So Vacant

I knew this wouldn't be an easy first tour when I volunteered for it, but I've been told by several Foreign Service veterans that I've been experiencing things they haven't seen in their 20-30 year careers.  While there's a lot going on, the biggest concerns revolve around Boko Haram activity in the region.  I kept hearing stories about various attacks but I felt like I wasn't getting the big picture or all the facts, so I found a fascinating database here: the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project from the University of Sussex.  This led me to generate the following graphs to get a feel for the trending - sorry, I'm an engineer so I do love me some good graphs or even nomographs if at all possible.

In August, my wife and I went on a two week vacation for a real, full-on African safari in Botswana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.  On our last day, we checked our email 30 minutes before leaving to go back to N'Djamena and found messages the embassy had sent that day saying it had just gone to Authorized Departure and we couldn't go back.  We had been "caught out" in Department of State lingo.  I worked at the Cape Town consulate for a week while we figured out the paperwork, then we flew back to Washington where I worked for a few more weeks before I got clearance to return.  The construction project kept on trucking - we're building safer facilities after all and it doesn't make sense to slow that down - so I was glad I had put a lot of work into creating and maintaining electronic files for remote access.

This is a ridiculously oversimplified summary of what's been happening over the last two months, it's been crazy in many, many ways all while supporting the ongoing project.  The AD was implemented due to security concerns that have subsequently decreased, so just last week it was lifted after two months.  This meant my wife was able to come back to N'Djamena as well, which is great and has allowed things to mostly return to our new normal.

Construction is moving quickly: the five-story chancery structure is probably about a month from being complete and utilities are being installed in the bottom floors now.  We just installed the first drywall last week in another building, we're still trying to hire more staff, and a lot of big permanent equipment has started getting installed in the last month, so there's a lot to manage.

One of the main reasons for this post is that the FSCE vacancy announcement opened again today - check it out if you're interested!  It closes Dec 9.

In other news: Chad beat Egypt 1-0 in a major upset in their World Cup qualifying event on Saturday when they hosted Egypt here in N'Djamena.  There was a LOT of celebration in the streets afterwards.  Unfortunately Chad lost today's second matchup 0-4 when they visited Egypt.  Evidently there were several delays with their flight so they barely arrived on time.  Bummer.

In other other news: this is just. so. awesome.  For more, visit Suidobashi Heavy Industries and MegaBots.  Wow.

(This post written while listening to Trashcan by Delta Spirit.)

Tourism opportunities

It's been almost fourth months since my last update, sorry.  We've made a lot of progress on the project, primarily via several thousand cubic meters of concrete, which has kept us very busy. I've been learning a lot about embassy systems and that - in addition to our concrete progress (no pun intended) - has been a lot of fun and very interesting.

While there've been some other relevant articles lately like this hearing on embassy construction, the closest have been on developments in N'Djamena (June 15, June 29, July 11) as well as surrounding areas (July 20, July 21, July 22). Given these regional events have led to hundreds of deaths and a so-called asymmetrical terrorist environment, most of us ex-pats in N'Djamena are scratching our heads at this July 21 Conde Nast Traveler article titled 'Why Now Is the Time to Visit Chad.'

Now, I'm all for exploring new places, but I finished the article dumbfounded and laughing, wondering if there's another city named N'Djamena. The article is full of possibilities, like it mentions, “There could be a wedding happening and the locals want you to participate.” It _is_ true: there are many weddings in N’Djamena, typically on Fridays when group ceremonies lead to processions of cars and motos beeping their horns and people shouting on the way to a party – definitely sounds like good fun. Equally common are funeral processions, which typically lay the deceased in the back of an open bed truck with their bare feet out the end and mourners lining each side; it could be that "the locals" want you to participate in those as well. The Chadians I know are EXTREMELY nice people, I just don't put good odds on anyone inviting strangers to join them anytime soon. I’m also not sure how to align the embassy staff’s movement restrictions with the article’s suggested roaming about the city, but I’m probably overthinking it.  To be fair, the article does warn that you might not bathe for eight days straight, and it also adds the disclaimer, “This is for extremely adventurous people.”

