My SouthAfrican Saga

My Corporate Service Corps experiences in South Africa are in these blogs :-

https://www-146.ibm.com/corporateservicecorps/blog/1948

collating the blogs here for my Non-IBMer friends who can't access this link.


South African Saga Begins...

This is my first blog of my experience in CSC South Africa team 5.
"You don't write because you want to say something; you write because you've got something to say"-Scott Fitzgerald
I finally managed to pull some time of my hectic schedule to write this blog.
The objective of our assignment is to enable local economic development of Tzaneen using ICT. The first week of our assignment was spent largely on understanding the client business model, challenges and opportunities for local economic development in Tzaneen. We had lots of challenges to start with, some of them were: -
1. There was a communication gap between client partner and his IT supplier on the scope of work. So each one had different expectations from us.
It was a challenge to build a consensus on a revised statement of work.
2. The town Tzaneen in which information was to be collected was 90kms away from Polokwane, IT vendor and his server was in Pretoria (200kms) away from Polokwane and there were no proper transportation facilities.
3. The main contact person of client's IT vendor who was supposed to work with us got sick and he was not available with us to provide any information we needed.
4. There was tons of data to be gathered such as database of all SME's in Tzaneen, Town news, Calendar of events, Accommodation, Transportation and Hospitals etc.
Despite all the challenges, we made a considerable progress in our project since last three weeks. We knew that in a developing world such issues are common, so we adjusted ourselves to the new environment, re-prioritized our tasks and made full use of opportunities we got to visit our client place.
We gathered various feasibility study reports, researched the existing websites, discussed with various local stakeholders such as Tzaneen municipality etc and then we decided to focus on re-vitalizing a previously suspended mobile website project to help expose local micro businesses, arts and crafts, culture, and history of the town to the outside world.
Some of our key findings were: -
1. Tzaneen has the highest rainfall throughout the year, it is also known as Rain Basket, so virtually everything grows in Tzaneen. Hence there exists opportunity for local agricultural producers to leverage ICT and maximize their profits.
2. Growing penetration of mobile phone usage in South Africa. It has grown at the rate of about 1000 percent in last few years.
3. Applicability of IBM's Smarter planet initiatives in terms of Business to Business supply chain model, Mass transportation systems etc
We devised a strategy involving innovative techniques such as SMS Marketing and crowd sourcing to enable new value added services to the local population.
One thing I noticed in our team is, all of us wanted to see tangible outcome before the end of assignment. Though it is difficult to achieve in four weeks time frame, we still sticked to the scope of work we decided at the beginning of assignment i.e. showcase a live demo of the mobile website and worked hard to meet the deadlines. We did not neglect any kind of work involved in data gathering even if it was too boring and did not match our skills. For example: Manually walking the streets and collecting data. Converting the raw data in paper format in to electronic form by typing etc. Today as I write this blog, we have a live working website populated with most of the data we collected. We are preparing ourselves for the demonstrations to all stakeholders of the project within next couple of days. The website URL is: www.xtownx.co.za
The website can be accessed through any internet enabled phone or mobile simulator such as http://www.opera.com/mini/demo/
“If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainty” –Francis Bacon
-regards
Manjunath Muttur


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Marula, The African booze for Elephants!!


In one of our weekend trips, we got an opportunity to visit local Marula Feastival. We all learnt some very interesting facts about Marula tree and
its fruits. The Marula tree is predominantly found in southern Africa and is probably one of the better known African trees.
Apparently Marula is a much-loved tree in South Africa. The fruits are very tasty (tasted like an orange for me ).
The marula tree is seen as relaxation tree, source of a traditional beer and food, a place of worship, magical qualities as a healing ingredient, and the many uses of its bark, leaves, fruit, nuts.

The skin of the fruit is boiled to make a drink or burnt to be used as a substitute for coffee
The seed kernel of the fruit contains high quantities of oil and is used in many skin care products by African women.
The bark of the tree is also used to prevent and treat malaria.
The wood of the marula tree is used to make drums and bowls.

