The day started early in Pretoria. We started with a good breakfast at the +27 cafe, which was very interesting, foods and combinations never tried before. The most interesting item on the table, I believe, was a cheese croissant - a croissant cut in half, lined with plum jam and cheese and then baked until the croissant was soft, the cheese melted and the jam (jelly) almost flowing. Sounded very weir, tasted surprisingly good. After breakfast, we met up with Mapula, Mariska, Ogana and Hester and headed off to the town of Hammanskraal to visit one of the villages that might be a potential launch market for START Net.

The objective of the visit to Hammanskraal was to meet with some of the villagers at the community center, conduct surveys and collect data. We got to the town after an hour's drive, and the site was amazing. The diversity within this village was massive; while on one side there was a 2-storied brick house with a big veranda, lawns a 2 car garage and fancy cars, the other side had a tin "shack", mostly about 10'X10' and both might house 5-6 members of a family. In the first round, Mapula, as the local liaison, decided to play it safe and only conduct an interview with herself and Duarte, with Jon and Asia as observers. For the second interview, Kate sat in as an observer, and then forth, as the rest of us got comfortable doing our own interviews, we set out in teams of 2 members (preferably one American and one South African) to tackle the large group waiting to talk to us. The interview went for almost 3 hours there after. After this exhausting session, we set out in hunt of food. After finding 3 herds of prey and not finding the meat, we finally spotted a Steers and a "garage" (which is basically a convenience store at a gas station), it was love at first sight.

On a HOT SUNNY Monday in South Africa, we sat outside a gas station and ate burgers and chips, while people filled their cars and stared at us. Lifes AWESOME people!!!

Anyway, after lunch, we got back into the car and met up with Joyce again, in Temba. She had arranged for a meeting with several local business owners from different fields to talk to us. The surveys were quite interesting. The women were into everything from B&Bs to sandwich shops and cafes. We interviewed 10-12 women that afternoon. One interesting observation, which I have experienced earlier as well, was that as we picked the first set of women to be interviewed at random, several other women who were not picked, left. They just picked up their bags and left. We tried to tell them that we will be done soon and that we will be with them soon, but the bits of micro-jealousy were extremely visible. And its not to say that its wrong, its human nature an I always believed it bound to happen, but the fact that it was reinforced once again and so prevalent, is proof that its a very important factor that needs to be considered for all just surveys and studies.

After the surveys we visited the Cullinan area, the Big Hole, center for one of he largest diamond mining operation in the world, where the world's largest diamond the Cullinan Diamond comes from. It was an interesting visit, a long drive in a very tired state. But we knew where we were headed the following day!

Out for the night...

Things were conventional on Saturday. I landed at Joburg at about 9:30 AM and immigration was easy. Finding a taxi to get to Pretoria was interesting. Prices range from 100R to 850R - so much for TRYING to find WishVast applications! After heavy negotiations (asking 500R, offering 100R), I was finally able to convince one of the taxi driver that there were no flights for hte next 2.5 hours and so either he could just wait there and make no money, or he could drop me off and make 300R. He was convinced. After getting my cell-phone working and talking to Elizabeth, I got into the cab (a very nice Merc!) and was on my way. We got to the apartments soon enough and Elizabeth was already waiting for me there. She gave me a quick 101 on the area, the apartments and some ground rules, which was much needed. After a quick shower, I headed to a supermarket that is within a 5 minute walking distance, purchased a few bottles of water and some milk, got back and just crashed! 

A loud ringing in my ear woke me up at about 7:30 PM. Well, no wonder, my head was right on top of my phone!!! It was Elizabeth and she was calling me to inform me that Duarte and crew were here. After quickly freshening up, headed out to buzz them into the main gate. To know more about what the 5 of us did later that evening, you'll have to go to me personal blog, since this is after all, you know, a work-related blog!

Sunday was highly productive. Got up nice and early; yes at 7:25 AM! Got ready real fast since we were supposed to meet Duarte at the front gate at 8:00 AM. Fortunately, everybody was up, no one slept in. We got into the car, which BTW is a really nice Volkswagen 8 seater, and buckled up real good (hey, Duarte was driving - a stick - on the left side of the road, mostly). A very nice breakfast meeting was organized by the U-of-P folks at the National Botanical Gardens in Pretoria. The location was beautiful and the fauna made it ever more natural!

Starting January 20, a team of highly motivated change agents from NC State - Dr. Duarte Morais, Kate Martin, Asia Murphy and Jonathan Payne, and Chanakya Mehta from Penn State will be embarking on a journey to South Africa to conduct on the ground research and field test the first iteration of StartNET. 

While there, we will try our best to keep the blog as well updated as time and opportunity permit. Keep checking back for updates!