Today Johanna accompanied me again and while I was busy tuning my presentation for tomorrow and writing diary entries for the last 3 days she went through a bunch of old AIESEC files that we found in the cupboard. Basically she agreed to focus on the eXchange part of AIESEC because she already did an internship with AIESEC and joined the incoming exchange team in our local committee.
We had Chinese lunch again and now I am pretty sure that the restaurant adjusted its services to the local needs… MEAT!!!
Really in Germany I would sue the cook for calling this bunch of rice, cabbage, 2 carrots and 3 mushrooms a Chop Suey. No kidding, I mean usually I expect that I can’t even pronounce half of the vegetables on my suey!
Faith a very good friend of Johanna studying at WITS came along and was bullied by an Afrikaaner when she tried to enter UJ. She thinks he’s an Afrikaaner and so a racist ass but I think he’s a racist ass and an Afrikaaner. (which turned out to be true because tomorrow he was very nice to her^^)
Together we had an EBM and fixed the last details for tomorrow.
It ended in along discussion whether I could use a taxi on my own or not and the conclusion was that I’d rather not and wait for Johanna’s brother to take me to the MC house.
While we were waiting for him we were sitting on a romantic spot on the campus and tried to look as corny as possible : -)
And now the fun started the girl that wanted to meet me (Simphiwe) in the MC house didn’t pick her phone anymore so I called Nadia, she didn’t reach her so I called Nyalla the MCP who explained the way to the MC house and once I was there then Simphiwe called and said that she won’t come anymore. Ahh yes that is Africa, really don’t bother to plan too much and get spontaneous than you’ll be fine.
So I enjoyed the rest of the evening with the other people in the MC house and it was really a very nice. We talked loads about AIESEC and how to help AIESEC UJ and I even met the Alumnus Aubrey who’ll replace Lawrence tomorrow. He’s hell of a nice guy and I’m very curious to see and hear his talk.
One of the best parts of the MC house is REAL INTERNET!!!!WLAN!!NOTHING BLOCKED! … this means it’s finally time for … NARUTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And eventually the filler episodes were over,too and the manga is also about to reach a new peak. I’m happy.
But before I took a ride to Nerdvana I practised my PP in front of the people and they gave me quite positive feedback.
After we talked about social entrepreneurship they advised me to check out ted.com and I’ll do so soon.
But now it’s time nerd, shower and go to bed. I forgot a razor, crap.
Sonntag, 28. März 2010
DAY 20
On our way to the university I started to work on my slides and finished all the text in the car already so only pics were missing.
I really hate overstuffed slides and I’m a friend of pictures because as you know one picture can sometimes say more than a thousand words that’s why I needed to get loads of ‘em and really the internet in this university is a pure pain in the arse!!!
Slow, sites blocked, browser crashes because we have to use IE in a very old version, did I mention that it is slow? ARGHHH!!!
To get things done a little quicker I asked some AIESEC friends to send me cool pictures of conferences and one of my team and they replied pretty fast.
All in all it took me about 3.5 hours to prepare my presentation and most of the time I was looking for pictures.
It is basically about the stuff that I did in AIESEC and should inspire people to join AIESEC and use the great opportunities that it provides.
Therefore you can download it here and take a look but unfortunately you won’t have me there to speak to all the pictures which makes most of it.
I added a guide that I once wrote for our newsletter giving basic information on how to create a PowerPoint.
After the slides were finished I was supposed to meet with the MC (member committee being the national executive board of AIESEC) but the meeting was delayed and we’ll meet tomorrow.
So I had plenty of time and watched a little more of Chuck till Nyasha came along and showed me the international office.
There we enjoyed some pictures of his trip (including exchange students) to Swaziland showing a feast where the people celebrate the arrival of the rain and where the king usually picks an additional wife. (I think he’s got 13 so far)
The enjoyable part were the female dancers who’re all half naked!!! and try to look nice to be picked by the king and I can tell you there’re about thousand hot ladies!
Not so arousing are the bazillion sons of the king who’re all well fed, I mean very well fed, okay let’s say they are fat but that’s part of the tradition, too. (gotta show that they can afford an expensive lifestyle)
Here is a very critical blog post about it and I agree a lot but I've also seen the pictures and it is not as super negative she described it. Still I feel pretty bad now that I've talked to Johanna and seen some pics were the women really don't seem happy to be there.
At 3pm we had an EBM (executive board meeting) where we went through the agenda of the induction once more and discussed the material that we’ll need for the braai.
One Chuck later I was on my way back home and I red a security manual that Nyasha gave me with the headline: Stay alert today – Be alive tomorrow
And son-of-the-guy-that-I-don’t-believe-in, in the part ‘What to do when you get attacked?’ it says to ‘use a pen or your finger and ram it into the aggressors eye sockets’ or to ‘slam both palms of your hands on the enemies ears!’ …aehm …yes that would definitely hurt. I was a little shocked when I read this but it mentioned just to fight if it is unavoidable and I think than it’s okay to use such dangerous methods.
After dinner I started to practise my PP and went to bed quite early as usual.
I really hate overstuffed slides and I’m a friend of pictures because as you know one picture can sometimes say more than a thousand words that’s why I needed to get loads of ‘em and really the internet in this university is a pure pain in the arse!!!
Slow, sites blocked, browser crashes because we have to use IE in a very old version, did I mention that it is slow? ARGHHH!!!
To get things done a little quicker I asked some AIESEC friends to send me cool pictures of conferences and one of my team and they replied pretty fast.
All in all it took me about 3.5 hours to prepare my presentation and most of the time I was looking for pictures.
It is basically about the stuff that I did in AIESEC and should inspire people to join AIESEC and use the great opportunities that it provides.
