some random photos from north western South Africa

A small town called Concordia, also a fairly typical view of a small town in this area.
Part of the road going through the Kalahari. The most amazing thing about the 200 kilometres I drove cutting through the edge of the Kalahari was how varied it was. Those two hundred kilometres could be considered flat or more realistically be seen as a succession of shallow valleys after shallow valley. And each valley looked different from the other. There was the wide flat bottomed valley with now vegetated red sand dunes. There was the wide flat bottomed valley with little but pale yellow grass (the one in the photo).There was the narrow valley with black rocks, red soil and pale yellow grass. Then the narrow valley which had the tall cacti and dark green bushes. Every single valley had some characteristic that rendered it unique. It made the drive very interesting. Each valley was under 10 kilometre wide. It was an excellent day.

The Orange River which brings diamonds to the west coast and life to its valley. A river in the part of the world is a miracle. I stayed one day and one night at the spot in the photo. It was wonderful.

Just a sign for a farm by the side of the road.

After miles and miles of flat fields somehow this small mesa seemed amazing at the time.

on the the way to Calvinia

I'm a little under the weather today. I have an incredible head ache that makes the French guillotine look like an attractive prospect, anything to get this head off my shoulder! But I thought I would post one of the pictures I took on my way to Calvinia on the R27. Between Vanrhynsdorp and Nieuwoudtville the R27 goes up the escarpment onto the Bokkeveldberge and this is the view you get when you look from it to the West.
In case you are lost as to where all this is, it is in western South Africa just between the Western Cape Province and the Northern Cape Province. Technically what you are looking at here is the plains of the Western Cape and the ridge of the Bokkeveldberge which is in the Northern Cape Province since the escarpment is exactly the boundary between the two provinces.

It is a beautiful view, as usual it is hard to do it justice in photos.
Imagine yourself standing there with the sun already warm (it is about 8:00am) but the air still reasonably cool. The smell is the smell of the desert with a very light breeze. This plain goes for as far as the eye can see to the North (to the right) and the ridges break it in the South. And this all view came as a bit of a surprised since you had never realized before that the so called escarpment here was actually true to its name and was a cliff that would offer you a view.

actual update

By the way, I am home for 6 days. I am just back from a short road trip in north western South Africa. I had a great time, I took quite a few pictures. I'll blog about this later, right now the internet is way too slow and anyway I need to sleep.
I'm going back to work in South Africa but probably for the last time this saturday.
The client company cannot decide whether to continue drilling or not, but I should imagine that it will be over really soon.

The Famished Road by Ben Okri

I have to admit that I nearly gave up on the book many times. I had such a hard time getting into it. At first I loved the fact that the book was written by a Nigerian author since I was coming out of two books I had really enjoyed by Achebe, another Nigerian author. And I loved that the main character was Azuro, an abiku child, a spirit child who is born and dead many times from the same parents and always tempted to die again to go back to its spirit world. This was also something that had been present in the previous books from Nigeria I had read, but then there was so much about the visions of the spirits in this world by Azuro, it was described in such details that what others had read and admired as a colourful descriptions of visions came across to me as an easy on going descriptions designed to shock: “monsters” with three heads, red eyes etc etc etc. I found it boring! Sorry, but it was just boring regardless of how imaginative, colourful, different and unexpected the world he described were. They just did not bring me to see anything that I either wanted to see, or wanted to avoid. I was just bored by them. But as I had finally decided to give up the book and admit defeat Azuro descriptions of what happened to him when he nearly died made sense. In this context his descriptions of the spirit world made sense to me. Then the father somehow, and not by some trick of “anything is possible in the spirit world” but by what felt like a genuinely possible set of circumstances, Azuro’s father becomes an important character in the novel and I found myself wanting to find out more about the story. By the time I realized that I was reading the book again I was a hundred page from the end of the book. And I really enjoyed the last third of the book.

