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……