Therefore you can download it here and take a look but unfortunately you won’t have me there to speak to all the pictures which makes most of it.
I added a guide that I once wrote for our newsletter giving basic information on how to create a PowerPoint.
After the slides were finished I was supposed to meet with the MC (member committee being the national executive board of AIESEC) but the meeting was delayed and we’ll meet tomorrow.
So I had plenty of time and watched a little more of Chuck till Nyasha came along and showed me the international office.
There we enjoyed some pictures of his trip (including exchange students) to Swaziland showing a feast where the people celebrate the arrival of the rain and where the king usually picks an additional wife. (I think he’s got 13 so far)
The enjoyable part were the female dancers who’re all half naked!!! and try to look nice to be picked by the king and I can tell you there’re about thousand hot ladies!
Not so arousing are the bazillion sons of the king who’re all well fed, I mean very well fed, okay let’s say they are fat but that’s part of the tradition, too. (gotta show that they can afford an expensive lifestyle)
Here is a very critical blog post about it and I agree a lot but I've also seen the pictures and it is not as super negative she described it. Still I feel pretty bad now that I've talked to Johanna and seen some pics were the women really don't seem happy to be there.
At 3pm we had an EBM (executive board meeting) where we went through the agenda of the induction once more and discussed the material that we’ll need for the braai.
One Chuck later I was on my way back home and I red a security manual that Nyasha gave me with the headline: Stay alert today – Be alive tomorrow
And son-of-the-guy-that-I-don’t-believe-in, in the part ‘What to do when you get attacked?’ it says to ‘use a pen or your finger and ram it into the aggressors eye sockets’ or to ‘slam both palms of your hands on the enemies ears!’ …aehm …yes that would definitely hurt. I was a little shocked when I read this but it mentioned just to fight if it is unavoidable and I think than it’s okay to use such dangerous methods.
After dinner I started to practise my PP and went to bed quite early as usual.
DAY 19
Today we had a very cool meeting concerning the agenda of the Induction at 7:30am and we decided that I’ll have a slot where I’ll present my experience with AIESEC. This meeting lasted for 3 hours but in the end we had an overview including order, time and goals of the various sessions.
After that we had lunch (Chinese food) and met up with Nyasha who’s also working for the international office, an organization dealing with exchange students.
And you wouldn’t believe it, the interfaces with AIESEC are huge.
For instance he raised money and prizes from companies and organized a city tour for the new students, he organizes the international festival at university where over 20 nations have booths and present their country including a stage for dances, songs and speeches from e.g. various deans, Walter and the chancellor of the university so basically a huge and professional Global Village with over 400 students visiting and having fun (I saw the pictures). Furthermore he is in charge of the buddy system and really AIESECers that is a fucking advanced buddy system, I mean he’s responsible for 60 buddies giving reports every month of what they did with the exchange students and organizing big and funny events, just his birthday party included 70 people from all over the planet!!!.
Besides his profession we talked about some scary and some funny stories that he or some of the students experienced e.g. one time 3 dudes from Germany and a girl from Sweden were using a taxi late in the evening instead of calling Kenny a driver for students, and it ended up with two other guys entering the taxi. (one in the front and one in the back) After a while the guy in the back pulled out a gun and the other guy a knife and they forced the students to get under the seats, unfortunately the girl from Sweden was too tall so they beat her up a little, then they had to remove all they jewellery, watches, mobiles and wallets and stopped at an ATM. Now one after the other they were forced to withdraw as much money as possible and then they left ‘em there without nothing. The girl from Sweden is still in therapy because of that and I hope that it doesn’t happen to me but I also somehow think that I could cope with such a situation because crime is a business here and there are some simple rules: avoid dark spots, no taxis in the night, stay in a group, don’t look like a tourist, wear your money around your neck, don’t take your bank card with you, stay calm and give them everything because usually muggers don’t want trouble (like having to hurt some one). Best would be to attend a safety course that the international office provides. (these guys are really great)
Back home I took a nap and after that I started to prepare my slides for the induction.
After the outline was finished, we went to bed.
After that we had lunch (Chinese food) and met up with Nyasha who’s also working for the international office, an organization dealing with exchange students.
And you wouldn’t believe it, the interfaces with AIESEC are huge.
For instance he raised money and prizes from companies and organized a city tour for the new students, he organizes the international festival at university where over 20 nations have booths and present their country including a stage for dances, songs and speeches from e.g. various deans, Walter and the chancellor of the university so basically a huge and professional Global Village with over 400 students visiting and having fun (I saw the pictures). Furthermore he is in charge of the buddy system and really AIESECers that is a fucking advanced buddy system, I mean he’s responsible for 60 buddies giving reports every month of what they did with the exchange students and organizing big and funny events, just his birthday party included 70 people from all over the planet!!!.
Besides his profession we talked about some scary and some funny stories that he or some of the students experienced e.g. one time 3 dudes from Germany and a girl from Sweden were using a taxi late in the evening instead of calling Kenny a driver for students, and it ended up with two other guys entering the taxi. (one in the front and one in the back) After a while the guy in the back pulled out a gun and the other guy a knife and they forced the students to get under the seats, unfortunately the girl from Sweden was too tall so they beat her up a little, then they had to remove all they jewellery, watches, mobiles and wallets and stopped at an ATM. Now one after the other they were forced to withdraw as much money as possible and then they left ‘em there without nothing. The girl from Sweden is still in therapy because of that and I hope that it doesn’t happen to me but I also somehow think that I could cope with such a situation because crime is a business here and there are some simple rules: avoid dark spots, no taxis in the night, stay in a group, don’t look like a tourist, wear your money around your neck, don’t take your bank card with you, stay calm and give them everything because usually muggers don’t want trouble (like having to hurt some one). Best would be to attend a safety course that the international office provides. (these guys are really great)
Back home I took a nap and after that I started to prepare my slides for the induction.
