Might be offline for a few Weeks

[farmgirl19]

Thanks for the update! Stay safe!

 

[Gary Fowler]

You really are a farmgirl to be up and on the computer at 4am. Its 10am here and my day is nearly half over already. I am glad to report that there seems to be no danger from the local population here as everything is stabilized with the government. We can travel without security force with us like we had in Nigeria and Algeria. I dont know why everything is so expensive here though. It is at least double on prices and many things are 4X the price in the states. One of the expats forgot his razor and went looking yesterday for a replacement. Gillette Max 3 (5 blades without the handle) was $38 USD. I would have to grow a beard before I paid over $7 for a razor blade. He did finally find some cheap disposible blades for $.70 per unit. I am sure glad I brought everything I needed with me. Today is my 12th day here out of 56 required and I am already ready to get back to my own bed. I am sure glad that the man-camp is going to be up and running till after I leave, at least I dont think it will be. At least here we can walk on the beach if we feel like it whereas the camp is up on a dry desert plateau with the snakes and other wildlife.

 

[texasjohn]

good update, glad you are safe and settled in having taken all true necessities. Looking forward to photos when you are back. Bet a cable would be a real fortune there...maybe someone there has one you can borrow...hmmm, bet uploads would be sloôooooowwwwwww.

 

[Carl_NH]

Thanks for the update Gary, and it doesn't sound like its too bad - not exactly an 8 week vacation but lobster, steak and shrimp and walking on the beach sounds OK. The man camp doesn't sound nearly as nice, and good to have gotten in early.

Seems like the present state of the facility is infrastructure - roads and docks, I guess you must be building out the plant too?

Stay safe and send updates when you can.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I just checked back in for a moment. Carl is right, we are just doing infrastructure at present. We have a contract with Sonagal Refinery to prepare heavy haul roads, construction access roads, a marine facility and a local road reroute to get it out of refinery boundaries and build a 3000 person mancamp. The contract for actually building the refinery has not be let yet, but afte spending all these millions of dollars on infrastructure, I would think they almost have to go forward with the project.
As for work, there isnt much for a QA manager to look at right now other than reviewing procedures and specifications as they mostly are blasting out holes in the ground and scrapping off the loose soil and organic debris for the roads. Lots of dirt and rock hauling going on with the biggest thing being monitoring the contractors for safety.
Man, I was just ready to push the send button and the power went off AGAIN. We are on a VPN connection via Nortel and any break in power cuts us off and we have to log back in and only 4 logins per day are allowed. Some times we get locked out for 24 hours due to excessive power outages. Last night at the hotel, I was up at least 4 times, turning back on the AC and removing my CPAP mask so I could breath when the power went out. Mostly they are short duration of a minute or less but it takes several minutes to get back up and running again.

 

[kevin37b]

Gary , what exactly do you do . I read all your posts and cannot get a handle what you do . I am sure you can do what you want . Enjoy your Knowhow .,

 

[TSO]

From what it looks like on the map, it looks like Lobito is a tourist destination ? How to say, but it looks like a small port town with hotels on the water... ?

I could not find the "Turimar" hotel, but found the Terminus Hotel on the beach... That the one?

Looks like a pretty sparsely populated area outside of town... But nice.

Hope you enjoy the trip. I'll trade menus with you for a couple weeks!

 

[k0ua]

Gary is there any way you can get a small UPS over there? It sounds like you could really use one to get you thru the short outages.

James K0UA

 

[Gary Fowler]

There was a rather large UPS stashed under my desk, but no one could find any power input or output cords to fit it. The sockets looked like the power cord to a computer with 3 small flat connections. We solved the problem by moving into a meeting room at the hotel which has a UPS on their internet connection AND it is about 5 times faster than at the house. By the way, KBR has been renting this rather small 4 bedroom, 4 bath house for $40,000 USD per month for over 4 years now. I wouldnt recommend this as a vacation spot although it is quite safe here in Lobito and the beach water is crystal clear. It is just so expensive for food and rent here that I dont know how the locals afford to live.
Getting to the tractor side of things, one of the contractors just received 2 big Case IH 125 tractors with cabs. I got a photo of them but I cant download them due to lack of cable connection. I have no idea what they will use those tractors for, but the sure look nice with their super wide radial tires and full complement of front weights(no FEL though) I spent my morning walking a canyon road and talking to the contractors about blind curves and narrow roads that will be used for hauling over 1 million cubic meters of crushed limestone down from the plateau to the beach to make a marine facility 1600 meters long for the ships to anchor that will be bringing in the crude oil for the refinery. Later this road will be used as an access corridor for a pipline from the ship terminal to the refinery transporting both crude and refined product so it has to be a lot better than just a temporary road. I think I finally got my point across to them about the safety of the blind curves and narrow road by asking them to park their truck in on of those narrow spots and if they felt safe when a dump truck passed, then we could maybe live with it as is. They then smilled and agreed to widen the road.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Well Guys and Gals, I am back and finally got a bit caught up on neglected chores like mowing and weedeating which was a bit out of control even with B.I.L. mowing the yard. A large area around one pond was grown up over knee high and took a lot to knock it down. Had to take a weed eater to the garden due to Bermuda take over. Back pasture was full of weeds so I finally got to use my 7 foot bushhog after 3 years of setting. One of the u-joints was froze up and had to hammer it to straighten it so I could hook it up. I had greased it up prior to setting it up for almost 3 years, what with drought for the last two year it hasn't been needed.
Let me see if I still remember how to post pictures here. I put in some of the work we were doing building some construction access roads from the sea to the top of the plateau (180 meters above the sea level) and a couple of some military left overs from the civil war they had. We had to have the area de-mined prior to work. In the last 40s Russia aided Cuban soldiers in a bid to take over the country and they mined the whole country side and left years later without mapping out the mined areas. Still lots of Cuban structures with mottos and other scenery painted on the building remains.