Price of gas

The other day when we were going to the grocery store we had to stop at the gas station and that reminded me to ask about the price of gas in Algeria.

"Regular" is 22 dinar per litre…so about 37 cents per liter.

My first reaction was: "It is so cheap!"

But the next question was: how much money does a gardener / house keeper at the base makes. The answer: US100$ per month!! But I should add to be honest that the company running the base is known for being a terrible company to work for….

I’ve been trying to find out for a while how much the guy who cleans our rooms and offices makes so I can leave him a tip that makes sense. Possibly he makes US $20 per day to work on site.

It is always a hard question to ask: how much money is "normal" money?…

Even at home I would be hard pressed to answer this question…How much money does the cash register girl in Safeway make?

the plane ride

Ok, I mentioned the plane ride that makes me sick, let me explain.

In the morning when the air is cool and the sand is cool there isn't any thermal cells (or what ever you call them) and the ride is nice and smooth, and I am not sick. In the afternoon, or even late morning on hot days the difference in temperature between the sand and the air is significant and the air heated by the sand of course has to rise and form thermals...this results in very turbulent flights when you are at low altitude. During the actual flight it is OK, but the last 10 minutes are just a killer. The turbulences added to the heat, or what ever it is, results in a deadly combination...let's just say that people being sick are not uncommon. So far I have been able to not throw up but only my pride holds me back and once I came pretty close. I actually had cold sweats and the shakes (both hands and knees) when I stepped out of the plane.

Going to town this time when we arrived in Hassi Messaoud we had lateral winds and it turns out to be a great advantage to people like me. To avoid them the pilote stayed high as long as possible and did a sort of a nose dive at the last minute so we spent very little time at low altitude. Of course we also landed on one wheel, or I should say jumped once on one wheel then landed on that same wheel. The angle of the plane was steep enough to force the passengers to hold on, but low enough no to be scary...eventually the pilot did manage to put the second wheel down...I tell you those guys are good.

the song of the day

To be sang on the tune of "I dream of a white Christmas"

I dream of a soft pillow
a wide soft bed and a pillow
something that comfortable and nice
something that does not give me a stiff sore neck
la la la la la la la la

etc etc etc... very catchy
I forgot the exact tunes so the words may not quite work.

One night in town

With the problems we have at work there isn't much for me to do at the rig.
The alternative is to go to Hassi Messaoud (an hour flight away in a Twin Otter) and stay at the base where the oil company has its offices and its accomodation. It is an OK place, it even has a swimming pool but it is the office and you cannot leave the compound unless you have a driver etc etc...in other words it has potential for becoming very boring something like 10 mintes after the first shower...And even then the shower is not that great...in fact I noticed yesterday that the water coming out of the shower was salty. The well water we have here at the rig, which I grant you does have some bacteria, is fresh water.

After a all rigamarole yesterday afternoon the in-country-manager decided that I should go to town, officially because I have been here for 9 weeks and I need a break, in reality because he was having a BBQ and needed more women!! and that is the plain truth!! And you know it is sad when I am invited as a female figure as opposed to as one of the guys!!! sad, sad, sad!

Anyway, I wanted to buy some lemonade crystals...I have had this huge craving for lemonade made out of those gross crystals...don't ask. I also wanted some soap that smells better than what they give us at the rig and a few stupid things like this, so I went.
The BBQ could have done with some atmosphere..any atmosphere...
I have no bathing suit here with me so the pool was out....I honestly came to Algeria having done the worst packing job ever!!
The evening was a bit of a fiasco...well, maybe not fiasco but a "flop" for sure.

The thing I always have to think about when I have a chance to go to Hassi Messaoud is the plane ride...I get sick in that plane ride....so the trip has to be fun to be worth it.