After the outline was finished, we went to bed.
DAY 18
The usual get up was spiced up with some black tea because I wanted to be awake in university.
The reason for that was that today the important check-up meeting was supposed to happen which means that the whole EB should present their responsibilities, how
they want to document stuff, how they wanna track their members, reward & recognition of the members and how they’ll decide things in their teams.
But before the meeting started an Alumni called Lawrence dropped by and he was soooo awesome!
He just wanted to check whether AIESEC UJ still exists but instead we got him into some serious talking and believe me he knows some amazing stories.
Like when AIESEC UJ was almost on the top of AIESEC and they raised almost 100000€ every year and they were competing for the coolest audit of their annual reports.
‘Our report was audited by KPMG, what do you’ve got?!’
‘We sent 50 people abroad and raised one bazillion YEN!!!’ ^^
Or a story when they went for a conference in Munich and the whole plane was stuffed with AIESECers only and then they tried to get the plane shaking by moving all people to one side…AIESECers are CRAZY!!!
Another cool thing they did in UJ was that when an intern arrived they organized a high jacking to pick him up from the air port, I mean I would have probably shit my pants ^^
He also helped us to organize a project about ‘the youth and economy’ and gave very cool ideas how to raise more money and offered contacts to people who could give talks there.
Furthermore he tries to be at our induction of the new members on Saturday and give a session about ‘how AIESEC influenced his life’ and it really did e.g. he had 4 jobs so far and only one job interview, that’s what I call networking combined with skill.
It was very cool to meet him and I’m definitely going to stay in touch with him because he can help us a lot to get UJ back on its feet.
And without his visit today it would have been a really shitty because except one member no one filled out the preparation sheet as I expected so we still don’t know what we can, should and want to do but I’ll try to fix this next week.
One of the reasons why the commitment is not on its peak might be that the EB didn’t have a cool team building and their communication definitely needs a review, too but guess what? Lawrence offered a team building session!...did I mention that I l@#e this guy?
Another cool thing that cheered me up was the visit of my footbag-pal Nyasha (this guy is a pure gentleman but still funny and super open and super skilled) because we had a cool talk and went for a very late lunch together. There we met with Walter an older guy who speaks 54 languages (including a little Chinese, a little Arab and all 11 official languages of SA fluently) and we had a chat in German which was really impressive.
When I had to leave for my ride, Walter accompanied me and he showed me some of his books (yes that he wrote) about renewable energy and he even watched the 2nd Zeitgeist ^^ Later I found out that he’s a professor of nuclear medicine and we exchanged contact data, he was really damn nice and if you ever can, talk to Walter^^
Back home I had dinner and wrote 2 mails, one for Lawrence and one for Peter, a guy from Botswana who wants to go to Germany on an exchange.
After that was finished I fell asleep but I got up again when some high pitched girly screams announced the arrival of my beloved Johanna:
‘Hiiiiiiiii, how are you?’ ‘Fiiinnneee, and how are you?’ …so I moved my lazy bum and said hello, too.
I was really damn happy to see her after over a week but still I managed to talk some bullshit that got us into a fight, really why do I have to be such an ass sometimes?
Things are fine again and it’s time to sleep.
The reason for that was that today the important check-up meeting was supposed to happen which means that the whole EB should present their responsibilities, how
they want to document stuff, how they wanna track their members, reward & recognition of the members and how they’ll decide things in their teams.
But before the meeting started an Alumni called Lawrence dropped by and he was soooo awesome!
He just wanted to check whether AIESEC UJ still exists but instead we got him into some serious talking and believe me he knows some amazing stories.
Like when AIESEC UJ was almost on the top of AIESEC and they raised almost 100000€ every year and they were competing for the coolest audit of their annual reports.
‘Our report was audited by KPMG, what do you’ve got?!’
‘We sent 50 people abroad and raised one bazillion YEN!!!’ ^^
Or a story when they went for a conference in Munich and the whole plane was stuffed with AIESECers only and then they tried to get the plane shaking by moving all people to one side…AIESECers are CRAZY!!!
Another cool thing they did in UJ was that when an intern arrived they organized a high jacking to pick him up from the air port, I mean I would have probably shit my pants ^^
He also helped us to organize a project about ‘the youth and economy’ and gave very cool ideas how to raise more money and offered contacts to people who could give talks there.
Furthermore he tries to be at our induction of the new members on Saturday and give a session about ‘how AIESEC influenced his life’ and it really did e.g. he had 4 jobs so far and only one job interview, that’s what I call networking combined with skill.
It was very cool to meet him and I’m definitely going to stay in touch with him because he can help us a lot to get UJ back on its feet.
And without his visit today it would have been a really shitty because except one member no one filled out the preparation sheet as I expected so we still don’t know what we can, should and want to do but I’ll try to fix this next week.
One of the reasons why the commitment is not on its peak might be that the EB didn’t have a cool team building and their communication definitely needs a review, too but guess what? Lawrence offered a team building session!...did I mention that I l@#e this guy?
Another cool thing that cheered me up was the visit of my footbag-pal Nyasha (this guy is a pure gentleman but still funny and super open and super skilled) because we had a cool talk and went for a very late lunch together. There we met with Walter an older guy who speaks 54 languages (including a little Chinese, a little Arab and all 11 official languages of SA fluently) and we had a chat in German which was really impressive.
