Wanda Hennig — Editor, Writer and Life Coach, Oakland, California

Where do you live and how long have you lived there?

I live in Oak­land, Cal­i­for­nia. If I jump in my car and if there’s no traf­fic on the Bay Bridge, I can be in down­town San Fran­cisco in 15 min­utes. I’ve lived in Oak­land for nearly eight years, in an apart­ment with a view of Lake Mer­ritt, which is an urban lake that has a res­i­dent bird pop­u­la­tion and sea­son­ally, migrat­ing birds (flocks of pel­i­cans right now). You can walk around the lake in just under an hour, fast pace, which lots of peo­ple do.

Before Oak­land, I lived for a cou­ple of years in Wal­nut Creek, which is about half an hour east. An afflu­ent, clean lit­tle city but pretty bland. I moved there for a job (edi­tor of a regional mag­a­zine) and left soon as I lost it. Before that, I lived in the town of Sonoma in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia wine coun­try. I also went there for a job (senior edi­tor on a glossy inter­na­tional wine coun­try liv­ing mag­a­zine). Sonoma is a his­toric town and a tourist des­ti­na­tion. I didn’t mind liv­ing there. You really saw the sea­sons reflected in the vine­yards and there were a num­ber of unique and inter­est­ing characters.

The first four or five years I was in the United States, besides two extended trips back to South Africa, I lived in San Fran­cisco, which pretty much has every­thing, as cities go. Good vibe, scenic, lots going on. Out of all the places I’ve lived, I like Oak­land best. It’s one of the most eth­ni­cally diverse cities in the United States with a large African Amer­i­can pop­u­la­tion, which is one of the rea­sons I think I feel at home here. As a white per­son, you’re often in the minority.

Lake Mer­ritt with some late sum­mer pel­i­can vis­i­tors. Promi­nent build­ing in the back­ground is the courthouse.

What made you choose the US and what do you love about liv­ing there? Dislike?

Com­ing here was pretty ran­dom. I arrived in San Fran­cisco with a one year return ticket.  That was 17 years ago. I had been think­ing of going to Lon­don for a year for a sort of per­sonal sab­bat­i­cal, men­tioned it to a friend who’d left her hus­band in Jo’burg for a man in San Fran­cisco, and she said, “Why don’t you come here and we can do some work together?” I’d left Cosmo in South Africa (I was Dur­ban bureau chief for them for five years) for a job at the Ind­aba Foun­da­tion, been laid off from the Ind­aba when they dis­banded, and was seri­ously search­ing for an inter­est­ing new job or career direction.

There’s always music going on some­where in Oak­land, here at the city’s 2009 Art and Soul festival.

What do I like about liv­ing here?

That I can go where I like and feel safe is prob­a­bly Num­ber One. And that Obama is Pres­i­dent. I like the diver­sity of this area, racial and cul­tural. I like the farm­ers mar­kets; the fact that I could eat at a dif­fer­ent restau­rant every night for sev­eral life­times; and that I’ve made friends with some pretty inter­est­ing peo­ple who like to sit around the table, eat well, drink wine and talk shit. Very South African. There’s lots to like, really.

Chef’s del­i­ca­cies at a Food Fair in San Francisco

What I don’t like?

The “hate pol­i­tics” and rumor-mongering of the right. It’s scary stuff. That I am so far from my fam­ily — my mom and my daugh­ter. That I am so far from my South African friends. Many are still in Dur­ban; oth­ers are scat­tered around. Being an only child with a very small fam­ily, my friends were super-important to me in South Africa and I miss them. And 17 years later, I’m still look­ing for that new career direction.

Pic­tured at an “eat real” food fes­ti­val. Oak­land is one of the most diverse cities in the United States, which makes it an inter­est­ing place to live.

You were a well known jour­nal­ist in South Africa — how dif­fi­cult was it to set­tle in a new coun­try and how did you make inroads in your profession?

