Getting back to, getting on with life

As I disembarked from the 9pm flight, a large photo of Robert Mugabe is displayed on each of the walls in the arrivals hall. The blue carpet and old fashioned airport chairs made the arrivals hall feel like not much had changed since the 1970’s. This would have been state of the art then, but not had changed since.

Harare is a city of stark contrasts. The public infrastructure, roads and traffic lights are in a state of disrepair. Litter lines the pavements (as is the case in most African cities), and the “Zimbabwean National Botanical” gardens are overgrown and look more like an ill-maintained lot.

Then we arrived at the guest house where we would be staying. It used to be an old farm house and within the surrounding walls was a small piece of paradise. Manicured gardens and a well maintained space, with service from the staff in long white aprons as I imagine it would have been under colonial rule.

The next day our aim was to visit some retail stores and see the state of the market from the point of view of my customer. Our first stop was a Spar store. The shelves were FULL of stock, with95% of the brands we’d see in a similar store in South Africa.

“This is one of the ‘new’ Spar stores, which has just been redone” – the local operator told me. 

It was as though I could have been in any grocery store in the smart northern suburbs of Johannesburg. The store was clean and modern. Prices in US dollars were roughly the same as they would be in South Africa - This is in a country that 3 years ago, had inflation figures at over 2000% per annum, lacked basic commodities and looked hopeless. An in-store marketing campaign, boasting that consumers could win a car, shows the ‘re-found sophistication’ of this market.

In spite of this sophistication - 150m down the road in the informal market a street vendor sells loaves of bread to passersby. The social economics of most African countries, force people towards an entrepreneurial spirit, and they get on and make a living. Always with a smile on their face.

That's how Africa is.

Surprising Humanity

Half day of work today ... before we head out to Nelspruit for a 3 day mountain bike ride this weekend.

Happy Days.

I actually don't have much to blog about, but received the below from my Mom this morning, and its exactly what "Appreciating the moment" is about ...

It irritates me that our foreign policy doesn't allow this great man into our country to wish another great man  "Happy Birthday".

Appreciating the moment

It is a natural instinct for a child to think of their parent as "old". The earliest moment I remember asking my Mom how old she was, was when she was 33.  At the time of asking that question, the answer "33" had no meaning ... it could been 99, and it would have had meant the same thing to me. It was incomprehensible. It was another life time away and nothing that I was going to have to worry about.

Next April I turn 33!!

They say that life is like a roll of toilet paper, in the beginning it seems to last forever. Never to run out. Nearer the middle it starts to speed up and runs out faster and faster towards the end until ....

Someone once told me about the importance of "appreciating the moment". Life for most of us is a mad, rush, rat-race. We tend to spend our time, looking forward to the next thing in our day. It normally goes something like this:

Wakeup, rush to gym, rush home. Shower, get ready. Sit in traffic, need to get to work. Right - need to check email, what's for dinner? Get through meetings, past the shops. Traffic. Home.
Kids quick, some TV, zzzzzzzzz. 
Repeat.

We all have that "I cant believe its Friday tomorrow" or "where did today go?" feeling that comes with living like that.

The importance of taking something out of each moment, adds a huge amount of value to your life by simply taking the time to appreciate a few small things. Sitting in traffic, take in the sun that's coming up, or the trees that have started to blossom. Take a minute to smile at the homeless person at the traffic light. Each of these very small things can often be missed in the rat-race we call life.

The fragility of life seems to hit home when someone inspiring passes away suddenly. Steve Jobs, is a business icon and one of the great visionaries of our time. His books are inspiring and he creates products that people love, and have a cult following for.

He built a business that has a value that almost matches Microsoft and Google combined. All over the net today people have posted many of Steve Jobs' top quotes, and they're all inspiring. The following stand outs for me:

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me… Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” Steve Jobs
While you're out there running through the "fast middle section" in the toilet roll of life, make sure that you're doing something that you love, and take in those small defining moments - they make the biggest difference.

Rest in peace Steve Jobs - (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011)