Eric in Africa

I just got an update from Eric. He has not had such a great time on his buisness trip this time. Poor thing is sick and has to work. Here is some of his email....

I started to get sick the day of or before flying out, so I stocked up on what medicine we had in the house. However, it did not seem to help much and I got a headache on the plane ride and couldn’t sleep much. On the second leg from London, white liquid (milk?) started dripping out of someone’s travel bag from the overhead onto the guy next to me, along with his laptop and suit. I got some too, but one good thing about being sick is you don’t care about the trivial things. Not sure where the liquid came from but we moved to the back. The flight from London to Algeria was full of the normal range of people, from business travelers to family. Most of the apprehension I may have had about coming to a country that has a travel advisory went away because of this. Actually I was mostly annoyed that everyone else was seemed to be in great spirits and talking loudly while I wasn’t in the greatest mood.

The country appears to be fairly safe, although not maybe what we are used to. No terrorist or anti-American type worries, just more crime than we are used to. The police are everywhere and frequently search your car when you are driving around. Businesses and hotels also search your car. Everybody is friendly so I haven’t seen any need to worry. I don’t plan on walking around by myself at midnight though.

When I arrived, I got stuck in customs for 2 ½ hours. I brought this toolkit with me and they made my local rep get a letter stating I or the luggage was allowed in the country. And they needed some cash for some reason. I should have gotten some formal papers for the items, but they were fairly small and worthless, and in the past I have gotten papers and that seemed to make them focus on me more and still owe money anyway. The local CommScope salesperson Hakim was very helpful and we got through it.

So then we went to see the customer and I found that driving around was not so much fun if you are sick (Jennifer - think of Dominican Republic). There are just no stoplights or right of ways, so you have to get in when you can. Lots of speeding up and slamming on the breaks. Plus the local population on foot seemed to merge with the traffic. There were several occasions where it seemed like we would have hit someone if they were a step slower. You also honk a lot when you pass people because a lot of swerving is expected; Hakim even honked at a cop to get out of his way, so I guess it is no big deal.

I was getting car sick fast. When we got to the customer site I told Hakim I needed a moment and threw up behind a car. Something had told be to grab the airline bag for just such an occasion so I at least was able to keep it contained. I wasn’t feeling like the class had been well discussed beforehand so I did want to meet with the customer instead of going to the hotel. So I cleaned up a bit and managed to be somewhat presentable. We made a few side trips, including a meeting with the business partner that was supposed to be helping me. No surprise, but all of our previous discussions by e-mail and phone about what was needed had gone out the window and we appeared to be starting from scratch for some reason. I got home around 10, ate some food that Jennifer bought me for just such occasion and then crashed. I got some sleep last night, although not really very much.

Day 2 –

I woke up feeling better, but sort of nervous that I would start to fade as the day went on. I couldn’t eat too much breakfast but tried to. The buffet had about 20 types of rolls and breads, plus a few other items. If you were on Atkins, you would be out of luck. My ride to work was about 1 hr late so we showed up to the customer site about 20 minutes late. That apparently was not issue, but no one was ready to start training until 10 AM anyway. That reminds me that last night we had met the business partner at their hotel, which was right across the street from the training location. But my hotel is about 40 minutes away. Not sure what the thinking was to book me here, although it is nice. Back to the training, I had a translator and I think she did a good job. But the students kept getting stuck on one point that was not very important anyway and even when I would leave it for the next topic they would come back to it later. So we didn’t get too far in the morning.

Lunch was a big salad with tuna on top, 2 chicken breasts and mashed potatoes, plus an apple and some dessert tarts. I was called out for “not being hungry” because I couldn’t manage to eat both pieces of chicken. There have been lots of questions to me about the "pig" flue. I have kind of made it sound like reports in the US were really exaggerated. Since I think that my illness is some sort of flue, I decided to downplay it. It wasn't an issue in the airport, but I was extra careful not to blow my nose or cough while going through security.

During lunch the customer asked to see something that I was planning on doing the last day first. I tried to explain that it wasn’t a good idea, as I like to set up and make sure things are prepared and working before the students are watching me, but he and my sales person were not listening. So I tried to demonstrate what he wanted on the equipment that was brought in locally and I had not worked with before. Besides the electronics having buttons and text in French, one of the main items wasn’t working. And they had only brought 1 of several items when I had asked for at least 3 – just in case something wouldn’t work.

To coincide with this, I was starting to lose my voice after lunch and really cannot say a word right now. I am using a translating program online to order some food at the hotel. So my plan is to write up some things for the students to follow if I can’t talk tomorrow. Not sure how that will go.


Other items of note. Not everyone has a mustache here; it is probably 50/50 or even less. So maybe that was unnecessary to grow. But I have had two comments about my good looks, so it may have been worth it. One was that I was handsome like some province in Algeria, and the other was that I looked like a star (I was wearing a suite today). I can’t be sure these were both compliments instead of sarcasm; I suppose I will have to go see that province and see whether it is nice or not. I will just assume the positive for now. Also, I think I have seen people use their left hand here for passing food, so that is another item that is not really an issue. The languages are French and Arabic, so I would say that I have had more trouble being understood here than anywhere else. I have tried to speak French some as we all know the common words like bonjour, but have actually spit out more Spanish than French. I have said “gracias” for thank you a few times now.

You will note I haven’t really discussed the city very much. While driving around I was keeping my eyes closed to help with car sickness a lot. There are lots of palm trees and you see the Mediterranean while driving around, so it is fairly nice. The buildings are not really built for looks though and there are many signs of poverty. Built on a hill over the water like some of the pictures you see of Italy. Lots of smoking – Our sales guy smokes all the time but avoids caffeine for health reasons.

Well that is the start of my trip so far. It is not all bad. The patio I am sitting at now overlooks a small botanical garden that is part of the hotel. I would rather work with some fresh air than in my hotel room. Let’s hope it goes better tomorrow! Love to all, Eric

I guess we should have brushed up on his french before he left!