Scheduling

Scheduling of my weekly/daily activities has become very important.  FYI...I am not complaining about this, merely documenting.  When I came on my pre-assignment visit to learn about Luanda I was advised by one of my colleagues that scheduling with your driver is a major challenge.  I have had some, but minimal challenges with this to date. 

I had plans to go to a birthday party in the city tomorrow night (coincidently for the person who had advised me on scheduling).  Well I was wrong, we are off tomorrow for a holiday and the party is tonight.  I didn't realize this until I was leaving work and looking at the details of the invitation.  Normally, I let my driver know that I will be out late and to plan accordingly. Similar to other latin cultures late means party starts at midnight and convenes at 4-5 in the morning.  So when I arrived home and explained to Adriano that I would be going out to a party he was apprehensive.  So we busted out the computer and began speaking via Google translator.  He told me that he was scheduled to pick up his other client (Adriano is my relief driver and also covers days off for another person's driver) at 8am at the airport.  He does not speak any English, but says "it is complicate". Understood.  So I said I should have told you earlier and I won't go to the party.  The point is that with advanced notice we could have worked it out, but I cannot/did not go to the party.

Part of the issue is that I live out of town with all the married people(who I enjoy very much) and the single folk who are interested in similar adventure live in the city.  If I lived in the city someone else's driver could pick me up.   The good news is I found out they got me an apartment and I will be moving to the city soon. Woo Hoo!!

Fun with Traffic

So today I had a funny experience.  We literally got caught in gridlock today.  As we were driving towards the main road(Samba) on the way home we hit one of the many pinch points along the way and literally we were all stuck.  (Similar to the picture attached on a smaller and tighter scale with 0 outs, pic not from Luanda).  I am always checking things out and saw it coming, but it was too late.  About 10-15  cars and the rest backed up behind them making it worse sat there for 4-5 minutes with our dicks in our hands.  The next thing you know a man jumps out of his truck.  I realize quickly that he has identified the problem/solution to getting us moving.  He walks straight to the car, that with a slight movement can get us going.  Like football navigating traffic in Luanda is a game of inches.

Inside the car is a Chinese man who is extremely surprised by the sudden appearance of the newly anointed traffic cop.  The next 3-5 minutes of instruction from traffic cop to driver were quite intense.  Let's just say lots of yelling in Portuguese and pointing, tapping on the glass, giving the roll down the window sign etc.  The driver is simply not responding and gives the go away sign a couple of times.  Onlookers on the sidewalk are very intrigued.  Finally, the Chinese man who most likely does not speak Portuguese and is clearly scared shitless opens his door, I have no idea why.  By the way I have a front row view and this is all happening 5 feet from me and at this point I am in tears laughing at the entire situation.  While I am a little nervous for the driver, I can't help myself.  Adriano is driving me today and he does not think any of this is funny, but as I have said previously he is a little rough.  Next thing,  Mr. traffic cop literally leans his whole body into this man's car and gives similar hand gestures as he was giving outside the car.  I don't know what was different, maybe he finally understood the international symbol for move forward and right(you know put your hands together and make a fish like movement to the right), but it worked and the traffic cop stepped back and the driver went about 1 foot forward and right giving clearance and we worked ourselves out of the jam.  20 minutes at least we sat there stuck, funny as f.