My family has arrived, K two weeks ago and K and M last week and two weeks until L arrives. The third and final phase of my sabbatical. The first phase was me, alone in Sydney, working at LeapFrog, taking sailing lessons, bridge lessons and walking everywhere all over the city. A sense of independence and aloneness. The second phase was of travel to Manila, South Africa, working on LF projects and now the third phase is family. This third phase is making everything seem more real. It will not just be my memories of Sydney but now I will have shared memories and stories to tell that others will be part of. I didn't realize when this experience started, how important that would be. These precious four months will live longer because others are here to be part of it.
I am showing family all of my haunts around Sydney. Developed the perfect first day. Land from the states at 6:30 am, make it to my apartment around 8:30, a shower and breakfast and off to the ferry to Circular Quay and then to Manley, a walk around the beach, and then sitting on the beach watching the surfers at Manley. Lunch at the Kiosk at Shelley Beach, ferries back to the apartment and quiet evening with light dinner and bed by about 8:30 pm. Lots of sunshine, some walking, good views of Sydney and the beach. Perfect first day in Sydney. I've done this twice for the two most recent arrivals. L arrives on Mother's Day, what a perfect present.
Easter weekend is a bit unusual in Australia. The country feels rather unreligious, compared to very religious US. But the amount of chocolate Easter candy in the stores boggles the mind. I've never seen so much candy for sale. I imagine there will be some pretty good sales after Easter on the left over candy. This year ANZAC Day and Easter fall on the same weekend so there is a five day weekend, which for Australia is better than the Second Coming. Australians love their weekends. Where parts of the US are live to work places, this country is more of a work to live place. So five days off, Good Friday through Easter Tuesday. Easter Tuesday??? Well because ANZAC day is Monday, one is obliged to push Easter Monday to Easter Tuesday. Got it? Just about everything is shut down on Good Friday, Easter and until 1:00 pm on ANZAC day. Even grocery stores. Just so happens I have no, and I mean no, food in my apartment so we are scraping together meals and trying to find the few restaurants that are open. ANZAC day is sort of a Veterans Day and Memorial Day rolled into one. Daybreak ceremonies that everyone says are very moving, but I have yet to talk to anyone who has ever been to a day break ceremony. Parades of veterans and then a gambling game called Two Up which is only allowed to be played, legally, on ANZAC Day. Seems you go to a bar, and bet on whether the coin toss will be heads or tails. It may be more challenging than this but I don't think so.
Although I am not overly religious, I was a little taken aback by watching parties and a wedding (live band pounding out songs while everyone danced and drank) on Good Friday. Now that is something that would never happen, in virtually any community in the states. There was a loud and rowdy party in my apartment building on Friday night, long into the night. There are a few Anglican Churches, St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney and a few other churches scattered around but my overall impression is that organized religion does not play a big role in the life of many Australians. But the five day weekend, now that is a big deal.
Spending more mental time on UE things, working with J on some trips for the summer and getting excited about returning. LeapFrog announced a huge new investment in Kenya last week. The largest microinsurance investment, ever and one that will fund significant new growth in microinsurance in East Africa. I think there will be a few more announcements in the coming months. The projects in the Philippines are still in the early stages but I think they will come together. LeapFrog is taking the social metrics initiative very seriously and I think will be able to have a strong story to tell in the future on the role their investments had in improving their communities. I'm looking forward to following this over the years.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
South Africa
Finishing my time in South Africa and heading back to Sydney tomorrow. The trip was a combination of the investors in LeapFrog meeting for the second time since the fund was started, working with the micro insurance experts based in Johannesburg and a trip to a game reserve.
The investor meeting was very interesting for me as an outsider. I think we do meetings extremely well at United Educators so I have a very high bar on both governance and meeting flow. LeapFrog has added challenges to holding meetings as they are working across cultures and varying degrees of comfort in English. I tried to lead a lessons learned after the meetings, using UE's format of things that went well and things to improve upon. It fell flat and proves that point that what works for one group isn't guaranteed to help others.
I also went with a colleague to visit the call center for Allife, the insurance group that offers term life insurance to HIV positive South Africans. There are 15 languages spoken in South Africa so the call center reps are matched with the language of the prospect and go through a complicated process to get the appropriate underwriting information, medical tests must be done etc. After the policy is bound, there is ongoing follow up to ensure that the proper medical treatments are achieved, either through the government health insurance program which means long wait times or through private health insurance.
