Thursday, 7 May 2009
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Abidjan
Rainy season has well and truly started here in Abidjan, the norm for this month is 600mm, so as you can imagine it’ll be raining nearly every day.
One of the important things in my line of work is knowing the weather in a Country, it can slow work down rapidly, men can’t work on the ground or in the air in bad conditions. When your building telecom sites you have deadlines to reach, so the pressure can be on, one of the biggest mistakes people make when going to a new Country is not taking the weather into consideration.
It’s my second day back in Abidjan, I’ve been here now for 11 months, you get to know the people and the area, if you read the MOD posting for the Ivory Coast you would not come here, but then again it was the same when I went to Pristina, Haiti, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, I could go on but I think I’ve made my point.
I have to admit that being here in Abidjan has been one of the best experiences of Africa I’ve had, the people are friendly and helpful, the worst thing I can say about it is the police, when your driving you get stopped, you can try not to pay if you have the time on your hands, but if your in a hurry you may as well pay the 1000CFA (around 80 English pence) and be on your way. I got stopped one night 7 times, it gets frustrating but it’s something you have to live with, I have friends here who work for the UN, they don’t have this problem, those white vehicles of the UN are a huge advantage.
One of the important things in my line of work is knowing the weather in a Country, it can slow work down rapidly, men can’t work on the ground or in the air in bad conditions. When your building telecom sites you have deadlines to reach, so the pressure can be on, one of the biggest mistakes people make when going to a new Country is not taking the weather into consideration.
It’s my second day back in Abidjan, I’ve been here now for 11 months, you get to know the people and the area, if you read the MOD posting for the Ivory Coast you would not come here, but then again it was the same when I went to Pristina, Haiti, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, I could go on but I think I’ve made my point.
I have to admit that being here in Abidjan has been one of the best experiences of Africa I’ve had, the people are friendly and helpful, the worst thing I can say about it is the police, when your driving you get stopped, you can try not to pay if you have the time on your hands, but if your in a hurry you may as well pay the 1000CFA (around 80 English pence) and be on your way. I got stopped one night 7 times, it gets frustrating but it’s something you have to live with, I have friends here who work for the UN, they don’t have this problem, those white vehicles of the UN are a huge advantage.
The politicians, I suppose if you’ve worked in Africa most of you will know, corruption, it’s rife in Africa, a shame, the potential these people have is not utilised due to the money from the top not filtering down, yet when you go out and see the people who have what we’d class as nothing, you see the African strength, this is what I’ve come to love about the place. Kids playing with home made toys, smiling and having fun, wearing hand me downs if they’re lucky, Africa has changed me, I look around when I go home to England and hear the complaining, I think if everyone went out to see how some of these people live, maybe you’d not be so quick to grumble because your Pizza is ten minuets late.
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