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.