Call me simple, but I like books that tell me something, a story, facts that I either wanted to know or did not know I wanted to know, but something else than words written all together to startle and show what can be done with words. The Famished Road, could be the story of an abiku child and his struggle to decide between the spirit world and the world of the people alive. It could be the story of a family with an abiku child and their struggle to keep such a child alive. It could be the story of a poor but proud family during elections in Nigeria resisting the pressure to vote for the party most people seem to support. It could be the story of a father and his son. It could be the story of one poor somewhat isolated Nigerian family and its friendship to two also isolated characters in the community: Madame Koto, the powerful bar keeper who deals in witchcraft, and the Photographer, who endangers his life by taking photos of political rallies. It could be the story of a poor man’s struggle. It could be the story of a blind man who can see part of the spirit world. It could be the story of a young boy who lives part of his life in the spirit world and who is recognized as such by all wizards and witches. It could be the story of a father of a poor family who tries to be stay alive and to remain true to himself. Or it could the simple story of a family in Nigeria. But instead it is all those mixed up together, and because of it I did not enjoy this book as much as the reviewed had lead me to hope I would. I had to wade through too much “stuff” to find parts I wanted to read.

So in the end, would I recommend The Famished Road? Probably not, unless you have a lot of time (it is a long book) and you like reading descriptions of what could be drug induced hallucinations. It is a shame because parts of it, and particularly the last third, were worth the read from my point of view, but again, how much hay do you really want to go through to find the needle?

Having enjoyed the last third so much I thought maybe it was because I was in a different head space, or maybe I was finally getting into the style of the book so I immediately restarted the book from the beginning but once again I couldn’t get into it past the first few pages.
So my verdict stays: too much shaft, not enough wheat!

we're not kids anymore!

Ben is getting married on the 5th of May! Wooooo hoooo!
I'm so happy for him, and I am SO going to the wedding in Thailand! So going!

I tell you we are not kids anymore! Somehow it is not quite registering...It should! I am 44 today! We are all grown us now. Well at least I am!
I'm 44, might just as well be 444!!
I am closer to retirement than to school!!!!
WOW! In a way I fell like I am as old as the hills but also as young as the grass growing on those same hills. I do get a real sense of my mortality though. I tell you, I am staring at old age, right here in front of me. I can see it looking back at me.

For my friends in real life (sorry about other friends, but you know what I mean) I am on Skype quite regularly now. I am trying to talk to people. I have to organize a stag party!!!

the rainy season finally

This is it the rainy season has found us. Today is sunny but the last two days we had torrential rain....well, tropical summer rains!

The road leading to the location passes through a couple of swampy areas and apparently they are not swamps but are more like rivers right now.
This morning I asked one of the Baker Atlas guy who had to come in a four wheel drive how the road was and he answered: "I saw a fish cross the road where the little bridge used to be."
I guess this means "the road isn't good".

All I am asking is for the roads to be passable on Thursday when I am going to the airport for the final time....... asking for passable roads for myself and for a well behaved Zambezi for the people of northern Mozambique. The first one will be easier the second one here!! Tomorrow the forecast is for rain again.

Breath!

Yet another shit morning here with the company man being once again rude and unpleasant just because he thinks he can.
This morning I got: "It's too early in the morning for your crap"...MY crap!!!! ..... The internet not working at morning report time is MY crap!!!!!
I realize that I have lost my sense of humor about it. The last few incidents have just gotten to me when I should really just have let it slide. I think I need a break.

I've typed a letter of resignation, then realized that the only appropriate way to handle it is to first tell the people in Calgary I work for (since I am a sub-contractor here). If I am going to do it I have to do it right.

Between now and then I am trying to figure out if I feel mostly happy about it, or mostly worried since I have no prospect of another job lined up.
[Added a couple of hours later]....In a situation like this the best thing to do is to apply for jobs! I've started sending my resume around. It's totally new to me. I have never before just sent my resume to recruiting companies on the internet. The first one felt weird...but the second one was a lot easier!