I did sleep very well on a big comfortable bed with a soft pillow and I woke up only once wondering why it was so quiet and where I was....Of course I always wake up many times, but only once did I wonder...I slept like a queen...so just that made it worth the trip....the soft mattress, the soft pillow and the cosy light duvet were heaven! Luxury, luxury, Luxury!

then there is surface texture

Now, surface texture is something else all together.
.....There is no way I can do it justice, absolutely no way. It is an on going fascinating thing. I'm just giving you an idea with two pictures.
What is neat about it ..............and no, I am not going to talk about grain size + composition + sorting, just forget about that...........
So the neat part about it is the feel under your feet associated with the rippling pattern...and the colours assocated with the patterns...I should be fair and say that part of the colour is related to the sand itself (yes, yes, size etc) and the light of the time of day as shown earlier, but there is more...always more...
When I go for my walks I try to figure out the way patterns and colours can be used to figure out if the sand is going to be firm or soft. Some of it, in broad terms, is easily figured out, but every now and then, usually right after I come up with a new theory on the sand's ability to support my weight, something goes "wrong" and I find myself walking through soft sand....

Walking on sand is amazingly like walking on snow, sometimes you break through sometimes you 'float". I like it...I am starting to go for longer walks...Yes, I know I still haven't explained anything about the guards.

and one more

I couldn't very well do a "study in colours of dunes" without posting this one!

Of course this one is on a totally different day, in fact this one is after the rain.

I can't remember if I mentioned it....
i saw rain in the Sahara..I must have mentioned it...

the colour of dunes

Well, i asked if you had enough of dunes and the only feed back I got was "pro-dunes" so here it is: a study in dune colours.



Those three photos were take with a half hour and within 100m of each other at a time when the light was changing quickly. It was around 6:00 at night.

With little light in the morning or the evening the dunes are grey, they they turn pink and orange and bright. At the noon hour especially on hot days they seem nearly white. Then back to bright orange or pink in the early evening and grey as the sun goes down...generally, but no two days are alike especially when you factor in the wind, the humidity (or lack off) in the air, the clouds...and everything else. Quite an amazing process really.

As you can see I am having quite a hard time putting three pictures on one blog...I've struggled with it long enough I think this is the way it will have to stay.

Time !!!

I just received the "information package" from the volunteer association. It includes a fun little bit about time. Here it is:
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"It is interesting to note that in the Swahili culture the day starts at sunrise (unlike in the Arab world where the day starts at sunset, and in the Western world where the day starts at midnight). Sunrise in East Africa, being exactly at the Equator, happens every day at approximately 6:00 a.m. And for that reason, 6:00 a.m. is "0:00 morning" Swahili time. By "Swahili time" I mean the time as spoken in Swahili.

So the hands of a watch or clock meant to read Swahili time would always point to a number opposite to the number for the actual time as spoken in English. That is, the Swahili time anywhere in the world (not just East Africa) is delayed by 6 hours.

Therefore 7:00 a.m. is "1:00 morning" (saa moja asubuhi) Swahili time; midnight is "6:00 night" (saa sita usiku) Swahili time. 5:00 a.m. is "11:00 early morning" (saa kumi na moja alfajiri) Swahili time.

Note also that the Swahili time doesn't use "noon" as the reference as in a.m. (before noon) and p.m. (after noon). The time is spoken using "alfajiri" which is the early morning time during which the morning light has started to shine but the sun has not risen yet; "asubuhi" which is the morning time between sunrise and a little before noon; "mchana" which is from around noon to around 3:00 p.m.; "alasiri" which is from around 3:00 p.m. to sunset; "jioni" which is the entire time period from around 3:00 p.m. up to a little before 7:00 p.m.; and "usiku" which is the entire time period from around 7:00 p.m. to early morning."

-----------------------------------

Apart from this time may actually not be in my side on this one. Things are taking a lot longer than expected here...sometime today we will find out how much cement we have INSIDE the casing (for the non geology people: the cement is meant to be OUTSIDE the casing not inside!!) and a new time frame may very well be introduced to our situation. Mind you, we are on the "anything is possible" time frame most of the time!!!

I am still trying to find out how flexible the volunteer association is willing to be/can be.
If they need to be warned weeks and weeks in advance when people are coming this is obviously going to be a "no go"....I think I will still go to Kenya just to relax.

