Introducing a fellow African

" Most failures in life are failures in commonsense."
When I was given the opportunity to host Jonathan Wutawunashe on my blog I was very excited.  Jonathan is from Zimbabwe, one of South Africa's neighbours.  Zimbabwe gets so much bad press in the news, it is great to be able to celebrate something good from Zimbabwe for a change.  Having traveled through Zimbabwe on numerous occasions, I have to say it is a beautiful country with a fascinating history.

Jonathan has written a great book on how to realise your dreams called 'Fulfil your threats.'  He shares with us a post he wrote about lessons he learned from his sister Edna.

Lessons from my Sister Edna

A  Guest Blog by Ambassador Jonathan Watawunashe

 When my sister Edna was born, I remember that the entire family was excited. Her most obvious mark of uniqueness was that she was the first and only girl in a family dominated by boys, but as time went on, we all realised that her uniqueness did not stop at gender. For one thing, she was gifted with a mighty pair of lungs, which, as an infant, she employed to great advantage. When she was disappointed in any way, you did everything you could to stop her crying; the way we all got destabilized and frantic, you would think world peace was at stake! I think that Edna decided from that early stage to live her life as an accomplisher and an influencer of people. I intend to do three posts on aspects of my sister’s personality that I have found to be worth emulating, and that I believe represent important traits of an effective person. In this post, I shall focus on Edna’s incredible drive.
I was surprised when, at the age of nineteen, Edna announced that she was joining the Police, and was being assigned an entry-level job at the General Headquarters. Naturally, I was happy that she had found employment at that early age, but I was at the same time a little apprehensive about her prospects in a career then largely dominated by males. Elder brothers tend to be protective, sometimes overly so. I was therefore genuinely attentive whenever she talked about what was happening at work. I wasn’t sure, though, if I was hearing right when she briefed me about the rapid progress she was making as a rookie, but it was hard to miss the enthusiasm with which she described details of her training and other aspects of her life in the Police. Edna’s enthusiasm was simply infectious, and I could tell that she was throwing herself into her chosen career without reserve. While kind people have cited us as a family of achievers, I honestly believe that our sister takes pole position where absolute commitment to a chosen course of action is involved. The manner in which she seeks all kinds of skill and knowledge that relates to the pursuit she is engaged in makes the point I try to make in my book on the necessity of empowering oneself with relevant knowledge much more convincingly than my prose does.
In just a few months, Edna was regraded favourably in her job, and there was talk of her pursuing an accelerated and very promising career path. What impressed me was her determination to wring every opportunity for whatever sap it contained, a procedure that entailed taking every training course that dared present itself in her path. She left the organisation she worked with with no option other than to keep upgrading and promoting her. One of the courses she pursued with fervor was secretarial training, and I remember being briefed in detail from the thirty words-per-minute stage, through eighty to one hundred and twenty. As a result of her commitment to higher attainment, Edna quickly became a force to reckon with, and was assigned to high offices. When she announced her intention to move on, Police General Headquarters, I am sure, felt greatly deprived.
Edna’s next stop was the Headquarters of a large telecommunications concern, where, once again, her enthusiasm and drive quickly propelled her to prominence. Like all successful people, she continued to define herself as a thirsty learner, allowing herself considerable lateral vision, which exposed her to several life opportunities. Because I am her brother, I got to meet many people whose resumés were remarkable, and some of them have remained family friends. It fascinated me that my little sister was being cited as a mentor and opinion leader by so many people, some of whom had titles that ranked higher than her own. What an influencer! People who have drive are constantly seeking opportunities that test and exercise that drive, and in that quest, they touch many lives.

A combination of drive, peripheral vision and lateral thinking created an achievement that I marvel at even today. At a time when the real estate market was severely constricted, Edna spotted an opportunity that I must confess I was at first sceptical about. This opportunity involved a rather complex investment scheme that promised high and rapid returns. People who possess Edna’s kind of drive and determination tend to be good at seeing gains where lesser mortals see only risk. Once she committed herself to the scheme, my sister concentrated a phenomenal focus on making it work. Indeed, as I write, it strikes me that Edna is a true illustration of the admonition I put in the chapter of my book where I discuss management: “when you pay money, you had better pay attention.” The outcome of this concentration and unrelenting drive was a very impressive suburban home.

Bio

Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe cut his teeth as a diplomat in Washington, DC and New York during the 1980s. Educated and trained in his native Zimbabwe, in Australia, the United States and Belgium, Wutawunashe played key roles as a top manager and leader in key posts and functions in Zimbabwe, North America, Europe and Asia. One of his more widely publicized accomplishments was his presentation of the case against nuclear weapons at the International Court of Justice in November 1995.

