Addis Ababa

In Addis (see photo) I had a meeting about a possible job in Rwanda. In a rather surprising turn in my life, I now have a job in Rwanda, starting on the 1st July (contract to be signed in the next weeks). It was an offer too good to let pass. I will be working on setting up village electricity grids using small-scale hydro. Now I am back in Munich, trying to sort everything out in time for my move to Kigali. Life is hectic, but I'm looking forward to the new job and new country.

Go North...

As some of you may know, I am soon returning to Germany for a brief period. At the moment, little is certain about the next few months, and a lot is possible. Next week I will be in Addis Abeba for a couple of days on business. After that I will be in Munich for a short while. I'll keep you all posted...

Adventures with petty criminals

South Africans love to complain about crime. With an almost morbid fascination, they will compare shocking stories of themselves, friends or family falling victim to criminals. Admitedly, South Africa has a high crime rate. It is certainly not the most dangerous country in the world (think of the DRC, Darfur or even Rio’s favellas) but it has the crime rate that you could expect with African slums and rich European-style suburbs being within a 20 minute walk of each other.

So, following in the South African tradition, here are my modest experiences with crime. As a rich white foreigner who likes to hang around central Cape Town, I seem to be targeted more than most people.

My first experience with crime was simply a smashed car window. Unfortunately for the thieves, there was nothing to steal- not even a car radio- so they stole nothing. The car was a fully insured rental (not Joanna), so all the only consequence for me was that I had to spend the morning in a South African police station. I spent almost an hour queing under a sign that said “Please be patient. We are understaffed.”

The second experience was less pleasant and more bizarre. In the middle of the day in crowded street of Cape Town, about 3 young teenagers walked up next to me and told me to give them all my money or they’d kill me. I turned around and saw three lightly-built 13 year-olds without anything even resembling a weapon. So I told them no. They continued trying to convince me until the end of the street, and then gave up.

The last time was similar. Except this time I was with Daniela and they actually bothered to show me a knife (and then immediately put it in their pocket again). I must say that they weren’t very convincing thieves (also in their early teans and not very confident). They got 30 Rand (about 5 Euros) off me.

Not bad for 3 months in the Western Cape. I guess I must have “stupid tourist” written all over me.

The Cape from above

I flew to Johannesburg (again) for a meeting. The Cape is a beautiful landscape to see from the air- especially in comparison to the urban sprawl of Johannesburg. But as you can see, the Capetonians need to do something about their air pollution problem.