Nigerian authors

I've never been to Nigeria. Honestly I am not even thinking of going to Nigeria, and it is on my list of countries where I am unlikely to agree to go to work...and there are only three countries on that list - I am not counting the countries where I will not work because it is illegal for a woman to work there or travel there without a male relative.

I am doing the Expanding Horizons reading challenge and I am considering of doing it with just Nigerian authors... though I can't help but wonder if this does not do the exact opposite to what the original intent of the challenge was, ie. narrow my reading down as oppose to expand it, but since I had never before read any Nigerian authors I think it might still be in the intended spirit.
I had thought about it, then abandoned the idea but I just read Veronica's review of "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and I started looking around for other Nigerian authors. As it turns out Wikipedia has a page for Nigeria authors.

Here is a copy of their list that I have changed a little. I've put the name so that they are all written with the last name first, and I have added year of birth if I could find it, in a few cases years they were writing instead and in a some cases comments relevant to me.

• Abani Chris (1966)
• Adedeji Remi (1937)
• Adichie Chimamanda Ngozi (1977)
• Afolabi S. A. (1966)
• Ajayi Tolu (1946)
• Akinwunmi Isola was writing in the 60s)
• Amadiume Ifi (1947)
• Babafemi Badejo (1955)
• Barrett A. Igoni (1979)
• Bode Sowande (1948)
• Clark John Pepper (J.P. Clark Bekederemo) (1935)
• Dibia Jude (1975)
• Diego Odoh Okenyodo
• Ekwensi Cyprian (1921)
• Equiano Olaudah (1745)
• Esehagu Rosemary (1981)
• Fagunwa Daniel O. (1903)
• Faleti Adebayo
• Femi Osofisan (1946)
• Festus Iyayi (1947)
• Fulani Dan (writing since 1981)
• Ihekwaba Rita (1966)
• Imam Abubakar (1911)
• Itunu-Abitogun Oyinlade (writing in 2001)
• Iweala Uzodinma (1982)
• Munonye John (1929)
• Johnson Samuel (1846)
• Lagunju Abimbola (1960)
• Maimo Sankie (born in Cameroon, writing in 1955)
• Mama Amina (1958)
• Oguine Ike (first novel 2000)
• Ogundipe Molara (writing in 1995, feminist)
• Ohanyido Francis (1970)
• Okonkwo Rudolf Ogoo
• Okri Ben (1959)
• Okwelume Obinna Charles (1981)
• Omotosho Kole (1943)
• Onuora Nzekwu (1928)
• Rotimi Ola (1938)
• Saro-Wiwa Ken (1941)
• Solarin Tai (1922)
• Soyinka Wole (1934, Nobel Prize in Literature)
• Tanure Ojaide (1948)
• Tutuola Amos (1920)
• Udechukwu Ada (1960)
• Unigwe Chika (1974)
• Wiwa Ken (1968)

So now of course I am again considering keeping the challenge to Nigerian authors. I didn't picked my list before starting, so up until the end I can change my mind.

The Save River then and now

Zambia has had quite a bit of rain. Mozambique has been dry so far but the some of the rivers have to go through Mozambique on their way to the sea. Today I went to see the Save (pronounced Sa-vey) which I had not seen since Winter (winter here, summer in the northern hemisphere).
I could tell that the level of the river had already dropped down by a metre or so from the high water mark on the shore, but still, what a difference!

Here is two views of the East side of the bridge.




This is the other side. It isn't quite the same view but on the left in the distance you can recognize the land coming towards the river. It ends with a sort of a rounded nose because of hte trees. You can also see the difference in tree colours between the two seasons.




Looking in the distance, again on the East side of the bridge. Similar view in Winter and in Summer. Note this time the two shores look like they will meet and end more gradually and look like a shard point going to the water.

