Morocco was a very welcome experience. As in most jobs, it's the people you work with that make or break a place, and the Morocco crew were some of the best people I've had the pleasure of knowing, creating an upbeat and positive environment, where everyone worked hard but were having fun and living life to the fullest. The base manager has the biggest influence on a base's persona, and his positive attitude carried everyone along with him. It was a very good place to be. I've been on quite a few good bases, but I've also seen just one person bring a base to it's knees. Numerous personnel changes in Tanzania have changed the base dynamic drastically, as it used to be one the best bases I had ever been on. One person, relatively new on the base, ranting about unrealistic security concerns to all who would listen, brought about numerous changes that took my favourite East African posting down to someplace extremely dark and unpleasant, spreading rumours and dissension and having little regard for others, continually spouting a never ending racial diatribe that grated one's nerves. I wasn't unhappy to hear that he'd been kicked out of the country for roughing up a local that may not have had all his wits about him. Of course not before he created further damage by being chased back to our hotel with thirty angry locals hot on his trail, making our hotel and employees a target for the irate nationals, and thus making all his security concerns something to actually worry about, but for us, not him. What an idiot. I do not wish him well. His arrogance and negative energy brought the entire base down, but luckily he's taken his baggage elsewhere. 
Trying my best to recover whatever positive energy this place had, mountain biking single track in the hills, snorkelling the reefs and hanging with locals, is keeping me sane. Of course it's different; cultural values vary significantly from those of the West, but respecting your fellow man, allowing for those differences, and keeping your wits about you, will carry you much farther than forcing your concrete views on those around you. I still love Tanzania and it's people, but the base is not the same.
I now have some spare time to sort through photos, whittling some six hundred down to a few favourites, posted in my web albums with the link at the upper right of this page. Trying to see and experience as much of North Africa as my short visit and work schedule would allow left me with little time, but here I have it in spades. I spent a few days in Dar es Salaam, recovering from two solid days of travel, lounging poolside at the beautiful Sea Cliff hotel, hanging out in some dodgy East African hospitals getting chest x-rays and ECGs for a national medical, and writing one of thee most bizarre aviation licensing exams I have ever seen. With over thirty years as a professional aviator I had never heard of a Janus array, ionization wave skip propagation or worked with Doppler radar, but the exam was thick with theory questions of no practical value, with long forgotten formulas that hurt my head. Somehow I managed to pass. Two licenses in two weeks, time to chill..... 
No comments:
Post a Comment