Well, not literally, just indirectly.
Our Audit Contact here is from Manila. He works around the clock all the time. We knew he only went home 2 or 3 times a year but wasn’t convinced he had family back home.
Monday we asked him if he was affected by the horrible storms that ravaged Manila over the weekend. Sure enough he was. He has a 2-story house that was flooded up to the ceiling of the 1st floor. His wife and young daughter were able to go up to the 2nd floor and were unharmed. Their teenage son was visiting a friend and the two of them were worried for his safety. All of a sudden…he came swimming up to their house. He and the friend had been concerned about how high the water would get so they took off to Felipe’s house where they were safe on the 2nd floor.
On Sunday Felipe and other of his Filipino friends went to the Filipino Embassy outside of Luanda where they often meet for afternoons of table tennis and socialization. On this Sunday they were all in communication with their homes in Manila. Felipe was able to talk to his wife because the cell phones were working and her power was restored after being out.
He now reports that the water has subsided and that mud is the problem of the day. His car in the garage that doesn’t get driven much was completely destroyed. He will get it replaced by insurance but at a great loss. This all sounds a lot like Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, etc. Over there they are typhoons. And there are two major rainstorms still predicted to be moving into the area.
Tonight as a gesture of International Goodwill we (i.e., BP) treated Felipe and his 2Filipino friends, Gilbert (the fat man – Felipe’s words) and Mar (the little man) to dinner at a very nice restaurant called Pimms. Had a T-bone steak, French fries and Johnny Walker Red. Yum, yum. Not worth a typhoon…but, need I remind anyone…two more wake-up calls and I’m outta here.
Later.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Larry Olan Mills
This is some of our Wait Staff at the BP Staff House. From left to right, Graco, Rosarie and Cecilia. After we came in Friday Night from our dinner outing to Chez Wou (Shay Voo) we came back to the Staff House for a nightcap. Along the way I pulled out my camera and snapped these pix.
Yesterday I print them out on full size sheet of paper and last night give them to these 3. They go nuts. They were so excited. Rosarie came up to me and starts trying to explain something. I finally figure out - another girl is working that night - Sophia - and she wants me to take her picture.
Before I was finished, they went and got others, including two cooks, the bartender, two desk clerks, etc. So, now I have a whole “plate” of pictures to print and present to them. My printer will never be the same.
Never fret. When I do my picture album at the end of the trip you will see them all. They really are a fun group, though their English and my Portuguese is about the same - non-existent.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
College Game Day: Saturday Night - Sunday Morning
After working at the office Saturday it was finally time to go out somewhere for a nice dinner on Saturday Night. I asked the Controller at the company we’re auditing for recommendations. He gave me 4 that were all in the same general area: Chill Out, Cocanuts, Cais de Quatro and a Chinese Restaurant named Chez Wou.
The area they were in is called Ilya (Island) because it’s this long peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. The first two were the furthest away, so we shot for Cais de Quatro. Funny thing was though none of the phone numbers we had for it worked. We had the kid at the front desk calling and he never could raise them or find a good number though he was trying diligently. His final tactic was really humorous. He told someone on the phone that he is a General and that he wanted Reservations at Cais de Quatro. Apparently that didn’t do any good because it was like the restaurant wasn’t open. As it turned out all 4 of us guys liked Chinese – this is very odd in the Audit world – they like them some meat and taters – but this group all said okay. So Chez Wou it was.
Very easy to get a car and got there within 15 minutes which was very cool. It was a very nice restaurant and we had a great meal and a great time. When we first walked in, you don’t expect to hear someone going “Larry, Mr. Larry…” Lo and behold it was our main contact person (Felipe) where we were auditing – he wasn’t the one that had given me the list of restaurants and had no idea either of us would be there. But that made the evening even better because we were able to pick his brain for menu items to select. After cocktails of course. And those were very good. Two of the guys ordered Jack Daniels and Sprite (sounds vaguely familiar) and the waiter brought out a new bottle of JD. Luckily he didn’t leave it at the table, but his portions were generous as was the Blue Sapphire.
Felipe said to order the spring rolls and Chinese soup (wasn't called that on the menu, but he said they all knew what it was) – it was your basic hot and spicy soup and it was deeeelicious One of his guys said to order the Beef Teppanyaki (Teriyaki) and we did. It was all really good and we were very glad we went, especially since all our dinners had been in the hotel during the week.
Came back to the hotel (remembered to order a car during the middle of the meal), and had a nightcap or two. At this point it’s 10 pm. Checked some afternoon college football scores and promptly went to bed for a nap. Somehow I woke up at 1:05, right about the time the Texas game was going to start. Got online and pulled up the radio coverage and then went to JustinTV to see about actually watching it.
