From Luanda, Angola

Just a few weeks ago I was looking at the Pacific Ocean through the window of Pablo Neruda's house near Valparaiso, Chile. Then I was at Buenos Aires looking east at the Atlantic. With a quick break on the hills of Austin, Texas and watching Cherry Blossom at New York City botanical garden, I am now looking at the Atlantic again facing west from Luanda, Angola in the African continent. Yes, the modern miracles of technology take a modern Bedouin like me from coast to coast, continent to continent, from one hemisphere to another in a hurry.

After years of civil war, after countless were maimed by land mines, Angola is struggling to get out of a curse. Luanda has 8 million people. With filthy streets, stinking seashore, crawling traffic, mosquitoes & flies the city is far from heaven in spite of shiny high rises in the midst of all this. A few multinational companies are trying to help rebuild (obviously for a profit) the country by harnessing its tremendous resources. Along the way some of these foreigners face unsafe situation. And the local rich show off their wealth, their cars, and their status treating the local poor as rubbish on the road side.

As I take on an assignment at this late phase of my life for a project offshore Angola, please standby for more to come. It is bed time (6 hours ahead of Houston) in Luanda.