Goin’ on Week 3

Oh yes, that’s right, after 2 weeks of life here in Abidjan I’m no longer the new kid on the block, I’ve got seniority! (Two newbie’s showed up.) Which is great, I get to enjoy life off the Q & A chopping block. This doesn’t mean however, that I say, know my way home… yeah, my colleague gave me a ride home the other night and after making a couple u-turns we were lucky enough to run into another colleague that lives in the same neighborhood who then led the caravan to my temp house. You’d think that BIG test in kindergarten would have sent home the message of one’s need to know one’s phone number and address. Unfortunately, as far as I know I don’t have an address… tricky business, being a grown up.
Though this is week 3 it is week two in my specific section on the job, nothing like getting word from headquarters Friday at 4 that my colleague needs to be sent to Malabo this week, and then hearing at 3 yesterday that the flights I thought were taken care of apparently weren’t purchased, oh and the flight leaves Tueday, yes, but at 0100, yeah… however with three departments staying after hours it got pulled together. For this phenomenon to be fully appreciated one might ask a reasonable question – for instance, where is Malabo? Ah glad you asked, I for one had to wiki my way to this destination - Malabo is on an island, a sunken volcano to be more precise, located off the coast of the small African country of Equatorial Guinea. (Connecting flights are through Spain, approximately 12+ hours of indirect flying time or not so large or reputable airports in other countries of Africa, we opted for the small and less reputable with final arrangements including hand written tickets, oh yes, no computers to process ticketing (which reminds me of that time I was stuck in Seattle for an hour and a half while the airline re-booted the aircraft computer, a sign that air travel really is computer dependent and yet… apparently optional.) However, through this little challenge I did get to know some of the locally employed staff a bit, which is something I truly enjoy. I give you this little snippet to hopefully answer the question, “so what do you actually do?” - For though there are aspects of my job that are reoccurring weekly thus far it has been fairly dynamic, which by the sound of things I can plan on being the case next month as well.