Ambassador Wutawunashe is a sought-after speaker and counselor who has motivated audiences at universities, churches, training seminars, trade symposiums and in other contexts in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. His personal achievements include writing for magazines and academic journals from an early age, musical compositions and an extensive discography that has caught the attention of researchers and writers on global culture. He has done creative work for television, for which he has received plaudits, and has also established several  audio-visual recording and mastering studios. The Ambassador holds  post-graduate degrees in literature and social sciences. He is married to Shuvai, and the couple have three children, Tinashe, Tendai and  Paidamoyo.  You can read more about Wutawunashe on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Wutawunashe.

Description:

This incisive, well-written book shares profound insights into the psychology that drives doers to do what they do, and to do it with confidence, method and persistence. Its energizing claim is that we can all be effective doers if we take simple steps to yank our ambitions from the realm of idle thought and idle talk, and to mobilize those dreams and aspirations into projects that achieve results that can be seen, touched and experienced. Wutawunashe draws from experience and observation to illustrate how business ideas, personal development efforts, social influence and other schemes can be pursued in a manner that assures effective, sustained impact . In an engaging style that melds entertaining anecdotes, humorous turn of phrase and powerful didactic principle in a uniquely seamless manner, Wutawunashe delivers a powerful manual that could well come with a warranty, given the ease with which the reader can apply these lessons and see results.

   

Video Review Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANidCr0-14E&feature=g-upl&context=G205ab81AUAAAAAAABAA

Author: Jonathan Wutawunashe

Available on Amazon in Kindle Format: http://www.amazon.com/Fulfill-Threats-Principles-Succeed-ebook/dp/B00375LJA0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322349679&sr=1-1

Website:  http://www.fulfiilthedream.org

Blog: http://possibilitypages.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/possibilitypages

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Arrested in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe, great potential, beautiful landscapes, some lovely friendly people, but OMIGOD some nasty pieces of work as well. I think there’s a certain nastiness/bitch detector that they use on all applicants to the police and CID. Those with grades of 8 or higher on the bitch scale are immediately selected. Other would be applicants are only occasionally taken in and then given jobs low on the ladder until their bitch grades improve. Okay I admit it, I am having a bit of a rant here, but having just been released from 20 hours of incarceration I feel entitled to whinge.

We got lost getting out of Pretoria, ended up going through Graskop to Polekwane, the scenic route. So as that route took longer, we stayed over at Louis Trichardt instead of Messina in a backpackers, where lo and behold, bumped into someone I knew there twenty years ago. Small world. He’s been married and divorced 4 times since we last met.

Messina, and we quickly found a police station to get copies of my passport certified. You have to go to a special lawyer to get this done in Tanzania, and they charge $20 for it. Free in South Africa. We took a wrong turn and ended up going to the jail instead, but the woman dishing up the inmates lunches was able to certify my documents. HATE TO HAVE BEEN IN THE Messina jail though, corrugated iron shed, no windows, barred gate for a door and extreme heat. It can’t be a pleasant experience. Siobhan was excited to see prisoners in a real jail, little did she know what lay ahead for us.

The border crossing at Beit Bridge was completely uneventful, we got through relatively quickly with no questions asked. Nobody was interested in our over-loaded car, just commenting that we were obviously relocating as it’s filled with our personal possessions. I didn’t notice that the customs lady accidentally kept the police clearance we got from the Zimbabwe CID.

We arrived at Masvingo and checked into a hotel, and explored the Great Zimbabwe Ruins in the morning. Leaving Masvingo for Harare, I got caught for speeding, doing 71km in an 80 area. The female officers were hiding behind an electricity pylon with their speed camera, 25m in the 80km zone, catching people just as they started to accelerate as they left the 60 zone. Unfair, definitely. Illegal, probably. They told me they were trying to make the roads safer as speeding kills. I said if they wanted to make the roads safer, they wouldn’t hide they’d stay in the open so that motorists slow down. By hiding, they are wanting motorists to speed so they can catch them. An argument ensued, I managed to get the other locals who’d also been caught and were waiting for their fines to be written out, on my side and shouting at the unfairness of the location of the speed camera. A sort of a riot ensued and I was threatened with arrest. Siobhan shouted from the car for me to calm down, and I backed down, paid the fine to a very angry policewoman who wanted my head, and went on my merry way.

Harare and we accidentally found the right road to the backpackers in our guide book. Unfortunately, even the latest guide books are outdated when it comes to Zimbabwe. None of the backpackers in the book exist anymore. We turned up at a dilapidated property, the tree-houses that had attracted us in the guide book falling from the trees. But, the people living there now directed us to another house around the block who sometimes took in backpackers. The guy actually owns Hippo Pools Bush Camp, but he took us in, let us use his room, and only charged us $10 for the night. There was no power, so they had a fire going, we nipped down to the supermarket and bought some meat to BBQ. I survived the lumpiest pillow ever, woke up with a chronic migraine from fighting the lumps all night, and then faced our next challenge. Finding an ATM that not only worked, but also dispensed cash and worked with visa cards. This challenge took us 2 hours. By this time, my fuel light was on and my mild panic was causing my migraine to develop into a jackhammer pounding away at my brain.

