What a year this has been!!! At the end of last year I decided to do my Honours in Educational Psychology and it is hard to believe that I am already finished. When I was accepted, Clint and I decided that I must just bite the bullet and do it full time over one year instead of two years. I think we were completely nuts! The wonderful avo’s were supportive from the start and throughout the year I have had so much encouragement from this space. So, thank you to everyone who was a part of this journey. A really huge thanks must go to my husband Clint. I can’t lie and say that it was easy…..it was flippin difficult and I think there were more than five occassions where I said “I don’t think I can do it anymore”. My knight in shining armor would always be there to tell me that I can do it and that he loves me no matter what. It has been tough for Clint too, and I thank him soooo much for sticking with me through it all. Now we can be married again, and people finally believe that I am no longer a figment of Clint’s imagination.

Although it was a non-stop year and I felt like a hermit for most it, I learnt so much and I wanted to share a little bit about how amazing my internship was. I had the privilege of spending my time at a school in Westcliffe called Hope School. It is for physically disabled learners and has the most incredible children. The disabilities range from cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, brittle bone disease, spina bifida, amputees and a host of others. Instead of me going there to inspire and uplift the kids, I often felt like the one being inspired. These young people have fought a tough battle to just get up in the morning and often are looked at by others as weird, freaky and incapable. My eyes were opened so much when I actually got to know these children. They are strong individuals who are often more capable than us able bodied humans. Ask yourself honestly whether you would go out when perhaps you can’t control your movements, can’t walk or can’t speak clearly? These children get up every day and fight against a society that excludes and labels them, so that they can live as normal a life as possible. They are wonder kids and I was so privileged to get to know them.

So next time you see someone who doesn’t look like you, don’t judge them. They can think, feel and do probably just as much as you can. Get to know them and you will be surprised. Thank you to Hope school for the opportunity to learn and grow! It will always be a time I can look back upon and say that it was a turning point for me. Next year I will be in a slightly different space at Reddam House, but I am excited to learn and grow even more. So watch this space for more challenging adventures.

Here we go again!…

The quest for that ever elusive Elevator Speech carries on.

Avos, here is the post we used last time to give us ideas. Please have another look so you can start thinking about your elevator speech that you need to bring at the end of January.

There were a few suggestions made last time which would you should also have a squizz at to refresh your brains!

Look forward to the final speeches!

Here we go:
Here is the list of words that we wanted to use, so the challenge is to take these words (some, not all!) and make a one-liner out of them that best describes what we do, and how we do it.

Remember that the end date for the challenge is Thurs 31st May.

Words and Phrases:

Communication. Humour. Connecting. Business.

Conversations. Guacomole. Authentic. Soft Skills.

Fresh. Genuine. Open. Magical. Caring. Creative.

Passionate. Unique. ‘Fun with intent’. People. Real.

‘A symphony out of single notes’. Talking.

‘Work better together’. ‘It’s not what we do, it’s how we do it’

What we didn’t want to say/be/do:

Flaky. Corporate. Use ‘buzz’ words. Be ‘over-funky’. Stereotyped.

Be ‘just another training company’. Try to avoid ‘multi-syllable words’.

Go forth Avos, and find us a winner!

So… After much “fun and games” changing webhosts between America and South Africa (that is, from America to South Africa), we have a fully functional website, run by South Africans (yay!) and the transition was just about problem free.

Just about - we did unfortunately lose the blog I posted about our christmas tree, so this is me making an attempt at replacing it!
Here goes:

I think Avo must have the coolest Christmas tree around this year. It was made for us by Ivan, from the Mother of Peace Community and Orphanage in Northriding, who is 18 years old.

Ivan made our tree out of wire and beads and we each got a beaded letter for the first letter of our names, which we put on the tree together.

Avo is doing such a special thing again this year.

This Saturday we’ll be taking all the children from Mother of Peace to the Pied Piper (which is just heaven for kids!) where they’ll each get two presents. One is something that they need (clothes, school bags etc.) and the other one is something that they want.

These kids don’t get stuff that they want very often, so Jeanette and Lele took them all shopping where they were each allowed to choose a gift for themselves. These will be wrapped and given to them to open on Saturday.

We’re all really looking forward to spending the day with these special children (and all the Avo offspring too!) and seeing the smiles on their faces.

