Return to South Africa

I got back here a week and a half ago after a full 36 hours of travel. I thought it would go quickly because at first glance I thought I only had 3 and 4 hour layovers, but upon landing in Frankfurt I pulled out my itinerary to look at what flight I was connecting with. I looked more carefully and saw I had a 10 hour layover there. That's sweet. Unfortunately it was only a couple of hours until dark set so I didn't feel like going out into a city I've never been to just before dark.

Spending that long in airports sucks, but it is an entertaining way to watch people. Although there are far fewer in Europe, Bluetooths (Blueteeth?) are really stupid. When I was laid-over in Chicago, it seemed like one-third of all people in that airport had a ridiculous Bluetooth in their ear. From the right angles it just looks like a throng of crazies talking to themselves. The other part of people watching is seeing how impatient and annoyed so many people get in airports. Most of us have traveled via air and know that it takes time. Especially in these crazy post 9/11 times, yet you still have self-important asses bitching and moaning or just getting huffy in every line they stand it. I get a little bit of enjoyment seeing it all take place.

Anyways, since being here I haven't really done a whole lot. In Cape Town I met up with Chris who picked me up in his Land Rover. It was good to see M (the Land Rover) again. Later that evening we met up with our Capetonian friends and my Norwegian buddy that was coincidentally back in Cape Town when I came in. I basically spent my first few days of jet lag drinking with these folks, and going to the beach. One night we went to the cinema to catch 'We Own the Night.' I highly recommend it. It is so bad, that it is like a comedy. It is so far below the line, I can't get enough of it. One very good thing about Cape Town is that Chris and I met two Danish girls that are making the same route we are over the next 4 months, so it looks as though we'll be having some traveling partners to chip in on gas. They're very high energy girls, so they may actually drive us nuts, but we'll see.

Chris got a new suspension and several other things fixed on his vehicle, and then we've relocated to the wine fields of Stellenbosch now. About a 45 minute drive, it's a nice place. Large mountains and sprawling wine estates. Today we actually head out to do some wine tasting and figure out what cases we want to take to Mozambique together. I lost a few cases in some pool games to Chris, but luckily you can get good wine for $3 or so a bottle.

Hopefully we can head out tomorrow and start up the coast en route to Jeffrey's Bay. Our goal is to then cut up through Lesotho (mountainous country) and then back into South Africa through the Draakensburg Range for some mountain camping. Then over to Durban, up to Swaziland, before finally getting to Mozambique just before our February 10 start date. Take care and I'll update as I get time.

Rollin' Hard

The day has finally come for me to return to Africa. It actually doesn't seem all that long ago that I just stepped off a plane from there. After coordinating with my friend Chris, I have a better idea of what my next few months will look like. Friday I'll touch down in Cape Town and stay there for a few days visiting friends. From there he and I will take a month to drive north and east seeing various friends we made along the way and just keepin' it real. February 10 we are scheduled to be in Tofo and begin our work, or at least our accommodation hunt. After that it should be about 3 months of work and training until I get back in early May.
It's great having had some experience not only in Africa, but also the town in which I will be living a month from now. I was pretty relaxed before leaving in 2005, but now I'm not nervous at all. I know exactly what to expect, and my only concern in life is if I can get all my movies and videos loaded onto my iPod in time before I leave. Speaking of rolling hard, I just got a 160gb iPod for Christmas from the folks and have all but finished loading stuff onto it. I've a bit more work to do tomorrow, but as it stands I have 23606 songs and a few South Park episodes. (PS, iTunes sucks ass, you should use floola.) Despite the fact that I have 36ish hours of travel tomorrow, (DSM to Chicago to Frankfurt to Jo'Burg to Cape) I've got no worries with my updated iPod. Hooray!
I'll update on here what my new address is once I find out in case any of you want to send me anything awesome. Music magazines (Spin, Paste, Below the Radar, etc.) are always welcomed. Booze isn't at all necessary because in Mozambique they have this rum called Tipo Tinto that comes in 500mL plastic bottles for $1.75 and is absolutely delicious with Sprite. I'll be sure to update you all on how difficult my life is when I'm lying on a beach sunning myself in between dives with whale sharks and manta rays. I'd like to update this along the way so check back occasionally.