Got a message that the maximum number of viewers from “this region” were already on. Guess all 5 of the Texas alums in Africa were watching. I’m sure any Tech people not in Lubbock were probably in Muleshoe watching on the tube. But, for $10 I could upgrade my watching, and of course I did that. And that worked for the rest of the game, though sometimes the picture would freeze, usually at the beginning of a play. But, the audio would continue, so you knew how the play turned out. It was a nailbiter of a game. Seems like things went Texas’ way in the last 6 minutes which was great. Our team will go as far as our defense takes us and Tech was certainly a good test. Second best result of the day was the USC beatdown. Way to go Huskies. Will see them Oct 24 vs the Ducks. Quack.
Ended up going to bed at 5:30 a.m. I woke up around 10 which was much earlier than I expected but laid there until around 10:30…could hear all the kids playing outside my window down below. As I was getting up there was a knock at the door. Figured it was the cleaning people and I would tell them that I didn’t need any service. Sure enough there are 3 young girls in starched uniforms. Instead of them adhering to my “no, no, no service…” they immediately came in the room – with me still in my drawers. Not the dresser drawers either. Oh, that's right, there's not a dresser.
It was like they were searching for something. They were rifling through my papers, picking up my wallet and looking under it…just looking everywhere for something. Finally the main lady (really they’re young girls) goes away and comes back. She has a “Do Not Disturb” sign and puts it on the front of my door. There had never been one in the room – like a jillion other things that aren’t here – but anyway, they wanted apparently to put one on my door…probably so their Supervisor wouldn’t hold them accountable for not cleaning my room. It was quite the little experience. Especially since I was groggy from just getting up.
So, that’s how you get thru College Football Saturday and especially a 7 pm game on a Saturday Night. Would love to be able to do the same thing for the Cows and the Giants at 7 tonight but this is a School Night and so I’ll just read about it tomorrow.
Adios and Good Night.
The area they were in is called Ilya (Island) because it’s this long peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean. The first two were the furthest away, so we shot for Cais de Quatro. Funny thing was though none of the phone numbers we had for it worked. We had the kid at the front desk calling and he never could raise them or find a good number though he was trying diligently. His final tactic was really humorous. He told someone on the phone that he is a General and that he wanted Reservations at Cais de Quatro. Apparently that didn’t do any good because it was like the restaurant wasn’t open. As it turned out all 4 of us guys liked Chinese – this is very odd in the Audit world – they like them some meat and taters – but this group all said okay. So Chez Wou it was.
Very easy to get a car and got there within 15 minutes which was very cool. It was a very nice restaurant and we had a great meal and a great time. When we first walked in, you don’t expect to hear someone going “Larry, Mr. Larry…” Lo and behold it was our main contact person (Felipe) where we were auditing – he wasn’t the one that had given me the list of restaurants and had no idea either of us would be there. But that made the evening even better because we were able to pick his brain for menu items to select. After cocktails of course. And those were very good. Two of the guys ordered Jack Daniels and Sprite (sounds vaguely familiar) and the waiter brought out a new bottle of JD. Luckily he didn’t leave it at the table, but his portions were generous as was the Blue Sapphire.
Felipe said to order the spring rolls and Chinese soup (wasn't called that on the menu, but he said they all knew what it was) – it was your basic hot and spicy soup and it was deeeelicious One of his guys said to order the Beef Teppanyaki (Teriyaki) and we did. It was all really good and we were very glad we went, especially since all our dinners had been in the hotel during the week.
Came back to the hotel (remembered to order a car during the middle of the meal), and had a nightcap or two. At this point it’s 10 pm. Checked some afternoon college football scores and promptly went to bed for a nap. Somehow I woke up at 1:05, right about the time the Texas game was going to start. Got online and pulled up the radio coverage and then went to JustinTV to see about actually watching it.
Got a message that the maximum number of viewers from “this region” were already on. Guess all 5 of the Texas alums in Africa were watching. I’m sure any Tech people not in Lubbock were probably in Muleshoe watching on the tube. But, for $10 I could upgrade my watching, and of course I did that. And that worked for the rest of the game, though sometimes the picture would freeze, usually at the beginning of a play. But, the audio would continue, so you knew how the play turned out. It was a nailbiter of a game. Seems like things went Texas’ way in the last 6 minutes which was great. Our team will go as far as our defense takes us and Tech was certainly a good test. Second best result of the day was the USC beatdown. Way to go Huskies. Will see them Oct 24 vs the Ducks. Quack.
Ended up going to bed at 5:30 a.m. I woke up around 10 which was much earlier than I expected but laid there until around 10:30…could hear all the kids playing outside my window down below. As I was getting up there was a knock at the door. Figured it was the cleaning people and I would tell them that I didn’t need any service. Sure enough there are 3 young girls in starched uniforms. Instead of them adhering to my “no, no, no service…” they immediately came in the room – with me still in my drawers. Not the dresser drawers either. Oh, that's right, there's not a dresser.