Fallen marula fruit may naturally ferment to an alcohol content after three or four days.
Elephants and monkeys love the taste of the marula fruit and will go through great lengths to get the fruit.
There are tales of the animals getting drunk by eating the fermenting marula fruit lying on the ground.
It was hilarious to imagine Elephants getting drunk :-)

We are also told that, Marula trees are dioecious, which means they have a specific sex.
The people of Venda also believe that bark infusions can be used to determine the sex of an unborn child.
If a woman wants a son the male tree is used, and for a daughter, the female tree.
It is also seen as Fertility Fruit, local tribes believe that by eating the marula fruit women are more likely to become pregnant.

In Limpopo, the ripening of the marula fruits from December to March is celebrated.
The local people call marula the "food of kings and ancestors," and celebrate the "Feast of First Fruits by pouring its juice over the tombs of their dead chiefs and family.

There were lots of cultural events also organised in the feastival. We got to see some traditional dance, music and songs of local tribes during the event.
The dancers were seen drinking marula beer and having a great fun. There were also some local arts and crafts put on sale.
We did some shopping and enjoyed the taste of marula beer along with locals.

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Influencing the Minds

Our client Mashile introduced us to many different officials of local government in Tzaneen. Some of the key officials include: -
1. Chief of Tzaneen
2. Operations Manager of Limpopo Tourism and Parks
3. GIS Mapping Consultants manager
4. Manager of Greater Tzaneen Economic Development Agency
5. Speaker of Tzaneen Municipality
6. Tzaneen communications and networking manager.
7. Agri-Letaba Officials
8. Tzaneen Municipality Mayor
9. Tourism Consultant in Tzaneen
10. Tzaneen Small Enterprise Development Agency- Business Advisor

All the officials we met were very delighted to hear about IBM CSC program and our enthusiasm to make a difference to the local community. They listened to us patiently and made note of everything we said. Our main objective behind those meetings was to clinch the support of their organization to our initiatives and help us in terms of content gathering for website development. They realized the significance of our initiatives and agreed to support our efforts in all possible ways. Infact, chief of Tzaneen promised to let our client use a piece of land for co-operative development during our introductory meeting with him. Tzaneen municipality agency manager provided us all town data within two days after we met. SEDA official provided us the database of all micro-businesses within a week of our meeting with him.
The pace of the decisions and actions taken to help our project surprised me because just like in any other country, govt offices there had lots of processes to be followed before such requests could be approved. Normally, it would be time consuming, as it required multiple levels of approvals. One of the reasons of this success was, we organized the meeting with the key officials i.e. head of the departments and had prepared clear-cut agenda on what to discuss and how to present our project goals. Our client Mashile was jubilant at the progress we made. Our presence helped change the perception of those officials. We opened more doors/channels for data gathering in 3 weeks than what our client had been trying since last 6 months. As the saying goes….“If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulder of giants.” -Isaac Newton
I’m happy that, we met all our objectives we had set before each of those meetings
i.e Gain their support for our mission, Help content gathering for website and help in promoting the website in the town.

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Winning Hearts through Language

During our pre-work studies, we learnt that language would not be a problem for us while in South Africa. English would be the main language for all communications with our clients and if needed interpreters would be provided to help us communicate.

Despite that, I decided to put some efforts to understand the local language i.e. Sapedi.

While I knew that, in just two months I can't rise to the fluency required to discuss with my clients in their local language but still I tried getting to grips with a few useful expressions such as “hello,” “how are you”,“please”, “thank you” and “goodbye” etc.

I searched the Internet and library for anything on African languages particularly Sapedi (Northern Sotho) which is predominantly spoken in Limpopo. I practiced the pronunciation of few words in my room. I had to shut my room door as my family members wondered what am I talking to myself :-)

This knowledge eventually turned out to be a winning formula for me. Every time I met local people I used to say few words in Sapedi and I could see the difference. They were eager to help me, talk to me more, and learn more about my country. It was a great feeling for me too. It helped me open up communication with my clients very well and eventually led to winning their trust and confidence.