At a minimum, I think I have to respectfully disagree with the promoter's comment, "The worst thing that can happen to a client on our tour is wandering around a market by themselves in N’Djamena and getting their wallet stolen."

Anyway, from the Department of Random Distractions, here's a photo of someone moving their stuff in N'Djamena.

No helmet required!

(This post written while listening to Changing by The Airborne Toxic Event.)

Plus vacance

Lots of interesting developments in the last two months, but first and foremost: the construction engineer vacancy announcement is open again as of today.  While our Office of Construction Management wasn't fully staffed at the beginning of the year, two construction engineers have left since then (that I know of), so there should be plenty of positions open.

Construction is moving right along, as evidenced by the groundbreaking ceremony from two weeks ago - you can read a little about it here and a little more about it on the embassy's Facebook page.  You can also check out the project's fact sheet here.  The photo below from the ceremony proves we have buildings coming up out of the ground now (or I'm pretty good at Photoshop).

Life in N'Djamena has continued to be interesting in a variety of ways.  Ongoing Boko Haram activity in the region has maintained an interesting background buzz.  It's also been harmattan season, so we've been getting a few dust storms through town that looks like fog but smells like dust. 

On March 1, all motorcyclists in N'Djamena had to wear helmets.  This was an overnight change from no helmets for years to everyone must wear helmets.  Since helmets are not free and since few people here have disposable income, it's not surprising that there were protests, including some violent ones.  Since the protests were mostly by students, the government shut down the schools for several days.  But the protests have subsided and life in N'Djamena is back to N'Djamena Normal, except with many moto drivers now carrying a helmet with one hand - not wearing it - while they text with the other.

I got to start driving our car (nine months after we shipping it from the US), so that extra freedom has been very nice.  Unfortunately for me, I won't get to talk with the motorpool drivers as much - they really are great - but I still bother them around the embassy when I see them.  One month in, driving hasn't been that bad so far.  Probably the strangest rule of the road is when you're in a roundabout, you yield to the car that's entering the roundabout.  That just goes against every traffic flow instinct I have, but that's the general rule here.  Slow and predictable has worked so far, but I chalk up a healthy portion of my apparent success to luck.  Driving schools seem popular here, which is good - I especially like the name of Relax Auto Ecole. 

I also got tenured on Monday, so that's good.  Of course it's right back to work as well as the dreaded Employee Evaluation Report season.  Speaking of seasons, we're also now in the hottest time of year, which means the power grid is severely taxed.  Lights flicker, circuit breakers trip, and uninterruptible power supplies click on and off with each surge.  Last night our biggest UPS decided it had had enough and started completely shutting off even though it had fully-charged batteries.  That's extremely odd for a UPS so I decided to watch the power monitor readout: the input voltage that's normally supposed to be around 230 volts went as low as 154 volts, definitely not good.  Anyway, that's just one of the things we do for fun in N'Djamena!

(This post written while listening to Play That Funky Music by Wild Cherry.)

Zakouma

Happy new year! Since I last posted, it's been mostly work - construction is progressing, as expected. We've been very busy finalizing the design, managing the construction, and coordinating the project with host nation contacts, among other things. The Royal We have poured the first permanent concrete components including building foundations, so the progress is very real, six to seven days a week.

Outside of work, we managed to squeeze in two trips: one was to Zakouma National Park, which was very cool. The variety of landscapes was really amazing. We were there right at the beginning of their viewing season so the full animal contingent hadn't arrived yet, but we still saw all kinds of wildlife: giraffes, baboons, hogs, crocodiles, deer-like-things, birds, water buffalo, even one elephant! Here are just a few photos:

Our second trip was back to the US for our first rest and relaxation trip. And also for me to have some dental work done, so that was pretty great too. But we packed lightly specifically so we could bring back about 100 pounds of food you can't buy here in N'Djamena: tuna steaks, manchego cheese, Snickers bars...good stuff.

