Africa: Day 11 (Benghazi Installation)

Greetings world. This will likely be one of those discontinuous posts as I am waiting for the team to join me for dinner. Today was our first working day in Benghazi and I would call it a resounding success. Against the odds, most of what I needed was handled by the client and my work today with Tim went fairly rapidly. It helped that we had a large staging area in which to disperse all our equipment and tools. This drastcally assisted in the inventory process. One of my Libyan assets, M

Large Staging Area: NICE!

ohamed Torshi, led a client team on the certifiation of the building, which is a major part of our contractual obligation during this entire project. Due to Libyan working customs, the employees left for home at 2 PM, so we were unable to complete the entire certification, but we did complete the entire first floor of the building, so that team was able to end the day with a feeling of accomplishment. As for Tim and I, we purely rocked all day. The client kept coming into our work area to thank us "americans" for coming to help them. They are very very receptive to American influence here.

Wow... fun huh?

My actual work day consisted of what we call "racking equipment" which basically mean breaking it all out of its boxes and physically securing it in the rack. Later, we will install the cabling to make it all work and connect it to the main national backbone that runs under the Med. It seems some of our team that prepared the gear for us forgot some fairly important pieces, but the client was very helpful in assisting us securing overnight shipment from my main base in Tripoli, and we also had plenty more to do, so we were able to complete the first task as far as we could and then shift our attention to the second task.

The second task was a nightmare. We had to completely disassemble a working environment, rearrange the rack, and then reassemble it all before we left so it would still work when the client comes to work tomorrow. Truthfully, the hardest part of my entire job is making sure that no matter WHAT we do, the client can still work as if we're not even there.

I have to give credit though when due; since this wasn't as important as the main site, we did take them down for a while this time... so we really appreciated the Manager allowing us to do that. That shifted this phase from a 4 day phase to an 8 hour phase... much nicer on our hands and feet. Standing in one place on a marble floor all day, most of the night, and working over your head for most of it will quickly wear out even the strongest tech-head.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day for us. Everyone patted us on the back today and said "Ok, we're going back to Tripoli... see you later!" We don't exactly know when "later" is...

Yeah.. this is what one section looks like when it's done properly. Much better!

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I'm writing you now from the post-dinner and post-three-more-hours-of-work part of the day. It's almost 1 AM, but I'm really enjoying this blog program, so I want to write while I'm motivated to do so. I tend to write a lot more, I've noticed, when i'm in hotels. are fewer distractions to pull me back to regular life, so I get some "me" time to sit and compose my thoughts more than when I'm around others.

Tonight was an interesting evening. After all the upper management, except me, was gone, I got to spend some time with the "guys"... the real workers. I've known a lot of these guys for almost seven months now, but it's different when you're in the environment with them. Usually, they all go home to their families and their own lives. This is the first time we've all been together in a hotel. We had dinner around 9:00 PM and spent about an hour just hanging out. Sammy has taken it upon himself to teach me four or five arabic words every day. I think they do this just to hear how badly my southern-american dialect can really "mommick" up their language. (yes, that's a southern "word".. if you don't believe me, ask Mom.. it's in the same dictionary as "presney" and is most likely available in the Bertie Country Public Library in the I-Sleep-With-Relatives section of the non-fiction aisle.)

The "Crew" From Left To Right: Nizar, Tim, Murad, Jimal, Mohamed, Sammy, Khaled, and Aziz.

Well, I truly would love to sit here and converse with you all, however one sided it may be, for hours. I miss having the chance to hang out with my friends and tell stories about our lives, so this is my only way of sharing them.

I'm not sure WHEN everyone will read these posts. I've been writing them for the past 3 days now, just trying to catch up on the last week, however I haven't had internet access, except through the proxy server, in the last week so it will be a day or so before I can post any of this. This program uses FTP, which won't work through the... nevermind... you don't care one whit about the details. Sorry, got a bit tecno-weeny there for a moment.

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While I'm thinking on the matter, does anyone have any opinions on the new blog formats? I think this program really lets me show a lot more than when I have to do it ALL by hand. I can type all the formatting manually in the blogger post feature, but April can tell you how annoying it is to be halfway through a long post and then lose your internet connection and have to start all over again, especially when you want to include pictures in the post.

Fridget and Culligan, thanks for the pics you posted. Those were cool. When you get a chance, email me the originals. I'd like to have the full size photos to show the guys here what we do back in the states. They really haven't ever experienced a concert, band, or any other live music like we have in the states. To most of them, pictures of you guys dancing is completely foreign. They think we all dance like an MTV video. Can you imagine that people think that all americans dance like the backstreet boys and britney spears? Wow.. there's a stunning visual. If that were the case, we'd all be slim and very limber I suppose... but I don't think I could afford the backstreet boys choreographer...

Whoa.. ok.. I've disturbed myself now. I'm having a dilemma as to which disturbs me more; the fact that

1. I just made ANY reference whatsoever to the backstreet boys.
2. I've become so out of touch that when I thought of MTV, that's who I thought of.
3. That I actually considered the thought long enough to think about their choreography
4. That I even know anything ABOUT their choreography.
5. That it took me two sentences to even realize what I was thinking.
6. Or that propecia might be in my future...

(Yeah, that last one was just to confuse Bridget and Marisa in case they're still reading by this point...) That reminds me, THANKS to Lisa Respess for making a comment on the blog. Most of you don't know her, but she's one of mine and Tim's favorite clients. (Shouldn't that be Tim's and mine?... or Tim and I's.. that particular piece of grammar etiquette escapes me at the moment.) She's the manager for Loretta Barrow and Associates, an independent group of realtors in Greenville. You couldn't PAY me enough money to have her job. No way, no how. She's really cool though. She's one of the customers who followed me when I left the "last job.... dum dum dum! (slow evil drum roll goes here).

Well, it's absolutely freezing in this hotel room now, so I think I'm gonna call it a night and crawl in the covers with my book. Yes, I'm aware that I can turn the AC off, but it's about 90 derees outside right here at 1 in the morning, so I'm gonna get as much of it as I can, when I can. I hope you're all having a good night and that you all enjoy the posts... and write back.

PS: Where did "call it a night" come from? Either it is a night... or it is a day... and what matter would "calling" it make anywho? I guess maybe the reference originated from people who went to bed early, thus the term was meant to refer to doing what others do at night?... ok.. again... too much thought. You see how analytical this job makes me? I dissect all kinds of stupid **** in my head at random moments. Ok.. enough... to bed...

April: Love you honey.. don't get all used to having my pillows! I'm coming back in a few days and I want my half of the bed back! (I've GOT to take a picture of her sleeping for you guys... it's so cute. She sleeps with her feet out from under the covers because she gets hot. Well, the floors here are all marble and they are always dusty, no matter your cleaning habits; so when I go to bed at night, there's this beautiful girl there beside me, but these two dirty black-soled feet sticking out the end of the bed... it's really really cute. I've laughed at it every day since I've been here. Watch.. now I'm gonna get hit for that when I get back to Tripoli.)

"See" you soon.

Tommy