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.