Bring on 28
Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 02:31AM ;)
It was a good birthday. For starters, I was in South Africa....never had a birthday there before (to my knowledge at least). I was in Johannesburg as a member of the Mbabane Mbananas, the first ever Swaziland ultimate frisbee team to compete at the Southern African Ultimate Frisbee Championships. What we lacked in experience we certainly made up for in enthusiasm and flair (as you can see from the picture, I played an entire game with my birthday crown). Against all odds, we actually managed to win two out of five games and ended up 5th out of 8 in the tournament.
After Saturday's games, some of us went to a large, outdoor, music festival where we heard Freshly Ground, one of the more popular South African bands. Post-concert activities included bar hopping and one "flaming lamborghini" (don't ask... i don't know what was in it either, but it was awful).
It has also been a big week for me at work. On Tuesday, my partner and I gave an interim presentation to the Steering Committee where we discussed the potential of the Swaziland dairy and sorghum industries. In short, Dairy seems to have some promise if farmers get some help.... sorghum on the other hand doesn't really look like it has much of a chance. In the next phase of work, we'll be looking at beef, cassava, and vegetable oils, as well as a section where we discuss each crop and how it compares to growing sugar (the dominant crop throughout most of Swaziland). If anyone wants to hear more about either industry, please let me know because I have plenty of info.
In addition to work as usual, I have picked up a few odd-jobs that have been keeping me busy. When living in a third world country, all your skills which may be average to mediocre back in the states are suddenly first-class... kinda like being a small fish in an even smaller pond... Keeping that in mind, this monday I had my first published article in the Swazi Observer, one of two nationally distributed papers here in Swaziland. TNS has a weekly business column in the paper and I wrote a basic "intro to pricing your product". Over the next few weeks I will probably have other opportunities to write about business basics so I have to figure out some additional topics that might be useful to a small business owner or first time entrepreneur.
I have also managed to get a few gigs as a product photographer. My first project was taking pictures for Eswatini, a jam and chutney maker here in town. I have also started taking pictures for 4-5 hand-craft companies that are putting together a corporate catalogue. Product photography is actually much harder than I thought it would be. Picking the right backgrounds, getting the lighting right, and even choosing the angle you are going to shoot from all make a big difference in 
the final output. I'm certainly getting good experience that will come in handy if I ever want to do this down the road, and I also get to see all the best hand-crafted items from around Swaziland.
I know I promised before that I would write about some cultural observations. I'm half way through writing another post that I hope to get up this week, so stay tuned. Hope all is well back home, and let me know if you have any questions or would like me to cover specific topics here on the blog. Comments are always welcome.
Reader Comments (2)
Have to go to bed early now that I am a working woman. Missing you and wishing I can skype with you! Love you J. Thanks for posting!
ooh happy belated bday!! ;P
and how on earth did you land those stints! so interesting - also a lot of responsibility though. i hope you're dispensing sound business advice. haha
and one more month left in swazi? or are you extending?