Hey folks, this is mostly off-topic, but it in a way belongs here.

The company I work for offered me an opportunity to travel to a small country in West Africa called Equatorial Guinea. There were some engines to overhaul and customers who needed service.

In preparation for this, I had to get multiple immunizations for all the nasty diseases in Africa. I think they invented diseases there! By the time they were throuigh, both my shoulders had 2 shots each in them, and I had some pills that were a vaccine against yet another disease.

The doctor was telling me all the usual stuff about not eating the vegetables and drinking the water; but went on to say that most people who spend time over there get at least one bout of FP. Wonderful.... So I left with that on my mind!

Once we got to the location, it was quite a different experience than I had expected. The people were very nice to me, and treated me very well! The crew on the offshore rig was multinational with mainly Europeans in the engineering staff and some local residents as the cook and cleaning crew.

The food took some getting-used-to. They have some really crazy food over there! One thing I found out REAL quick - they leave bones in everything. I don't know what the meat was - but anything with meat had bones in it. Imagine stew, with vegetables and meat that has large pieces of bone in it! I was horrified at first, but then watched the locals eat it. They would spit the bones back into the bowl and keep on going! Not that bold, I got a coffee cup to spit them into. The cook was good at making the local dishes, but when he tried to cook Western-style food (like what we eat) it was a disaster. I learned that the African stew was a better alternative than burnt pizza!

After being there 3 weeks, I was deep in the repair project and got so zoned in on my work that I forgot about not eating the salad and fruit (and it looked SO good!). I didn't think about it again until several days later and by that time nothing had happened so I didn't sweat it anymore!

I did get a little emet-nervous when several people on the rig got sick (D and V) including some I was working with.

Six weeks later, with not any problems at all and two happy cusotmers, I got on a plane and flew home! What an experience! I will gladly go back there and work again!

Hope y'all found this interesting and like the pictures! I was a tiny bit apprehentious at first, but in the end it was a good experience!

Pictures on my Facebook page

Thanks,
David