I had the privilege of traveling to South Africa on a speaking engagement at my full international fee. Everything was first class, from the flights to the hotel, with a car and driver. This was such a different experience to the previous times to Cape Town when I was struggling, and not knowing how the bills were going to be paid.
Throughout the event I was impressed by what Cape Town had to offer the international business folks. The event was held in City Hall where the one of the major organs are housed and it was played for the opening. At the end of the evening we were guided to The Castle, a fortress built in the 1600’s to protect the colonists from the indigenous people, by drummers. I was one of the last folks in the procession, and as we passed a drummer, he joined his fellow drummers behind me. After a 10 minute walk, the group of drummers had swelled to about 40 musicians. The sound of the African drums will always be with me.
At The Castle we were welcomed by the firing of a cannon and a fire dance. To modern popular music, on the castle walls first one dancer appeared swing fire, then two more appeared, then five more on so the group grew. About 15 people lit ropes and danced with the fire. It was powerful and moving…mesmerizing to be more exact. This was followed by a 30 minute non stop fire works display and dinner.
Dinner was a sit down buffet showcasing the local foods of the Cape. There was Indian food (Cape Malay) with its curries and briani. There was seafood that included pickled fish and fried snoek. There was the briaa fleis which is what the Americans may call a barbeque. This had boereworste, (sausage coils), steaks and lamb, but done in sauces that only the South Africans know how to prepare, and can only be cooked over melkbos (milk wood). At the desert station were Koksisters (a doughy pastry deep fried and then dipped into a sugar syrup) and melktert (milk tart).
Though out the dinner were performers with world class acts. One person had built a hat and was balancing almost 50 dozen eggs. Others were on stilts 20 foot high. There were acrobats and dancers.
Egging him on!
I am most impressed by my corporate experience in Cape Town. Never before had I thought about doing an event in my home town. Now I would highly recommend doing events there. This can be a major incentive event for global companies who want to do high end entertainment of several hundred performance driven employees.
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