Monday February 28, 2011 Travelogue

Monday February 28, 2011

Same old. Same old. These shutdowns become a sequel to Groundhog’s day, only I can’t get away with as much as Bill Murray. I contented myself with a few slices of watermelon for breakfast and hopped on the bus just like the last several days…

The majority of Columbian workers walk and stare right through me like unthinking drones, never ever yielding to a “gringo” nor returning a nod. But yesterday was different… I met a friend while touring the furnace demo.  I crossed under both nickel dust kilns which are large pipes about 20’ in diameter and easily a thousand feet long. They rotate and you hear the thunder of a 1000 tons of big rocks rolling around, being crushed and blasted with heat as they are fed into the smelter. After I came through, a Columbian work gang barricaded behind me and I had no way back out of the area. Seeking shade from the 34 C sun, I found myself in the shade of a big leaved tree and an indigenous worker joined me with his broken English.  For about a half hour, we chewed the fat about our lives, age (43/44), homes, children, wages and other things only men talk about.  His name was Cesar though it is a popular name along with Luis, Juan, Carlos and Eduardo. At the end of our conversation, he removed his sweaty gloves and shook my hand  insisting that I was his amigo.  One of the best native experiences I have had yet and rare.

I should mention, that most Columbians are about 5’ tall with smaller features, though of course there are some exceptions and they come in various shades of tan to dark brown with the odd pale albino like skin.  When I arrived I was given a pair of very nice leather gloves which are about half the size I would normally wear. They are required when one is in the furnace area and coupled with sweat, they are nearly impossible to remove to shake someone’s hand.

Safety rules here are pretty simple. If you get hurt its your fault. The rules for pedestrians reflect this as well because its commonly known that you are fair game for any vehicle if they can run you down. The responsibility is on persons to look each way before crossing a road and run like hell because vehicles have the right of way.

Sunday Feb 27-11 Travelogue

Sunday February 27, 2011

I finally slept till my alarm bolted me awake this morning. Funny that my choice of sound is an air raid siren and in those first few seconds that I become conscious, I panic and have an urge to duck and hide.  Breakfast was the same as its been for 5 days so I satisfied myself with a glass of juice and a couple pieces of watermelon. Perhaps I will lose the 20 lbs that have been on my New Year’s resolutions for the last 10 years!

I had to use the washroom at the smelter today for the first time. Little did I know what a chore it would be. They do not supply toilet paper in the stalls, though I was visibly relieved to see toilets.  They have a woman who comes in after you are done to make sure everything flushes and she lays about 6 squares on the back of the toilet. Not that I knew it was there when I finished my business!

I flew in with the last of a head cold and ended up with an ear infection which antibiotics have all but eliminated. Unfortunately I now have a full blown chest cold, though the guys all say they had one for a month upon arriving. I will live with it, though I am right out of Fishermens Friends to suck on and have only dristan left over from my head cold. What I’d give for a bottle of Buckleys!

I am struggling with an issue.  Does a Canadian in Columbia use Canadian spellings for American workers? Given the spelling on the reports I get, I think I could be forgiven for spelling colour and cheque but no, its been noticed. Hmmmm.

Lunch was the best ever today… They lured me to stand in line for rice and barbequed chicken breast but ran out just before my turn so I got pork roast and rice with steamed green beans and it was very good. Monkey Brains fruit for desert and I have learned to use a fork to scoop them out. Its kinda like sucking sushi down and once you get over the gag thing, they’re actually very good.

Dinner on Sunday nights is by a menu though they strongly recommended that I go for the sea bass which was okay on a bed of rice. They seem to have brought the idea of the 100 mile diet down to about 2 miles as the chicken around here still has the neck on it including a few feathers. The fish is caught in the muddy river just down the road and I dare not ask what the metal content would be.

Saturday February 26, 2011

Saturday February 26, 2011

For reasons not exactly clear to me, I wake up around 4 am and lay there wishing I could get another 45 minutes of sleep. I tried unsuccessfully to get online, had a quick shower and went for breakfast. Rolled omelettes with ham and a good variety of fresh fruit including watermelon, cantaloupe, kiwi, papaya and some watery orange juice. Its quite amazing that coffee isn’t on the menu and has to be ordered almost as an afterthought… in Columbia!