The plan to work with the friend never mate­ri­al­ized. Before I came here, I’d been going reg­u­larly to the Bud­dhist Retreat Cen­tre in Ixopo and ended up mov­ing into the San Fran­cisco Zen Cen­ter after about three months. I lived there, as a Zen stu­dent, for nearly four years, inter­rupted by two extended trips back to South Africa. I prob­a­bly sewed 100 zafus (med­i­ta­tion cush­ions) and spend many days sit­ting on them. It was the right place to be spir­i­tu­ally, but not professionally.

Work­wise, I had hoped to get into some­thing broader and more chal­leng­ing than mag­a­zines. But peo­ple want to fit you in a box and the first job I got, which I found listed in the Sun­day paper, was as a senior edi­tor on a super-glossy high end wine coun­try liv­ing mag­a­zine. The mag­a­zine folded after I’d been there a year. There were sub­se­quently other mag­a­zines and news­pa­pers. I also worked in cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tion for a while for a huge multi­na­tional. And I spent two years putting in sweat equity as edi­tor of a mag­a­zine with a Niger­ian pub­lisher, who turned out to be the stereo­typ­i­cal Niger­ian rip-off artist.

It’s been an adven­ture but I’ve never found the buzz or sat­is­fac­tion I got work­ing on news­pa­pers and mag­a­zines and in other jobs in South Africa.

I trained and cer­ti­fied as a life coach about six years ago. More recently, I have been learn­ing as much as I can about the web, doing lots of blog­ging and online work, and have started to do some coach­ing and con­sult­ing around social media.

I would say I haven’t set­tled in well pro­fes­sion­ally here. I’ve had lots of jobs but none of them have been really sat­is­fy­ing. I like to do work that is con­nected some­how with South Africa. I’ve just started writ­ing about South Africa, along with culi­nary travel, for examiner.com, a national web­site that pays a pit­tance, but it’s fun being able to write and pub­lish what I like. Yes, I can do it on my own web­site and blog, but I don’t have the readership.

I still find my South African friends and for­mer edi­tors and col­leagues the peo­ple I feel clos­est to and most sup­ported by. It’s funny, but I do find that friends who came to this coun­try with part­ners seem to fit in bet­ter, and do bet­ter, than the women I know who came here alone.

A stroll along the water­front at Jack Lon­don Square.

How accept­ing were locals?

I guess pretty accept­ing. Although I’ve never felt really and truly home here and I don’t think I ever will.

Items for sale at Oakland’s “Eat Real” food fes­ti­val — one of many events sup­port­ing fresh and local fare.

What do you miss most about South Africa?

My friends and my fam­ily. Being closer to my mom and my step­dad, in Dur­ban. I talk to my mom every week at least once, and usu­ally for at least an hour. I miss being closer to my daugh­ter and her hus­band and, would you believe (I can’t) four chil­dren. I thought she would be liv­ing over­seas and I’d be liv­ing in South Africa. What hap­pened there? I miss the sup­port — peo­ple who knew me through thick and thin and when I did really crazy and stu­pid things and who still like me and accept me. Peo­ple I have a his­tory with. South Africa — I think if you’re from there, you’ve had it. You’re just com­mit­ted to always being South African.

Oak­land and neigh­bor­ing Berke­ley and San Fran­cisco across the Bay are all foodie cities with loads of fresh, local, organic fair and reg­u­lar foodie festivals.

What is your favourite hol­i­day destination?

Ide­ally, I would like a small apart­ment on the Dur­ban beach­front and to spend three or four months of the year there. I like Dur­ban for hol­i­days. I also like going to new places. Any new place, really. Not ice hotels, though. I spent a night in the ice hotel in Que­bec last win­ter. It was a night­mare. I don’t like cold. I love going to Lon­don or Europe any­time. And I love South East Asia. I like going off with a back­pack and no agenda any­time at all. I loved going two years ago to Poland and see­ing where my dad lived as a young man. I don’t like to go “on hol­i­day” as in going and sit­ting some­where to “relax”. I like adven­tures, and hang­ing out in places, and engag­ing with the peo­ple, and eat­ing their foods, and learn­ing about them, and tak­ing pho­tos and writ­ing about them.

