Missive from parts of Africa

A light hearted and sometimes serious look at moving 6000km into a place in Africa: April 2007. Promoted back to South Africa, the missive will continue to track my foray's into deepest Africa as and when I get there.

Name:
Location: Joburg, Africa, South Africa

Monday, August 30, 2004

another view


another view
Originally uploaded by Hop.

view from stoep


view from stoep
Originally uploaded by Hop.

bathroom


bathroom
Originally uploaded by Hop.

the bedroom


the bedroom
Originally uploaded by Hop.

the lounge


the lounge
Originally uploaded by Hop.

My House


My House
Originally uploaded by Hop.
The front view of the house

New House - New Issues

Well there we have it!!!

I am officially in my new house. Clothes unpacked, pictures put in their place, Radcliffe on the top of the bed and my pc set up on the dining room table.

A few issues need to be resolved.

1. My house leaks – yes it is raining (again) and it is a good time to mark the leaks. Lucky there is no carpets or the place will stink.
2. The place does smell. For some reason there is a smell of fish that pervades the lounge and my bedroom side. (silly construction as you will see by the pics). I will make it my mission to find the source of the smell!
3. I have no food in the house at all. I do however have a bottle of Captain’s and a fridge full of cokes. Now hows that for priorities. Heheh
4. There is no TV. Stock of DSTV decoders will be here “Wednesday” but even if that was here, the actual TV does not work. Something to change tomorrow.
5. I have a nice micro, but still no stove. Another one for the to do lists.

But I am a hoppy chappy!!!!!

I can now smoke!!! In my house!!! Without going to battle the mozzies. Now that’s a bonus. Rose evidently knew my feelings as she has purchased 2 ashtrays.

The knife set will last a week it is so “made in china” so I will go on a search for a decent knife or 6.

Which brings me to a small sojurn that I took into the back part of Tarkwa. Curious lad that I am, I wanted to see what was “on the other side of the hill” Very friendly people on the otherside of the hill, everyone waves, cars flash their lights and hoot. Very nice people.

That was until a guy shouted out to me “This is a one way!” Farked if I could see a no entry sign, but I was quite happily toddling down a one way street the wrong way. So no issue, turn into the next available street. Still a one way heading the wrong way, and still no “No Entry” signs. Ended up reversing, doing a U turn and heading back the way I came duly chastised!. It seems you have to know which roads are one way and which are not, as there are definitely no signs indicating anything. Methinks I will park and walk. Hehe.

So there we have it. Still have the lurgy, but am not feeling totally iffy, and am smiling.

Now for a phone line!!

Have a fun one!!



Saturday, August 28, 2004

Saturdays

Well it is once again month end, which means all the wekkers get paid and toddle off to wherever they go on a pay weekend. For some reason, month ends are the busy period for accountants and as I have my accountant hat on, I am working (well and taking a break doing a blog update).

I am offically not feeling well, and based on a blood test yesterday it is not maleria, so just a general lurgy to leave me feeling uphoppy.

My house is (kinda) taking shape and yup - I am going to do my best to move in tomorrow. Stove or no Stove!. Now I need a phone for unfirewalled access to the internet and time will go a lot faster.

I am possibly not in one of the best moods today, and have issues on site which I need to resolve. Somewhere along the line it appears there is not enough sheeting to complete the building. We did not supply the sheeting, but somehow it is now our problem. Fark I hate bad planning!!!

As can bee seen I am pissed off... so best I go!

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Updates from the car

Sheesh I have been rather remiss in updating my blog over the past week, which I can quite happily blame on month end (as accountants are wont to do) and the fact that I am now well into the 5am wake ups, which require sleep to be entered into around 9 in the evening. Am I a woes or not.

This blog gets written while I am once again doing the 4.5 hour drive to Bibiyani to attend a client’s shutdown. This is where I have to draw on the 15 years I spent around paper mill machines so that I do not look too much like a doos. I have worked out that the cyclone is a bloody big centri cleaner and pipes and pumps, are jars that – pipes and pumps. Should not be that difficult huh? *chuckle*

The last week has been pretty uneventful with work taking up most of my waking hours and the Olympics occupying the remainder. The rugby on Saturday was a nice break, when everyone broke at 12 here – remember we have a 2 hour time difference – and went to the respective places to watch the “final “ of the super 12. We ended up at the house with beer and biltong and a little bit of cheering meant that it was fun. The fact that we won made it that much more fun *chuckle*. We also have a large contingent of Aussies working on the project for the consulting engineers, and if I say there was a bit of needle, I would be underestimating it.