On the 6:05 bus which is always at least 10 minutes late and arrived at the plant by about 6:30 am. Uneventful day with the exception of nearly tripping over a humungous iguana in the plant. I shuffled paper all day, input data, did reports and did a couple walks through the furnace. Imagine a pot that you could put a 7-11 in and bring it to a boil! All in all it’s a very dangerous place and I have to put all of my knowledge to use.  Often while walking through groups of Columbian labourers, never mind pointing out unsafe behaviours, of which there is no limit, one can feel the group resentment like a skinny chick at a fat farm. Its really bad with the labourers… not so much with the ones hired to work with us. The interpreters are all very pretty young raven haired girls with nice smiles, high cheekbones and beautiful smiles and I’m sure the only selection criteria is the ability to fit in a pair of skinny jeans. Today at lunch, Harold flew home and he left me his last “Monkey Brain Fruit” which is a fruit which I shall have to take a photo of. Its basically just like in the Indiana Jones movie when you saw off the top of a monkeys head and scoop out the brains. Lunch today at the smelter was what I call a cardboard sandwich… day old sub buns with the ends cut off (dry as a bone), no spreads at all. One piece of dried out cheese and a dry piece of ham. I have to choke them down and when I burp… dust. They are terrible. Cardboard would be better. I asked my interpreter today, Yulis, if its common for a big company to feed all its workers lunch (there are thousands of workers here) and she said it was. Her father has worked for the mine for 38 years, lives in a company house, drinks company beer and both her and her sister got free university paid for by the company.

Dinner tonight was an outdoor barbeque with our choice of polo (chicken), carne (beef) or something unrecognizable with ribs sticking out of it. Baked potatoes with REAL sour cream and ensalada added the finishing touch. It was very good.

February 25, 2011

February 25, 2011

I hit the breakfast “Casino” at 5:30 am (same scrambled eggs, fruit and bacon as yesterday) and was told to miss the 5:55 am bus in favour for the 6:55 am bus to an all-day orientation a block away. Alone and confused I got on the bus which went all around the area before depositing me at the middle school next door. But far be it for me to question the process so I met with my new translator Vanessa. She put a headset on me and translated as the instructor, Manuel went through the powerpoint presentation.  Her dialogue included numerous and somewhat funny, loud but derogatory remarks about Manuel. We were joined by about 30 very nervous new hires who’s passing mark decided if they got to start or not and several were here for their second and last chance. Our bus was supposed to take us to another camp for lunch but not surprisingly didn’t show up so I convinced Vanessa and a couple others to come to my camp and we bs’d our way in. We ordered overcooked prawns on yellow rice and Vanessa was able to track our bus down for the journey back to the school. We finished by 5:30 pm with Vanessa giving us all the answers to the two tests we had to do and I managed a bus ride back to the compound, a cold shower (like there’s a choice) and a walk to explore the local flora and fauna. I surprised a very large iguana from under the overgrowth and took photos as I walked through an anthill with penny sized red ants in my sandaled feet.

The showers here consist of a cold water pipe running out of the ceiling with a 120 volt cord attached to two terminals on the showerhead. I suppose there is a small element inside and when the water makes contact, and in theory heats up the water as it dribbles on to you. In practise, they had to turn the power off because when a shift comes in, the whole country goes dark.  So my showers consist of stepping under the Fawcett, squealing like a little girl and stepping out before lathering up and doing it a second time. Nothing like our 40 gallon heaters at home.

When I learned I was coming to Columbia, one of my biggest consolations was the opportunity to wake up to fresh mountain grown, dry roasted in the sun and ground-by-a-donkey coffee. In fact, I have yet to have a good cup of coffee and what we are supplied with is bottled Nescafe instant coffee which disappoints me to no end.

7:55 pm

I had a silent dinner of thinly sliced porkchops, ensalada and my choice of papas (french fries) or papas (mashed potatoes). Not bad and the quality of the food could be rated as just like left overs.

As I sit, I am in the narrow court yard between our huts looking up at the wireless antennae with prayerful eyes. Its rapidly blinking green lights offer more than its deadly slow signal. In fact, there is a lonely toad making its way across the ceramic tiles in front of me.

After half an hour and not even one page loaded, I think I will attend my lonely room and read a book. I do have a 32” flat screen in my room which was a condition of my contract, though ironically the few channels available are all in Spanish. Mind you CNN is on but one can only watch so much of that.

