Albino Kangaroo: An Alien in Africa
Well, I suppose the place to start is the fact that I love South Africa and I love traveling, so if you hate yourself enough to start your own business, then you might as well torture yourself doing something you love. Amanda came to me having found an awesome gap in the market, and we are both plowing forwards doing things we have a passion for; travel, technology, self-employment, and of course a nice pay-off at the end of it.
An Albino Kangaroo highlights some of the situations you find yourself in when you travel, work, and live in foreign climes. Well, foreign in as much as you weren’t wearing your original birthday suit when you first arrived on those particular shores.
I’ve been in SA on and off for 10 years this October. Since arriving, SA has been hugely welcoming and integration has never been a problem, all this amongst the general upheavals of a young democracy. Integration for me has always been a key issue when traveling and throwing yourself in the deep end is what it’s all about if you are going to get a real ‘experience’. As my Dad used to say “ I am not dragging you half-way around the world to find the nearest English pub serving mushy peas!!” Or in modern times, a McDonalds.
However much you adapt though, your history and upbringing, culture and family makes you slightly different. This is good and bad, examples could be as simple as not having watched the same cartoons as children to serious pronunciation and cultural issues. I still have difficulty not torturing anyone who can speak Afrikaans with my accent. Hence, however well adapted a Kangaroo, I am definitely not indigenous.
Kangaroos, though, normally have a home to go back to. You send it back to Australia in a purely literal sense, or in my case, I suppose, Montreal, Canada. Yes, I was born in Montreal, but I left at the age of 20 months, and since have spent more than 1 year in countries as varied as Saudi Arabia (the theme for another blog, nice Jewish boy in the desert), the USA, Indonesia, UK, France, and so on. Two passports, numerous permanent residencies, and a Greencard to show for it, but where is home? So even in a herd of Kanooks, I would definitely be the albino J
Then of course, instead of just joining your new herd, you deliberately decide to do things differently from them and set up your new business!! This is where the fun really starts, so once again, make sure you are doing something you really love, cause at least when you put your 18 hours in, you might be able to do it in exotic destinations on ‘research’ or at least staring at material all day that you have a serious passion for. However, something that always gave me the strength to buck the trend was:
“In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must, first of all, be a sheep”
and the prospects of having to worry about yacht birthing fees one day ;)
Well, I suppose the place to start is the fact that I love South Africa and I love traveling, so if you hate yourself enough to start your own business, then you might as well torture yourself doing something you love. Amanda came to me having found an awesome gap in the market, and we are both plowing forwards doing things we have a passion for; travel, technology, self-employment, and of course a nice pay-off at the end of it.
An Albino Kangaroo highlights some of the situations you find yourself in when you travel, work, and live in foreign climes. Well, foreign in as much as you weren’t wearing your original birthday suit when you first arrived on those particular shores.
I’ve been in SA on and off for 10 years this October. Since arriving, SA has been hugely welcoming and integration has never been a problem, all this amongst the general upheavals of a young democracy. Integration for me has always been a key issue when traveling and throwing yourself in the deep end is what it’s all about if you are going to get a real ‘experience’. As my Dad used to say “ I am not dragging you half-way around the world to find the nearest English pub serving mushy peas!!” Or in modern times, a McDonalds.
However much you adapt though, your history and upbringing, culture and family makes you slightly different. This is good and bad, examples could be as simple as not having watched the same cartoons as children to serious pronunciation and cultural issues. I still have difficulty not torturing anyone who can speak Afrikaans with my accent. Hence, however well adapted a Kangaroo, I am definitely not indigenous.
Kangaroos, though, normally have a home to go back to. You send it back to Australia in a purely literal sense, or in my case, I suppose, Montreal, Canada. Yes, I was born in Montreal, but I left at the age of 20 months, and since have spent more than 1 year in countries as varied as Saudi Arabia (the theme for another blog, nice Jewish boy in the desert), the USA, Indonesia, UK, France, and so on. Two passports, numerous permanent residencies, and a Greencard to show for it, but where is home? So even in a herd of Kanooks, I would definitely be the albino J
Then of course, instead of just joining your new herd, you deliberately decide to do things differently from them and set up your new business!! This is where the fun really starts, so once again, make sure you are doing something you really love, cause at least when you put your 18 hours in, you might be able to do it in exotic destinations on ‘research’ or at least staring at material all day that you have a serious passion for. However, something that always gave me the strength to buck the trend was:
“In order to be an immaculate member of a flock of sheep, one must, first of all, be a sheep”
and the prospects of having to worry about yacht birthing fees one day ;)
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