Braai in the evening, was accompanied by the fact we can send the security guard to “town” to find Captain Morgen. Three trips later he came back with Smirnoff which by that stage we did not give a damn and proceeded to kill two bottles post haste. A raucous party, with Ian losing all feeling in his legs and spending an inordinate amount of time in the loo. Rose left him with headache tablets for the morning.

Foolishly – and we do things like that when we are pissed – we agreed to go play golf the following morning, preceded by Jason (one of the site supervisors) making breakfast. A hangover breakfast was duly prepared the following morning, consisting of French toast, eggs, bacon (imported from Denmark), smoked sausage and orange juice. A stunning brekkie, which was just what was required.

Off to play golf. Imagine once again – a fourball of which 3 have played a few games of golf between them and ONE set of golf clubs. It was a hoot. The poor caddie and the spotter spent a lot of time running between people and thank fark we only played nine holes. They were buggered by the end of the day, but were well rewarded. I on the other hand now have almost no golf balls left, no tees left and my clubs were given a workout of note. We did laugh a lot tho. The fact the last 4 holes were competed in the pouring rain, meant our time in the pub was fun, drying out, drinking captain morgen and playing pool. R130.00 for the day (all of us), I love club prices, and I went home for my afternoon nap.

I did get a phone call from an old friend who too was pissed and it was good to hear from her. M thank you.

We have been awarded a nice contract just 30 mins away, and that should keep us in bread for a while at least. *g*

Other then that, the kidz are fine, I do try and speak to them once a week or so, Nessers is great and our mutual hawniness makes for some interesting email/sms/evening chats, Esther is still waking up late and not working too hard *chuckle*, and I do send her an SMS at 7.30 odd her time to piss her off. *chuckle*. My dad learnt the hard way that when Cyprus entered the EU, getting a visa is not possible at the airport. The fact that his travel agent did not tell him that and the fact that they allowed him on the plane without a visa is rather interesting. My sis phoned me this am (they 4 hours ahead of us, so the call was at 5.30 am) and updated me as to the fact the airline took responsibility for the fark up and have issued him a free ticket to go back next week. I can however imagine that he was less then a hoppy chap when he was detained at the airport and flown out on the ext plane.

Still planned home 01 October, which I am looking forward to no end. The work on my house is coming along, with curtains hung, aircons installed and furniture arriving slowly as they make it. The one interesting thing is the stove has vanished, and a bit of a slanging match ensued with the owner when he advised me it as my responsibility to supply a stove. Fark I was livid, threatened to cancel the cheque we had given him and stomped off before I hit him. The one thing that does bug me is cause you a brunie everything must be a handout as “you have lots of money”. This attitude pervades the system and everyone is chasing money without offering anything in return. It is rough when this issue is faced on a daily basis.

The chute is finally finished – refer previous blogs – and currently is been installed at the client. I will now go visit them – suitably armed with a case of whiskey – as see if we can recover from this fark up.

I have once again managed to get the Ghana nose drips, which I think is due to two hot nights when I slept with the airconditioner on. Bad form, and at least in the new house there is an aircon in the other rooms which can cool the place down, while I sleep with the bedroom door open.

Updated you are: Hopefully I will return more often as the news comes in.

Have a goody!!

Thursday, August 19, 2004

Roads and stuff

Over the past week or so, in my travels I have come across numerous wrecks and accidents on the side of the road.

I accept the fact that accidents are part of life, but quite honestly with the state of the roads been the way they are, I fail to understand how people can get up sufficient speed to wreck their vehicles so badly. As expected most accidents are head on, as the cars bob and weave on the road in order to avoid the worst of the potholes.

I am sure given the will, one should be able to sue the government for damage caused to their vehicles by the shocking state of the roads.

With that in mind, I am giving my Gelunderwagen back to the lad who hired it to me to replace the shocks, sort out the wheel alignment and the indicators that have suddenly stopped working. I have also been pulled over twice by the local police as my front numberplate is partially blocked by the cowcatcher in the front of the vehicle. So in line is a cute lil Honda 4x4 auto for the same price. I hope the aircon is as good as the wagen as it topped 94F today 35C and is as muggy as hell. I have stood in front of my poor suffering aircon more then a few times today.