When I had to leave for my ride, Walter accompanied me and he showed me some of his books (yes that he wrote) about renewable energy and he even watched the 2nd Zeitgeist ^^ Later I found out that he’s a professor of nuclear medicine and we exchanged contact data, he was really damn nice and if you ever can, talk to Walter^^
Back home I had dinner and wrote 2 mails, one for Lawrence and one for Peter, a guy from Botswana who wants to go to Germany on an exchange.
After that was finished I fell asleep but I got up again when some high pitched girly screams announced the arrival of my beloved Johanna:
‘Hiiiiiiiii, how are you?’ ‘Fiiinnneee, and how are you?’ …so I moved my lazy bum and said hello, too.
I was really damn happy to see her after over a week but still I managed to talk some bullshit that got us into a fight, really why do I have to be such an ass sometimes?
Things are fine again and it’s time to sleep.
Dienstag, 23. März 2010
DAY 17
1pm!!! AHHH, this feels sooo nice. Finally a reasonable time to get up and do …almost nothing. I took 3 hours to write my diary entries for the past 3 days and then I started to watch Shigurui once more because this anime is just super awesome.
A little footbagging, a little talking and finally calling my parents which I didn’t do since I am in SA (I know that this was really, damn bad) and that’s it.
Dinner, TV, bed!
A little footbagging, a little talking and finally calling my parents which I didn’t do since I am in SA (I know that this was really, damn bad) and that’s it.
Dinner, TV, bed!
DAY 16
We had to leave the rooms by 9.30 and did what loads of people do at the end of a super nice, mega cool, ultra amazing and supra stunning experience … take as much pictures as we can in any possible combination and in any situation.
After breakfast we met some AIESECers from Botswana for our last session where we shared our experiences and what we’ll take home from the last day.
Time to say goodbye, to take group pictures and after several minutes of hugging and exchanging facebook data we drove towards SA again.
This time no house but Sunday-slow-jam the typical after party, love music in Africa…annoying and relaxing at the same time.
Issues on our way back were laws against gays in Uganda, sexuality in Africa and Europe (in Africa you don’t kiss or even hold hands in front of your parents and elder people), is sex always connected to dignity? (I recommend watching the movie ‘9 to 5 days in porn’) and is it okay to sell your values to become rich and do good stuff once you are?
Close to JoBurg we passed a street sign saying ‘Hijack hotspot for 2km’ and I had to take photo of it because it was just so formal. (unfortunately I had to take another camera)
It would have been very ironic if I got hijacked while I was taking the picture… kind of ‘dark humor’. (hehe, dark humor)
AHH, and good news for AIESEC in WITS University FAITH is running for LCP!!!!!
So please give her a big hand.
At about 6.30pm we arrived in JoBurg and Johanna’s brother plus wife picked me up.
Back home I had a nice vegetarian pizza and a cool talk about geniuses like ‘the assistant of Chris Barner, Hamilton Naki’.
I’m almost dead now so see you tomorrow.
After breakfast we met some AIESECers from Botswana for our last session where we shared our experiences and what we’ll take home from the last day.
Time to say goodbye, to take group pictures and after several minutes of hugging and exchanging facebook data we drove towards SA again.
This time no house but Sunday-slow-jam the typical after party, love music in Africa…annoying and relaxing at the same time.
Issues on our way back were laws against gays in Uganda, sexuality in Africa and Europe (in Africa you don’t kiss or even hold hands in front of your parents and elder people), is sex always connected to dignity? (I recommend watching the movie ‘9 to 5 days in porn’) and is it okay to sell your values to become rich and do good stuff once you are?
Close to JoBurg we passed a street sign saying ‘Hijack hotspot for 2km’ and I had to take photo of it because it was just so formal. (unfortunately I had to take another camera)
It would have been very ironic if I got hijacked while I was taking the picture… kind of ‘dark humor’. (hehe, dark humor)
AHH, and good news for AIESEC in WITS University FAITH is running for LCP!!!!!
So please give her a big hand.
At about 6.30pm we arrived in JoBurg and Johanna’s brother plus wife picked me up.
Back home I had a nice vegetarian pizza and a cool talk about geniuses like ‘the assistant of Chris Barner, Hamilton Naki’.
I’m almost dead now so see you tomorrow.
DAY 15
DAY 15
Knock! Knock! Knock!!!
‘We’ll leave for breakfast in one hour so I’ll be back to wake you up in half an hour, okay?’
(Nyasha and I) ‘hwaahaa, tm, tm… Yes!’
(But if he’ll wake us up in half an hour why did he wake us up right now?!!?!!!!?!!!!)
So we tried to sleep again but 10 minutes later a girl knocked:
‘Guys get ready!’
I gotta admit I was close to transfom into the fearsome half-asleep-bastard and kill the next person to knock and I planned mean responses in my enraged head but the next person (10minutes later) was Thibose so I restrained myself and now it was to late to sleep again anyway.
A little good-morning-footbagging and some nice ‘oh my god elephant’ and I was cool again.
By the way I wanted to advertise this blog about cool alternative music for quite a while anyway so check it out and delete the music after a day ^^
Usually an AIESEC conference starts at 9am but at that time we arrived at the university canteen and started to wait for our breakfast.
10 o’clock, we left for the conference room but still had to get speakers.
10:30, now we had speakers but neither an audio nor a laptop-to-projector cable nor AIESECers from Botswana.
I started to think ‘Hmm, this is not as well prepared as I would expect it from a LEADERSHIP conference prepared by the LEADERs of Botswana and South Africa.’
11 o’clock, eventually the first session starts aaaaannnnddd it was NOT about leadership but AIESEC basics which was a little disappointing for me but very good for the rest because most of them were Newies.
