Angolan Staff Profiles

I thought it might be interesting to try and profile some of the national staff. There are some great people working here and I often get asked what the people are like. 


The people here have all had some tough lives so far, most without any formal education or schooling and who grew up on the hard dirty streets of Cabinda. Many are from large families and its survival of the fittest from a very young age. 
Almost all the older men here were involved with hands on fighting during the civil wars so their backgrounds are mostly military based. The younger men, having had some schooling, are a different generation entirely. Having only experienced the wars as children, these guys are the future and we invest a great deal of time and resources into developing them. It’s not easy. But to try and develop the older guys is like banging your head against a wall. With the new generation we can at least see them develop and learn new things. We can make progress, slow progress maybe but at least we are moving forward. 


Anyway, I will try and profile a few of the team here. In all the kitchens I've worked in there have always been great characters and its no different in Angola. 


So, onto the first profile: 


Name: Martinho Domingos
Age: 29 Lives: Cabinda
Married with 2 Children 
Supports FC Porto (Portugal)

Martinho is one of the stars. No question. This guy was a regular worker when I got here but was quickly recognised as having good potential. One of two things will get the guys recognised here, their craft skills or their leadership capabilities. Martino has elements of both but his leadership skills were what we identified initially. 
He went from being in a regular shift, to becoming in charge of the Hot Box Meals (a mini supervisory position) and now to one of the four permanent Supervisor positions in the Kitchen. Two years ago these positions didn’t exist as we had Ex-Pat Chef de Parties (CDP’s) dotted around who led the shifts. These have all since been moved on (bar 2 Indian Kitchen Supervisors, Murthy and Alex) so we had to identify nationals with the capability of doing what the Ex Pat CDPs could do. They do not have the craft skills that the CDP’s have but it wasn’t the craft skills we needed. It was leadership. Once the shift was directed correctly, the craft skills took care of themselves. And we still had some very experienced older generation guys in the shift to support the new supervisors.
Martinho has done brilliantly in this position and has been rewarded with a significant salary increase. He continues to develop and impress. He also sets a great example to all the other nationals here, showing them what they can achieve if they desire. 
Martinho has a good sense of humour which has grown with his confidence and his English is developing also. As I mentioned earlier, as one of the new generation, it is people like Martinho who will go on to possibly end up running this place one day once they decide they no longer need us Ex-Pats (a few years yet I hope).