I am in South Africa for the first time. I arrived in Johannesburg yesterday. On the ride from the airport, I’ll be honest I thought it looked a lot like San Jose, CA. Until we passed a shanty town and then I was reminded that there is so much more here than meets the eye. ThoughtWorks office in Johannesburg is in Braamfontein area. It has a great feel, the office is very vibrant so that probably colors how I’m looking at the area as a whole. We have a mix of people here from many parts of Africa and several vistors from our other offices around the globe. Intermingling globally is a big part of how ThoughtWorks works and I am definitely benefiting from that right now. I had lunch today with folks representing 7 countries (7 people plus me) and I learned more about African countries in that lunch than I had probably learned in my entire formal education. And there is so much to know. Following the political histories of each of these countries is complicated and I don’t expect I’ll be able to learn it over a lunch, but I’m very glad to have the opportunity to hear the stories. I learn best from stories so this is a perfect environment for me. While everyone is passionate about what they know and happy to share they are also not didactic and don’t judge my ignorance. I’m grateful for that too because that could stifle questions if I felt I would be judged. And I’m not alone as we are all learning from each other. That’s why I called it the best lunch ever. The food by the way was Nando’s which is tasty, but it could have been porridge and I’d probably say the same thing.