Session 2, again AIESEC bacics and still just frontal training which means no splitting up in groups, no discussions, no real interaction but reading aloud like in 4th grade.
I was angry! This was not what I came here for: lame sessions and barely getting to know any new AIESECers because they were just not here, I mean what is a conference with 10 people?
And then the nuke dropped during session 2: ‘…and as this conference was cancelled turned in a seminar…’
(AIESEC UJ) ’WHAT?! Why did no one tell us?! We drove the whole way to Botswana for a SEMINAR?!!!...’
That was one of the biggest lacks of communication I’ve ever experienced but now we were here and the only thing we could do was to enjoy it to the max and that’s what we did. Sure we first were quite pissed but after addressing our anger and hearing the explanations from the MCs, we cooled down and decided to do it the AIESEC WAY: stay positive and rock.
Rati the MCP (MC president) said something very true: ‘In real life you’ll experience way harder disappointments and fuck ups and it is up to you whether you learn from it and give your best to turn into something good or whether you just give up and complain like a kiddo.’
We finished the still poor session and headed for lunch (even so we were 3 steps behind the agenda) and then a wonderful thing happened…
180 DEGREE TURN!!!!!!!!
Once back in the conference room the technical stuff was set up, one bazillion AIESECers from all over Botswana were all over the place and the quality of the sessions improved dramatically.
It started with a very professional session from the former MCP and now representative of JCI about team management, continued with various role calls to get us energized again, this was followed by a session about competency based management, got deeper with a session about different management styles and values and ended with an inspiring video talk of Steve Jobs.
I was more than just happy, I was really amazed how the whole atmosphere just changed and felt a little bad for being so angry at the beginning but this change was just unbelievable.
After the agenda was finished, we had dinner and drove to David’s place to party hard.
I drank some very nice tea at the party and experienced a typical African dance circle because in Africa dancing turns pretty often in a competitive performance where you try to show your amazing skills.
Unfortunately I don’t have any of these but the crowd started to yell:
‘Go Christian! Go Christian!’
So I did the only reasonable thing and made a quick and funny fool out of myself jumping in the middle and showing my whitey-shakin’^^
They laughed their asses off and I did, too, it was really cool to be with so many nice people.
Later I saw another typical hip hop dance called grinding which looks like sex with cloth on and I discussed with Faith whether this is still dancing or already offence to the boy- or girlfriend already.
The conclusion was that I can’t decide it on the spot, I wish I could say it’s just dancing but maybe I’d be pissed, too if Johanna would be grinding another guy like this girl did.
Back in the motel I just wanted to sleep and so did I.
Knock! Knock! Knock!!!
‘We’ll leave for breakfast in one hour so I’ll be back to wake you up in half an hour, okay?’
(Nyasha and I) ‘hwaahaa, tm, tm… Yes!’
(But if he’ll wake us up in half an hour why did he wake us up right now?!!?!!!!?!!!!)
So we tried to sleep again but 10 minutes later a girl knocked:
‘Guys get ready!’
I gotta admit I was close to transfom into the fearsome half-asleep-bastard and kill the next person to knock and I planned mean responses in my enraged head but the next person (10minutes later) was Thibose so I restrained myself and now it was to late to sleep again anyway.
A little good-morning-footbagging and some nice ‘oh my god elephant’ and I was cool again.
By the way I wanted to advertise this blog about cool alternative music for quite a while anyway so check it out and delete the music after a day ^^
Usually an AIESEC conference starts at 9am but at that time we arrived at the university canteen and started to wait for our breakfast.
10 o’clock, we left for the conference room but still had to get speakers.
10:30, now we had speakers but neither an audio nor a laptop-to-projector cable nor AIESECers from Botswana.
I started to think ‘Hmm, this is not as well prepared as I would expect it from a LEADERSHIP conference prepared by the LEADERs of Botswana and South Africa.’
11 o’clock, eventually the first session starts aaaaannnnddd it was NOT about leadership but AIESEC basics which was a little disappointing for me but very good for the rest because most of them were Newies.
Session 2, again AIESEC bacics and still just frontal training which means no splitting up in groups, no discussions, no real interaction but reading aloud like in 4th grade.
I was angry! This was not what I came here for: lame sessions and barely getting to know any new AIESECers because they were just not here, I mean what is a conference with 10 people?
And then the nuke dropped during session 2: ‘…and as this conference was cancelled turned in a seminar…’
(AIESEC UJ) ’WHAT?! Why did no one tell us?! We drove the whole way to Botswana for a SEMINAR?!!!...’
That was one of the biggest lacks of communication I’ve ever experienced but now we were here and the only thing we could do was to enjoy it to the max and that’s what we did. Sure we first were quite pissed but after addressing our anger and hearing the explanations from the MCs, we cooled down and decided to do it the AIESEC WAY: stay positive and rock.
Rati the MCP (MC president) said something very true: ‘In real life you’ll experience way harder disappointments and fuck ups and it is up to you whether you learn from it and give your best to turn into something good or whether you just give up and complain like a kiddo.’
We finished the still poor session and headed for lunch (even so we were 3 steps behind the agenda) and then a wonderful thing happened…
180 DEGREE TURN!!!!!!!!
Once back in the conference room the technical stuff was set up, one bazillion AIESECers from all over Botswana were all over the place and the quality of the sessions improved dramatically.
It started with a very professional session from the former MCP and now representative of JCI about team management, continued with various role calls to get us energized again, this was followed by a session about competency based management, got deeper with a session about different management styles and values and ended with an inspiring video talk of Steve Jobs.
I was more than just happy, I was really amazed how the whole atmosphere just changed and felt a little bad for being so angry at the beginning but this change was just unbelievable.
