Tuesday December 4, 2012:

Exhausted from a terrible nights sleep due to the fact the dog set the house alarm off, which lead to a thrilling scenario where I had to convince the man from ATD ( the private armed security company) with an assault rifle that I indeed was not an intruder in pajamas at 3 in the morning. Understandably pumped on adrenaline I last looked at the clock a mere half an hour before my alarm, rolled out of bed, made a pathetic attempt at getting ready, and subconsciously threaded through the hectic streets of Alex once again to Maloke’s. The navigators had already arrived, excited from yesterday and ready to hit the ground running again. These people who were by now my friends laughed as I stumbled through the debrief and roared when Mrs. Maloke took it upon herself to bring me a cup of coffee. I’m not sure what woke me up more, the side stitching laughter, the caffeine, or my new found sense of belonging. What I do know is it all felt good and was a perfect start to my morning.

Because Nico, Pierre, and Rachel were busy with other admin, I was the next most knowledgable of what was going on and so was in charge of organizing the film crew for the whole week. On the ball once all the LBS students arrived, I organized the game plan with all involved in the filming schedule for the day and luckily very quickly. Today people were too excited to get out and get moving that many skipped their coffee and ventured out as quickly as they came in. Filming went well this day. The weather was beautiful and great footage was shot of Ntebokeng with her Internet cafe and Arlindo with his spaza shop (a small general store). It was very fun being with the film crew because, first off, I had a bit of authority which always is nice, but also because I got to spend time observing each group working with their entrepreneur.

Finished by two o’clock and wanting to take advantage of the beautiful day, Nico and I snuck back to the hotel, went for a swim, and took a much needed nap while soaking up the rays. Awoken by a the chill in the air as the sun disappeared behind the building. We hurriedly freshened up and hopped on the bus to Katy’s Palace-a very cool spot that I had come to for a party last time I was in Joburg, and is a huge open air warehouse that overlooks the skyline of Sandton and is decorated with very unique African art. We were here for a panel discussion with 10 successful entrepreneurs in South Africa. Seated at the front with Pierre we watched this session in awe. The insight and advice they provided for entrepreneurs in general, and in a South African context was fascinating. I was very glad that I was able to attend and learn more about the challenges and opportunities for doing business in SA.

Exhausted by both the day and the company, I was ready to break away from the group and be relieved of redundant small talk. I hoped in the car back to Kensington, was welcomed home by the most loving black labs, and cuddled with them on the couch with my book until I finally relocated to bed and crashed.