drukkies en soenes

So I’ve realized that during every rotation in Malongo I get to a point where I’m 100% over Africa and ready to return to the greatest country in the world – AMERICA, obviously. There always tends to be some type of event that happens to me where I have a borderline (or actual) melt down, and a light bulb goes off that reminds me I’m not made for 3rd world countries. Following the event where I typically curse outwardly (or to myself if in public), I always have a humbling moment when I think the Lord above for all the blessings I’ve received, yadda yadda yadda.

This event occurred on Monday morning, of course. My alarm went off, I put on my cozy slippers, and stumbled to turn on the light. In case you haven’t noticed, there are very few photos of myself in Malongo. This is for a two reasons: 1. I hate taking pictures of myself and 2. My hair is ridiculous. Malongo’s weather is rainy with a side of 100% humidity. This means I look like Mufasa on a daily basis. I try to tame the mane in the 10 minutes between waking up and arriving at work, but there’s no helping what happens on this head. That said, you can only imagine what I look like in the morning, it’s terrifying. So Monday morning after turning on my light, I walked to the mirror to size up how much damage control I was going to have to do as a result of my slumber and I found a surprise waiting for me. There was an ant casually making its way through the maze on my head. And NO this was not your ordinary size ant, it was a Malongo ant, probably the queen of all ants in Africa – it had to be at least an inch and a half long. Commence spaz attack, followed by a 20 minute shower to ensure that my head had not become their humble home. I get the heeby jeebies just thinking about it, gross.

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during lunch time there is a group of folks that all meet on the basketball court for a hour long circuits/cardio type work out. I try to go every MWF, but it NEVER gets easier. I literally sweat buckets and gasp for air every time I go – which I blame 100% on the humidity, not because I’m out of shape ;) There are a few different guys who rotate leading the group in exercises and they vary from being who are super encouraging to groaning in pain with the rest of us. This past Wednesday we has just finished working out and one of the guys stopped everyone from leaving, gave a little speech about how he appreciates everyone coming out each week, and handed out t-shirts for all of us. Even though it was one of those drilling guys that made them, I think they are adorable especially because they included a girl in the group of runners.

There is a big group of South Africans that live in the same accommodation block as I do that I have come to know and love over the past few months. They are constantly up to something – taking apart/rebuilding remote control cars, BBQing, making potjie (poy-key), planning pranks, drinking whiskey, etc – just a bunch of 12-year olds trapped in middle-aged men’s bodies. Monday night after work I pulled up to our building, and Andre was walking into building with what looked like the top of a box of paper. I walked over to him to say hello and he “tripped”, flipping the box over and hurling a snake at me – SERIOUSLY?? Needless to say, after I let out a screech, I let him have it. He had tied a plastic snake to the box with a piece of fishing line to use as a prank on the monkeys – so when they pick up the over turned box the snake moves and they scatter. I just happened to come home at the time that he was putting up his little prank and he decided to use it on me as well, it worked. He did make it up to me by grilling steaks that night.

Speaking of South Africans, they speak the most ridiculous sounding language – Afrikaans. It’s most similar to the Dutch dialects, but it really just sounds like they are hocking up a spit wad all the time. Anyways, I’ve been learning little phrases here and there and my favorite, by far, is “drukkies en soenes.” It’s pronounced “drunkies and swinkies” and it means hugs and kisses – xoxo!

I'm heading home Tuesday for an extended time off. I have just started the proces of applying for a new work visa, and our travel services folks are saying that it will probably be 4-6 months until I receive my new visa - meaning that I will be out of Angola until May-July timeframe. I have mixed feelings about being stuck out because I feel like I have finally adjusted to this new lifestyle and now it's all changing again. I will actually really miss my Malongo family for the 1 or 2 hitches that I am off. BUT on the bright side, I will get to actually live in Houston for a few months! Sleeping in my own bed, eating for joy of it and not to just stay alive, showering without shower shoes, and happy hour are just a few of the things I'm looking forward to, but the real bonus to all of this is that now I don't have to miss out on one very special day March 22 - the Johnson/Wilking wedding :)

Oh, and I'll miss these little guys too...

29 days down, 2 to go! xoxo...

dominoes + motivation and India to Midland

It has been POURING rain since about 2AM. I mean cats and dogs, I've never heard rain so hard in my life - at one point I thought my roof was going to cave in. That said, it was very difficult to get out of bed this morning, and this blog is probably the only (sort of) productive thing that I will be able to accomplish today...

For anyone who knows me (and my family) you know that I(we) LOVE a good game of Mexican Train dominoes. The thing about dominoes is that it doesn’t really require TOO much brainpower, so you can be a winner even after you’ve had a few drinks – hence the reason why my fam loves it ;) The same groups of folks in camp that play Bourre also play dominoes. I’ve never played with them because I always thought that they were playing some version of dominoes that I had never heard of – turns out I was wrong. They play train dominoes with a set of double-nine, as opposed to the double 12 or 15 that I’m used to, and they also keep score.