I should - and I use that word advisedly - move into my house over the weekend, as it appears the last tenants "do not have a car" and had not yet moved out as of last night There is also the small matter of filling the house with furniture and getting the aircons installed.

Which brings me onto a new subject:

Homeused - a term in Ghana that signifies second hand. You can buy second hand anything here, from fridges, TV's Clothes, Shoes and even pots and pans. SO all you people fom Europe that get rid of second hand stuff. It finds a home in Ghana. They also re-use anything and everything. Take a chunk of concrete that was left on the side of the road. 3 days later it was transformed into around 30 bricks Wooden Pallets - no problem, these are used as the frame of your new lounge suite (which numerous people build on the side of the road). Old cars are stripped for parts, and if they want to work underneath the car, no problem, turn the car on its side, do the work and then pop it back on it's wheels. A few scratches to the door never hurt anyone.

The more I stay here, the more I respect the people that live here and eke out a living. A further shock came my way few days ago when I got a letter from the 2 ladies who "clean" the office. The want an increase. Which I spose is everyones requirement. However on looking at what they earn (c200.000 - circa R130 USD20) a MONTH, I do think they have a case. The reason why they are paid so little? "well they from the village" I cannot understand this kind of attitude amoung people. These are the same people who earn c7.000.000 and still want an increase, but are quite happy to exploit someone with no education.

and on that note.

Have a good one!

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Sunday Stuff

Well once again it is wet and warm... now why did that seem soo nice a few weeks ago *wicked chuckle*. We have had rain for a few days now and everything is muddy and soggy and if it is possible the road home has got worse *chuckle*.

Visited customers this week, which could be quite inefficient as on Thursday we spent 7.5 hours in the car (180kms each way) to have a 40 minute meeting. It did however generate some more business. On the way I found out that Ghana cops have speed traps. Yup! in a small village in the middle of the Jungle out pops speedy and his trusty Laser Gun. The type that was declared unlawful in SA years ago cause nothing stops Nick from shooting the speed of one car, and then using the same speed on the next 40 cars. That said however we were going a tad fast 79kmph as opposed to the posted 50kmph, so not much was going to be said about that.

The driver was taken away to road court, where we had to bail him out. GHC200.000 (R150) did the trick and after around 10 mins we were on our merry way. That said I did the foolish thing to give Speedy MY licence as he was battling to spell my name, and the bugger wanted to keep it to make sure the driver showed up the following day. That was when "be nice to the locals" vanished from my mind and shades of Ermilo came out. He was shocked enough to give me back my lil piece of paper so all could continue.

Seems like everytime I do not watch the rugger, we win. That said it was a good win and horror upon horrors we may actually make the Tri Nations Final - at home!!!

Fuel stations (as we know them) are few and far between here, and with my Galuderwagen been a gas guzzler of note - oh yes! I have worked out that using 4wd all the time smooths out the bumps in the road - we were forced to fill up at a roadside filling station.

I need to take a picture of these, but imagine a cutout in the jungle, with three steel tanks filled with diesel and petrol. There is a 1900's type fuel pump with a gallon jar in the top. The basic principle is you pump the jar full from the steel tank and once it is full, flip a lever and syphon the fuel into the tank. This process is repeated as many times as required. I would imagine filling up a truck from here is a mission of note.

Sunday at work - well blogging as well - started with me waking up at 6:30. I am buggered if I am going to get to work at 6.30 on a Sunday. I have packed the camera in the car, so once I have finished the little that I have to do, I will take a trip and see if the light is good enough for some photo work.

Sheesh - amazing that I am taking pic's of Nature and the Like and not nekked pics of nessers as usual *extra wicked chuckle*

With that note - 51 days to Hometime - and boy am I looking forward to it. Maybe I now know what 90 days in Chookie feels like!

Have a Hoppy one!

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

In Africa not everything works all the time - much like the rest of the world!

Well I have been without internet connectivity on the sat since thursday last week and it has shown in the lack of posts. It appears that if you are going to have a problem make sure it happens over a long weekend is SA. That way no-one can be at work until Tuesday to sort it out.

Played 18 holes of golf on the mountain course yesterday in a Golf day that we sponsered. Nice turn out (54 people) and bloody good "chop". I also found quite happily that the bar stocks Captain Morgan.....

Did not play great golf, tho with 6 blackouts I still scored 88 - which in my book is not that bad. 23 points.