Puerto Vallarta

For Christmas this year, the Pearson Clan met in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for a week of fun in the sun. My dad's best friend has a timeshare and was kind enough to invite the whole family down from the 9th-16th of December. It was the first family Christmas in four years. We stayed at the Grand Mayan resort that basically has everything you could possibly want, including an endless supply of scantily clad senior citizens and retirees. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Because my sister and I are nearly 7 years apart in age (she'll be 33 in a couple weeks) we had little common ground growing up. Thankfully, I turned 21 several years ago and that provided us with alcohol to serve as a liquid bridge to our age gap and allow us to catch up for lost time of bonding. And the good thing with booze is that is accelerates the bonding like some sort of mind-bending time machine.

On our first full day, we decided that 10am was a good time to go to the main pool and start ordering piña coladas as the aquarobics provided us with a nice view/conversation topic of the aforementioned retirees flailing around, arms akimbo to some sort of Mexican techno music while the instructors were counting loudly in Spanish. By the end of the first day, we'd met a nice gal named Jenn to hang out with, and had our fill of alcohol for the week.

We spent the rest of the week playing cards and eating with Jenn's family, so that was great to interrupt the monotony of one's own family. For my personal entertainment, I spent several days playing beach volleyball in the morning, went on two SCUBA dives, and played a few rounds of golf. The diving was really cold and unremarkable, but it was great to get back into the water. My golf game was fairly bad, but I broke 100 each time, so I was happy with my performance seeing how I've played less than 10 rounds in 3 years. I still have my patented slice, so I've got that goin' for me.

I really enjoyed laying on the beach each day, so if nothing else it has just reaffirmed to me that I'm really going to enjoy Mozambique where that's my daily routine.

Bullseye

Upon my return to the United States, I had to find a way to make some money for my upcoming plans. Although I didn't spend all of the resettlement allowance provided by the Peace Corps, I knew the unfortunate reality was that I would have to make some serious cash to afford a ticket back to, and living expenses whilst in Mozambique. I spent my first few weeks back in denial and avoided the need to get some sort of income.

The first job I secured was going up the the summer camp I used to work at and clean all of the buildings once/week. It has paid quite well and I decide when I work, so it's a perfect job actually. It wasn't the first time, but hopefully is the last time I'm employed as a janitor. I've been doing that and have two sessions left before I head back.

I did interview at Wells Fargo for a job in a call center, but just a few days after my interview I decided that there was no way in hell I could handle that. Plus, the gig was downtown so I'd have to do the 7:00am commute five days/week and I know I'd
fail to show up in a timely manner so I called them back and told them I found another job.

I ended applying for a job as a night stocker (just like Richard Ramirez) at Target. During my first interview I was told that I was way overqualified for the position. Not to sound like a dick, but I was well aware of that, but where else can I get hired to work for two months. And at $10/hour, it pays relatively well. After two more interviews (they're thorough) and a passed drug test I was officially a New Team Member at Target just down the road from my folks place.

I attended the mandatory orientation and was informed by the President and CEO via video that Target's goal was 'To be the BEST Company Ever!' No shit, that is verbatim. Pretty lofty goal to be better than any company in the existence of the Earth, huh? Next I was told how Target revolves around the FFF principles. That's, Fun, Fast, Friendly, service. They have all kinds of propaganda like that, e.g., in the back room there are signs everywhere that say, 'Speed is life.' I'm surprised a company with a mandatory drug test would promote amphetamines so openly.

Each night begins at 10pm and ends at 8am. During the holiday season I was given the option of overtime, but only took them up on it a couple times. My job is to work in the back rooms and carry my little PDA (a pricing gun with a laser and computer on it) and it tells me how many of what product to remove from the back shelves and push out to the sales floor. Then the FLOW team takes the carts of things I send out and puts them out to be sold. It's repetitive, mind-numbing work, but isn't too bad.

Perks of the job are; 10% at Target stores, two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute 'lunch' at 3am, a name tag that says 'Brett,' a box cutter, and a chance to listen to the radio for 10 hours straight. I'm assuming most of you don't listen to one radio station for 10 hours, but I hear the same awful songs 3-6 times/shift. It sucks. For coworkers, I enjoy one girl I work with, and can talk to two others, but most of the people just communicate with grunts and random noises. They're who you'd expect would have this job as a career. I mostly keep to myself and try not to look anyone in the eye.

Last night I finished my second to last shift and look forward to finishing my final shift and preparing to leave for Mozambique. Aside from conversation with the one girl, I can honestly say I'll miss nothing about the place. That's only because I'm keeping the name tag, otherwise I'd miss that too.