Ran Up a Two Million Franc Hotel Bill.....And Don't Mess With Texas.....

.....and no, the two million francs weren't the bar tab. That was room, meals, laundry and an occasional ice cream sundae.

The trip back was long, long, long but relatively uneventful. I did have a 2 1/2 holdover at Paris because of the blizzard that's going on in Europe right now. Trains are shut down and lots of airports are also closed. I felt lucky to get out at all--even if it was late. Some poor people had been waiting there for four days trying to get into Newark/New York area or anywhere else close to it. With the blizzard in the U.S. northeast, they weren't able to get out or in. And Continental was offering to fly them south to places like Atlanta for a $600 fee with no guarantees they'd be able to connect north to New York before Christmas. Airlines are worse than bankers or lawyers in my opinion.

After we taxied out onto the runway, they had to bring up spray trucks and de-ice the entire airplane before we could take off. We probably spent 30-40 minutes sitting there and the snow was just blanketing everything. They were big, huge snowflakes and so thick you could hardly see the trucks outside the windows. While we were sitting there, you could literally see the snow accumulating in front of us on things like the runway lights. As much as I hate cold weather and snow, there is something magical about watching snow fall through the window of a warm room. Magical, at least, so long as you don't have to go outside into it!

Someone once wrote that you can tell the state of the economy by how loud the Texans are shooting off their mouths and bragging. The better the economy, the louder they talk (especially the oil field economy.) Well, I think the U.S. economy has, in fact, turned the corner and things are getting better. One of the last things I saw before I left Cameroon was the baggage screening equipment before I boarded the plane. On the X-ray machine, right over the conveyor belt, someone had pasted a bumper sticker announcing: "Don't Mess With Texas."

God, it's good to be home again.....Merry Christmas to all.

Got It Made Now…..and Headed for Croatia in April.....

…..I’ve only got one student for the final program and am going to work with him Saturday so that means I have tomorrow (Friday) off as an unexpected layover day. Since I get paid nearly as much on layover days as on work days, I welcome the unexpected chance to rest up before the flight back Saturday night. With just one student, Saturday should be short and sweet before I fly out for Paris around midnight.

In some ways, it’s hard to believe it’s been four weeks since I arrived here but, surprisingly, I’m not in that big of hurry to get home. Looking forward to it for sure, but I don’t feel that sense of urgency to “get out of here” like I have on some jobs. Not getting out and visiting the beach resort was another disappointment but I did really get familiar with Douala over the past four weeks. I’m not sad to leave, but after four trips here (five if you count Chad,) there is a sense that I’m probably seeing this place for the last time. Of course I said two years ago, I wouldn’t return.

Just some last minute random thoughts: Beside the Christmas tree at the headquarters this week they have a large brass camel statue. It’s really neat—I’d like to have one like it—but what is intriguing is the fact that the crescent moon on top is definitely Muslim. I’m not sure if it’s there to recognize Islam during the “Christ”mas season or what, but it is a really neat touch. So much, I guess, for the theory that the two religions can’t coexist.

We’ve been training this past month outside the city at a place called Lima Base. Each morning, and again at noon, COTCO has been catering food out to us. And it’s been really good. Last time I was here, we always ate lunch at a small restaurant called the London Belle. Now they are catering and have been providing the food we’ve eaten for the past four weeks including my Thanksgiving dinner.

It’s an interesting story: the London Belle is owned by a brother and sister and is pretty much a two-person operation. The brother used to work at one of the very few hotels approved in Douala for Westerners to stay in and he observed how stringent the kitchen standards were for those hotels. COTCO and the other oil companies here routinely inspect the kitchens and food to prevent any kind of food poisoning. Water is especially suspect here and since dishes are washed in the local water and almost all vegetables are predominantly made up of water—vegetables are almost always a no-no in developing countries because they use the local water source (which may contain fecal bacteria) to water the plants which is then sucked up through the roots into the vegetables themselves.

Anyway, the brother decided there was a real niche for food that met Western health standards so he and his sister opened the London Belle and, later, the catering service. All their vegetables are raised organically including the use of processed drinking water from the local bottling plant. They then rinse and soak the vegetables three times in decreasing percentages of chlorine water. The result is salads and vegetables that sometimes have a faint Clorox odor but also are completely healthy to eat. There is a local distributor that warehouses inspected meat and they use him to provide their fish and meats. Some of the meats are local but are closely inspected (I think including medical inspectors) and are fresh and uncontaminated. Milk here is not homogenized or pasteurized, so all dairy products are flown in from Europe. Actually the “powdered creamer” is very popular over here.

So they created a restaurant and catering service that is completely healthy and reliable and, in the process, have become almost exclusive caters for many of the oil companies over here. They, in fact, catered the company Christmas party for 200 people last weekend. They also bake their own pastries.