I have got to waking up at 4am due to our next door neighbours that in true tradition keep chickens. All I know is thank fark I am moving to my house next week as if I have to live with a rooster giving it stick at 4am, the rooster will be an ex rooster very quickly.

Getting used to driving around now, even if I still look the wrong way when crossing a junction. I am now driving rather carefully to account for the fact that one day I am going to be looking left and having a car hit me from the right.

Off to visit customers from tomorrow and generally getting used to the workshop vagaries, and it also looks like we will meet the deadlines on work we currently have. So it is getting better.

I also learnt today that I have an entire team of people at one of the mines two hours away. Back to not too sure what they are doing, but I will find out I am sure when I visit there on Thursday.

More soon.... lemme work

Monday, August 02, 2004

View from the 1st Hole

The green is next to the lil house on the hill
Hole 1 Tarkwa Golf Course
Originally uploaded by Hop.

More of the Main Street of Tarkwa


Tarkwa Main Street 1
Originally uploaded by Hop.

More Jungle :)


View from the Club House
Originally uploaded by Hop.

Tarkwa City


Tarkwa Main Street 2
Originally uploaded by Hop.

Golfing pics

Can someone tell me how not to end up with the ball at the bottom of the hill?
The infamous 3rd Hole
Originally uploaded by Hop.

Tarkwa City

My view on the way to work in the morning of Tarkwa Main road
Tarkwa Main Street 3
Originally uploaded by Hop.

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Weekend off with time on ones hands

Well it is Friday and the weekend screams “use me”. A strange feature in the construction industry is payday is an off weekend. Everyone knocks off at 12:30, toddles over to the bank, picks up their cash and we do not see them until Monday morning. That means I have the weekend off as well. Which is pretty good as it will be my 1st weekend off since I arrived. The theory of working on a Saturday and Sunday is not something I have done in around 6 years.

What to do for the weekend? Well a few things come to mind. A little bit of exploring with my camera is in order tomorrow. I have $’s which I need to change into the local currency, given the fact I have not been given my allowance as of yet. More my error then anyone elses.

Maybe off to the beach, although the weather is not too great. 25 degrees, cloudy and as muggy as hell. The wind has also picked up quite substantially.

Our site manager has a malaria scare and he is flat on his back and lewks quite shite. The more I look at the way he feels, the more I feel there is an easier way to lose weight then getting malaria. I did catch up on a bit of sleep this afternoon, which again is the first Friday afternoon nap I have had in a while *chuckle*

I get my car this afternoon, A big 4runner, with leather seats and the whole gamut. One problem been that it is petrol driven and I will have to fill up at the pumps as opposed to the tank at the works. At c4444 / liter (R2.96)($0.48) it should not be that bad.

Have finished all my books  but Nessers has put together a care pack with a few more books, the ciggies and “a surprise” – for which I am lewking forward to. Hopefully it will arrive asap!

A visit was made to the local electricity board regional office. It was like stepping back into an old movie of Africa in the 50’s. Imagine if you will a hall like area, with desks all around, the fans whoosh whooshing on a wooden ceiling and a pant job that must be all of 30 years old. (dark green). One computer sits on a desk, and the other desks have these HUGE! Cash books, specifically printed for the Ghana Electricity Board. Amazing stuff. The upshot of the visit was electricity is 4.3km away from the workshop, and they will give us a quote to install electricity at the site. Time promised: 2 weeks (for the quote that is) I was going through some old files this week and I noted a quote from 2002 which was the equivalent of R2,500,000.00. One does hope that there has been some movement down since them, cause at that price, the gensets are going to remain.

I have taken some pics of the main road of the town, which will accompany this post, and one can see just how basic it is. Hopefully after my sightseeing this weekend I will have a whole load more pics to send around. As the site that I am using has a limit on the number of pics that you can post, email me if you want me to send you a whole load of pics. :>

Religion is a big thing here, and a vast proportion of the businesses have religious names. “Psalm 21 General Dealers” “The Lord welcomes you enterprises” etc etc. You have your “chop shops” which in SA mean the place where hijacked vehicles gets reprocessed and in Ghana it means a place to eat. You do not have lunch or dinner you have “chop”. Chop shops abound in Tarkwa.

There are also a load of “Licensed Chemical Shops”, which as one is sure to expect, are your local chemists. These guys sell a whole range of goodies, a vast percentage of which has never seen a medical council test report. There is the ubiquitous “cure impotence, headaches, flu, HIV, malaria, bad eyes, cheating wife etc etc” muti in dark bottles that would take a stronger constitution them mine to use.

