Weekend.......

So, what do most of the expats do on the weekend here? I'm sure you were all wondering and eagerly anticipating the response. Well.......they go to the beach. Specifically, Ankoba beach. Its a nice, little beach. There's a pretty good restaurant there. I had some tuna kabobs there...delicious.

Also, Friday night I hung out with some fellow employees. Two are from the Congo....well one is now South African and the other is quasi-quebecois-american. He's lived in both NYC and Montreal. The last guy was here on a business trip from London. We went to a little French restaurant, which was pretty good.

The trick to living here is finding all the little places to eat at, things to do....and where not to go.

Sunday was just a chill, relaxing day.......I'm still working on my tan and trying not to be the whitest person in Madagascar, but I'm still number 1.

Ok, ok.........

After some complaints (ok, just one so far.....) that I still wasn't posting every day. Here is a post for that person. It's actually after midnight, so I guess it's really Saturday.

First week of work is over........hard to make progress when all I did was try to get my computer set up and try to start learning who is who. The President of QMM was here today and he gave the doom and gloom speech. Which is basically.......the economy sucks, so be prepared for anything. Yep, just peachy.

Ok, so the plan for tomorrow is to try surfing and not drown or get eaten by a shark. Also, I may try to visit a few sights or forts around here.

So, maybe you'll get a few more posts this weekend and stop complaining.

Work

So, I guess I better post a little about what I do for work and maybe a little about the operation here.

So, I worked for Kennecott Utah Copper near Salt Lake City, as a health and safety advisor. Due to my french language skills and some of the work I did during the implementation of the management system we have now, I was asked to come to QMM (QIT Madagascar Minerals). Side Note: QIT is Quebec Iron Titanium based in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec, about an hour outside of Montreal. All of these business units are part of a larger company called Rio Tinto........or maybe something else in the future once China is done purchasing the rest of the company. Hope no corporate types read this.........

The purpose of my assignment is aide with the implementation of the corporate mandated HSEQ MS or health, safety, environmental, quality management system. The obvious goal of the HSEQ MS is to improve the HSEQ performance of the business.

It appears from the few days that I've been here that not much is currently in place....or at least I haven't been shown it yet. So, that means there's a ton of work to do. While at the same time, QMM is in the process of finishing construction at the site and is beginning commissioning of everything. So, that means that everyone is super busy and the last thing they will want to do is this. However, without their help, the implementation would only be on paper and not actually produce many desired results.

The HSEQ MS is similiar to ISO 14001 and ISO 9001 or OHSAS 18001 if that means anything to you.

QMM mines a mineral called ilmenite which is a combination of iron and titanium. The product is then shipped to Quebec to be further processed.

Ok, that's all I have for now and I don't have any pics of the mine, etc yet. Feel free to ask questions in the comments.

La Piscine Naturelle

So, last weekend after the visit to La Reserve my driver (yes I have a driver) took me to something called la piscine naturelle (the natural pool). When we first arrived I thought it was only this little cool waterfall that led into a small, but kind of dirty pool. There were some young adults (for lack of a better word) playing in the waterfall, etc. I had a chance to speak to one of them, and I discovered that they are from Belgium and France. Some of them work at the same place as I do.

After a quick sandwich for lunch, my driver tells me that there's more to see. So, we hike up a little bit further to a much larger waterfall. Then we ran into another Malagasi and he told my guide that the real "piscine naturelle" is up further. So, after about a 20 minute hike we arrived at the pisicine naturelle. So, the photo is of the real piscine naturelle. I saw some cool frogs and a hummingbird taking a drink of water. I have pics, but of course it would take way, way too long to upload them.

On a side note. Even though the hike was not strenuous, I was sweating like a fat man in a sauna. I guess its due to the heat and humidity.

Ring-tailed Lemur

So, I visited the Reserve de Nahampoana on the outskirts of Ft Dauphin. It was pretty cool, with lots of tame lemurs, etc. Saw some interesting frogs, chameleons, plants, etc. Today at work they told me that if I would have brought some bananas they would have eaten them out of my hands........oh well, next time I guess.

Photos take FOREVER to load, so you won't be able to see many.

Hotel

So, my hotel is much, much nicer than I expected. It's called the Sunny Hotel and has a tiled bathroom, nice bed, fair amount of space, pool, decent food, they do my laundry, clean, cook, basically everything I need.

So, I have my pics on my computer now.....but the internet connection is insanely slow, so I'll try at work sometime next week.

Impressions of Fort Dauphin

So, I finally arrived Ft. Dauphin....its HOT and humid...so we'll see how that goes.

It's very beautiful here with gorgeous mountains and awesome beaches. I think I'll learn to surf.

Poor, poor, very poor. A lot of people live in those little straw/thatch or whatever they are homes. Everyone just walks around in the middle of the street.

I have a chauffeur for the first week or so. Its kind of nice. I just tell him where to go and we arrive there....instead of me getting lost.

Again, I'll post pics once I find my cable to my camera.

Paris

Le Louvre, duh
So, I scheduled my flights so that "I had to" spend 3-4 days in Paris.......I mean isn't life difficult sometimes??

Actually, I've already been to Paris 3 times.....so it wasn't a big deal, but it was still fun.

I was worried that the weather would suck since its March and its often rainy and cold in France, especially northern France.........but I was blessed and the weather was near perfect.

I have a french friend (Khoune) who lives near Disneyland outside of Paris, so I stayed with him. Also, I have a friend from SLC (Elle) who is studying in Paris for 2 semesters.

I hung out with Elle Saturday evening and went to a tiny concert with some french friends of hers. It was really cool....kind of some folky type music....interesting experience in Paris since that type of music isn't well known there.

Sunday, I just kind of wandered around the city and ate some delicious ice cream and pastries!

Monday, Elle and I explored the shopping district called Le Marais........its the gayborhood of Paris. Some shops were super high-end while others were more reasonable.... We also spent a lot of time trying the stereotypical french foods.....crepes, etc.

Tuesday, I went to Sacre Coeur......its an awesome white church set on a hill over-looking the entire city. I think its my favorite church....better than St. Peters, Notre Dame and maybe even the Sagrada Familial (in Barcelona, which is an awesome city).

I've got pics and I'll post them when I find the cord that connects my camera to my computer.

Adventures so far........

Apparently, the Malagasi are never in a hurry to get stuff done.........I didn't receive my flight tickets until about 4 days before leaving.

However, I was able to travel in international business class........once you've done that you will never, ever want to fly economy. Kind of a double edged sword.

So, my plan was to fly to Paris on the 13th (arriving the 14th)....then leave on the 17th to Antananarivo (capitol of Madagascar) and then leave the 18th to Fort Dauphin (final destination for 6 months)...........however Air France changed the flight to leave the night of the 17th instead of the morning and so I missed the connection and now have to stay in Tana until the 20th.

In case you haven't been following the political situation in Madagascar here's a link:

link

So, obviously I wanted to minimize time in Tana. Alas, I leave early on the 20th, and haven't had any problems at all here. Actually the hotel is decent.......better than some hostels I've stayed in!!

Blogging......

So, after many requests, I am going to try to blog...........

For those that know me, I hate writing. So, the posts may be very infrequent at best.

However, I will try to keep this updated with the adventures during my 6 month stay in Madagascar.