It was like they were searching for something. They were rifling through my papers, picking up my wallet and looking under it…just looking everywhere for something. Finally the main lady (really they’re young girls) goes away and comes back. She has a “Do Not Disturb” sign and puts it on the front of my door. There had never been one in the room – like a jillion other things that aren’t here – but anyway, they wanted apparently to put one on my door…probably so their Supervisor wouldn’t hold them accountable for not cleaning my room. It was quite the little experience. Especially since I was groggy from just getting up.
So, that’s how you get thru College Football Saturday and especially a 7 pm game on a Saturday Night. Would love to be able to do the same thing for the Cows and the Giants at 7 tonight but this is a School Night and so I’ll just read about it tomorrow.
Adios and Good Night.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Week One in the Books...almost
Inside of two weeks to go. Finally getting into a routine. Learning the transportation routine. Figuring out the food. Know how to get up in the morning. I like nothing better than routine – and by gawd, I’ve got one going now.
Received a local cell phone and have figured how to call for a car. Took me a while to FINALLY figure out how to view the Text Messages that tell me what the license plate is of the car that will pick us up. You stay indoors until you see the vehicle with the matching license plate. The funniest part, but you probably need to be here – no really, YOU need to be here instead of me – but when I call for the car to go to work (at least an hour ahead of time), the address for the company we’re auditing is on a little side street – one that nobody recognizes. But, when you tell the Dispatcher the neighborhood (and pronounce it correctly), then they go “awwww, sia.” And the neighborhood is “Bungo.” Of course I always pronounced it just like it shows – “Bun-go.” And they wouldn’t recognize it. So I ask a local – it’s “Boon’-gooh.” So now I say “Boon-gooh” and they go, “ah, Boon-gooh”
It’s easy to see why nobody would know where the address is – small side street – a wooden 10’ gate that has the address, 6, on it and the one word name of the company on a small sheet of paper. It’s surrounded by slums and waste, but inside is a nice company compound. Two story building plus several trailers made into offices, including a “canteen” where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served – free of course to everyone. There are guards at the gate that allows our vehicle to go in when I show them the business card of the company’s Security Manager.
The employees are nice there and two really good guys supporting us – one from Kuala Lumpur in Malayasia (Caesar Shim) and one from the Phillipines (Felipe Barnardo). They are residents there but the company pays for their housing. There are other office workers that are also Ex-Pats from all over – they work 35 days and go home for 35 days. Thus, we will be working on Saturday – what else is there to do? – and if you said, “watch football” I’m going to kill you if I ever see you again.
Getting up in the morning has finally developed into a routine. First morning I had called for a wake-up call, got it, got up and got ready and then realized that I was an hour early. But that was better than the next morning when the phone rang and it was one of my co-workers wanting to know if I was okay. I was over an hour late. That was the last time I requested a wake-up call. Found a good use for my Blackberry. It now goes to bed with me snuggling up to each other under the mosquito net. Life is grand.
Maybe I’ll stop here. Save more exciting adventures for next time – like Drinking Wine on the Roof, Shooting Pool, Breakfast Foods, Walking to the Grocery Store, and Observing an Angolan National Holiday the 3rd day here.
Until we meet again.
Received a local cell phone and have figured how to call for a car. Took me a while to FINALLY figure out how to view the Text Messages that tell me what the license plate is of the car that will pick us up. You stay indoors until you see the vehicle with the matching license plate. The funniest part, but you probably need to be here – no really, YOU need to be here instead of me – but when I call for the car to go to work (at least an hour ahead of time), the address for the company we’re auditing is on a little side street – one that nobody recognizes. But, when you tell the Dispatcher the neighborhood (and pronounce it correctly), then they go “awwww, sia.” And the neighborhood is “Bungo.” Of course I always pronounced it just like it shows – “Bun-go.” And they wouldn’t recognize it. So I ask a local – it’s “Boon’-gooh.” So now I say “Boon-gooh” and they go, “ah, Boon-gooh”
It’s easy to see why nobody would know where the address is – small side street – a wooden 10’ gate that has the address, 6, on it and the one word name of the company on a small sheet of paper. It’s surrounded by slums and waste, but inside is a nice company compound. Two story building plus several trailers made into offices, including a “canteen” where breakfast, lunch and dinner are served – free of course to everyone. There are guards at the gate that allows our vehicle to go in when I show them the business card of the company’s Security Manager.
The employees are nice there and two really good guys supporting us – one from Kuala Lumpur in Malayasia (Caesar Shim) and one from the Phillipines (Felipe Barnardo). They are residents there but the company pays for their housing. There are other office workers that are also Ex-Pats from all over – they work 35 days and go home for 35 days. Thus, we will be working on Saturday – what else is there to do? – and if you said, “watch football” I’m going to kill you if I ever see you again.