Having the speed camera system sussed, we made it to the Zambian border at Chirundu in good time, arriving there at 4.30pm. This is where our luck changed chronically. On the Zimbabwean side of the border (Zambia and Zimbabwe share the same building), the CID asked for our police clearance from Beit Bridge border post. We didn’t have it. This proved to be a huge problem. The CID guys were very aggressive and definitely looking for a bribe. They opened the car bonnet and checked the engine and chassis numbers, but the engine number didn’t match the engine number on the car registration card. This was because the school had replaced the engine with a reconditioned one several years ago, and unbeknownst to me, had never registered the change with the police or Tanzanian Road Authority. Therefore, according to the CID, I had stolen the car engine in Zimbabwe and put it in my car. The car with all our belongings and us were impounded subject to further investigation. They were mean, even threatened Siobhan when she asked a question, rude to us and refused to contact the SA Embassy. They relented, let us sleep in the car instead of the cells, when I told them I was going to put all this in my next book. A very jolly inspector arrived later the evening, completely different to the two CID boys, and told us he was going to pray for us. When they refused to escort Siobhan through the village next door to the toilet, he stepped in and sent another female inmate to accompany her. He wasn’t happy with us sleeping in the car as lions, hyena and elephant come there at night, so he walked us across past the long line of trucks to a motel where we were then allowed to spend the night. All of this started happening when I threatened them with the embassy and a bad write up in my book.

This morning, while we were sitting waiting for 5 hours in the hot car to be cleared of the theft charges, the jolly inspector arrived and asked me if I could give him a copy of one of my books, so I gave him a copy of Not Telling that I happened to have in my bag. Soon after that they came to tell us that I’d been cleared, my car wasn’t stolen and we were free to go. An extra days delay, an extra night in a motel to pay for, I was singularly unimpressed.

Anyway, final exit at Zimbabwe border post and entry into Zambia took a total of 45 minutes. I decided to be upfront, tell Zambian CID about the engine problem that the number was different, and all they said was to make sure I get it sorted when I get back to Tanzania. Now why couldn’t CID Zimbabwe have done that when it came up at 4.30pm yesterday?

Now in Lusaka at the Comfort Lodge on the Great East Road heading for Malawi. Internet access for the first time since Saturday morning. Hold thumbs, we have no problems leaving Zambia or at the Malawian border! Then of course, we still have to enter Tanzania!
Hold thumbs for us!\love
Cindy

Who said that I sweat cash?

Someone out there has told my kids a lie, and when I find them, I might fling them off the top of Table Mountain.  Seriously, I do not sweat cash.  It does not come out of my pores or other body orifices.  It comes out of my bank account, which is currently breathing heavily and sweating profusely.  My kids seem to believe that I sweat cash.  This is obviously a nasty rumour started by somebody out to get me.  Let's go and see a movie - IT COSTS MONEY!  Which restaurant are we eating at - IT COSTS MONEY!  And of course the classic.  "My new second-hand couch is dusty.  Let's just buy a vacuum cleaner."  Kids really have no idea, do they?  The shit we have to eat, crap we have to put up with to get our monthly paycheck which they plan to spend as rapidly as possible. 
One would think that a year living in res and going to hotel school would have taught my son how to budget and the value of money.  No way.  Looking through his bank statements, he takes on average 1-4 days to spend his monthly allowance, and then is broke for the rest of the month.  And now, he's moved into an apartment.  God help us all!  I have to say, with two daughters and a son, girls definitely are better able to budget.
It's hard to believe this holiday is nearly over and I don't really feel as if I accomplished much.  I wanted to work on my new book, read a ton of books, relax and do some school prep for the new year.  I haven't managed to do any of those, rather spending my time driving from Hermanus to Cape Town and back.  Quickly catching up with family and friends, racing around getting stuff sorted for Tony, buying some school supplies, beads for my friend Marina, never actually spending enough time in one place to accomplish anything.  In a way, I'm eagerly anticipating our trip back.  At least I'll be sitting still in the driver's seat.
Next week I've promised myself a week of writing and reading.  No rushing anywhere.  I've already ransacked the store with all our boxes and got a car full of stuff to bring back to Tanzania.  At least, we'll have more of our clothes.  Wearing the same things every third day wore the clothes down completely.  Although Tony's apartment is set up, he still wants to stay with me until his classes start.  He obviously doesn't realise that the money sweating mechanism has been turned off permanently due to a malfunction from over-use.  It basically burnt out.
We'll be leaving here the 16th or so of July.  The plan is to drive to Bloemfontein, then Johannesburg, Messina, Beit Bridge into Zimbabwe.  Go to Masvingo and check out the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, up to Kariba, cross into Zambia, then cross into Malawi, along the lake, then into Tanzania and then home.  I reckon the whole trip should take about ten days.  We'll probably stay at more budget type places this time around, because of a greatly depleted cash supply  Any donations from a caring public would be welcome!
Have a great weekend! 
luv
Cindy