Touchdown in London

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Day 1 (or rather, Day 0.5): Finally after a 10.5 hr long flight, I landed at Heathrow. I must thank my coworker Nick for giving me his Premiere status -- now I know how well business class is treated! Bedseats are the greatest things ever!

Just my luck, I sit next to the CEO of a startup, who also happens to do a lot of nonprofit work in Africa. Of course, being my paranoid self, I started asking him about his experience in South Africa, since that was a big concern for both me and Debbie, my manager. The first thing he said was, "Oh, I've got experiences all right".

Not good.

He, then, proceeded to tell me this story about how he got kidnapped whilst there. He had gone to Joburg with his nonprofit group and they were assigned some security detail to chaperone. He was assigned to ride with the head of their security back to their quarters. Once he got into the car, it was over - the head of security turned out to be a fake! The faker then took my neighbor off the road to the middle of nowhere, asked him to get out of the car and threatened to kill him if he didn't help smuggle weapons into the US. Of course, my neighbor didn't hesitate to say yes, which guaranteed him a safe trip back to his facilities. Once there, he notified his group and the police, but they never really caught the guy.

After telling his story, he noticed my scared face and quickly said, "There are two things that are in your favor: (1) You're not white - black/white racial tensions run high and (2) You're American - they like Americans because they think we stopped the Apartheid." Great... that is so reassuring.

I feel like the more I hear about Joburg, the more nervous I become. I guess we won't know what it's like for sure until we have a chat with our project.

As for London, the last time I was here was 2007 on my post-grad Eurotrip. The city is different, but still feels familiar. This time though, I've traded in my hostels and backpack for a hotel and business wear.

And with that, I'll leave you with my welcome note from the hotel.

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