I should have said the DRC (Dirty Rotten Congo) not the Republic of the Congo, hey, that's a bit upmarket! Ha Ha. Eastern DRC to boot, not far from Burundi where a civil war is just about to break out methinks, always happens at election time. Elections are due to be held in the DRC next year too, god help us, just hope the M23's or some kind of reincarnation don't resurface. We keep a small house across the border in Rwanda just in case we have to leggit. The gem of Africa Rwanda, so much money has gone in since the genicide, it's almost like a western country (even the roads!!!). I'd love to work there, or even Uganda, Lake Victoria, down at Entebbe is stunning.
I was once offered a job in Nigeria by a consultant working for one of the oil companies down in the Delta, he told me that you might get kidnapped, but don't worry because we always pay the ransom and they treat you relatively well. The money was top notch, US$1000 a day tax free, twice what I was on at the time, so I kind of considered it. When I received the job offer I was working with a Nigerian chap who came from one of the Nigerian ruling families, so I sought his advice. His reply to 'what's it like working in Nigeria', was 'to be avoided at all costs, why do you think i'm working here?'. I ended up taking a job in Eritrea, which is a fantastic country to be an Ex Pat in, not so good if you're Eritrean because you have to spend most of your life in the Army on little or no money. That was a life changer, Eritrean women are very beautiful and I met my second wife there.
I moved on and worked in Liberia but fell out with a guy claiming to be one of the Sirleafs, he said that he was the Minister of Labour (I checked on Wiki and he wasn't) but he demanded income tax off me and four of my staff. I explained that our salaries were net of tax and if any money was owed to the govenment, he needed to visit our lawyer in Monrovia who would give him a cheque. He got pretty angry and demanded cash there and then or i'd be locked up. With that threat I had nothing to lose so I told him to "go forth and multiply" , which he did, muttering threats on his way. He said his name was Boakai Sirleaf but that's probably made up, Joseph Boakai is the Vice President and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the President. Having said that he must have had some sort of power or influence because when I applied for my next visa it was refused. **** country anyway.
From there I went to Sierra Leone, an interesting country, far better than Liberia. Managed to break my leg there so it didn't last long, shame, I would love to go back, poor but very nice friendly people. However, every clould has a silver lining, the wife fell pregnant during my recouperation, hence the avitar. Work now takes me to the DRC, building a tailings dam on a gold mine, what line of work takes you to Austrailia TillIDie? 4 on and 4 off sounds a bit like an Austrailian mine rota to me.