As with all big meetings, the LeapFrog team was exhausted by Friday afternoon. The perfect escape for me was a weekend in the bush. Rented a car and started my first ever driving on the opposite side of the road, opposite for me at least. Thirty minutes out of Joburg, I got a flat tire. Truth be told, I was finding my way to stay center on a narrow road and went slightly off the side of the road. There was a 4 inch drop in the pavement, a sharp edge drop and the right tire blew. A few choice words escaped and I realized I had to pull over. The background to this is everyone in South Africa has a story of crime. Either they or a close relative or friend has been a victim of crime, a car jacking, murder, attack something. It seems to be part of the collective experience. I pulled over and relied on the generosity and kindness of strangers. I've been taught to change my own tire, K has been insistent that both L and I are able to do this, but after being quickly surrounded by a large crowd out for Saturday shopping, a few men stepped forward and offered to help me with the tire. It was an efficient operation and the kindness of strangers prevailed. I gave the banana I had to a little girl who was close at hand and 100 Rand to the primary tire changer and drove away.
Made my way to the Madikwe Game Reserve which is at the border of Botswana and South Africa. The final 20% of the trip was on dirt roads with the last portion in the Reserve really rough road.
Jaci's Tree Top Lodge, www.madikwe.com, was worth the hassle of the trip. I'll post the pictures which with all modesty are pretty good considering I just shave a pocket camera. The animals were wonderful to see in the wild, the highlight was a pack of wild dogs which are very rare and difficult to see. The African bush is a magical place. L was born in 91 and her generation grew up on Lion King. I must have seen this movie 100 times. It left such an impression I was identifying the animals based on the character in Lion King. Pretty pathetic but true. Timone and what was the warthog's name?
It is off season so I was the only person staying at the Tree Lodge Sunday night. Even the staff was a distance away at the staff quarters. A very lonely and sort of scary night to be out in the bush too far for anyone even to hear a scream. I was brave and kept my doors opened, hearing the birds and monkey calls and praying that snakes are not nocturnal and the gate to the Lodge was locked.
I've been asked my impressions of South Africa 25 years since my last visit, after apartheid. I can't possibly judge the country's progress after 10 days but some things are hard to miss. Twenty five years ago, except for a few "international" restaurants, I wouldn't see blacks as patrons at restaurants. I remember trying to having dinner with a banker from Zambia and we were denied admittance to a restaurant in downtown Joburg. Now there is no distinction. Like the US, segregation exists, whites with whites and blacks with blacks. But there are many groups of upwardly mobile blacks, a group that didn't exist 25 years ago.
The poverty and slums still exist in abundance, the area where I stopped to change my tire was desperately poor and all black. The whites mostly seem to live in houses with walls and gates. The whites who have stayed, made the conscience decision to stay in South Africa and not immigrate to London, Perth Australia, Israel or other places are committed to the success of the country and are optimistic. They believe the country is getting better and the crime issues notwithstanding, that this country is on the mend, that Mandela did a miraculous job of reconciliation and with someone else as the first president things could have been much worse. I have a good feeling about the country and the potential for continued progress.
I am spending a couple days in the LeapFrog Joburg office, finishing up a business plan for a project in the Philippines and pulling together metrics for measuring the social impact of investments. These are my final projects. Another 12 hour flight, more jet lag ahead but I'm counting the days until K arrives and I begin to see more of Australia, the part outside of Sydney and to show off Sydney to my sister, brother-in-law, K and L.
The investor meeting was very interesting for me as an outsider. I think we do meetings extremely well at United Educators so I have a very high bar on both governance and meeting flow. LeapFrog has added challenges to holding meetings as they are working across cultures and varying degrees of comfort in English. I tried to lead a lessons learned after the meetings, using UE's format of things that went well and things to improve upon. It fell flat and proves that point that what works for one group isn't guaranteed to help others.
I also went with a colleague to visit the call center for Allife, the insurance group that offers term life insurance to HIV positive South Africans. There are 15 languages spoken in South Africa so the call center reps are matched with the language of the prospect and go through a complicated process to get the appropriate underwriting information, medical tests must be done etc. After the policy is bound, there is ongoing follow up to ensure that the proper medical treatments are achieved, either through the government health insurance program which means long wait times or through private health insurance.