More arrowheads

two different sites. The rougher and the finer..not that far apart.
Pottery fragments are not as rare as arrowheads, but decorated pieces like the one in the photo are quite rare from what I am told.
I put looking for arrowheads and golfing in the same sort of activity... something to do while you walk around / a good excuse to get out there.
Yesterday I had a "revelation": arrowhead carvers were the first geologists. They had to recognise chert and know where to find it.
I thought of this when the guard who was with me -I still haven't explained the guards!-....when the guard who was with me asked what I was looking for...I told him and showed him the chert fragments and explain that they were a good indicator of possible arrowheads, so he looked and looked...and concluded "different people are good at different things. To me all the rocks look the same"...

Maybe after all

Well, after all I may be able to join the volunteer program. It turns out that if you cannot get a police record you can get three letters of references from "reputable" people.
I've asked a few people, so far Bob and Lucretia have come through for me and have written nice and perfectly respectable letters. I need one more and the one from Lucretia scanned and I am just about ready.
I've decided that I would go to London and stay a couple of days first to get some money and the buy stuff that I will need. Then I will go to Nairobi.

The malaria tablets should be sorted out.
The references should work out.
The plane ticket -cheap but flexible- I am still working on.
The volunteer program is pretty much just waiting to hear from me.

It might just work out! .....might!!!
I have to say that it would be fun to volunteer for three weeks and travel a bit either to the Indian Ocean or to Lake Victoria...We will see.
If the volunteer thing does not work for this time I will try again next time. And if it works this time and I like it I may get in the routine of doing it every now and then when I a not too far and the plane ticket is not too much.

what to do?

After I got everybody in a mess so I could get my malaria pills delivered to me (thanks Dave!) I found out that to go volunteer in Kenya I need to get a police record! Bummer! I wish they had mentioned it earlier...When I was still in Canada might have been a good time!
I had a bummed out all day today being totally dissapointed at the idea of not going, but slowly I am coming to the conclusion that I should to Kenya and Tanzania anyway. Just for a little bit, just for a holiday before going back home.
I was getting used to the idea of going somewhere else than home.
One of the gazillions of problem with this "not going home" plan is that I am not really packed to travel on a holiday. I did bring a small back back thinking that I was going trekking in the Tassili. But I have no back pack big enough to go travel around Africa. I have no bathing suit (Clearly a huge emergency right there) etc. Still I think that I should just go anyway.

Bill -The Big Guy

The big guy on the right is Bill, the company man.
He is hilarious.
Today at lunch as we are talking about god knows what when the all "do you fish" question came up. His answer: "Not anymore. Not ever since the incident". You can just imagine where that went. I just laught myself silly all while trying to say through the tears "I am not laughing at you"...He loves telling stories and he has some great stories.
He worked for years in Sudan and all kind of wild places, made some extra cash doing contraband out of Kenya and South Africa when he was younger.
He is a laugh a minute.
At the end of his last shift at one point he came to me and said "Hello, honey"...I just laughed and told him "this time, Big Guy, you have really lost it" -I call him Big Guy- He just laughed back and said "I am practising for when I get home".
I love drilling with old guys like this.

Are you tired of dunes?

I wonder, are you tired of me posting photos of dunes?

This is all I see all day I am not getting tired. I am sure that in the long run I am going to wonder why I took so many pictures of dunes....I am temporarily a dune expert. I follow the change in shapes, colours, firmness, ripple marks etc of the dunes around us. I notice details that nobody in their right mind would even consider looking at.
Worse I am enjoying it.

Now that's what I call laughing

This is an in-between photo for those like me trying to recuperate form the chock of the "less than one year" difference.
It is my fave pix of her.

Also a little bit more "Huckleberry Finn".
That girl looks good in green..and purple...and yellow.....and orange (take my word for it)...that girl looks good in anything!

I am telling you, we are not getting any younger.

last month I turned 5 millions years old

Here is the question: how do you go from photo number one to photo number two in less than a year?!?!?

I can't see the actual text of the book she is reading..I'm thinking that it is neither Mikhail Bulgakhov's "the master and Marguarita", nor Fyodor Dostoevsky's "crime and punisnment"...I sure hope it isn't Jane Austen....but the outfit she is wearing does scream "Jane Austen"!!!