It didn't take long to get back into the swing of things here, although I admit there was a readjustment/recovery period from the rampant first world problems in the US. Now there are quite a few extra curricular goings-on here, including today's announcement of an imminent regional military force to be based in N'Djamena to combat Boko Haram. Fortunately we haven't seen any significant changes in the city here yet despite the recent BH activity nearby. It should be an interesting next few months for work and otherwise considering things are heating up in a variety of ways, including March through May being the hottest time of year. I need to look into one of those ice cream makers...and how to make ice cream...

(This post written while listening to Weird Al Yankovic First World Problems.)

Now hiring

It's been almost three months since my last entry - I apologize for my sabbatical, life has been extremely busy:

• We moved out of the hotel into a house. This was much more complicated than it sounds, but at least it's over.
• Our personal vehicle arrived several weeks ago after shipping it from the US in early June, but we'll have to wait to drive it until the paperwork is complete in about another month. I hear the motor vehicle department literally (and perhaps figuratively) doesn't have the power to run their computers so they can finish the paperwork. So until then, I could sit in the car where it's parked at the embassy. But I don't.
• The Marine Corps Ball was held at a local hotel, which was our first and was very fun.
• Our HHE arrived intact. Some of the food we shipped was a little stale or moist, which was likely due to a combination of the 5 months it took before we received it as well as that we trusted manufacturer (non-hermetic) packaging too much. It's still great to have our stuff, though - it was definitely an early Christmas for us!
• Post's 15% danger pay was eliminated and offset slightly by post's differential increasing by 5%.  Now, I'm not an expert in such things, but we're quite close to Boko Haram's operations in both northeast Nigeria and north Cameroon (13,000 fleed attacks about 250 km away two weeks ago), five protesters were killed about a week ago during a teacher strike, and recently lawyers even went on strike. When the lawyers go on strike, you know you have a problem.

Despite all that, the new embassy construction project is progressing: the contractor has continued site grading, received dozens of shipping containers onsite, and started building many temporary buildings that will be removed at the end of the project. We're also still in the design phase of this design/build project, so we've been scouring the contract documents to clarify as many design details as possible before we get deep into construction and changes get harder. We've been very, very busy.

Speaking of which, we've expanded our staffing slightly, but the contractor still has us ridiculously outnumbered of course. It's great to have other people locally to bounce construction issues off of though.

I did finally manage to get some interesting pictures like the following right before Eid al Adha. Considering that was the Feast of Sacrifice, if you're squeamish then don't think too much about WHY the goats were getting a fun ride.

I'm afraid there isn't much in the way of extracurricular activity options in N'Djamena, yet somehow we're busier socially here than we were in DC. We've done all of the available post extracurricular events so far - three in five months - but post doesn't have a CLO so that makes those things very hard to organize. Some people at post like to hang out regularly and be social so we do. All in all, I think things are going well; if you set your expectation bar low enough, everything's an improvement! Well, almost everything.

My french language resurrection hasn't been going as well as I'd hoped. I was talking to a motor pool driver asking about his family, and it got slightly awkward when I finally realized "deux enfants" sounds exactly like "douze enfants," or at least, it does to me.

There are other awkward things, like they seem to prefer that freaky A4 paper here - man that stuff is just wrong. We're going to [try to] take a stand and use US-sized paper for our record keeping. After putting up with A4 for a few months, using US paper makes me want to salute each piece. But I don't.

Yesterday we got a cool treat of an aerial show by a Chadian Air Force MiG-29.  I ignored the jet engine roar for a while, but I eventually went outside to see the MiG flying inverted low over the city, then climbing up for an inverted Immelmann before a variety of other maneuvers: stall, rolls, and lots of fly-bys that really upset the fruit bats in the trees. It only lasted less than 5 minutes I think but it was still cool. I think it was a practice run for the upcoming Chadian national holidays Republic Day this Friday followed by the big one: Freedom and Democracy Day on Monday. If there's another airshow I'll definitely try to get photos this time.

