be an entrepreneur

Last Friday it was Freedom Day in South Africa, so I didn’t have to go to work! I was supposed to join Trevor, Ale, Katie and Ben on an epic road trip through the Valley of Desolation, Jeffery’s Bay and Port Elizabeth, but I got sick. Real sick. So I stayed home.

Saturday evening I was sitting on the couch wrapped in several layers of blankets wallowing in shameless self-pity when I heard a knock on the door. I groaned. A second knock. I groaned again. I did not want to leave the warm enclave of my blankets and I didn’t even what to think about whether or not I looked presentable. A third knock came.  I shot dagger eyes at the door, heaved myself off the couch and shuffled over to the door.

I slowly opened it, steeling myself for human interaction after two days of self-prescribed sickbed isolation. It was Hilda, our landlady. During the course of our brief conversation she astutely concluded that I was not well. I was relieved when she said farewell and left me quarantined in the intern house.

Minutes later however she reappeared in the doorway with tea, another blanket and medicine! She insisted I take all of it and then invited me to lunch the following day. I graciously accepted.

I woke up Sunday feeling much better. I still wasn’t well, but I was determined to make it to lunch – and enjoy it. I showered (an arduous task in itself sometimes), put on what I thought were some clean clothes (it’s really hard to do the smell-check when you are congested) and headed over to my landlord’s house where I had one of the best afternoons I’ve had in a while.

I played fetch with their three dogs, talked about tennis and school with their eldest daughter and gossiped about boys with their middle daughter (but don’t tell – she doesn’t want her parents to know).

Then it was time for lunch. Barbequed onion-glazed chicken, Greek salad, freshly baked rolls and pudding (homemade pudding that you bake – not that crap from a box) with ice cream for dessert. I was in heaven. I seriously need to broaden my food horizons beyond cereal, cucumbers and pasta.

But the best part of the afternoon, by far, was the conversation. We touched on a wide range of topics; how South African pecans have the potential to become one of the most profitable markets in the next ten years, rhino poaching (138 rhinos have been poached in Kruger Park so far this year), the impact of social media, and my favorite – entrepreneurship.

Johan (our landlord) had asked what my plans for next year in three months were. After a brief moment of internal panic, I told him stoically that I had no clue. I’m interested in continuing to work abroad in a capacity similar to my current role, exploring what options the geology field might have for me, or anything that isn’t strictly a desk job.

In the course of our conversation I mentioned that Trevor and I had recently devised an “idea board.” We were writing down ideas that we had for starting our own business (okay we are shamelessly looking for ways to make money) and we’ve come up with a few not too bad ideas (which, I’m sorry, we are keeping under wraps so no one steals them… yeah, they’re that good).

Johan is an entrepreneur by definition (he owns a farm, owns and manages property, started his own telecommunications company, runs an irrigation company, and probably does a few more things I am utterly clueless about) and it was very enlightening listening to him talk about some of his business adventures developed.

As always, when I left his house Johan had said something that would provide me with mental fodder for quite awhile; he said that in this economy, where it is hard for anyone to find a job, that it was our job, as educated people, to create jobs for others. As educated people, it is a waste of our talents to sit behind a desk and earn a salary. Instead, we should be coming up with the ideas that create jobs for others who are not as fortunate as us. I don’t know if I agree with this fully, but is has definitely got me thinking.