I had seen so many buildings that were obviously once nice but now decrepit that this was my assumption, and he confirmed it. Strange, because they will keep their cars sparkling, which is a Sisyphean task with Nigerian roads.
-Talking about bribes, he walked into the office of a Nigerian official one time and the official stuck out his hand. When this guy shook it, the Nigerian was annoyed -- he had expected an envelope with cash, not a handshake.
-He keeps 3 months of inventory (cement and other construction materials) on site because supply chains are so bad...
-...and part of the reason he has difficulty getting stuff is that everyone tries to pinch part of it on the way. Truck drivers will "break down" for a day or two and show up with what looks like a full load, but they really offloaded half of the high-quality goods and replaced them with cheap local stuff. His drivers would tell him they delivered X product when they had really given it to their brother, and somehow didn't think that he would cross-check the number of trucks he sent out with the number that arrived at the destination.
-He has to scrutinize closer near the end of a project because workers don't want the project to end; they know that as soon as it does, he leaves and so do all of the good jobs in the area.
-He has had >10 workers killed in 2 years leaving the compound because they just don't bother to look before they drive onto the road, and they get hit by trucks going by.

I always shake my head a little bit at some of these stories.  In general Nigerians are both smart and savvy; no one will get rich betting against them.  But there are also a lot of times where I see or hear things that seem so obvious, like not bothering to look for trucks before pulling out of a place where 9 of your colleagues have died, or not thinking that a foreman will check with the recipient of something to make sure his trucks delivered it.

Time in South Africa

Interpreting time here:
"Now" -- it should happen sometime
"Just now" -- it will probably happen in the next few hours
"Now now" -- OK, OK, I get the point, I'll do it here in a few minutes

Growth in SSA in 2011

What are the prospects for Sub-Saharan Africa in 2011, and where will the growth come from? Read a quick synopsis from the Economist.

Big thoughts

Most of what I post here is anthropology/travel guide type stuff -- run-ins with local customs, how people live, etc.

However, there have been more than a few "big thoughts" bouncing around in my head since coming over, some of which I have answers to and some of which I'm still mulling over. A few:
-Someone joked that I'm now an African-American. Does having more African experience than most of the U.S. "African-American" population make me deserving of the title? Am I am American-African?
-What is it that needs to change for someone to "go native"? Is it just a matter of time, or is it an actual conscious mindset shift?
-What are the pros/cons of an "asset-lite" life? What are the downsides of being able to move abroad as easily as I was? (A friend recently forwarded an article I had read a few years ago called Tribal Workers that, judging from it's #1 position in a Google search for the same name, made waves.)
-The pros/cons of South Africa's approach to race, namely the open labeling of people by both other people and by government and the very active affirmative action programs.

Too little of a bad thing is a bad thing

The good news: Christmas in South Africa hasn't been over-commercialized like it has been in the U.S.

The bad news: The calendar is the only thing alerting me to the approach of Christmas.

The weather here is beautiful, and I wasn't expecting "white Christmas" weather given the hemisphere. However, I wasn't prepared for the almost total lack of Christmas-ness. There is no Christmas music on the radio. There are limited Christmas decorations in a few stores.

There was a lot of anticipation of the 3 week winter vacation, but Christmas was just a small part of that. I'm not sure if Christmas has been subsumed by the long vacation or if I'm just not seeing it because I'm not seeing inside local homes.

I miss Christmas carols.

Die weerlig

When my roommate and I were debating between two apartments, one question we didn’t ask was, “which will be better for watching the storms?”

Joburg in the summer has pretty routine (every other day or so) storms in the afternoon/evening. I was in the office one afternoon when it started raining and a local said, “Usually it starts raining, then the lightning starts, and shortly after that comes the hail.” All of her predictions came true during the rest of our five minute conversation, and that was my introduction to Joburg storms. They are a lot like Texas storms in that they roll in, hit hard, and then usually leave. However, the lightning is awesome (in the true meaning of the word). Apparently Rwanda is NASA’s “lightning capital of the world,” but Joburg must have been in the running.

"Poep teen die donderweer," or literally "farting against the thunder," is an Afrikaans phrase for "attempting the impossible."

In Houston lightning usually accompanies rain and dark clouds, so you never get a great view of it and it is sporadic. Not so, here.  It’s like a cosmic artillery barrage – quick and constant, falling random places within a defined area. My roommate and I sat on our balcony for a bit watching tonight and taking some pictures -- fortunately we picked the better storm-viewing apartment anyway.

Security in Nigeria

I posted before about SA vs. Nigeria on crime – SA is more random and violent, Nigerian crime (pertaining to foreigners) is more targeted.

I got intermittent security reports from our security contractor while I was there. There seemed to be about a kidnapping every 2 weeks in Edo State, where I was. True to form, almost all were targeted – entering a house and kidnapping a popular pastor’s wife, for example. (Pastors can make good money here.) We had Mobile Police (police toting AK-47s) initially but ditched them because they made us stick out like a sore thumb. Shortly after I left someone at our client company was kidnapped. He was released after paying approximately half of the ransom initially demanded.

Things are heating up in part because of the elections, so in addition to normal crime politically fractious groups are now more active because they will get press and have influence.

Back to Nigeria

This past week I was back in Nigeria, but for a different project, around Lagos this time, and only for 4 days.

Average Nigerian street shop.

This time I actually experienced Lagos traffic. Previously all I did was go airport-hotel-airport, and it took max 2 hrs in traffic. This time I was actually driving in the suburbs of Lagos and to another town (Ibadan). It took me 30 min to get off the islands that make up downtown Lagos, and it took me 6 hrs one night to get back home when it would have been 1.5 hrs with no traffic. Oh, and we were going against prevailing traffic.

It’s not that bad, though, because staring out the window is fascinating. (Some video here.)  It seems that all of life happens on the roadside, whereas in the U.S. it’s set apart by the parking lot separating the street from the shopping center, and in SA it’s set apart by the security fence that rings the shopping complex. At night, open kerosene-fueled flames cast dim light on the dark bodies clogging the streets.

I just can’t describe how bad some roads are. Frequently the undulating packed dirt looks more like a dirtbike track than a street. The highway from Lagos to Ibadan is pretty decent, meaning not too many potholes, but there was a point that was touchy where we were trying to pass 18 wheelers that were weaving all over the road because they were dodging potholes at 80 km/h. That’s how they flip, and I’ve seen a decent number of flipped trucks during my time here.

I had a great driver named Tosin. I had him frequently before, so it was good to see him again. He’s very talkative, has an opinion on everything, and can talk his way into/out of anything. Between his smooth-talking Yoruba and the fact that I’m a white guy in business dress, we got all sorts of meetings we wouldn’t have been able to get had I been a different color or had a different driver.

Like before, I had mixed feelings when leaving. Basic living requires real work there, but the flip side is that the stories are endless.

Very typical religious billboard.  They are everywhere -- probably ~20% of billboards.