Which more or less brings us up to date on the big issues. By the way, the Construction Engineer vacancy announcement just opened again today – it closes on December 29, so you’d better hurry up and spend your Thanksgiving preparing your application! Enjoy!

(This post written while listening to Les Yeux D’La Tête I Don’t Speak English.)

Herding goats

Our internet connection went from bad to worse in the last month, so I’ve been more disconnected from the outside world than usual.  But at least the project’s earthwork is progressing even though we’re in the middle of the rainy season.  We've had a couple of heavy rains, but according to weatherunderground.com the precipitation to date is significantly below average: this is good for the project but it’s bad for the region.  Speaking of heavy rains, I now appreciate stormwater management systems more than ever.  Despite the damaging flooding that follows heavy rains, Chadians find ways to use it to their advantage: when life gives you a flood, wash your moto.

Photos here are a little hard to take because the government of Chad discourages them – and sometimes I’m just not fast enough with my camera as we drive by – so I might have to describe some of the things I see around N'Djamena.  One morning I saw three men hunched over a rusty wheelbarrow running their hands through a soapy nut mixture to sell them with the rest of the nuts drying on blankets on the ground next to them.  I see kids playing with all manner of homemade toys, as well as swimming in the lakes that form after heavy rains.  There's a containerized car wash system with a picture of Hannah Montana on the side - wtf?  The most striking image I wish I could have photographed was a naked child perhaps four years old washing himself alone with a small hose of clear water on the side of a trash-laden alley flooded with a mixture of stormwater and sewage.  It was surreal.  Following is a photo I did manage to take of a man trying with little success to herd his goats across a busy street through a small break in the street’s Jersey barriers.

(This post written while listening to Bruce Cockburn Dust and Diesel.)

Acclimation

It's certainly been a very busy month since we arrived on a variety of fronts: adjusting to the climate, the food, the languages, the traffic, et cetera. There've also been multiple significant tests of our intestinal bioflora's adaptability, to put it diplomatically. 

Although there isn't a lot to do here, a nice coincidence resulted in two Community Liaison Office activities since we arrived: camel riding and a trip to a local town named Gaoui.  The camel riding was with a group of nomads in an area by the Chari River. We met them the morning before they left town, and it was an amazing insight into their lifestyle using only the barest of essentials.

The trip to Gaoui was to see how locals live and to see how they make pottery. Here's a photo of one of their kilns:

As mentioned previously, this is an extremely expensive place to live. The 2014 Mercer Cost of Living city rankings report was released earlier this month, which rated N'Djamena as the second most expensive city in the world for expatriates. Articles on it agree, as do I: our dinner each night costs about $40 for the two of us for spaghetti and a small pizza - nothing to drink, no appetizer or dessert, just the two entrees. Ouch.

On the work front, we've been preparing for the arrival of contractor staff, some of whom are already in country and many more are on the way. It's definitely exciting to be on the front end of a project like this, and it's great to have just a little time integrating into the embassy community before the heavy construction activity begins.

On another work-related note, this month there was a House Oversight Committee hearing on OBO's embassy construction approach. Very interesting insights on both sides, yielding context for the overall program.

It's clear from talking with embassy staff that N'Djamena is a tough post; this is not a surprise, but we're starting to understand what that really means. Still, any post is what you make of it (LOL - no kidding, the power just went out as I was typing, I'm glad I have a laptop), but I think we're doing well so far adapting to the changes. I flossed a crown off last week, after which my visions of local dentistry led to a bit of swearing. Post staff was fantastic and quickly helped me to get it professionally recemented in town in just a few days. I wonder what's in store for us next...

(This post written while listening to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Red Right Hand.)

Dans NDJ

We've arrived at post and this experience is certainly what all The Fuss is about. It’s been an exciting and massive change, that’s for sure. It’s hot and dusty here, but there are a surprising number of birds. I haven’t seen many bugs yet, but there are also a lot of fat, happy little lizards crawling all over the place. I think we’re heading into the rainy season, so the number of bugs is probably going to go up.