The annoying drone of a blood thirsty Mosquito

February 24, 2011 (After dinner Travelogue)

So dinner was breaded Lagostino (Jumbo Prawns), papas (French fries) and a Columbian variety of coleslaw which included papaya, cantaloupe and pineapple along with their requisite habanero sauce. Not bad.  I took a walk around the compound and discovered the swimming pool (Very nice!), gym (too full of muscle bound Columbians) and a bit of forest which moved with toads among the leafy floor.  I also noticed a ball game going on and a flock of large bats the size of frisbees hunting for moths and mosquitos among the lights. Oh and several wild cats, gaunt and sickly looking roam the compound as well as at the smelter where I work. There are also flocks of small parrots and lovebirds everywhere and in the evening, they sing beautifully with a choir of crickets backing them up.

There is a fish market along the side of the narrow road north of town.  A large muddy river flows through this valley taking a wide bend when it hits town and fishermen line the bank throwing their nets and using lines.  The fish are laid out on wooden benches and people are haggling for their dinner.

It gets very humid during the day raising to a crescendo just before the evening thunder storms. The word around camp is that this is the most lightning prone area in the continent and judging by the lightning rods on all four corners of every building, they are probably right.

I sent my laundry away today and minutes ago, two older tiny indigenous women knocked on my door, one in tears as the other showed me my new dress shirt with the tail ripped for about 8” of its length. Despite the loss, I said “De Nada” (Don’t worry about it) and they both started crying. I said I brought a needle and thread and will sew it up myself and you could see the weight of the world come off their shoulders. Poor ladies.

I went to my Doctor somewhere in the eleven days it took to organize this trip and despite showing him a list of 8 or 9 different immunizations that I required, he said that by the time they kicked in, I would be headed back. He did offer me a fast-tracked malaria treatment though the side effects included severe illness for a week.  So… being an adventurous man, I came au natural.  That said, I killed my 1^st mosquito tonight as she sampled my blood type on my leg. I may have to break out the deet yet!

Off To Columbia!

Kevin’s Travelogue

February 24, 2011

On account of such a poor wireless connection here at the camp, I have decided to pre-write my emails when I can and then send them during the day from my desk which has a pretty good connection.  That said, here is my travelogue so far...

With my hands on my ears, I arrived in Monteria from Bogota on the last of four flights that hopped, skipped and jumped across Southern North America, Central and Northern South America on Wednesday February 23, 2011.  Though I was fine on the first three flights, a steep descent on a tiny plane felt like someone had put an airhose to my head and added a few hundred PSI leaving me nearly deaf.  Thank goodness I had the wherewithall before I left to bring antibiotics and now on day II, I am doing much better.  The compound where I am jailed at night consists of several small cinder block huts and a larger one where we are fed meals. Around all of this is a chain link fence topped with a couple wraps of razor wire and armed guards man the gatehouse on the way in.  Further beyond the fence is a military base and there are men posted on the hilltops with machine guns who, I’m told, are there to guard the electrical towers leading to the mine 40 miles north of here. I am here with about 35 guys, half of which are on night shift and our job is to demolish a large furnace the size of a Safeway and remove a thick piece of melted nickel at the bottom. My shift has to be at a buffet breakfast for 5:30 am and we are on the bus at about 6:05 am, though all times are give or take 20 minutes here.  Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon and pancakes, while dinner last night was a tough piece of filet mignon, rice and veggies.  We eat lunch on-site in a very full cafeteria (“El Casino”) at the smelter that seats 600 with a line-up of Columbians that stretches several hundred feet. Because I just showed up yesterday and don’t have a pass yet, I have had to be snuck through side doors for meals and I had to trade me driver’s license for a temporary gate pass. Mind you they took my passport and sent it back to Bogota for a work visa so I’m a little short of ID right now.

I had one day to get up to speed. My job consists of setting up the various crew talks for both shifts, keeping the statistics, investigating any accidents, breaking down tasks, hazards and recommending controls and supervising a safety guy on each shift, one of which was hit in the face with a rock on Tuesday and got 7 stitches and a black eye.

The landscape is quite dry with overgrown jungle in most directions though there are several ranches with herds of brahma bulls sleeping lazily under palm trees.  I often see 4’ high ant hills along the highway and there are iguanas, salamanders, and Javalinas (Wild pigs).  They tell us to put our boots up at night because of scorpions and brown recluse spiders, though I haven’t squashed any yet.

Well… time for me to walk over to the dinner shack and see what’s on the menu for tonight.