The cook and the lodge staff very soon became good friends of mine.
They learnt that I'm a vegetarian, so they used to make sure I always had something to eat during dinner. I could strike a chord with more people such as shopkeepers, car drivers etc just by "localizing" my talk.

Though many of the locals knew English, speaking their language showed a lot of respect and helped bridge the gap of cultural and social differences. Doing so will demonstrate our interest in and commitment to the new country.

On the day of our final presentations, I started my talk by saying few words in Sapedi and the audience immediately acknowledged with a big applauds. It resonated well with the audience, tapping in to their patriotic sentiment.

As Nelson Mandela says....

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.
If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart." -Nelson Mandela

I read that, when we receive communication, our logical mind and our emotional heart act in tandem to make decisions, though emotions usually prevail.
Whether delivering or receiving, words have the power to educate, motivate, denigrate, invigorate, move mountains, shift allegiances, provoke anger, soften
sadness, make us laugh or inspire us into action. A first impression is a critically defining moment in any communication and this is one of the biggest lessons I learnt in this CSC assignment


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Tzaneen interesting information

Tzaneen is the place where our client Centre for Economic cooperatives is based and it is 90 kms away from Polokwane. The meaning of the name is "come together" or "the place where people gather".

It is situated in foothills of the impressive Wolkberg (Cloud Mountains). It has lots of rainfall and temperate climate all year round. This ensures that everything grows here in great abundance - nuts, avocados and other vegetables, fruits (especially citrus fruits, mangoes, bananas and litchis), coffee, tea and cotton.

The drive to Tzaneen has lots of scenic attractions, spectacular mountain views, tumbling waterfalls, lakes, small streams and magnificent forests.

Before coming to this country, the impression I had about South Africa was that it is full of dry forests with lots of animals such as Elephants, Lions and Cheetahs and few Baobab trees in between the dry land. Probably because most of the TV programs on South Africa show only the African wild life and Safari etc which is the top tourist attraction here.

But when I first saw the beauty of Tzaneen, I was surprised to know that such a place exist in africa. I believe, there is lot more than safari and wild animals in South Africa which the tourists around the world should visit.

Some of the treasures of Tzaneen are : -
Mooketsi Valley (largest tomato production area in the country),
Modjadji Nature Reserve (containing the largest natural concentration of a single cycad species in the world).
Sunland Baobab the largest Baobab tree in the world (with a pub inside the tree)
The Letsitele farming community represents the largest citrus production area in the country.

On the way to Tzaneen, we also saw the largest open church ZCC – Zion Christian Church. We noticed lots of people from all parts of South Africa flock to this place every year. The Star of David is the symbol of the ZCC. We also heard tales about ZCC places its emphasis on faith healing, purification rites, dancing, night communion, river baptism, the holy spirit, taboos and prophesying.
It seems lots of people wearing this symbol or following this tradition have good values and focus in life.

We also heard some interesting story about Mujaji who are also known as rain queens in SA. Local tribes believe that Rain queen has some divine powers to bring rain to their places and People make offerings to Mujaji and perform dances to please her. She lives in the mountains of Tzaneen and she is a cynosure of all tourists visiting that place.

There are interesting names of towns in South Africa.
Nobody, Alldays, My Darling, Try Again, Pyramid, Witbank, Settlers, Rust de winter etc

The roads between the towns is usually straight i.e no bends, curves etc.

Traffic lights are called as Robots

School childrens don't use footwears i.e shoes or slippers. Itseems barefoot is part of the tradition.

The fence in the garden is referred as 'No Nonsense'.

The public park or garden is called as 'No Job park'.

Impala's are known as Mac Donald's as they are most commonly found everywhere and their back looks like big 'M' (sign of McDonald restaurant)