 

The environment is pretty austere with limited skilled labor, significant shipping issues, and developing infrastructure. It’s an odd combination of a poor economy yet extremely expensive goods. In my short time working on West Africa projects, I've heard a lot of people talk about their post as the most difficult, so I won't say that about N'Djamena. It certainly has many challenges though: class disparity, high crime, limited housing, no Starbucks. I hear it's very rare for people to extend their two year tour here despite the Service Needs Differential option for additional pay.

 

I've jumped into the project as quickly as possible given my transfer efforts. With my attention spread between multiple projects previously, I'll have the luxury of focusing on one project and digging much further into the details. That is, I'll have that luxury eventually - for now, I'm still helping one of my previous projects while some of its staff are out.

 

In the meantime, I’m starting to learn the layout of the city. So far I’ve seen three motorcycles (called ‘motos’ here) with a live goat straddling the gas tank, looking like it was driving. The driving rules of the road are…curious. I think there’s a pattern but I haven’t figured it out yet, which is fine since our car won’t arrive for months. I played tennis last week one evening and drank about a liter and a half of water during the 90 minutes - actually it didn’t feel crazy hot at first, but I was pretty overheated by the end. More acclimation to come…

 

(This post written while listening to the hum of our air conditioner.)

Vacancy redux

The Construction Engineer vacancy is open yet again!  Yes, it did just open last month as well as in February.  Opportunity abounds!

(This post written while listening to Loudon Wainwright III Cardboard Boxes.)

NDJ OMW

It seems pretty official that my first assignment will be N'Djamena Chad! The project is a new embassy, which we expect to take about 2.5 years to complete. Here are some basic stats on N'Djamena and Chad:

• Population = ~1,000,000
• Altitude = ~980 feet (298 m)
• Primary languages = French and Arabic
• Major industries = cotton, cattle, and fishing
• Annual average rainfall = 22 inches (559 mm)
• Average maximum temp = 106 deg F (41 deg C) in April
• Average minimum temp = 58 deg F (14 deg C) in January
• Chad's ranking on the Failed States Index = 5th worst in the world (obviously a list you want to avoid, like ESPN's Bottom 10)
• Chad seems to be a destination for regional refugees from Central African Republic, Sudan, and Nigeria
• N'Djamena is frequently ranked among the top 10 most expensive cities in the world

From CIA Factbook

We're scheduled to arrive this month, which is between the February-May hottest time of year and the July-September rainy season. We're in the middle of our preparations to leave, which have required an incredible amount of planning so we've been extremely busy in the past month. My wife's been amazing dealing with all the details - I'm stunned thinking about singles and people with kids trying to manage this, it's unreal. It's exciting to be getting out into the field!

(This post written while listening to Rockwell Somebody's Watching Me.)

Vacancy filling

Who wants to build an embassy?  YOU DO.

The Construction Engineer vacancy is open again - we still have many openings, so please apply. I recently heard the last four rounds of applicants making it to the interview phase were: 6%, 7%, 2%, and 4%. Sounds a little thin, but then I also heard there are typically only around 250 applicants each round.  These numbers are unofficial, but they put things into perspective.

We have some cool projects going on, check out these OBO press kit files if you're interested.  And if you aren't interested, then check out this selfie.

(This post written while listening to Loverboy Working for the Weekend.)

EER already

It's been a busy month - bidding, unusually significant project issues, a week vacation, EER writing, and my parents visiting over the Cherry Blossom festival weekend, it all made for a blur of life and a sustained steep learning curve. EER season was just as challenging as last year: another big push to write up our Best Of moments. I originally put this in mine, "When Mark walks into a room wearing the clothes he does, people know he's not afraid of anything." Somehow it didn't make the final cut. At least EERs are over for now.

The new Ebola strain in West Africa is certainly a major concern - we also have some projects in the region, so I've been paying extra attention to the news on it. No direct impacts so far, but that's a pretty crazy unknown to have to deal with if you're in the region.