Getting up in the morning has finally developed into a routine. First morning I had called for a wake-up call, got it, got up and got ready and then realized that I was an hour early. But that was better than the next morning when the phone rang and it was one of my co-workers wanting to know if I was okay. I was over an hour late. That was the last time I requested a wake-up call. Found a good use for my Blackberry. It now goes to bed with me snuggling up to each other under the mosquito net. Life is grand.
Maybe I’ll stop here. Save more exciting adventures for next time – like Drinking Wine on the Roof, Shooting Pool, Breakfast Foods, Walking to the Grocery Store, and Observing an Angolan National Holiday the 3rd day here.
Until we meet again.
View from my Room
This is looking out my window.
Those are the metal roofs held down by rocks and other debris. If you look - not sure there's anyone visible in the pictures - there are women,babies,kids down there, along with clothes lines and at least one rooster that I hear every morning...well, some mornings. Surprisingly there are satellite dishes also.
Enough of these 40 Year Anniversaries...
Let's go 45 this time.
9/18/64: The Beatles made their only appearance in Dallas. Balcony Tickets ranged from $2.50 with Obstructed View to $5.50.
Of course the audience consisted of mostly screaming girls, including a Station Wagon of 9th grade girls from Ada Oklahoma.
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And with a love like that you know you should be glad...
9/18/64: The Beatles made their only appearance in Dallas. Balcony Tickets ranged from $2.50 with Obstructed View to $5.50.
Of course the audience consisted of mostly screaming girls, including a Station Wagon of 9th grade girls from Ada Oklahoma.
She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah, she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And with a love like that you know you should be glad...
R.I.P. Oliver
Despite a few social snafus along the way, a fine 15 years nonetheless. Everyone have a treat tonight in Oli-veer's memory.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
If Today is Monday or Tuesday, it must be Angola
Not sure what hit me – but have been dropped off into a land where I have never been before. Starting to see the meaning of Third World. Though, in reality it could be fourth or fifth or twelfth. It’s that far removed from what you and I are used to.
The 4 locations I’ve been to are all okay – and so to ease any concerns about me – that’s the most important. The airport terminal building appeared to be new. It would probably compare to the terminal at Rock Springs Wyoming except there’s cheaper linoleum here. The two office buildings I’ve been in are nice and modern. The people I’ve encountered have been nice, mostly all Ex-Pats from countries everywhere, except the menial jobs belong to the locals. The Staff House I’m staying is similar to a Motel Six – small rooms with no amenities. Unless you call the Mosquito Net over the bed extra as well as the bug spray (2 kinds – one to knock them down out of the air; the other to apply to your skin. As Tony the Tiger would say…”Grrr-rrreat.”
But, enough about me. I’ve always been spoiled and will continue to be so. It’s the 4.999 million outside these doors that are not spoiled. Unless it’s the water they drink, the food they eat, the air they breathe. It is squalor in the strongest sense. This city was built for couple hundred thousand, but now has 5 million.
I will take pictures as the time goes by to hopefully capture some of the atmosphere… though I don’t see walking around and sightseeing in the cards – not even at lunch. I didn’t want to lead off my first post with a picture, but will wait a day to show the pictures so I can follow it with another post and bury the picture a tad.
The pictures are looking out my hotel window. Then it will be easy for anyone to compare/contrast to Baku. Not pretty. And I so enjoy pretty.
The 4 locations I’ve been to are all okay – and so to ease any concerns about me – that’s the most important. The airport terminal building appeared to be new. It would probably compare to the terminal at Rock Springs Wyoming except there’s cheaper linoleum here. The two office buildings I’ve been in are nice and modern. The people I’ve encountered have been nice, mostly all Ex-Pats from countries everywhere, except the menial jobs belong to the locals. The Staff House I’m staying is similar to a Motel Six – small rooms with no amenities. Unless you call the Mosquito Net over the bed extra as well as the bug spray (2 kinds – one to knock them down out of the air; the other to apply to your skin. As Tony the Tiger would say…”Grrr-rrreat.”
But, enough about me. I’ve always been spoiled and will continue to be so. It’s the 4.999 million outside these doors that are not spoiled. Unless it’s the water they drink, the food they eat, the air they breathe. It is squalor in the strongest sense. This city was built for couple hundred thousand, but now has 5 million.
I will take pictures as the time goes by to hopefully capture some of the atmosphere… though I don’t see walking around and sightseeing in the cards – not even at lunch. I didn’t want to lead off my first post with a picture, but will wait a day to show the pictures so I can follow it with another post and bury the picture a tad.
The pictures are looking out my hotel window. Then it will be easy for anyone to compare/contrast to Baku. Not pretty. And I so enjoy pretty.
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