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, March 07, 2005

Sunday Missive

Another Sunday missive from the jungle.

The reporting week went really well and besides one (major) stuff up, I survived!!. That meant I could work until 3pm on Saturday and take off Sunday. Now that’s called working smarter not harder.

Saturday saw the arrival of MY NEW CAR!!!! - I am now the proud driver of a Pajero 2.8tdi and boy! It drives well! Loads of grunt and u do not get bounced around as I got in the LDV. *bow* to the powers in JHB that approved the purchase.

It also proves how ripped off we are in SA when it comes to vehicle prices. The Pajero with aircon, radio/CD, 4WD, 7 seats etc etc cost USD 30.000 (ZAR 180.000). The same vehicle in SA retails at R360.000. TWICE!! the price. Scary!

Saturday was a quiet night at home as I think I am coming down with something. Back to the low grade headache and scratchy throat. Or it may be the fact that my SA ciggies are finished and I am back to local Rothmans. Not sure!

Sunday was a late morning – I arose at 7am and toddled off to the beach in my *new* car for lunch and a wander along the beach. The journey was a pleasure and my new CD’s were put to good use. Home by 5 and a quiet evening watching TV ensued. Loved the Italian Job and watched a really good movie called “Article 99” which highlighted the plight of vet’s in the US health system

Was good to chill, eat choccie and marshie eggs and nibble some garlic wors. I do think Nessers sent the Garlic Wors to chase all the school teachers away. It must be working cause I have yet to see a cute school teacher. *chuckle*

Ghana Police seem to be on a roll at the moment and have caught “the most wanted criminal” in Accra (apparently 96 odd armed robberies have been attributed to him) as well as “the most wanted criminal” in Kumasi. This after Kumasi erupted into violence on Friday when a gangster was killed and the mourners decided to trash cars and shoot at people in the middle of town. Goodness! And the say JHB is bad???

Government is also getting serious as regards the anti corruption drive, and are taking all the Ghana Railways staff to task who were party to leasing out land controlled by Ghana Rail to other people. Could be interesting to see how this pans out. But when you consider the railways is almost non functional one may be tempted to say renting out the land could pay salaries. However one wonders how much went into officials back pockets.

Traders in Kumasi are also subject to arrest in that towns attempt to improve traffic flow by getting rid of the street and pavement hawkers. The situation appeared to improve traffic flows in Accra, but based on the fact the Kumasi traders seem a little more militant, it could be a question of who has the stronger will. The fact that people are forced to walk on the street due to the pavement traders is a major problem and one that needs to be resolved methinks.

Monday is a public holiday celebrating Ghana Independence day and this was seen with all kinds of celebrations in the villages with kiddies marching around, flags flying high and people giving speeches. Sunday was the actual holiday, but as in SA the Sunday holiday carries over to Monday.

Business wise we had a very good month last month and poor old Albert is deskbound doing all sorts of quotations for all sorts of goodies. It also appears as if our new operation at Obuasi has got their first job, which makes me a happy lad. I will be visiting them this week again.

Easter weekend is up and coming and as it is at the end of the month 25/03-28/03 there is talk of all the lads going off to Accra for the weekend to get a bit of their nightlife. Sounds like a bloody good plan to me. All it requires from my side is some nifty planning to make sure we close the books off on time and input as much as possible by the Thursday, with the remaining items on the Tuesday and Wednesday. That should be possible for a man of my caliber!!

*chuckle*

Other then that! 40 days until I fly out for rotation!!!!

1 Comments:

Blogger Angie said...

Definately possible for a man of your caliber :) The count down begins again ..... 40 days and counting ...... you could celebrate the Greek Easter this year (so you get to celebrate Easter twice!!) which is the weekend of 1st May.

3:14 PM  

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