I arrived in Luanda, the capital of Angola, at noon on Monday. The humidity in the air hits you hard when you step off the plane and its hot here - with the temperature ranging from 75 - 90 degrees with 80%-90% humidity. The first thing I noticed is it seems like you have to wait in long lines wherever you go, a line to get off the plan, a line at immigration, a line at baggage claim, a line at customs, etc. Even though we flew on a HUGE A380 (300 passenger) plane, there is no sky bridge in Luanda so we had to take buses from the plane stairs to the terminal which was only 300 feet away. I had the funniest immigration officer. She either couldn't speak a word of English including hello, or just refused. I had to give her my passport and visa, get my picture taken with me facing the camera, have both thumb prints taken all with her only making gestures eluding to what I was supposed to do. It was like a fun, really serious, game of charades. I had trouble figuring out that she wanted me to use the other thumb on the scanner, no problem, she threw her hands in the air stating I'm an idiot and moved the scanner to the other side of the counter until I scanned my other thumb. The baggage claim was another entertaining area, they had all of the infrastructure a normal airport would have, but it didnt work so there were many angolan workers in a line doing what the conveyer slide could have done for them. I dont think they appreciated my 30kg (60lb) bags... Customs was easy, no one asked a question or cared what you were bringing in, and we were just shooed on. When I got to the muster area, I found my company representative (or so I thought) and he told me it would be "just a moment". An hour later, he told me to take a seat because I had to wait for my company transport to arrive, I guess he is just a middle man employed to "heard sheep" so that we are all easy to be picked up. An hour later we were picked up by the driver.
I found out at the airport that Portuguese (the native language) and Spanish are very close languages. Not many people here speak English and I wish that I had learned more Spanish while having all Mexican employees in Bakersfield.
Driving in Luanda is CRAZY, the craziest I have ever heard of. There are no rules to speak of. Our driver was all over the road, grass, crossing over side walks, going into oncoming traffic, etc. all just to save a few minutes. Once you hit traffic it only escalates the craziness. To make matters worse, the roads are TERRIBLE. There are big ditches, bumps, and hills you have to go over, and yesterday I saw a pot hole that was at least 3 feet deep, when I looked down I didn't think it would ever end... I don't know how to describe the commuting any better, I will have to post a video of one of our trips to show you. The good thing is that we have drivers.
Our staff house is nice, the floors are made of marble and its 7 stories tall with 5 big rooms on each floor. The first floor has a receptionist that only speaks Portuguese, the second floor has kitchen and dining hall, the third floor has a nice gym with free weights, treadmill, and bench press, then the fourth floor is my room. The only downside is that there is no elevator so I had to carry ~150 pounds of luggage up the stairs! There are tons of house staff and come to find out, rooms and laundry are cleaned daily. Nice!
Transportation to and from the staff house to the base leaves at 6am and returns at 6pm! I definitely didn't know or expect to be working 12 hour days every day. I guess its the price you pay as a commuter. Hopefully it will make the time go by faster here.
The food is pretty bad. I almost wish that they would just prepare ethnic food, because what ends up happening is using western ingredients prepared badly. I will add a picture of the foods soon. To top things off, Luanda is the MOST expensive city in the entire world - more expensive than Moscow, New York, and London. Part of it comes from the bad roads to the port, which is where our base is. The poor 3 mile road causes traffic jams of more than 2 hours which makes unloading the ships take longer than necessary, which costs them extra mooring time (rental space in the port) which increases the cost of the goods. This is why Luanda is the most expensive city in the world - Its government is greedy, stupid, and corrupt.
My boss seems like a really good guy! He is nice, open, understanding, and straightforward. Completely opposite of my boss in Bakersfield. He is from Columbia and has lived here for the last 3 years. I think Im going to enjoy working for him. IF I get to work for him.
I am currently in a bind as Chevron has rejected my resume to work on their offshore rigs due to my inexperience on offshore rigs. The bosses here are pleading my case, and hope that once I am here for a few months they will reconsider. In the mean time I am working on a project we are bidding on and should hear word of the winner by the end of the month. If we do not get the work, and Chevron does not reverse their decision, I will be going to another camp - probably Tanzania or Norway. Right now, Im just taking it one day at a time and am comforted by the fact that my company doesnt fire or lay off commuting engineers.
Thanks for making it to the end of my longest post. Twelve hour work days are REALLY boring, but great for detailed blogs! =)
I found out at the airport that Portuguese (the native language) and Spanish are very close languages. Not many people here speak English and I wish that I had learned more Spanish while having all Mexican employees in Bakersfield.
Driving in Luanda is CRAZY, the craziest I have ever heard of. There are no rules to speak of. Our driver was all over the road, grass, crossing over side walks, going into oncoming traffic, etc. all just to save a few minutes. Once you hit traffic it only escalates the craziness. To make matters worse, the roads are TERRIBLE. There are big ditches, bumps, and hills you have to go over, and yesterday I saw a pot hole that was at least 3 feet deep, when I looked down I didn't think it would ever end... I don't know how to describe the commuting any better, I will have to post a video of one of our trips to show you. The good thing is that we have drivers.
Our staff house is nice, the floors are made of marble and its 7 stories tall with 5 big rooms on each floor. The first floor has a receptionist that only speaks Portuguese, the second floor has kitchen and dining hall, the third floor has a nice gym with free weights, treadmill, and bench press, then the fourth floor is my room. The only downside is that there is no elevator so I had to carry ~150 pounds of luggage up the stairs! There are tons of house staff and come to find out, rooms and laundry are cleaned daily. Nice!
Transportation to and from the staff house to the base leaves at 6am and returns at 6pm! I definitely didn't know or expect to be working 12 hour days every day. I guess its the price you pay as a commuter. Hopefully it will make the time go by faster here.
The food is pretty bad. I almost wish that they would just prepare ethnic food, because what ends up happening is using western ingredients prepared badly. I will add a picture of the foods soon. To top things off, Luanda is the MOST expensive city in the entire world - more expensive than Moscow, New York, and London. Part of it comes from the bad roads to the port, which is where our base is. The poor 3 mile road causes traffic jams of more than 2 hours which makes unloading the ships take longer than necessary, which costs them extra mooring time (rental space in the port) which increases the cost of the goods. This is why Luanda is the most expensive city in the world - Its government is greedy, stupid, and corrupt.
My boss seems like a really good guy! He is nice, open, understanding, and straightforward. Completely opposite of my boss in Bakersfield. He is from Columbia and has lived here for the last 3 years. I think Im going to enjoy working for him. IF I get to work for him.
I am currently in a bind as Chevron has rejected my resume to work on their offshore rigs due to my inexperience on offshore rigs. The bosses here are pleading my case, and hope that once I am here for a few months they will reconsider. In the mean time I am working on a project we are bidding on and should hear word of the winner by the end of the month. If we do not get the work, and Chevron does not reverse their decision, I will be going to another camp - probably Tanzania or Norway. Right now, Im just taking it one day at a time and am comforted by the fact that my company doesnt fire or lay off commuting engineers.
Thanks for making it to the end of my longest post. Twelve hour work days are REALLY boring, but great for detailed blogs! =)
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