Anyways, one of the first guys that I met when I started working here is a man named John Quebodeaux, aka Queb, one of the million Louisiana natives here. He has been working in Africa for the past 12 years and is finally getting out of here and heading to an assignment in Brazil. His last day was Thursday, so this past week has been a blur of going away parties for Queb – one of which was an intense domino tournament on Tuesday night. I’d like to say that I was the champion, but unfortunately I lost $7 – it’s very high stakes over here.

I think I’ve mentioned that there are 2 guys that I worked with in Bakersfield that are here in Malongo – Nick and Shay. We try and get together at least a few times while we are all here at the same time. It’s so nice because we’ve known each other for a while and can talk pretty openly about whatever we want. I went to dinner with Nick before he left this week, and I was talking to him about how I’ve been having a tough time motivating one of my team members and that it’s starting to wear me down because I’m failing miserably. For those of you that know Nick, you know that he is a wealth of knowledge – some of it is worthless, but knowledge none the less. Anyway, he told me to look up a speech by John Wooden about winning and succeeding (watch his speech HERE). Mr. Wooden is a precious old man who coached basketball at UCLA. In his speech, he talks about his life, career as an educator and coach, and things that he learned from his father that helped make his career a success. Three things that his father instilled in him were:
1. Never try to be better than someone else
2. Always learn from others
3. Never cease trying to be the best you can be
These three simple things have helped me reassess how to go about both managing people and myself. I’m guilty of becoming so frustrated, throwing in the towel, and taking the “it’s not my problem” attitude – but once you reach that point, you’re no longer trying to be the best you can be.

On a more personal note, Mr. Wooden explains his thoughts on reputation vs. character. My parents can speak to the fact that growing up I was always very aware of what people thought of me, and I would have given anything to be liked by everyone – moreover I just wanted everyone to be friends. In my eyes, my mom had little compassion during my high school years and did everything she could to emphasize the fact that is doesn’t matter what people think of me; what I think of myself is the only thing I should be concerned about. At the time I wondered if my mother had EVER experienced high school because clearly she had no idea what she was talking about. As I’ve grown older (and much wiser), there is hardly a day that goes by that I don’t think to myself “hmm, my mom was right” (NOTE: I rarely admit this to her). In Mr. Wooden’s words: Reputation is what you’re perceived to be and Character is what you really are. In life your reputation truly is out of your control, so focus your time and energy on building your character – damn it, she was right again.

butterfly for Momma!

In other news – my boy finally finished his crazy Indian adventure, and is safely back on American soil…thank goodness! Let me preface this by saying that when I went to visit him in December, 7 days before he was scheduled to leave for New Dehli, he had NOTHING planned. The good news is that he works with several folks from India, and we had them over for dinner to map out a route. The bad news is that when planning said route these people, who’s home country is India, were telling me that they were nervous for Chad – which by no means calmed my nerves. He also had not gotten any shots, malaria medication, or even made a packing list – however, by the time I left him he had done almost everything he needed to do :) Still, I’ve been pretty worried for the past 4 weeks, but now I can officially say that he and his friend Barrett traveled 3000 kilometers along the West coast of India and successfully completed the 2014 Rickshaw Run! He doesn’t know it, but I stole some of my favorite pictures from his Facebook page to share (not creepy at all)…

the route

pre-race trip to the Taj Mahal...super cute couple (disregard Chad's barely there "mustache")

rickshaw/home for 13 days

new-found besties!

I’ve been jamming out to Rodney Parker and 50 Peso Reward album Apology: Part 2 all week (which I highly recommend), and it’s really given me the itch to see some live Texas Country. I know that Rodney and his guys are a fan of West Texas, so I Googled upcoming tour dates and they just happen to be in beautiful Midland, Texas on a weekend in February that I don’t have anything planned. After spending 4 years in Lubbock I’m well aware that Midland isn’t your typical vacation destination, but 2 of my favorite people live there and I think that’s justification enough to jump on a plane for 1.5 hours and spend a weekend in God’s country – see you soon Kennedy’s!

boa noite!

22 days down, 9 to go! xoxo

back in action

I mentioned in my ‘odds and ends’ blog that people are constantly coming and going, but there is a big group of folks that come and go at the same time. Since I came in early this hitch, I came in just before one of the big crew changes. It was nice because I got to spend time with folks that I don’t usually get to work/socialize with, but now we are in catch-up mode getting all the new folks that came in up to speed with what’s happening.

This is the first week since I’ve been back that we have our full workforce back in action. The nationals that work for our sub-contractor take holidays very seriously. We have basically had a skeleton crew here since the 21st of December. I don’t think there’s such a thing as ‘calling in sick’ it’s more just plain not showing up around here. The Christmas and New Year season is all about family, and work does not get in the way of this sacred time. It’s kind of refreshing that the local companies acknowledge that family truly does always come first – but also incredibly frustrating for us crazy Americans that want to see progress. The good news is that we finally finished up another major milestone in construction – our 2nd road crossing. This time, thankfully, I don’t have any embarrassing stories to share about sending pictures of myself out to all of Malongo :)

Acabaco (finished)!