After the agenda was finished, we had dinner and drove to David’s place to party hard.
I drank some very nice tea at the party and experienced a typical African dance circle because in Africa dancing turns pretty often in a competitive performance where you try to show your amazing skills.
Unfortunately I don’t have any of these but the crowd started to yell:
‘Go Christian! Go Christian!’
So I did the only reasonable thing and made a quick and funny fool out of myself jumping in the middle and showing my whitey-shakin’^^
They laughed their asses off and I did, too, it was really cool to be with so many nice people.
Later I saw another typical hip hop dance called grinding which looks like sex with cloth on and I discussed with Faith whether this is still dancing or already offence to the boy- or girlfriend already.
The conclusion was that I can’t decide it on the spot, I wish I could say it’s just dancing but maybe I’d be pissed, too if Johanna would be grinding another guy like this girl did.
Back in the motel I just wanted to sleep and so did I.
DAY 14
Today we left a little earlier to make sure that I’ll be in university in time and it is really strange because if you leave one minute to 6 you can make it in 30-45 minutes but if you leave 5 minutes past 6 then it’ll take 1 to 2 hours to get there.
We left 1 minute to 6 which means my arrival in UJ was quarter to 7 implying loads of extra time for me because our journey to Botswana should start at 8 am.
So I went to the computer pool and wrote the diary entry for yesterday.
At 7.30am I met with Thoko and Simphiwe and we walked to the place where a small bus would pick us up.
There we joined also the rest of the AIESECers from SA except one: Lena, Manti, Precious, Thibose, Nyasha, Mbali, Faith and our driver Sfiso.
This super funny bunch left at about 9am for Botswana (just one short stop to pick up Nadia) and I can tell you this meant a hell lot of African House.
The Van was stuffed with an extraordinary Pioneer sound system which made your feet and belly shake, no kidding and I’ve gotta admit after a while I was a little board by the beats because you were bound to listen and couldn’t dance.
The closer we got to Botswana the hotter the weather and we couldn’t travel at full speed because of our trailer but I didn’t care much because I had loads of amusing talks for instance about my nice-bum-on-the-cover magazine Vice issuing Brazil (and what would Brazil be without awesome butts?) and I played footbag with Nyasha in almost every minute during the breaks.
We also used the breaks to prepare our role call the Diski-Dance which will become the SA pendant to the Mexican wave so you’ll better learn it to for the world cup ^^.
Our teacher was my precious Precious and really she can dance!!! (and she’s very sweet, too but I think everybody who’s in talent management is
Once in Botswana Sam and Rati from the Member Committee of Botswana (MC, that’s the national executive board) guided us to the university and our Motel.
I told you about the full speed problem but to illustrate it a little more, we left at 9am and arrived at about 7pm which means 3 hours later than planned and because of that we went for dinner immediately. More AIESECers from Botswana joined us (the Don, David, Orlando, Koba, MOX …) and I talked for quite a while to the history student ‘the Don’ who knew (which was quite embarrassing) a lot more about German history than I did. One of the #1 issues was me being vegetarian (by the way I didn’t meet a single one in Africa yet) and it was very funny to hear, how much Africans love meat.
‘When I was sick, I couldn’t taste anything but when I swallowed meat than I just started to feel happy inside and I regained my power and …and it felt sooo good and warm and I needed it sooo much!’
This is just usual meat wait until you ask for chicken^^
Back in our Motel and loaded with some booze we sat down and some got boozed.
It was a wonderful warm and clear night so you could see the stars and sit outside with shorts and t-shirt only.
I had a super cool talk with my lovely, little Manti and the always-relaxed Orlando (also in talent management) about Movies and tea and somehow we toppled over ‘Irreversible’ a movie you should definitely watch but not more than once. (DON'T read the summary, it'll mess up the whole movie. the first part of the wiki article is enough)
Before I got to bet, I saw the final scene of ‘Once upon a time in Mexico’ and it was better than I remembered it so maybe I’ll watch it again.
And then I had an argument with ‘the Don’ because he sad that the trilogy is:
Desperados I, Desperados II, Once upon a time in Mexico
And I think it is:
El Mariachi, Desperados, Once upon a time in Mexico
So I’ve gotta look it up but I’m afraid ‘the Don’ is right again, I mean he’s ‘the Don’!^^
Nighty, night!
We left 1 minute to 6 which means my arrival in UJ was quarter to 7 implying loads of extra time for me because our journey to Botswana should start at 8 am.
So I went to the computer pool and wrote the diary entry for yesterday.
At 7.30am I met with Thoko and Simphiwe and we walked to the place where a small bus would pick us up.
There we joined also the rest of the AIESECers from SA except one: Lena, Manti, Precious, Thibose, Nyasha, Mbali, Faith and our driver Sfiso.
This super funny bunch left at about 9am for Botswana (just one short stop to pick up Nadia) and I can tell you this meant a hell lot of African House.
The Van was stuffed with an extraordinary Pioneer sound system which made your feet and belly shake, no kidding and I’ve gotta admit after a while I was a little board by the beats because you were bound to listen and couldn’t dance.
The closer we got to Botswana the hotter the weather and we couldn’t travel at full speed because of our trailer but I didn’t care much because I had loads of amusing talks for instance about my nice-bum-on-the-cover magazine Vice issuing Brazil (and what would Brazil be without awesome butts?) and I played footbag with Nyasha in almost every minute during the breaks.
We also used the breaks to prepare our role call the Diski-Dance which will become the SA pendant to the Mexican wave so you’ll better learn it to for the world cup ^^.
