The Work Begins...

And it begins in more ways than one.  Just being here alone in a strange country with many rules imposed upon you (by my employer), is a job in itself.

I spent the latter part of the weekend acclimating to my new surroundings.  Luanda and Angola in general are very much in the third world.  The city was originally built for about 500 thousand people.  Today, there are more than 4 million living here.  It is crowded and the infrastructure is not designed to handle the population of that size.  Like any big city, there are good areas (few), and not so good areas (many).  Many of the people here seem to eke out a living as best they can.  But, to their credit, they don't seem to mind or even to know what we would look at as their plight.  The people seem for the most part, well fed, well dressed and in constant touch with each other (cell phones are ubiquitous here!)

Well, after a weekend of acclimation, I got down to work.  Chevron's facility is not to far from the hotel but takes a good 30 minutes to get to due to the traffice.  But first you hafe to wait for thew suttle and hope it gets there when you need it by.  A little furstrating when your a trainer that expects to be in control.  I got to my class 30 minutes late but they understood.  Afterall, they drive in the same traffice every day.

Once we got rolling, the class went fine.  I taught them the finer points of the project and portfolio management process.  They were enagged and their English, it is their second language after Portuguese, wasn't bad but their accents sometimed confused me. 

Th second day of class on Tuesday was canceled due to lack of students for the same subject so I went in and prepared for the rest of the week.  And then, more fun, waiting again for the shuttle to take me to the Staff House (where we have to eat our meals since Angola is very expensive for foreign travelers).  It took 45 minutes but they finally showed.  Half way to the house, the car broke down in the middle of Tuesday night Luandan traffic.  Fun.  After another 45 minutes later, the car finally started and we made our way to the fine cuisine of Chevron's Staff House.

I'm tired now.  Tomorrow is another day.