I have really enjoyed their food for the past four weeks. I’m including a photo of the two of them with the office manager of Lima Base (the woman with the red hair.) I’m also including a picture of the local “hot sauce” which they call pilli pili. It is made of red peppers and is probably of the same heat index as Thai peppers. They dish it onto virtually everything—kind of like me with Tabasco sauce.

To get to Lima Base we had to drive through an industrial area which included logging trucks. This morning I shot a photo through the windshield of one of the trucks being loaded. These trees are massive redwoods—but they’re not cedar—and are cut into large planks for building construction. They are a semi-hardwood and the local craftsmen use scraps for wood carvings and the color is really beautiful. The truck in the photo was only partially loaded—probably at least two more trees would be placed on top. When the trucks are moving, they almost always have someone sitting on top of the logs which I thought was not all that smart. One day we were following one of these trucks and I noticed a low-hanging electrical wire across the road. These electric wires are unlike anything you see in Texas—they are old and frayed and it is not unusual to see where people have “tapped into” them with illegal splices. Anyway I was wondering how the truck was going to go under this one wire and then I found out why the man was sitting on top. It was his job to stand up, grab the wire, and hold it over his head then walk the length of the tree trunks to drop the wire behind the truck. And all of this in open-toed sandals. The sad part is that if he were electrocuted or fell off the truck and got hurt they would probably hire somebody along the road on the spot and continue driving. Safety is non-existent here outside the oil companies and life is far too cheap.

This may be my last post before I get home. I have been alterted that I have a tentative 2-week job in Croatia scheduled for April.

Well Into the Final Week Here…..

…..and all is going well so far. Some of the people who were coming in from Chad can’t make it—the airport is closed for security reasons there—so I have really light programs right now with regards to the number of people. This makes it much easier on me and I’ll still be coming home on the regularly-scheduled date of December 20. I really feel like I’m coasting right now and really not at all feeling an urgency to leave here. This has been a far better job than I had originally hoped for.

We have been doing our training at Lima Base, which is a service facility for one of the pump stations on the 670-mile Chad-Cameroon pipeline. We’re located about 25 kilometers or 15 ½ miles southwest of Douala. I can now say with some pride that I’ve worked both ends of the pipeline—from the north at N’djamena, Chad to the southern terminals at Douala, Cameroon. In addition, I’ve trained at Khome, Chad and Lima Base, Cameroon.

Nothing extraordinary has happened since the Christmas party. We were detained at a police roadblock yesterday but all our papers were in order. I carry with me photocopies of my passport and visa that have been certified by the American consulate here in Douala. It was my first and only experience with a police roadblock unlike in Equatorial Guinea where we had two or three every single day—often manned by bored and drunk soldiers. Here, the experience was far more civilized and efficient.

Like I said earlier, I’m basically on cruise control here……

Finished Up Week Three and Went to a Christmas Party…..

…..this week went really well and, for one thing, I got caught back up on my rest. Now I go into a six-day week but it involves three 2-day classes so it should go smoothly and quickly. I head back for home one week from tonight (Saturday).

COTCO held their annual Christmas party last night and I was invited and enjoyed myself thoroughly. After three weeks in the country, it was the first evening I had spent outside the hotel room and it was good to get out.

The theme of the party was Christmas but the setting was traditional African. There were about two hundred people in attendance and I would guess just about every one of them at one time or another introduced themselves to me and welcomed me. It really was a mixture of African music, food and traditional African clothing.

The music being played is often referred to as “palm-wine music” and is something I’ve been familiar with for a long time—in fact I bought my first palm-wine CD several years before I started this job. It features xylophone and keyboards with multiple drums. It’s thought to be an old music genre and probably the basis for the Caribbean reggae music that came out of West Africa. It’s almost all instrumental and, unlike a lot of reggae music, doesn’t have all that political stuff involved. Basically its just happy music.

It really was “African”—three or four Western COTCO employees from Europe were there and there were about a half-dozen white contractors in attendance (I am considered a contractor which basically means consultant.) I found it kind of interesting that they arrived and mixed in but then all sat at one table together. They had two food buffets—one traditional African and the other was a mixture of European and Chinese. The only time I talked to any of them was when I was standing in the buffet line for the African food when one of them came over and asked me if I realized which line I was in. I told him yes and thought to myself, “I’ve been eating this for the past three weeks.” I did eat some things I didn’t recognize but, what the heck, it’s Christmas. As always when I’m traveling, however, I do keep my pocket container of Lomotil and Levaquin within reach at all times.

The only real problem I had last night was communicating. While English is the official “working language” of COTCO, it is French that is spoken almost exclusively even within the workplace. Still, it was a good time and a first-time experience for me and I had a good time…..