Every Sunday our small team gets together for a safety meeting that is mostly centered around getting to know one another. Usually, one person shares a ‘diversity moment’ that can be anything from past experiences, to family photos, to what they ate for lunch yesterday – just anything to help us get closer as a team. Last Sunday, one of my construction managers shared his experience climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and it was absolutely incredible. He shared pictures and talked us through the entire 7-day journey, which took about a year to plan. Sooooo who wants to tackle Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2015 – followed by a little R+R in Zanzibar?? (I’ve may have already started doing a little research….)

I was pretty bummed at the beginning of the week because I am missing my FAVORITE week of the year back home – MusicFest 2014 in Steamboat, Colorado. My first trip was in 2010, and I decided then that I would never miss a year. It’s just a really great week of good snow, good music and good people (good beer too, it’s sponsored by #SHINER) Anyways, some of my favorite people were in attendance and eased my pain by sending me pictures, videos, and insults (thanks Bru) – it’s almost like I was there…

I’m going to ask for some prayers from everyone this week. On December 4th our civil/structural engineer, Don, that supports my project from Houston had an accident at his home and suffered a traumatic head injury. Don underwent emergency surgery and was unconscious for a few days. He has since been moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation center, but is unable to move the right side of his body and has very limited speech. The good news is that he is able to recognize people who visit him. I’ve spent quite some time with Don since I joined the project in June. We spent a week together working in Italy last summer and he also visited Malongo for 2 weeks during my September hitch. Don is originally from Korea and served as an engineer in the military before coming to the states to complete his doctorate at The University of Texas at Austin or THE University (as my Pa likes to refer to it). To say that Don is a nice man is an understatement. He is one of those people that truly wants to know you, and when you talk he hangs on every word (this could be due to the language barrier – but still super endearing). He has a wife and two teenage girls in Houston that need our prayers for a full recovery!

15 days down, 16 to go! xoxo

waaaaambulance

This week has been full of ups and downs – literally. I started off the week still feeling pretty terrible, but a bedtime of 7pm and naps during lunch have healed me! Monday was a very rainy day (perfect for napping), so as I was walking back to my room for lunch I slipped and fell on the concrete, bashed my knee, ripped my jeans, the whole 9 – not out of the ordinary for my-graceful-self. Since I have experience in treating my own wounds, I doctored myself, took my nap, and went back to work. I casually mentioned that I ate it to my construction manager when we were walking out of work that evening, and after a good laugh he told me that I had to go to the clinic, report my injury, and get first aid on my knee – you’re joking right?? Apparently, ANY and ALL injuries that occur during our work hours 6am – 6pm must be recorded/documented. It’s basically a CYA in the event that the wound gets infected and you die. So after arguing for a good 15 minutes and hearing horror stories of amputation from small flesh wounds, I gave in and became our first project first-aid case – not the most honorable statistic. Thanks Mom and Dad for my freakishly long limbs and big feet that I often have trouble controlling ;)

Speaking of being super coordinated, somehow I got talked into playing squash earlier this week. Squash is pretty popular on camp since we have so many people from the UK and South Africa. A few folks have asked me to play, but I just explained that I had zero desire to get in a box and have balls flying at my face – thinking that squash was essentially the same thing as racquetball. My boss cornered me, promised that squash is nothing like racquetball, and got the rest of the team to peer pressure me into playing – clearly everything is PC around here. Turns out I’m completely terrible (as expected) but it’s actually a lot of fun! It also turns out that people like playing with partners who really suck (confidence builder) so I'm in high demand. I’m even considering buying a racquet to bring back my next trip – maybe even playing during my time off!

Unfortunately, my New Year’s celebration was a bust. I still wasn’t feeling 100%, so I was in bed by 9:30pm. I did make a cheers to myself with pineapple juice at 7AM to ring in 2014 Texas time. Throughout the week, I heard stories from all of folks who stayed up to celebrate Malongo-style and I decided that regardless how I felt, a 9:30pm bedtime was completely unacceptable for my 26-year old self. My New Year’s Resolution: never again will I miss a midnight New Year’s celebration. On a serious note, I guess I should put my 2014 resolutions in writing:

1. Run at least 1 half-marathon
2. Visit at least 3 countries (Africa doesn’t count)

Every year for as long as I can remember, I have made totally unachievable resolutions (or at least that’s what I tell myself at year-end when I realize that I’ve failed miserably), so this year I went with modest goals – that also benefit me in some way, obviously…

8 days down, 23 to go! xoxo

So we had a little rain...road crossing turned fishing pond

Let me tell you about my beeeest friend