mikemcguff.com: Houstonian living in Angola: the blog

Friday, December 08, 2006

Houstonian living in Angola: the blog

If you want a really interesting read, try looking at the Back in One Piece blog. It's the story of a Houstonian living in Angola. Here's a snippet:

The driver had crashed into a parked car. Both the driver's car and the parked car were relatively undamaged, although there was enough damage to warrant repairs. The driver got out of his car to see the damage. Deciding that he didn't want to pay for the damage, he got back into his car and started to drive away. Now there are a few people in the street, watching all this. One of the guards from the Policentro takes out his AK-47 and just starts shooting at the car- which is on a busy road now filled with several people. The car got away and luckily no one was hurt.

(Clearly this picture has nothing to do with the above post, I just liked it)

It's written by Leslie Santamaria who is a friend of mine from way back in high school at Lamar. She's in Africa working for Catholic Relief Services and probably one of the few Houston folks not working for an oil company.

Speaking of oil, Leslie did eat dinner with some others from our neck of the woods recently, some of which who worked in the industry. After reading this post, all of those AP stories I've read over the years came to life:

There were other Americans at the dinner, too. One Chevron employee from Katy, TX was there and an insurance inspector from NE Louisiana. It was interesting to step into the world of the oil industry. When the men started talking shop, it was as if they were speaking a different language! The man from NE Louisiana mysteriously said that he used to do off-shore work until he was hospitalized. He then mentioned off-handedly, “And then I was held hostage in Nigeria, so I decided to move into the insurance part.” Hmm. Then the Chevron guy said, “Oh we’ve all been held hostage.” A different world than mine!