Talking about food, the basic rule is never eat from a local food vendor lest you want a dose of typhoid. However, I can still look *chuckle* Those of you that know me. Know how much I like my food and experimenting with different flavours. Well there are some interesting looking food stuff. Dried Fish (whole), rice is a big thing – fried or otherwise, pies of some description and a range of fruit and veggies – peeled and unpeeled: There is one thing that has caught my eye, which I will try. That is the bread. It is a flatter type of loaf around the size of a paperback book folded out and just has that golden brown color about it that say “I will make an amazing sandwich”. Maybe lunch tomorrow on the road.

…… to be continued
…… continuation Sunday Night.

Well Saturday was eventful with a drop in at site in my new Galunderwagen. Tis a bloody tank, huge car, automatic (which is kewl), and got into shite for not having (a) a mine permit and (b) a yellow flashy light on top of the car. Summit I will have resolve on Monday.

Took a drive on the Takoradi road, 60kms (2 hours) until I hit the road that they have fixed up. If all the roads were like that, this place will be a lot more of a pleasure to get around. That said, the drive was interesting, tiring as hell as you have to concentrate all the time on the road, dodging potholes, large trucks heading towards you, numerous pedestrians with no road sense and the ubiquitous goats. Apparently I was 10kms from the beach, and did not even know it. Not a major train smash as the weather was not great and at least I know where it is now.

Back home, downloaded the pics on the PC and believe it or not, fast asleep by 9pm on a Saturday night. These early mornings are self generating. You wake up early, are buggered by 9pm and cause you fell asleep early, you wake up before the birds. In this case 3am on a Sunday. That was even too early to send SMS’s to people in JHB 

Sunday was once again a brief trip to site, take an expat to the hospital cause he was not feeling well, and off to the golf course.

How to build a golf course in Tarkwa:

• You have to be a mine
• Take a piece of land that you cannot build houses on
• Make sure the land is effectively a valley
• Plonk a few greens on the land
• Make a few tee boxes
• Put numbers on the holes.

The course is build on the side of two bloody mountains.

1st hole 290m over a valley to a raised green – par 4 – scored 6, thanks to a duffed chip

2nd hole 160m par 3 – back down the hill that you just played to a green at the top of the next hill – 4

3rd Hole – 380m par 4 on the side of the mountain. No matter where u going to hit, you are going to end up at the side of the mountain in a small stream. I decided to get clever and hit far right, and promptly hit out of bounds twice – blackout

4th hole – 430m par 5. Over the valley, up a hill, late dogleg to the left. Poor 3rd shot meant a 6.

5th Hole – 360m par 4 (stroke 1). Huge dogleg to the left, play up the hill, then over the valley to a raised green. Put my second over the green and scored a 5

6th – 189m par 3. This farking hole plays over the valley and is long. Great 3 iron, just short and to the right. But by the time I got to the top of the hill, after walking down the hill first, I was knackered!!!. Managed to miss the green scored a 4

7th – 280 m par 4 once again played across the mountain. Took out the driver and was a sand wedge away in the middle of the fairway. The fact that the ball was way below my feet made it interesting and true to form the bloody ball shot off to the right, next shot short – made a 6

8th – 160m par 3 once again, up over a valley – at this stage the rain was pissing down. Great tee shot, pin high to the right (there is a pattern here) chip on 2 putts = mark down a 4.

9th. 340m par 4 – back towards number 1 – basically number 1 in reverse. Made a lot more interesting by a bloody big tree in front of the green. Good drive (to the right) great second, which hits the bank at the back of the green and bounces onto the green. And there we have my 1st par.

Decided against playing the second nine due to the teeming rain. (and the fact I was bloody knackered)

Few beers at eddies place – bar was shut – it been Sunday and all, and off to the local restaurant at the Mangenese Mine (around 20 mins away) to eat GRILLED PORK CHOPS!!! - oh what bliss.

Chilled afternoon chatting to Denzil who is a lot better from whatever lurgy he was subject to and 7.47pm – writing this blog and getting ready for bed. Oh the hectic life I lead.

Looking forward to work tomorrow, have a bit of kak with a customer who we are late on delivery for, and he quite happily kakked on me tonite. I can see a lot of marketing repair work coming up soon. Looks like we are behind on every job that we have, and I need to set that right asap or I will not have a business to run in a few months.

Have a goody ….. will subject you to further ramblings soon