GGRRRRRR

I hate everything about this blog right now: the colours, the set up, the style.... There isn't enough choices of colours, not enough choices of lay out!!!

How I live at work

This is my room and my office:
My personal laptop on the night stand with the two water bottles...one is empty but not discarded yet...I didn't clean for the picture.
The bed is used as extra desk space when I am not sleeping.
Print out of one of the chameleon picture I took on the wall. It is positioned so it looks like the chameleon is looking at the person in bed, or at the empty space on the pillow when the bed is empty.
Desk in front of the window with the work laptop.
Note the piece of toilet paper hanging from the air conditioner on which I put drops of lavender oil when I want my room to smell relaxing.

The desk:
Work laptop and monitor of work monitoring system put in a way that I can see it from my bed.
A kettle.. It was actually hard to find one here but life is not worth it without it.
A box of mango juice bought in town yesterday.
My cup...somehow having your own cup feels like a treat.
My knife..never be without it. I always have in the same pocket and when I go to town and take it out I often find myself feeling for it, missing it.
A little pile of rocks picked on the road sitting next to a business card.
Some paper
A copy of "the Famished Road" by Ben Okri...which I am having a really hard time reading and I may abandon.
Two little wooden sculptures (one African buffalo, one hippo) bought from one local guy.


I know Christmas is long gone, but since I am showing how I live: this was Christmas dinner.


And this is the Polish crew I work with. Great guys!!! Really great guys.

We've got bugs

These are small night bugs trying to find some shade as the sun comes up. This is just a piece of rock not bread or any food that they might want to eat. They are truly trying to get shade, or some sort of darkness.
In the morning these days we always get these nice looking guys all over our front steps...this is our front step.
Cute little shiny guy...You can see were the "bug" car name comes from.


This guy is more substantial but totally armless. I just don't like the way it feels when they grab your finger. They can hold on quite tight.

Angry Chameleon

When chameleons are very angry they inflate and they turn black.
this one is very very angry (and probably very scared) after having traveled for nearly an hour in a forklift.

slowly he got better and calmed down a little.

And even better.

I never did get a picture of him totally relaxed because he just could not relaxed in front of the camera.
Next morning he was gone, probably not about to forget his ride in the forklift, but ultimately it saved his life since the driver found him in the middle of the road.

Mozambican night butterfly

I hid it in my room during the day so nobody steps on it. I am waiting for night time to let him go again. However if he is one of those butterflies who only lives for 24 hours this will not help.

pursued by "The Heart of Darkness"

I've meaning to read it for years now. I've brought it to work with me many times..this time included. I even read all the critic parts in the edition I have, but I can't get to read it.
Now even Chinua Achebe mentions it in "No Longer at Ease".

I get it, I get it: I should read "The Heart of Darkness"...but not just yet.....

"No Longer at Ease" by Chinua Achebe

This is the second book by Chinua Achebe (Nigerian author) I've read in the last week. As it turns out this is the story of Obi Okonkwo the grand son of the main character in “Things Fall Apart” (I read “Things Fall Apart on December 30^th 2007 so I cannot include it in the Expanding Horizons challenge but my review of it is here).
Even though it was published only two years later this book is written in a totally different style. It actually reads like a western novel with a near linear story line and does not feel at all like a story from a verbal tradition.

The first thing we find out about Obi, in the first few pages, is that he is going to court for accepting bribes as senior government office worker in Lagos. Already we know how this is going to end. This is the end. The rest of the book takes us from the boy sent to England on a loan/scholarship from the people of his village to the young modern man who would never accept a bribe, and in fact very early on in his job refuses one and feels great about it, to a young man who takes financial as well as sexual bribes.

It is hard to really sympathize with Obi because it does seem like he easily feels sorry for himself and easily convinces himself that he has to maintain a certain status. But somehow the sequence of events make sense. They seem absolutely plausible. And when he accept the first bribes the reader cannot be surprised. By that point Obi is in so much financial troubles that it seems nearly like his only chance to make it.

