IAP audit group function / Action cricket with Canadians and South Africans from KPMG / Victoria Falls trip

I think if I had to pick just one week as my favorite from our whole experience in South Africa, this one would be it. On the work side, our client was preparing for an audit committee meeting, which meant the KPMG audit team was going full throttle to make sure all of the substantive testwork was completed and accurate. It was really cool to see auditors from the other locations like Cape Town and Pretoria coming to Johannesburg to work together with our team to deliver an audit opinion. I also had my mid-point performance review with my manager, which was great to hear feedback from the other side of the world!

During the week, our group (IAP) had an audit function, which was a group-wide meeting in the morning followed by a social activity in the afternoon. The morning consisted of managers talking about the state of the IAP audit group, and more importantly how to grow the business and improve. Staff from all experience levels gave suggestions for improvement, and the group developed an action plan to drive the “transformation” as they called it. In the afternoon, we went to a rural venue to have a South African cookoff (think South African version of Iron Chef, only with accountants – lots of fun).

After a lot of fun with our audit group, I met up with David and the Canadians to go watch the KPMG team play action cricket (an indoor version of the normal cricket game). Unfortunately the team lost, but we still had a great time learning all the rules and meeting the South African team members – we even learned how to throw. I’d say we have a ways to go before we are cricket pros, but it was really cool to learn a new sport.

The capstone of my favorite week was our trip to the Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. The falls are the highest in the world (twice as tall as Niagara), and they are absolutely beautiful. Some of our favorite activities included bungee jumping and white water rafting down the Zambezi river. We also took a sunset cruise and got to take some breathtaking pictures of the African sunset, a personal favorite of mine. After our adrenaline-filled weekend, we are definitely ready to embrace our last week as quasi-South Africans back in Johannesburg.