By the way, I found this link on West African art photographers really interesting - check it out if you like that sort of thing.

The elephant in the room for me is the assignment process, which technically has been ongoing since last June. I seem to be very close to an assignment, I should know something concrete in the next two weeks. Exciting!

Also, this was an interesting sign that showed up on one of our cubicles recently - solid advice here about post's Management Officer and OBO's Project Director:

(This post written while listening to Favored Nations The Set Up.)

Bidding 2014

The most interesting news over the past two weeks was another round of the OBO Construction Management bid list for Foreign Service staff.  The primary purpose of this blog is to educate prospective applicants about what being a Construction Engineer specialist is like - hence my ridiculously unimaginative but easily Google-able blog name - so I'll spend some time explaining my understanding of how the system works for us.

Each year Construction Management issues a memo asking Foreign Service staff for a rank-ordered preference list.  An assignments panel meets regularly and assignments are made, but of course it's not as simple as that. 

Our assignment process is different from the majority of Foreign Service Specialists and certainly Officers.  The Normals spend two years at their post and effectively every post is available.  Construction Engineers are dramatically affected by the variable schedule of construction projects at limited, frequently-changing posts: projects might start late or even get cancelled, and projects might end early or late.  This scheduling nightmare has domino effects on onward assignments, and it certainly affects the project post too.

Housing is a perfect example.  Post can far more easily anticipate the arrival date and family requirements for The Normals than they can for us Construction Engineers.  We might only be able to give post 30 days' notice because the contractor might mobilize to the site quickly after the contract award.  This can cause much angst for everyone: it's annoying for post to deal with families arriving at the last minute; I hear it's not unusual to end up in a hotel until housing is ready.  It's annoying for the Construction Engineer's family trying to plan ahead (paperwork, medical, consumables, packout, vehicles, kids, schooling, pets, etc).  BUT I think it helps a lot for both the Construction Executive and post staff to understand this before the situation occurs, as sometimes there are things we can do to mitigate the nuisance.

Considering the other "normal" variables - family members having health issues, specific career moves, retirees, etc - in addition to the project timing variables, predicting assignments is extremely difficult even for people with intimate knowledge of the majority of the circumstances.  My point is: it's important to not get too attached to a given assignment.  I was talking with a manager last week who, for one assignment, was going to an average place but ended up getting sent to an island paradise.  Of course the opposite can also happen.

I submitted a bid list a little less than a year ago and I don't have an assignment yet, but that's likely because I had less than a year of experience at the time.  Construction Management wants staff to spend their first year or two in DC to learn how the processes work.  I now have 18 months of experience: I submitted a bid list last week, so we'll see what happens for an assignment.

By the way, this official OBO website appears to list many of our current projects, so that might give you an idea of the kind of work we do.  Or if that doesn't sound like your style, there are many other international construction projects out there, like this $36 billion project to build housing in Libya that's ramping up now.  I know someone who'll be working on it - should be an interesting one!

(This post written while listening to Battle Tapes Feel the Same.)

And then there were 5

A major staffing change did end up happening just over a week ago: another of my original group of seven new construction engineers ended up leaving after much deliberation.  His primary reasons were his relationship with his girlfriend and frustration with the construction engineer assignment process.  The CE assignment process is significantly different from the vast majority of other Foreign Service Specialists (and Officers for that matter) because each assignment depends on an enormous number of variables: timing of projects starting and ending, family-specific issues, personnel changes, and more.  This is useful to know for new hires' expectation management: the current program is for new staff to be in DC for 1 to 2 years and the actual departure date is very hard to predict.  In any case, I'll keep in touch with him on his new adventures and wish him the best of luck!

Coincidentally, a new FSCE just joined us the next business day after the aforementioned left.  This is very good, we need the help, but the loss of 17 months of institutional knowledge is significant.  With the new hire comes helping with training to get up to speed.  It sheds a lot of light on how much we learn in just a year, it's a steep learning curve, and I don't think it'll flatten out anytime soon.

