Thursday, January 6, 2011

Here we are.

Or me rather. I'm sitting in a hotel in Luanda, Angola now. Waiting to hear from the new job. My thoughts on Africa so far. South Africa was a strange mish mash of England, America and something all their own. But that may be because I was in a casino for the 4 days I was there. Angola is seriously under construction. There are buildings going up everywhere. Most of the money appears to be coming from China. At least that's what all the electronics and other machines are labeled in. Someone told me that China put 5 billion into Angola last year alone. But that's not surprising when you consider how much untapped resources Angola has. If I were a country bent on massive development like China, I'd put a lock on all the resources I could for at least the next 25-50 years. Oil, minerals, diamonds, Angola has it all.

Talking with the other pilot I came over with, the dollar is crashing bad against all foreign currency. Not surprising, given the way they've been treating the printing presses back home.

One thing that struck me as I came in were all the crashed Migs that were still scattered around the airport and I'm told there are still hulks of tanks left over from the war with South Africa down south in Angola. I'm told there was a very large tank battle in Angola. I'll have to do the research on that and read up on it.

10 comments:

Julie said...

Hope the job works out well ... stay safe.

Unknown said...

Dude! Africa? When did that happen anyway?

bluesun said...

That's kinda cool. I have a friend from Angola, and it is very interesting to hear him talk about his country, especially the times during the war where the government(s) didn't take care of anything. He went to my school as a petroleum engineer, as he had worked several years on the oil rigs in Angola.

DaddyBear said...

BRM might be able to point you to some resources on that war.

Unknown said...

Dude! So I do my regular morning blog reading and find out that my friend is in AFRICA!! Wow! So, um, what's this job that takes you such exotic locations?

Old NFO said...

Glad you got there in one piece... Remember, Check SIx!

wrm said...

We are a strange mish-mash of England, Holland, France, Malaysia, India and of course Africa. It's all overlaid with an American veneer, since whoever controls Hollyweird pretty much controls the culture.

Our casinos are pretty much the only true gun-free zones we have, you don't find me there often (unfortunately my MIL is a regular).

There's hope for Angola, I hear from my 4x4 buddies. Mozambique is doing not too badly, but they started earlier. Zimbabwe may get there in my lifetime but I doubt it.

Peter said...

Be careful out there . . . there are still literally millions of land-mines scattered all across Angola from the decades-long bush war.

My memories of Angola aren't nearly so civilized. The locals didn't seem to want me there; in fact, they shot at me with everything from handguns and AK-47's to RPG-7's, BM-21's and 122mm. artillery pieces, to say nothing of sending MiG-23's to bomb me! Fortunately, they missed every time.

If you get down to the South of Angola, I could give you a few GPS co-ordinates to find some interesting remains from that period. Some of them might still go BANG!, if you try hard enough.

:-)

phlegmfatale said...

wow, mebbe you've happened upon the next Eureka site. Stay safe and stay in touch. we miss you and love you very much. :)

Mike W. said...

Africa!? Stay safe and have fun!