Landana Beach

Juke and I got invited out for lunch with the rest of the ex-pat managers (thanks Helena!). We drove up the coast to Landana beach to try some of the local food, where we tasted Gazelle, White Pork, Tilapia and Squid! 

Landana Beach

Jumpers for Goalposts

TREMOÇOS

Grilled Squid

Tilapia

Chegchai (Warehouse), Eduardo (Finance) and Gabriella (SHE).

Errr wait who is she? 

Cheg was happy to find a little piece of Thailand in Angola

Merry Christmas

So there we were, enjoying our braised Gazelle, when in crawled two remarkable chaps who bent themselves into all kinds of bizarre positions. Just what you need as you are trying to chew on ropey piece of Gazelle gristle! 

Just your average Angolan restaurant and their resident contortionists!

He is balancing on tin cans here. This was as awesome as it was freaky. 

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This position is called "Go blow yourself", I have no idea why.........

The Menu!

From left to right, Cheg, Helena, Gerson (Driver), Eduardo, Me & Gabriella! 

We really probably should have checked out the Kitchen BEFORE we sat down to eat! Eek!

This is Eduardo's reaction to the question: Where's our flippin salary? 

Hi Mum!

A colonial Portuguese Church in Malembo

Futila Beach

That's Malongo Beach in the distance. 

Chegchai and Eduardo

Juke and I with our matching shades. 

Left to Right:Chegchai, Juke, Helena, Eduardo, Gerson, Gabriella

Angolan Independence Dinner 2012

We celebrated Angolan Independence day here in Malongo by producing another themed dinner but this time we brought in a team of Cabindan dancers and musicians!

They had a great impact on the evening and once again a great night was had by all!

                    

Juke Keene and our Angolan local produce display.

Tatuquilla making the funge de bom bom.

Mandioca, Banana Pao, Chickwanga and Potato Doce (White sweet potatoes).

The pineapple tree

Gingoube (Peanut) cake!

Murthy's watermelon carvings

The Cabindan dancers and Musicians.............errr and Capita! What the hell is he doing in there! 

Capita displaying another of his many hidden talents!

The Cabindan Dancers. Some serious booty shaking!

Helena!

Juke and the girls!

Judite, Helena, Mariana and Sallome, four of our girls, who wore their traditional Angolan dresses. 

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AFCON Shirt Winners!

Earlier this year I ran a competition during the African Cup of Nations for each department in Malongo, with the winner of each getting a Football shirt as their prize!

Its taken a while to get the prizes but finally I was able to award them to the lucky winners! I was really pleased to see how happy they were to receive their shirts and I am sure they will beam with pride as they wear them!

Carlos Pemba (Kitchen) and Damioa Lufuendo (Bakery)

Filipe Nguba Rafael (Housekeeping) and Bartolomeu Dias (Janitorial)

Antonio Luis Capita (Warehouse)

Proud to wear the shirt..........of Cameroon!

A Sporting Lisbon fan but wearing a Benfica shirt! 

Happy as a bull in a China shop..........or something like that....

Praying before work......

This is our Pastry team saying their morning prayers before work. I'm not religious in any way, shape or form but I liked seeing this today and have discovered some new found respect of these guys. 

After they finished however I told them all they have to work for an extra ten minutes as they were praying in my time! (Just kidding). 

Please God, let Mr Steve like our cakes today. Amen.

Monkey Invasion!

The camp here in Malongo is currently having a bit of a Monkey problem. As cute as they look most carry some nasty diseases so its probably not a good idea to get too friendly with them. With their numbers increasing, they are getting braver and more adventurous, as shown in these photos which were taken this morning on our loading bay, right outside the kitchen! 

All work and no play..........

I put photos of our social evenings on here with some degree of trepidation as usually I will no doubt receive some sort of comment from my lovely Wife saying 'You say you are always too busy working'! Well, yes we are very busy here but we make the effort every now and then to let our hair down (those that have some). Just recently, Ronie, our Maintenance manager, introduced us to some of his friends from the Philippines. They are all great guys but also totally bonkers. 

Ronie and I preparing the Lamb for the Spit Roast!

Joel managed to look cool. I look like a dick. 

One Rosemary and Garlic, the other Ginger & whatever Oriental sauces I could find! 

Ronie, me and Bernard!

Yup, I still look like a dick. 

BBC News - Angola election judged 'free and fair' by African Union

BBC News - Angola election judged 'free and fair' by African Union:

'via Blog this'

Election Night!

The last few weeks have been a been a bit stressful for us here in Malongo due to the Elections in Angola (Actually its always stressful here but this was at a whole new level!). 

The 2012 Elections were only the second time in the last 10 years that there has been a national vote. Allegedly last time around there was a significant amount of disruption, especially to the transport systems and roads resulting in a limited amount of people being available to come into work. Today 98% of the Express workforce in Malongo is Angolan, so this was a great cause of concern for us as we still had around 1100 people in camp to feed! With only myself, Murthy and Eric (the project manager!) being able to cook, feeding 1100 hungry workers for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner was going to be a bit challenging! 

A great deal of planning went into ensuring that whatever the situation was with our staff, either coming into work or not, the residents here would still be fed.....somehow!

It was a huge relief to see almost all of the teams that were released to vote return to work and and we managed to get all our meals out on time! Most of the Day Shift and Night shift guys volunteered to stay inside the camp during the Election process (being released to vote on completion of their shifts) so we threw a small celebration party for them! We don't have the opportunity to socialise with our teams often so it was great chance to spend some time outside of work with them. This was always going to be an interesting evening and you can see what the guys got up to from these pictures. 

Finally, although this is poor quality, I have uploaded a video which has me in stitches every time I watch it. Please feel free to comment! 

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