Might be offline for a few Weeks

[k0ua]

Good luck Gary, stay safe and have a good trip.

James K0UA

 

[TSO]

Have fun, buy us something nice with all that money you'll be making

 

[Gary Fowler]

Best of luck. Be glad your medication only costs what it does. My better half has one scrpit that is 1100 out of pocket for a 30 day supply. With ins. its 130. There is no generic alternative because its made by one company. It was pulled off the market due to the side effects for general use with high BP, but it is still allowed for certain specific diseases/conditions.

Recently I was sent an email (truth of cost not verifiable) for many of the common and highest cost medicines listed the cost of ingredients. Not one was over $5 for 30 day prescription and many were less that 10 cents yet they sold for hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Our drug companies are purely raping the consumer even after you consider the cost of development.

 

[farmgirl19]

Recently I was sent an email (truth of cost not verifiable) for many of the common and highest cost medicines listed the cost of ingredients. Not one was over $5 for 30 day prescription and many were less that 10 cents yet they sold for hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Our drug companies are purely raping the consumer even after you consider the cost of development.

Yes, and companies like Bayer, sell chemicals for weed and pest control AND health pharmaceuticals. Does one think it is a conflict of interest to make you ill with one division, so they can sell you drugs from their other?

You are correct! Pharmacuetical drug companies stick it to everyone that they can.

 

[daugen]

Pharmacuetical drug companies stick it to everyone that they can.

when you give blood, they tell you it's just "a stick and a pinch".
Or, if for some other stuff, "a stick and a burn".

I'd say the latter describes my feeling in leaving the pharmacy counter.
I've been using a Canadian online pharmacy for years, the drugs usually come from CIPA
in India, and it costs me less than my copay. And I have good insurance...

so many people don't take their needed medicines, and wind up in the ER or worse for it. Often on the public tab.

that's some vacation you are taking Gary. Be careful, and drink only Heineken.

 

[Carl_NH]

This is sort gone off on a tangent but I take BP meds too so understand - Gary I looked at the site on Google and its pretty desolate and yes, your TBN might be slow to come up in those environs but surprising so, they might have decent cell infrastructure for devices there as many remote locations do.

Be safe and I think you have your expectations about right for this venture, and we all look forward to hearing from you from Angola.

Carl

 

[farmgirl19]

Gary; Just don't drink the water, and come back safely!

 

[Gary Fowler]

This will be my third tour in African countries, the place that I said I would never go. Kinda reminds me of the old James Bond movie, "Never say Never". I also said the same thing about California after my first job there, "Never AGAIN", but 5 years later I was back for more pain and suffering. Hopefully this short "vacation" wont provide me with too many memorable occasions although a little excitement now and then keeps the adrenalin gland functioning. I have been lucky to not contract any tropical diseases on my tours, although 3 of my staff got malaria while in Nigeria, I never did and they were taking the anti-malaria drug which I quit taking because of the side effects. I don't go out at night and keep my air conditioner on 'snow' to ****** the mosquitos and always were long sleeved shirts and pants. Oh yeah and only drink bottled water, and never get ice in your drinks.

 

[BlackDogTx]

Have a safe trip Gary, and watch your 6!

 

[Gary Fowler]

I had a few moments so I thought I would update this thread a bit. Internet is so slow that it took me about 10 minutes to get to this window. I got on a chartered 747 out of Houston to Luanda Angola with scheduled departure time of 10 am Monday morning and 14 hours later we landed in the capital city. We had a little SNAFU just as we lined up for take off, one passenger had a stroke or heart attack and we had to divert back to the terminal to drop him off. Good thing for him that it happened at the Houston terminal and not half way across the Atlantic. This delayed takeoff by 1 hour but we made up most of the time and landed only 15 minutes behind schedule at 7:15am Tuesday morning My flight from Luanda to Lobito didnt leave till 3 pm so I had some time to kill at the KBR office in Luanda before the 1hour flight to Catembela airport (about 15 miles from Lobito). They only fly into Lobito on Monday and Wednesday and the charter to Houston matches their schedule so that is the only 2 days we can enter or leave the country.
It was unusually hot and muggy at Lobito when I arrived which was just about like it was in Houston when I left. I am staying at the Turimar hotel in Lobito which is a new hotel and pretty nice but their restaurant menu is a little sparse. They have 3 different steaks, 1 pork, 1 duck, 2 shrimp and a lobster on the menu and that is it. We have gotten the manager to start making some speciality meals for us like spaghetti, pizza, BBQ, lasagna since it doesnt take long to get tired of eating grilled lobster, tiger shrimp and T-bone steaks (poor me huh!)
The work site is across a ship channel and up on a plateau which consists of a little bit of top soil and a lot of limestone. They drill and blast out the limestone from a quarry site at an upper cliff area then crush the big stuff into 3/4" to 3" sizes for later fill in the ship channel to make a marine facility. They are just now trying to put in a heavy haul road from the upper plateau which is 120 meters above sea level so they can safely haul the crushed rock down to the ocean. It is following one of the natural canyons down and about 2300 meters in length at present. There is lots of big excavators, dozers etc hauling thousands of cubic meters of rock up and down a temporary road from the ocean to the top of the plateau trying to get some areas cleared so they can get equipment down to the marine location. The plan is to complete the construction access road (CAR B) which stops short of the ocean at a 30 meter cliff then haul all the crushed stone to the cliff, dump it over and spread it (all 1.5 million cubic meters)from below out into the ocean to form a marine loading dock then eventually it will fill the 30 meter cliff section with a ramp from the marine facility up to complete the road. Another road (heavy haul) is also being built to handle the large vessels that will be coming in by ship, offloaded at the marine facilty and transported up the 8% grade heavy haul road to the refinery. This work wont start for a couple of years though. That is about if from here. Pictures will have to wait till I get home, I forgot my camera cord to hook up to the computer.