Our teacher was my precious Precious and really she can dance!!! (and she’s very sweet, too but I think everybody who’s in talent management is
Once in Botswana Sam and Rati from the Member Committee of Botswana (MC, that’s the national executive board) guided us to the university and our Motel.
I told you about the full speed problem but to illustrate it a little more, we left at 9am and arrived at about 7pm which means 3 hours later than planned and because of that we went for dinner immediately. More AIESECers from Botswana joined us (the Don, David, Orlando, Koba, MOX …) and I talked for quite a while to the history student ‘the Don’ who knew (which was quite embarrassing) a lot more about German history than I did. One of the #1 issues was me being vegetarian (by the way I didn’t meet a single one in Africa yet) and it was very funny to hear, how much Africans love meat.
‘When I was sick, I couldn’t taste anything but when I swallowed meat than I just started to feel happy inside and I regained my power and …and it felt sooo good and warm and I needed it sooo much!’
This is just usual meat wait until you ask for chicken^^
Back in our Motel and loaded with some booze we sat down and some got boozed.
It was a wonderful warm and clear night so you could see the stars and sit outside with shorts and t-shirt only.
I had a super cool talk with my lovely, little Manti and the always-relaxed Orlando (also in talent management) about Movies and tea and somehow we toppled over ‘Irreversible’ a movie you should definitely watch but not more than once. (DON'T read the summary, it'll mess up the whole movie. the first part of the wiki article is enough)
Before I got to bet, I saw the final scene of ‘Once upon a time in Mexico’ and it was better than I remembered it so maybe I’ll watch it again.
And then I had an argument with ‘the Don’ because he sad that the trilogy is:
Desperados I, Desperados II, Once upon a time in Mexico
And I think it is:
El Mariachi, Desperados, Once upon a time in Mexico
So I’ve gotta look it up but I’m afraid ‘the Don’ is right again, I mean he’s ‘the Don’!^^
Nighty, night!
Donnerstag, 18. März 2010
DAY 13
Today was the first day when i felt somehow awake once i arrived in university but still it took almost 2 hours two write the diary entries for yesterday and the day before.
After i had finished those, I started to watch 'Dude, Where's My Car?' and i laughed my ass off.
I know this movie is silly but I guess that I'm too and that's probably the reason why I like it.
Anyway, after half an hour I went to the computer labs to do some research on job descriptions for the VPs (vice presidents) of the different teams and I found loads of interesting material but before I was allowed to enjoy the pleasure of the world wide web, I had to wait for about 20 minutes because there was a huge queue in front of the labs.
This was also the reason why I didn't find JDs for everyone before I had to leave for our EB meeting, where we wanted to prepare a shout and a role call for the conference starting tomorrow.
Because of a lack of attendance (just 3 people) we were not able to complete the role call but at least we've got a shout and they wanted to meet at 6pm once more to figure out a dance.
I briefly explained the rest of the session of yesterday to a girl witch had to leave early and went back to the labs to finish my work. Guess what I had to wait again but this time it was just 15 minutes and I don't regret it at all because once I sat down a computer scientist took seat next to me and we had an awesome talk. This guy is programming opera widgets for Vodafon and we talked about plenty of nerd stuff which was quite a relieve because almost everybody I met so far studies something boring and useless as marketing or market research or accounting or what not :-)
After all the necessary material was gathered, I attached it to mail and sent it to all EB members.
I hope that everybody is going to read their part and prepare the sheet I created on Tuesday because otherwise it'll be hard to get an overview of what we are able to do and what we should do as AIESEC UJ.
Back home I finished the movie and played with my beloved devilish witch-princess from next door until she tried to stab my eye was one of the Algiers spoons that we took before we left for SA.
I took some great photos from her wearing my acid-glasses and really this 3 years old knows how to give an angry face and a fake smile, you wouldn't believe it.
Dinner was great even if a small piece of chicken sliped into my food which I tasted immediately.
Once my stomach was stuffed I helped Johanna's cousin programming Visual Basic stuff for school which I've never done before.
By the way in English you don't call it 'Code Slave' but 'Code monkey'.
Before I was about to go to sleep I packed my bag for tomorrow and switched on 'Joan of Arc'
(my favorite band) giving me a nice bunch of dreams.
After i had finished those, I started to watch 'Dude, Where's My Car?' and i laughed my ass off.
I know this movie is silly but I guess that I'm too and that's probably the reason why I like it.
Anyway, after half an hour I went to the computer labs to do some research on job descriptions for the VPs (vice presidents) of the different teams and I found loads of interesting material but before I was allowed to enjoy the pleasure of the world wide web, I had to wait for about 20 minutes because there was a huge queue in front of the labs.
This was also the reason why I didn't find JDs for everyone before I had to leave for our EB meeting, where we wanted to prepare a shout and a role call for the conference starting tomorrow.
Because of a lack of attendance (just 3 people) we were not able to complete the role call but at least we've got a shout and they wanted to meet at 6pm once more to figure out a dance.
I briefly explained the rest of the session of yesterday to a girl witch had to leave early and went back to the labs to finish my work. Guess what I had to wait again but this time it was just 15 minutes and I don't regret it at all because once I sat down a computer scientist took seat next to me and we had an awesome talk. This guy is programming opera widgets for Vodafon and we talked about plenty of nerd stuff which was quite a relieve because almost everybody I met so far studies something boring and useless as marketing or market research or accounting or what not :-)
After all the necessary material was gathered, I attached it to mail and sent it to all EB members.
I hope that everybody is going to read their part and prepare the sheet I created on Tuesday because otherwise it'll be hard to get an overview of what we are able to do and what we should do as AIESEC UJ.
Back home I finished the movie and played with my beloved devilish witch-princess from next door until she tried to stab my eye was one of the Algiers spoons that we took before we left for SA.