Speaking of assignments, this year's Construction Management bid list should come out any day now - in fact, it's about a month behind when last year's was issued.  Looking forward to seeing what's coming up!  Until then, there's plenty of work supporting the ongoing projects.

As an aside, here's a recent confirmation of my long-held belief: always get the bigger pizza.

(This post written while listening to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Runnin' Down A Dream)

New embassies

As is evident from the still-open Construction Engineer vacancy, work has been busy. The workload's unlikely to change soon, particularly if an upcoming staffing change is finalized this week.  More soon on that.

Last week had a major step forward for a new embassy in N'Djamena: the construction contract was awarded.  While there are many steps remaining before shovels can hit the ground, the award is the culmination of a lot of work on many fronts.  It's exciting to see a new project on the verge of starting construction (probably this summer).  It'll be great to watch the new embassy project from design through completion, there's an incredible amount to learn from the process, like not just how to pronounce N'Djamena, but what are fun things to do there (TripAdvisor lists 3!).

Back to more work, there might even be more if one California venture capitalist gets his way.  I believe his actual plan is to form separate countries, each of which will need a new embassy.  (Note: my belief is not based on facts, only on unfounded hypotheses.)

(This post written while listening to Big Head Todd and the Monsters with John Lee Hooker Boom Boom)

More vacancy

Now, for a limited time only: the Construction Engineer vacancy is open again!  This offer ends on March 6, 2014.  You too can join a rank-order list of eligible hires - huh, not really the sexiest of advertisements, but you get the idea.  Bonne chance, mes amis!

(This post written while listening to Talking Heads A Clean Break)

New year

I haven't posted anything in a while because unfortunately the new year has not started well for us - last weekend we had to put our other dog down. She'd been having cancer-related issues for a few months and it became clear that it was time. It's strange to have no secondary sounds in the house. Logistically it will be simpler to relocate without having pets, it's just not what we originally thought would happen.

Sorry to be a downer again. As far as work goes, activity is ramping back up and this promises to be another very active year. On construction in Africa, a friend forwarded this interesting theory that seems much more plausible than aliens.

(This post written while listening to no snoring dogs.)

Back from Freetown

I'm back from Freetown, which was definitely an interesting adventure. Despite all the work getting the project started, I did manage to see a couple of sights in the area.

I went to the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary, which was very interesting. The facility rehabilitates chimps that have been too close to humans. The people certainly have their heart in the right place, but it's worth noting they haven't intentionally returned any to the wild. Four escaped in 2006, led by a chimp named Bruno in a wild story that culminated with the death of a local. Pretty scary actually. No one knows what happened to Bruno, he's quite the local legend. He's also a legend with people who worked on the embassy construction project because a construction worker was one of the people attacked (he survived).

I also went to Lakka Beach where we had fresh lobster, and I do mean fresh. See below for before and after shots.

We had to ask for butter, so we were feeling pretty sorry for ourselves.

 

I got a lot of time with the embassy drivers, and I asked one if a local rock splitting legend I'd heard about was true - he said it was. He said his friend's uncle happened to be an expert and he explained how it works. If you don't have enough money to remove a large rock mechanically (with an excavator), you can hire a local expert like the uncle who will bring kerosene, a piece of tire, and some tinder. He'll light the tire on the rock and let it burn for 2-3 days to heat the rock. He'll come back, clear off the fire, and pour water on it. The rock will crack, the expert will get the rock started, and laborers finish the job. I saw this in action several times in different places back and forth to work, one in a new road being built and another in the foundation of a new small building going up. I think it's a rather ingenious idea.

 

Back to the driver's story, I asked if his friend's uncle was still doing this. He said, "Now he is REALLY old, so he does not do it anymore." I felt like the 20-something driver was baiting me, so I intentionally took it and said, "What do you mean by 'REALLY old'? Like 40?" He smiled and said, "No, no - 50." Now before anyone takes offense, remember the life expectancy in Sierra Leone is currently about 57 (in the US it's 79).