The author smil­ing on the out­side — but think­ing: No more ice hotel vaca­tions, thank you very much.

What do you do for relax­ation? Hobbies?

I like to write and take pics and I do these things as much for hobby as for work. I like to spend time at the Zen cen­ter, either in San Fran­cisco or Berke­ley, and remain a pretty com­mit­ted Zen stu­dent. I love to walk around the lake and to play ten­nis. I love to spend a day read­ing my New Yorker, my Saveur, my Esquire and my Wired (mag­a­zines). I love going to movies. I love to cook for friends and sit around the table drink­ing wine and eat­ing with peo­ple I enjoy. I love to feel fit. I don’t relax much. I always think relax­ing is some­thing I will do when I’m too inca­pac­i­tated to do any­thing else.

The wall of the Last Chance Saloon, a bar at Oakland’s Jack Lon­don Square, shows the famous author for whom the city’s water­front was named.

Any favourite restaurants?

One of the good things here is that there are so many, and so much com­pe­ti­tion, that no restau­rant can’t afford to be mediocre. I love that I could go out for sev­eral life­times and try a dif­fer­ent restau­rant each time and I do like to try new ones. I dis­cov­ered Ethiopian cui­sine here and enjoy that a lot. I love restau­rants that focus on fresh, local and sea­sonal. I like fresh, sea­sonal and try­ing the arti­sanal foods wher­ever I am. I am a Slow Food supporter/advocate. I love, best, to eat at the homes of my friends who cook, be it here, in South Africa, or any­where else in the world.

The whole Bay Area is food nir­vana. Here San Fran­cisco mayor Gavin New­som, sec­ond left, cuts the rib­bon to open a recent festival.

Favourite shop/shops?

I’m not much of a shop­per. I avoid malls or depart­ment stores if I pos­si­bly can. I like to shop in food stores and at farm­ers mar­kets. And I love con­sign­ment stores and good­will out­lets for clothes.

The pop­u­lar Bohemian Cigar Store, North Beach, San Francisco.

Where to next?

Next? I wouldn’t mind mov­ing some­where new. I am liv­ing with a musi­cian so have got fairly set­tled, but if I had a good rea­son, I’d be up to try­ing a new place tomor­row. I’d love to find some­thing really chal­leng­ing to get my teeth into work­wise — some­thing big that felt worth­while. Oth­er­wise, I’d like enough of an income that I could spend my time doing my own writ­ing. What I want to be writ­ing is a memoir-self-help. The story of my five job lay­offs and what I’ve learned. The story of over­com­ing com­pul­sive eat­ing and depres­sion and chronic intro­ver­sion and what I’ve learned. The story of all the funny things I see going on around me. I’d like to be able to indulge myself and spend my time writ­ing about those things.

And — I’d like to end with a dis­claimer. Ask me these ques­tions again tomor­row, or next week, or next month, or on an espe­cially good day, or on a day I got out on the wrong side of the bed, and guar­an­teed, you’ll get a dif­fer­ent set of answers. Equally true answers. But, you know how it is, what we’re think­ing, how we see things — the view — changes day by day. Thank god I’m not a politician!

Oakland’s water­front, Jack Lon­don Square, named for the author who used to hang out there. A cou­ple nib­ble on corn and a sax player busks.

One of your favourite quotes?

‘Life is either an adven­ture, or it is noth­ing’ — Helen Keller

To find out more about Wanda’s adven­tures, ser­vices in writ­ing, coach­ing and liv­ing a deli­cious life visit  Wan­daLUST

Her South African travel and culi­nary travel sto­ries are cap­tured on:

http://image.examiner.com/x-6896-South-Africa–Culinary-Travel-Examiner

The sun sets over San Fran­cisco Bay and a sec­tion of har­bor along Oakland’s water­front, view from Jack Lon­don Square.
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