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…..