Christmas is in the Air……Even if the Air is 95 Degrees and 99.5% Humidity…..

Joyeux Noel—they put up a Christmas tree at the COTCO office today and it’s really unusual and I really like it. I’m not sure what the branches are—some local plant—but the gold decorations are gourds grown all around Douala. The rope strings area actually fern-like plants that grow near the ocean and they, too, are painted gold and make really pretty decorations. One photo shows a bunch of them in a basket as they appear in the wild and above them are some more that have been painted gold. Very unusual, very simple, and very attractive—I like it.

In a more traditional note, the Ibis Hotel put up its Christmas tree today too. This one is far more like the ones we have at home except for the sign behind it advertising a French hotel chain. The point is, however, that Christmas is about the spirit of the season…..and we’re getting into it at work and at the hotel.

I’m really enjoying this week. I’m doing what I’m trained to do and what I like—I have a small class of only three; one of whom speaks English well, one of whom doesn’t speak any English, and one who speaks a little English. With only three students, we can go slowly, take our time and I can improvise ways to do the training. I have to make all kinds of adjustments and the students are all cooperative and this is the kind of challenge I really enjoy when working overseas. Next week I’ll be doing three 2-day refresher programs and I enjoy doing them too because I will know all the people in the classes—I’ve trained them twice before already.

I have been really pleasantly surprised with the hotel. Initially I resisted coming back here because it is so restrictive but they’ve done a nice upgrade since the last time. There’s still nothing to do outside the room but the rooms are much nicer now. Last time I had to take my laptop down to the lobby to get Internet access and now I have it 24/7 in my room. Believe me, it makes a huge difference.

Last time I was here there were about 40-50 French oilfield workers staying at the hotel. I believe every single one of them smoked cheap tobacco and the lobby and lounge always had a blue hazy smoke hanging in the air. It’s not that way this time—the hotel is about half-full and there are more engineer types and the non-smoking area of the restaurant is about as full as the smoking area now. I met a guy briefly in the elevator who was from Mississippi but he’s the only English-speaking person I’ve heard since I’ve been here. Most of the American oilfield workers are stationed further north near Chad along the border area. The French oilfield workers were a really obnoxious bunch of rednecks last time—the swearing, tattoos, heavy drinking and raising hell. It’s nice not to have to put up with that during this go-around. Actually the term “French Redneck” seems like a contradiction in terms to me—after all, aren’t rednecks supposed do a lot of fighting?

The restaurant is a pleasant surprise too. It was good last time—the main drawing point of the hotel—but even that has been upgraded. The menu is about the same only now they have two “chef specials” every day and they rotate them constantly and the food is actually really good.

Anyway, just some more random thoughts—things are better now than the past two weeks and time is passing pretty quickly. The temperatures are near the mid-60s now in Friendswood. Life is good…..

Got Week Two Behind Me and am Half-Way Home……

…..finished up the second week of training and, for the first time ever in Africa, I had a female trainer in the program. You don’t see a lot of female drivers in Cameroon—some, but not a lot—and she held her own really well. In Chad and several other countries around here, they just flat-out don’t allow women to drive.

This was a good group but very difficult to work with since none of them really spoke English very well. I have limited materials in French so we were able to cross-reference and overall I think we did OK. I’ve found that many people can read English much better than they can speak it.

It’s snowing right now in Friendswood but it’s not in Douala. We’re having 94-95 degree highs here with high humidity. There are some forecasts next week for scattered showers but right now it’s just clear skies and very hot weather.

Right now they have the draw for next year’s World Cup on TV right now. That’s where they choose the groups of countries that will be competing in the soccer tournament next year in South Africa. The tournament doesn’t even start for seven months but CNN claims eight times more people world-wide watch the draw than watch the U.S. Super Bowl.

I’ve got the coming weekend off—no plans—but I’m really tired so I’m looking forward to down time. I’m still agitating for a trip to the beach next weekend but they seem to be resisting it. We’ll see……

Random Thoughts From a Developing Country……

…..it’s Wednesday afternoon and I’m half-way through my second week here. Last Friday was a Muslim holiday—the end of Hajj—and the entire country took off. We, however, worked. I was originally scheduled to work six-day weeks but after I got here they asked me to scale it back to five. Really, I don’t care either way—it’s one less day of work and one more day stuck in the hotel room.

Still, since we worked Friday, we were able to observe a lot of the celebrations. Muslims and non-Muslims alike dressed up in their finest African clothing and I so much wish I was allowed to take photographs here. Imagine all the National Geographic photos you’ve seen of African women with the long, colorful robes and colorful jewelry and that’s what we observed all over town. Again, tribal (or clan) affiliation affects the colors and designs of the clothing but all are bright colors and really make for an amazing scene.