As with all big meetings, the LeapFrog team was exhausted by Friday afternoon. The perfect escape for me was a weekend in the bush. Rented a car and started my first ever driving on the opposite side of the road, opposite for me at least. Thirty minutes out of Joburg, I got a flat tire. Truth be told, I was finding my way to stay center on a narrow road and went slightly off the side of the road. There was a 4 inch drop in the pavement, a sharp edge drop and the right tire blew. A few choice words escaped and I realized I had to pull over. The background to this is everyone in South Africa has a story of crime. Either they or a close relative or friend has been a victim of crime, a car jacking, murder, attack something. It seems to be part of the collective experience. I pulled over and relied on the generosity and kindness of strangers. I've been taught to change my own tire, K has been insistent that both L and I are able to do this, but after being quickly surrounded by a large crowd out for Saturday shopping, a few men stepped forward and offered to help me with the tire. It was an efficient operation and the kindness of strangers prevailed. I gave the banana I had to a little girl who was close at hand and 100 Rand to the primary tire changer and drove away.
Knowing I didn't have a spare added some stress, especially as I passed the road sign "HIGH RISK HIGHJACKING AREA" I translated this to drive fast and don't stop if another tire blows.
Made my way to the Madikwe Game Reserve which is at the border of Botswana and South Africa. The final 20% of the trip was on dirt roads with the last portion in the Reserve really rough road.
Jaci's Tree Top Lodge, www.madikwe.com, was worth the hassle of the trip. I'll post the pictures which with all modesty are pretty good considering I just shave a pocket camera. The animals were wonderful to see in the wild, the highlight was a pack of wild dogs which are very rare and difficult to see. The African bush is a magical place. L was born in 91 and her generation grew up on Lion King. I must have seen this movie 100 times. It left such an impression I was identifying the animals based on the character in Lion King. Pretty pathetic but true. Timone and what was the warthog's name?
It is off season so I was the only person staying at the Tree Lodge Sunday night. Even the staff was a distance away at the staff quarters. A very lonely and sort of scary night to be out in the bush too far for anyone even to hear a scream. I was brave and kept my doors opened, hearing the birds and monkey calls and praying that snakes are not nocturnal and the gate to the Lodge was locked.
I've been asked my impressions of South Africa 25 years since my last visit, after apartheid. I can't possibly judge the country's progress after 10 days but some things are hard to miss. Twenty five years ago, except for a few "international" restaurants, I wouldn't see blacks as patrons at restaurants. I remember trying to having dinner with a banker from Zambia and we were denied admittance to a restaurant in downtown Joburg. Now there is no distinction. Like the US, segregation exists, whites with whites and blacks with blacks. But there are many groups of upwardly mobile blacks, a group that didn't exist 25 years ago.
The poverty and slums still exist in abundance, the area where I stopped to change my tire was desperately poor and all black. The whites mostly seem to live in houses with walls and gates. The whites who have stayed, made the conscience decision to stay in South Africa and not immigrate to London, Perth Australia, Israel or other places are committed to the success of the country and are optimistic. They believe the country is getting better and the crime issues notwithstanding, that this country is on the mend, that Mandela did a miraculous job of reconciliation and with someone else as the first president things could have been much worse. I have a good feeling about the country and the potential for continued progress.
I am spending a couple days in the LeapFrog Joburg office, finishing up a business plan for a project in the Philippines and pulling together metrics for measuring the social impact of investments. These are my final projects. Another 12 hour flight, more jet lag ahead but I'm counting the days until K arrives and I begin to see more of Australia, the part outside of Sydney and to show off Sydney to my sister, brother-in-law, K and L.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Philippines and South Africa
It's been a hectic couple of weeks. Last week I returned to Manila and spent the week with a colleague calling on insurance companies, a distribution group we are interested in working with and a possible advisory committee member. My second trip in a month and I felt like a veteran. Harold the bomb sniffing dog was still on duty, sweet as ever. Wonder what would happen if he actually smelled something dangerous? My take aways from Manila are incredibly friendly people, great disparities of wealth, like most developing countries great inefficiencies in just about everything and food that is really not very good. I think there is a reason there aren't many Filipino restaurants around.
Not sure how to think about the inefficiencies. On the one hand unemployment is so high that there is great motivation to hire a lot of people to do things. In many cases hiring people is cheaper, at least in the near term, than investing in new technology. But these same inefficiencies will hold back development and add costs in the future. I decided I needed some new sneakers and walked to Landmark, the local department store. I counted and it took 7 people to sell me a pair of shoes. It could be however that I attracted a large crowd with my height and blond hair, trying on a variety of shoes and settling for a pair of classic white Keds. Also bought a cheap blanket for when family arrive in Sydney. The blankets in my neighborhood in Sydney were $300+ but I scored a made in China version at Landmark for $40. My carry on bag was bulging on the return flight with a week's worth of dirty clothes, the blanket and my Keds.