Added later (January 4th): Driving to town today and thinking about it, it occurred to me that in a way the very pride which made Obi so firm in his belief against bribery, is the pride which made him believe that he had to maintain a certain standard of life as senior government officer, which in turn lead him into having to take bribes. Had he not been so strong and proud in his dislike of bribery he might have found himself able to resist it better.

I would recommend this book to anybody who has ever cursed bribery (so that includes me). This book shows how a very honorable person with no intentions of getting caught in that vicious circle can end up giving in. But overall this book does not compare to “Things Fall Apart”, if you are going to read ONE book from Chinua Achebe I would recommend “Things Fall Apart”.

electrical problems

We have electrical problems in our container...one old metal container (one of those that can go at the back of trucks or on trains) which has been transformed into living accommodation. Half of one of those is my office and room at the same time. We have electrical problems!
Two days ago we lost hot water, which you have to admit in this weather is not a huge deal, though well water can be cool, I tell you!
Today I woke up to no power. After my cold shower I went to investigate the power issue and I had to face the fact that it was my air conditioning unit. I normally have it set up at 27C (81F), but today this is not going to be the case. It just will not work.
Now this morning at 6:00am it is 23C (73F) so not too bad yet but we have an absolutely perfect blue sky and the sun on the metal container will drive the temperatures inside to something unbearable. I guess I can look forward to MANY COLD SHOWERS to keep me cool.
The harder part is going to keep the laptop working in the heat.

It is 6:00am and I am already grumpy! Right now I hate my job!

Either conversations from hell or a bad comedic play

Bits of conversations with one of the guy from the rig (my job):

Me: "I assumed you had released those guys."
Him: "I assumed you had. Why did you assume I had done it? You should never assume anything!"
---------
Him: "Yes, you should never call the IT department this is not your job. But I don't understand why you didn't call them this afternoon, you should have called them. Do I have to do everything myself? I thought I was surrounded by adults here"
-------------
After he orders a BBQ for the rig for New Years Eve but told the kitchen that we didn't need the actually barbecue, just the food, while in fact we have no barbecue... And after he left the rig and the rig move proceeded very smoothly without him, the only thing wrong was that we have no food because he tried to treat us to some BBQ and now he is embarrassed because he invited other people. "I have to do everything myself. If I don't do it everything goes to shits! Look at this I go for one day and nothing is right"
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Him: "As long as communication works for ME I am happy"
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Him: "You don't need to be shy around me. You can say what you want."
Me: "I'm not shy, I just don't like to get f***ed over twice in a row, that's not the same thing."
Him: "No need to talk to me that way"
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Me: "I just received instructions about the mud composition. I was asked to check that you have the same?"
Him: "why?"
Me: "Well, we are on the same well, we should be doing the same thing."
Him: "who said the mud composition had to be this?"
Me: "Nobody, my boss asked me to check that you had the same instructions"
I check his program it says the same.
Me: "you have the same, good"
Him: "who wrote this program Does it come from geology?"
Me: "I don't know who writes it." (not true but...)
Him: "F**k, Why do they want this?"
Me (even though I know) : "I don't know"
Him: "Before I do something I like to know why"
Me: "Why are we setting casing at XXX metres?"
Him: "I don't know"
Me: "Are you going to do it not knowing why?"
Him: "Yes"
Me: "So what about the mud? Are you going to do it not knowing why?"
Him: "No, I need a f***ing letter"
Me: "Ok. I'll get somebody to write one for you"
Him: "No, I'll ask over the phone"
Me: "Ok, all I ask is: could you please let me know what the answer is? If the mud
composition is a problem we need to give town time to sort it out"
Him: "why do they want this?"
Me: "Thank you gentlemen" (there another guy sitting through all this, sitting quietly)
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This is it folks, this is my job!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody.

I hope you 2008 is the start of a long long series of very good years for all of you.