Friday, May 1, 2009

Angola (West Africa)

Greetings from Cabinda, Angola! Actually I am working in our company's Malongo campsite inside Cabinda. Malongo is the 'nerve center' of our offshore oil field operations and is almost like a small city with a population of anywhere from 1,000 to 3,000 workers/inhabitants. Almost everyone works on a 28/28 "rotation" schedule: they come in from around the world (Angola, South Africa, other African countries, the UK, Portugal, Thailand, Middle East and the USA), work for 28 days (every day, 7 days a week) and then go home for 28 days. We normally adhere to a 6:00 am to 6:00 pm work schedule! Very tiring.

With all the many nationalities represented here, this place is like a mini-United Nations! I wish I can share a few pictures with all my followers - and I will real soon - but currently I am suffering from "IT issues" - mainly a real slooooow Internet connection. Once things improve, I will upload a few photos (taken with a new Canon Power Shot SD880 IS pocket-sized digital camera with 10 mega pixels capability).

One of the main attractions for me has been the thousands of fruit bats and a few monkeys. On the way to dinner at 6:30 pm, the sky is filled with hundreds of fruit bats coming awake and going out for a night's worth of hunting. On the way to breakfast (5:30 am) the bats are returning to their appointed trees and settling in for a day's sleep. As I said before, I'll try to capture the spirit of this location and post a few pictures as soon as I can catch my breath and find the time to upload my pictures. Sunday is a half-day (6 am to 11 am) so I may find a little opportunity at that time. Until then ..... ta ta for now.

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