I am starting to shed some clothes, leaving behind things that I brought with the intention of not bringing them back home. A pair of black pants in Manila, a pair of shoes with a hole in them at the airport, (these were snatched from my hands before I could put them in the trash can) and now that I am in South Africa, another pair of shoes and a suit that has seen better days and will have another life here in Joburg. When I return from this trip it will be more vacation than work so the need for business attire will diminish.
A quick turnaround in Sydney last weekend, washed a few clothes and repacked and I left for South Africa. The trip is 15 hours. Yes 15 hours. Unbelievable. There isn't a recent movie I haven't seen. I resorted to watching old Glee episodes and some documentaries. A daytime 15 hour flight on a packed plane is as close to hell as I need to be.
It has been 25 years since I was in South Africa. I came here during the apartheid regime with the sense that there would be a major revolt very soon. Now 25 years later the transition happened, without violence and the country is still trying to find its footing. Crime is very high here and almost everyone knows someone who is a victim of crime. Despite high promises, the public education system is very poor, there are still shanties housing too many people and the infamous gates around South African's homes still exist. In talking to South Africans, they marvel that we live in houses without high stone walls surrounding the yards.
I traveled here for a meeting of LeapFrogs's investors. Americans and Europeans, all focused on some form of social impact investing and all major investors in the LeapFrog private equity fund. Really interesting discussions on the deals being done and on measuring the impact of the investments, the importance of the Double Bottom Line, profits with purpose or as we say at UE, doing well, while doing good.
Visited the call center for ALLife, a South African insurance company that offers life insurance to individuals who are HIV positive. There are 2 million South Africans who are HIV positive. With proper care these people can live a long time. Allife links getting the best care with life insurance. It will be an interesting experiment to watch and see if they can serve a large portion of the South African HIV population and if they can in fact extend the life expectancy of these individuals.
Going to head to a game park tomorrow morning for two nights. This will be the first time I have driven on the left side of the road, should be interesting and hopefully uneventful.
Not sure how to think about the inefficiencies. On the one hand unemployment is so high that there is great motivation to hire a lot of people to do things. In many cases hiring people is cheaper, at least in the near term, than investing in new technology. But these same inefficiencies will hold back development and add costs in the future. I decided I needed some new sneakers and walked to Landmark, the local department store. I counted and it took 7 people to sell me a pair of shoes. It could be however that I attracted a large crowd with my height and blond hair, trying on a variety of shoes and settling for a pair of classic white Keds. Also bought a cheap blanket for when family arrive in Sydney. The blankets in my neighborhood in Sydney were $300+ but I scored a made in China version at Landmark for $40. My carry on bag was bulging on the return flight with a week's worth of dirty clothes, the blanket and my Keds.
I am starting to shed some clothes, leaving behind things that I brought with the intention of not bringing them back home. A pair of black pants in Manila, a pair of shoes with a hole in them at the airport, (these were snatched from my hands before I could put them in the trash can) and now that I am in South Africa, another pair of shoes and a suit that has seen better days and will have another life here in Joburg. When I return from this trip it will be more vacation than work so the need for business attire will diminish.
A quick turnaround in Sydney last weekend, washed a few clothes and repacked and I left for South Africa. The trip is 15 hours. Yes 15 hours. Unbelievable. There isn't a recent movie I haven't seen. I resorted to watching old Glee episodes and some documentaries. A daytime 15 hour flight on a packed plane is as close to hell as I need to be.
It has been 25 years since I was in South Africa. I came here during the apartheid regime with the sense that there would be a major revolt very soon. Now 25 years later the transition happened, without violence and the country is still trying to find its footing. Crime is very high here and almost everyone knows someone who is a victim of crime. Despite high promises, the public education system is very poor, there are still shanties housing too many people and the infamous gates around South African's homes still exist. In talking to South Africans, they marvel that we live in houses without high stone walls surrounding the yards.
I traveled here for a meeting of LeapFrogs's investors. Americans and Europeans, all focused on some form of social impact investing and all major investors in the LeapFrog private equity fund. Really interesting discussions on the deals being done and on measuring the impact of the investments, the importance of the Double Bottom Line, profits with purpose or as we say at UE, doing well, while doing good.
Visited the call center for ALLife, a South African insurance company that offers life insurance to individuals who are HIV positive. There are 2 million South Africans who are HIV positive. With proper care these people can live a long time. Allife links getting the best care with life insurance. It will be an interesting experiment to watch and see if they can serve a large portion of the South African HIV population and if they can in fact extend the life expectancy of these individuals.
Going to head to a game park tomorrow morning for two nights. This will be the first time I have driven on the left side of the road, should be interesting and hopefully uneventful.
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