 

Some Americans say living in that part of the world is also called "going on the West African diet".  Well, I didn't think I was going out of my way to eat less, but sure enough, I lost several pounds over the trip.  Now that I'm back in DC, I can work on getting back to my pre-trip cubicle weight.  The holidays came just in time!

 

(This post written while listening to Paul Simon You Can Call Me Al.)

Freetown redux

This trip has been a great adventure for all sorts of reasons, starting with the project: I'm getting my first OBO project going and applying what I've learned in DC over the past year plus.  It turns out that stuff DOES apply to real life (unlike differential equations, engineering school tricked me).  I have a lot to learn, but it's reassuring to have a good grounding in many basics, particularly the financial side of things.

I've been coordinating all sorts of issues to get the job going: hiring local construction management staff, shipping, taxation, housing, vehicles, site security, support materials procurement, and other things in addition to "normal" work like clarifying design questions, reviewing submittals, preparing the project files, compiling the final contract document set, weekly reporting, etc.

It makes for a lot of work so I haven't gotten out too much, but I did go for a short hike yesterday.  It really is easy to get very nice views here:

View north from Leicester Peak (Lungi is across the water in the distance)

Piles of rocks like you see in the foreground are very common around Freetown.  Just remember: on days when you think your job is tough, there are a LOT of people here whose occupation is Manual Rock Crusher:

They might have a nice view, but this was the middle of a Saturday afternoon...

Other things I've learned and seen:
- The Coke here is WAY too carbonated.  I still buy it, of course, but it's weird.  It's made in Algiers - who knew?
- The prices here are actually pretty high.  A normal size bag of Lays plain chips was $5.  I winced several times before I bought it.
- Near the hotel I'm staying at, there's a house I frequently drive by at night.  Almost every night, there's a group of people playing pool on a real pool table outside in front of the house.  Sometimes they use a flashlight.  (It's gone in the mornings, I'm not sure where they store it.)
- There's some sort of animal outside that makes some pretty horrible noises outside at nights - it almost sounds like dozens of Donald Ducks getting strangled repeatedly and VERY painfully. But I've seen enough horror movies to know NOT to open the door.
- You know your hotel room has a problem when you don't need to put on mosquito repellant when you go outside, but you do before you go to bed. I briefly named one Dead Albert because he WAS fat with [what I "hope" was] my blood, but then he died.

I spent a lot of time being driven around by the embassy's local staff. It's interesting to talk with them, and sometimes it's equally interesting to not talk with them: drivers can plug a USB drive into the radio to play their own music, and one driver's tastes were all over the place, going straight from Lil Wayne Abortion to Lionel Richie All Night Long.

I'll be here for a bit longer, so I'm hoping to get out to see a bit more of the area.  In the meantime, I'll just wonder what Lil Wayne covering All Night Long might sound like.

(This post written while listening to Nico Vega Beast.)

Goodbye / I'm "back"

Due to limited available project managers, I volunteered to serve temporarily as the new Freetown Sierra Leone construction manager to get the project started. I visited the site in May for the prebid meeting with prospective bidders, and since then the project was awarded, the preliminary contract documentation was completed, and we just held the preconstruction meeting to kick off construction. Exciting stuff!

This is a great opportunity to finally see what living at post is really like. After only being here a few days, I've met tons of people and learned a lot about the operation and maintenance challenges for an embassy. Let alone getting my first OBO construction project started, which is very cool.

Freetown is pretty mountainous, which leads to some great views around the city:

People tend to burn their trash; you might be able to see some smoke trails in this afternoon shot.

I'll be here for about a month so it will definitely be interesting. While typing this last bit in my hotel room, out from behind my laptop on the desk crawled a grasshopper/lizard/satan-spawn bug trying to kill me just now. I think I handled the situation quite well, having used a facecloth to pick it up and return it to the wilderness, hopefully without squeezing any babies onto the floor along the way. I'm going to go "sleep" now.

(This post written while listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival Run Through the Jungle.)