But wait! This is nothing...She started walking....The girl is not a year old! Tomorrow she is starting her own Blog on the socio-cultural implications of exporting powdered milk to third world countries with added high points on her own philosophy on child rearing in the 21st century. Either this or on the special alloys used in aeronautics and how their heat resitivity versus original cost of both producing and manufacturing and the environmental impact of their use in the industry should be considered for better designs.....or anything else that might cross her mind!
Had I known I would have left her the key to my truck before going to Algeria...at this rate she will need it soon for her back country camping trips and her round the country tours.....and I am not saying with her parents either.
I am feeling about five millions years old!!!!
The way she looks I can't even honestly say that I am digging my heels in on the Jane Austen issue.....If she reads Jane Austen what are we doing reading anything else...when you look that good, I am sorry to say, you set the world's trends!!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

Last night the temperature went down to +16C....seriously cold for people used to +40C and higher....
the weather must be awful in Europe. It seems that the weather mostly comes from Europe.
In a way it was good because we have lots of problems with air conditioners...In my room the air conditioning unit works for about an hour, then I have to turn it off. When I get too hot again and I wake up typically if I turn it back on and it works for another hour or so. So far this has worked, but when it actually gets hot....

The wind yesterday was terrible, but I was thinking....Hmmmmm....more arrowheads being uncovered.

One Way Mirror

It used to be that when people wanted to know what was going on they would email and ask. Now that I blog I feel like I am behind a one way mirror. I don't know if people are looking in. I don't see them, I don't hear from them.
Hmmm!!! maybe I don't like blogging after all.
It is fun to write and post stuff up with a picture but ......

the Mzab

I am just discovery bits and pieces of Algeria through my contacts with people at work. Of course what I find out is first limited to the knowledge held by people I befriend and then filtered by who they are and what they are willing to discuss with me.

One of those people is Y., a very nice guy from Ghardaia, and I am discovering a little about the mozabites through him.
Of course of particular interest to me is women's status. The Mozabite women are known for being entirely covered in white, unlike the black dress for women of most of the rest of the Middle East, and for only showing one eye, the left eye always.
Y's wife also covers herself and I asked him about it.
Keep in mind that he is saying this to a white woman working on an oil drilling rig.
He explained to me how from their point of view women are the keepers of the traditions. He tells me that women were not allowed to leave the Mzab (the area where they live) for quite a few years so that their culture, ethnicity and traditions would not be lost. He talked and talked about women not being allowed to do all kind of things, loosing what I considered some basic freedoms and described it as the wisdom, the gift of the chosen people, the Mozabites. He cries for the situation of some other men in Algeria who marry women who are not modest. He is horrified at the idea that some men in the rest of Algeria marry women who do not know anything about the story of their family, do not know where their grand parents came from, do not know where the roots of their family are.

As he was talking I was thinking that after all many men died in wars to keep their cultures safe and maybe the sacrifice the Mozabite women make is similar. Of course the big difference is that typically men choose to go to war -or do they?-, whereas the mozabite women were forbidden to leave the area.....I've never talked to one of them, and likely will never be allowed to do it, so I cannot say what the women think about it.

This man has a young daughter and we were talking about his relationship with her and his past and present relationships with women in general. For me there is a strange contrast between his personal life and his cultural belief, but he sees no contradictions in it.
This is a man who decided to become friend with me.

He says that the basis of their identity is the triangle with the "shops" at the base, the home above it and the mosque at the top. If I understand well this geometry also reflects their architecture, or at least this is the way he views it.

Work!!

At the rate things are going here I will end up being here for quite a bit longer than first expected (the first estimate was for 50 some days). The real problem is that when I am down I will EASILY be down for 9 weeks, EASILY!!! It could turn into 12 to 15 weeks before anybody gets surprised.
I guess I have better start planning what I want to do during my time off.

Southern Algeria, Kenya and some work in Canada right now seem like the best combination.

@$*%!! That's too much down time!!!