Compared to neighboring Chad, Cameroon is a relatively prosperous country but in many ways still reflects the vestiges of the old colonial past (which, in the case of Cameroon included German and French colonization.) The company I’m working for—COTCO—just built a new four-story office building and it is one of the nicest buildings in Douala. It’s so new they’re still striping the parking lot out front but one thing I found very unusual is that the brand-new restrooms feature the “stand and squat” toilets. When I was in Chad, my hotel room had one but at least here they have toilet paper available. Usually, in places like Chad and Senegal, they only have a bucket of water beside the unit and that’s why you never eat food with your left hand in those countries. This particular unit was manufactured in France so there you go…..

Partially because of the geographical “hook” along the western coast of Africa, Cameroon is often derisively called the “armpit of Africa.” Cameroonians seem to either have a great sense of humor or really misunderstand the nature of insults because one of the Cameroon tourism websites introduces itself with the announcement: Cameroon is known as the armpit of Africa.

Part of that nickname, however, may come from the fact that the climate here is very hot and very sticky which leads to a great deal of fungus and mold and foul odors. Right now the temperatures are in the low to mid 90s but the humidity is every bit as bad as Houston in August. As a result, everything here appears and feels grimy. Older buildings have that brownish, dirty look about them.

The streets, however, although in bad repair, have very little trash. That’s because Cameroon, like most Third World countries, is very, very efficient at recycling. Very little is thrown away here—there’s always some use for everything. America, with its disposable mentality, could learn so much from many of these countries. Monday when we were driving about, we went down one street where some men had climbed palm trees along the street and were trimming the branches back. The result was that there were palm branches knee-deep all along the sidewalk. Tuesday when we drove by there must have been 20-30 women sitting on the sidewalk weaving baskets. Today when we drove by there was nothing—literally nothing left lying around.

Although there is plentiful electricity in the city, I still find it amazing that many of the sidewalk entrepreneurs have found an old gas pump somewhere—the old gravity feed pumps with a large glass bowl at the top. They sit the pump on top of a 50 gallon gasoline barrel and then hand crank the gas up into the bowl which is marked with liters and then let the gas flow down into a motorcycle gas tank. No electricity is needed—the pump owner can charge the motorcyclist, and a barrel will probably keep him in business for a week or so.

You also see women—usually near corners—who have an old Singer sewing machine on the sidewalk doing alterations and repairs. I’m talking about the old foot-powered trundle machines probably a hundred years old. Again, no electricity is needed. Today I saw a man with a foot-powered grindstone sharpening kitchen utensils. I’ve seen a number of people grinding corn into meal for money—the old hand-cranked grinders with the hopper on top—we used to call them Armstrong mills. Everybody is looking for a niche to fill and, combined, Cameroon gets along pretty well without iPods, the Internet, plasma TVs and the other things we think we can’t live without.

One exception, though, it the cell phone. Virtually everybody here has one. In Senegal, I took a photo of an old man in a cart pulled by a donkey talking on his cell phone. It seemed so iconic—2^nd century transportation and 21^th century communications. When you think about it, though, it makes perfect sense. I’ve been told that requesting a land line to have a phone installed in your home here can take 15 to 20 years and then it won’t work half the time. Cell phones bypass all that but over here the cell phones don’t take photographs, text message or play music—they make phone calls.

Getting back to the Cameroonian sense of humor, I’ve also been told the favorite Internet game over here—for those with access to the Internet—involves rescuing hostages from the Douala airport. Kind of an Entebbe-raid sort of game. I mean, that’s got to be kind of insulting, but it’s a popular game over here.

Like I said earlier, everybody is looking for a niche over here and the streets are lined with vendors. I’ve only seen one grocery store over here and I got the impression it caters to the Western workers mostly. You see all kinds of food for sale in these kiosks—every fruit and vegetable imaginable and raw cuts of meat hanging in the open. As I also pointed out earlier, nothing is thrown away—everything is recycled—but that can lead to some humorous uses for old stuff. One boutique near the company headquarters must have found some old mannequins somewhere and now use them to display their clothing out on the sidewalk. Problem is, the mannequins are male and the clothing is female so you have these guys standing outside on the sidewalk in lingerie and dresses. Still, it’s advertising at its best…..

As far as I can tell there are no sports played over here except soccer and, as a result, Cameroonians are near-fanatical about their soccer. The Cameroon national team has qualified for next year’s World Cup and you see advertising signs everywhere and jerseys on people in the streets. Soccer is a real unifying factor for this country and they take pride in their team and their country. As it should be…..

Anyway, just some random thoughts…..two more working days and then a weekend free. I seriously doubt I’m going to be able to arrange a trip to the beach while I’m here. Until later……