I took some great photos from her wearing my acid-glasses and really this 3 years old knows how to give an angry face and a fake smile, you wouldn't believe it.
Dinner was great even if a small piece of chicken sliped into my food which I tasted immediately.
Once my stomach was stuffed I helped Johanna's cousin programming Visual Basic stuff for school which I've never done before.
By the way in English you don't call it 'Code Slave' but 'Code monkey'.
Before I was about to go to sleep I packed my bag for tomorrow and switched on 'Joan of Arc'
(my favorite band) giving me a nice bunch of dreams.
DAY 12
‘Which one was the Hitler side?’
Asked a girl on my first day and I had to explain that there was no Hitler side but first of all I had to laugh.
No Mick today so getting up and to the university was quite relaxed compared to the last days.
In the university I met with Thoko and we got the markers and tape that I needed for the session.
Now that I had all the materials I prepared the flipcharts and the homemade moderation cards.
Ahh, I forgot to mention that they have a mall in this university including two banks, 3 different kinds of ATMs, several shops and restaurants and what not.
I’ve never seen such variety of shops on a campus before but here it ain’t something special. It’s good that we don’t have it at our university ‘cause I’d spend too much money, I guess.
This morning I also sent a short message to the potential trainers that we figured out yesterday and I hope for loads of replies ‘cause we need ‘em so much.
Johanna’s brother prepared me already for low attendance rates at meetings so I was not surprised when 2 guys didn’t show up at all and 2 had to leave early due classes.
The session itself was quite cool and the 4 people who joined till the end participated actively.
After the exercise was over the VPER showed us a logo that he’s been working on for AIESEC UJ and it looks pretty cool, maybe I’ll get a pic later.
The last thing for today was to get me a student card so I could enter the university alone and this turned out to be a funny experience.
First we paid a visit to the lady being responsible for all student organisations and
we had a funny talk about AIESEC, Germany and Afrikaans. She told us the criteria to become the best student’s organisation and they’re definitely not impossible to fulfil.
After we got a letter from her explaining what I’m doing at UJ we headed of for the registration office to get me a card but there a woman told us to get a certified copy of my passport.
So we headed back to the mall, into a bank and asked for it.
The woman at the desk just asked me whether I have an account at this bank or not and when I denied she said she can’t certify it and I should ask the bank where I have an account. I explained her that this bank is in Germany and that I pay a fee to use the ATMs in Africa. Now she asked her boss if it is possible to certify it even if I don’t have an account and the boss said no. But then the boss asked me which team I’m going to support during the world cup and I replied South Africa for sure.
‘Okay you can certify his copy.’
Really I would be so happy if that’d be happening in Germany but here people are so friggin obsessed with rules that they won’t do you favour even if it’d mean no extra trouble or work at all.
I mean this was just great because otherwise I had to go a police station and get my copy certified there and now I could just go back to the registration office and within a blink of an eye I had my card. Great!
10 minutes later Johanna’s brother picked up and I was almost falling asleep on our way home.
Once we arrived I could hold back and went straight to bed (6pm!!!), I dunno why I was so bloody tired but I couldn’t help it.
Asked a girl on my first day and I had to explain that there was no Hitler side but first of all I had to laugh.
No Mick today so getting up and to the university was quite relaxed compared to the last days.
In the university I met with Thoko and we got the markers and tape that I needed for the session.
Now that I had all the materials I prepared the flipcharts and the homemade moderation cards.
Ahh, I forgot to mention that they have a mall in this university including two banks, 3 different kinds of ATMs, several shops and restaurants and what not.
I’ve never seen such variety of shops on a campus before but here it ain’t something special. It’s good that we don’t have it at our university ‘cause I’d spend too much money, I guess.
This morning I also sent a short message to the potential trainers that we figured out yesterday and I hope for loads of replies ‘cause we need ‘em so much.
Johanna’s brother prepared me already for low attendance rates at meetings so I was not surprised when 2 guys didn’t show up at all and 2 had to leave early due classes.
The session itself was quite cool and the 4 people who joined till the end participated actively.
After the exercise was over the VPER showed us a logo that he’s been working on for AIESEC UJ and it looks pretty cool, maybe I’ll get a pic later.
The last thing for today was to get me a student card so I could enter the university alone and this turned out to be a funny experience.
First we paid a visit to the lady being responsible for all student organisations and
we had a funny talk about AIESEC, Germany and Afrikaans. She told us the criteria to become the best student’s organisation and they’re definitely not impossible to fulfil.
After we got a letter from her explaining what I’m doing at UJ we headed of for the registration office to get me a card but there a woman told us to get a certified copy of my passport.
So we headed back to the mall, into a bank and asked for it.
The woman at the desk just asked me whether I have an account at this bank or not and when I denied she said she can’t certify it and I should ask the bank where I have an account. I explained her that this bank is in Germany and that I pay a fee to use the ATMs in Africa. Now she asked her boss if it is possible to certify it even if I don’t have an account and the boss said no. But then the boss asked me which team I’m going to support during the world cup and I replied South Africa for sure.
‘Okay you can certify his copy.’
Really I would be so happy if that’d be happening in Germany but here people are so friggin obsessed with rules that they won’t do you favour even if it’d mean no extra trouble or work at all.
I mean this was just great because otherwise I had to go a police station and get my copy certified there and now I could just go back to the registration office and within a blink of an eye I had my card. Great!
10 minutes later Johanna’s brother picked up and I was almost falling asleep on our way home.
Once we arrived I could hold back and went straight to bed (6pm!!!), I dunno why I was so bloody tired but I couldn’t help it.
Abonnieren
Posts (Atom)