Something tells me our smiles will be bigger than theirs… .

What a wonderful response to Shanthee’s first blog! Thanks to everyone who left a comment! It has meant the world to her. Here is another excerpt to keep you intrigued!

” Now folds the lily all her sweetness up
And slips into the bossom of the lake.
So fold thyself my dearest, thou, and slip
Into my bosom and be lost in me.”

(Tennyson: The Princess)

“I had fallen hopelessly in love, with the quiet handsome Muslim, Muhammed Essop Manjoo, whom I promptly named Shyam, an exquisite and celestial name for a beloved. I saw him for the first time in Mr Mayne’s senior shorthand class at the Nizamia, and I simply lived for those Tuesday and Thursday evenings when I could be with him. He became a member of the Child Welfare Society, which gave us the added opportunity of seeing one another.

Filled with longing one afternoon, I walked to the farthermost upper end of Church Street to Amod Cassimjee’s where Shyam was an accountant. I went disguised as a man, complete with dark glasses and hat provided by my friend Cynthia Green who accompanied me for moral support. All for the sweet, forbidden pleasure, thrill and sheer joy of seeing and surprising Shyam!

Although Rookmani, Ma and Mamee knew of this friendship, they wisely witheld it from my father who, being a devout Hindu, would never approve. And that was putting it mildly.”

So we’ve been doing some in-house training recently (in our very own special conference room with the breathtaking view, nogal).

It’s such a wonderful opportunity to have our own training guru’s sharing their amazing expertise with us… you just want to soak it all up!

We’ve been covering Personalities at the moment, which has many of us walking around referring to our ‘colours’, like;

“I’m blue, remember, I need more information…” or “I know I’m loud, but I’m y-e-l-l-o-w” (the ‘yellow’ normally being said with much chest puffing and emphasis, if not a grand ‘diva’ gesture…). Okay, I’m being stereotypical, but you gotta have some fun with it!

We’re doing a very interesting thing right now as part of that ongoing training.

I’m calling it the Admiration wall (Wall of admiration? Wall of fuzzy? Okay I’m undecided):

Each Avo has a page dedicated to them, up in the office, where all the other Avos have to write what it is they admire about you and why they like having you around.

Now, it’s possible that this could seem cliche, but I have to tell you that it sure makes you stand back and think.

Having to stand at that page and write something positive about each person, definitely makes you appreciate the people you’re working with - because (and I know I’m bragging a bit here) in this space, it’s not hard to think of the admirable qualities your fellow Avos have.

What’s also interesting is to see what other people have written about each other, and to see that each person is admired and appreciated in a different way by each Avo.

Needless to say the best part is getting to read your own and seeing what you bring to the table.

I think it’s a real eye opener and can’t wait until it’s finished so we can all glow for a while!

(P.S: Mine’s the one with the stars drawn on it, in green, in the top row…)

It was a year ago that I joined this precious Avo space. Aside from the usual things one goes through when they are settling in to a new work space, I have had a pretty action packed year on the personal side…

Moved 3 times - One of these moves was finally into the new house we have been building which took forever and is not just known as ‘the house’ to my friends, family and colleagues, but the house with many colourful adjectives in front of it!

Got married to a South African (This also came with the realisation that I am no longer here on a ‘work visa’ but that South Africa is now home. I could do a whole other blog on the emotional impact of this!!!)

Had my parents here from Canada for a month which was a wonderful excuse to go galavanting around South Africa - which they absolutely loved!

Went home to Canada for three weeks for another wedding celebration.

… And in the midst of all of that I managed to actually get some work done!

On the work side, I must admit, slogging it out to build a new territory is not on my list of ‘the most enjoyable things to do on the planet!’ Getting to know different products, how to position them, building new relationships, hanging on to the old, familiarising myself with new systems and processes (and sometimes the lack there of - tee hee), and staying focused on a fairly aggressive sales target, is flipping exhausting! But I think one of the most exciting things about the past year has been the wonderful opportunity to reinvent myself. With all of this ‘newness,’ one would be a fool to not take advantage of it!

So thanks to everyone in my life who has had to take a few knocks along the way (and believe me - these ‘knocks’ were felt as far away as Canada) - Lots of love and gratitude to you all - I owe you big time!!:)