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The call was sudden and the flurry of emails almost nonstop, but one thing was certain, if the opportunity to work was genuine, I was not about to let it pass by. Work is better than no work and decent wages are hard to come by. But being offered a job in a foreign country and for a noble task is about as rare as a meteorite that hits the Earth and causes the eventual distinction of all dinosaurs.
Within 7 days, I go from searching the web for a job in Hollywood to searching the streetsfor a restaurant in San Virgo, Venezuela. I've been hired on as material handling help for an American company which has a contract to build an energy plant in Chavezland. I am staying at a hotel that I will name Hotel Gringo because the rest of the crew, all gringos except for one Colombian with halting English, also stay here.
The problem in Venezuela is critical. Some places have gone as long as five days without electricity. The underlying cause is disputed among the populace but one thing is certain, in a country that overflows with oil as well as a newly discovered gas field, to have a critical shortage of electricity for the populace makes about as much sense as t*ts on a warthog.
The shortage apparently became critical last August and since then, President Chavez has been scrambling to get the situation back to a more normal status as quickly as possible. He has several power plants being built around the country and I happen to be at one of them. I work outside, in the blistering Gatire - pronounced gah -TEE - ray(Venezuelan patois which means Sun as well as White guy).
This series of diary entries will present my experiences since arriving here. Among a sea of Venezuelans anda flock of American Good-ol'-boys from the deep South, one lone Californian leftist tries to learn a new industry in a new country with new people under an unforgiving tropical Sun while working seven days a week, ten hours a day. I have worked in the materials field for about thirty years, but never in the construction field and never under such harsh climate conditions.
