Today I am your Shenachie

9th January 2021

Hello Hello you beautiful and awesome readers, nine in a row!

Today is Word Nerd Day if you didn't know.

And @CoquiCoin wondered what word I would teach her today ....

It is Shenachie, which is an old Scots word that many Scots don't even know exists. It means basically someone who recounts lore of old, or a storyteller.

So let me regale you with something about me ....

Let's not beat around the bush but rather, dive straight into the African bush!

"Hey Eddie, fancy a job with me in Africa? Listen the Process Engineer just quit, I spoke to the agent, so fire in your CV (resume) to Colin the agent, and get your arse out here pronto".

This was the phone call I received one March day whilst at work in Newbury, England. The caller was a complete madman who was an Instruments Engineer and had left the company we worked at and gone to work in Africa the previous year. He used to give me a lift upto Scotland every so often. He had a small black car and drove at speeds in excess of 100mph wherever possible. Of course now, with all the speed cameras he would have been busted, which in fact happened more than once I understand.

Long story cut short, I did all the paperwork, passed the interviews and had all the inoculations. One Thursday afternoon in June I met my agent at Heathrow airport in London, to get my tickets etc and fly to Paris and then onto Gabon in West Africa.

"Pleased to meet you Eddie, just to let you know, as Shell don't have senior Engineers under the age of 25 overseas, we told them you were born a year earlier than you were, so don't tell them your real age. Now enjoy your trip."

That was my conversation with my agent. Oh Great, I have never been to Africa before and now I have to lie about my age. Oh well in for a penny in for a pound I thought.

I checked in at the Air France desk and went off to the bar.

"Wey aye, man! I'm Mel from Newcastle, what you drinking?" said a passenger next to me at the bar.

It turns out that he is going to the same oil terminal to work as me in the African jungle! What a small world we live in!

We get to Paris, and it transpires that our flight to Libreville the Gabonese capital has been cancelled until Friday. I was not complaining as we got put up in an expensive hotel. Free food free drinks and all whilst I was being paid. I could enjoy this lifestly I thought.

Next day we flew to Libreville the capital of Gabon, then flew to Port Gentil their oil capital and finally flew on a company plane to Gamba Terminal.

There were no boarding cards on the last flight with no seat allocations, and I was about to find out why.

All of a sudden people picked up their belongings and ran onto the runway where the plane was parked. People were holding chickens under their arms, little kids were runnning around the plane trying to capture two chickens that had escaped their owners clutches. People were carrying chairs, people had animals in cages, and women had bags and suitcases on their heads, the place was absolutely mad!

Of course, when I finally manage to board the plane, there were far too many people on the plane. As we were engineers we had to get on the plane, and some others had to wait until tomorrow to catch the next plane.

I was met at the airport and taken to my accommodation. What a change from the five star hotel of the night before. Think of a portacabin that had seen better days, with warped flooring and stank of rotten eggs!

I was taken to our work site and shown around the Oil and Gas Terminal and then shown to my office, and introduced to everyone. So far so good, and I was loving the warm weather. All the Gabonese people were so friendly, and the expats were okay, although I could not believe there could be so much negativity in people.

As this was a Saturday, we had a half day, and it was back to the camp canteen for a horse steak and french beans. The camp was French as was the cuisine.

A bunch of the guys were going to the beach and said to come along, including Mel and his father, who also worked at the terminal.

I shared an office with an Electrical Engineer whom I would call Dad, and it was his jeep that I shared.

We drove off to the beach, but being the rainy season we had to make our way through numerous swamps of various shapes and sizes to get there. After about twenty minutes and with the beach in view, we went through one last swamp which was longer than the rest. We were doing great and following a Toyota pick up trip which had Mel and another guy Martin in the back.

Dad was driving too fast and hit a log and water flooded the engine. He stalled and could not get started. The Toyota backed up and Mel shouted for me to get out and tie a rope between the two vehicles so we could get towed.

I wound the window down, and climbed out through the window and dropped into the water which was waist high. I waded over to the truck and got the rope. I attached it to the back of the Toyota then dived underwater and managed to attach it to our truck. It took a bit of time as I could not see as it was murky down there.

Once I surfaced I could see Martin and Mel standing up in the back of the Toyota with their machetes in their hands and a concerned look on their faces.

"Get your arse in the truck now!" they shouted in unison.

I clambered through the window and got seated, and asked Dad what was going on.

He merely pointed over to the side of the swamp where a five foot Cayman crocodile was getting out of the water.

"That swam over your head, you had us worried Eddie Wildlife!"

And that was how Eddie Wildlife came to be.

We worked 12 weeks at a time, then had four weeks off. That first trip was incredible and I have so many memories.

I will share one more before you get too bored.

One weekend we decided to have a weekend up in the jungle as we had the whole Saturday off.

There were six of us and we managed to barter with some of the villagers to borrow a couple of dug out wooden log canoes with little outboard motors on them. We had been given directions for some of the surrounding lakes and villages.

We made great time and after stopping off at a little village where we had lunch we decided to make camp on a lake not far away.

We camped over night, but when I say camped everyone just sat around the fire drinking. It was pitch black and I can tell you that the animal noises were pretty damn scary. We would keep collecting wood to make sure that the fire would not go out, as we reckoned that was our saving grace, no animals would come near with fire. However, we hadn't bargained for the water animals. Several nearby loud splashes were heard coming from the lake, probably crocodiles, hopefully not hippos as they really are the killers of Africa (I was to have an experience with a hippo and an upturned boat a few months later).
The morning came, and we decided to go for a trip into the jungle before heading home.

Off we trooped with a bottle of water and a machete each. We saw monkeys, all kinds of birds and at one point a Gorilla. Amazing stuff and after an hour the sun was up high and the guys were complaining of the heat and wanted to go back.

Just one problem, nobody had a bloody clue where we were. There was no cellphone service being such a remote location.

Another hour passed and we seemed to be going round and round in circles. Now the guys were panicking, talking about getting rescued by helicopter when Shell (the company we were contracted to) would send a search for us. We would have contracts terminated they said.

Another hour and now they really were panicking. I was just having fun, we then came to a clearing.

What do we have here, I thought and went off exploring. There were huge round holes in the ground, which actually turned out to be elephant footprints.

You know a bear shits in the woods, well I can tell you that an elephant certainly takes a massive shit in the jungle!

This made me want a number 2, which I duly had. Banana leaves make for awesome toilet paper I found out.

At this point, two of the guys in their thirties with wives and kids were actually crying. What a surreal experience, being lost in the jungle seeing grown men cry.

Whilst I had been taking my number 2, I noticed a trickle of flowing water, so I started to follow it, the trickle doubled in volume. I called over the other guys and said come on, pull yourselves together and let's follow the flowing water, it will lead to a body of water.

Elephant Vectors by Vecteezy

Sure enough, Eddie Wildlife led the band of crying men out of the jungle, to a little lake.

We had to cross a little stretch of water about nine foot wide, just under 3 metres I would say. Luckily there were big sticks that made for poles. I went first and polevaulted over the stream. All was well until the last person went.

He puts the pole in the water, and is halfway over the water when crack, the pole broke and he fell in the water.

I am sorry but I was on the floor laughing, he was shouting for help, so a couple of us jumped in and pulled him up.

We managed to find our camp by following the lake and we made it back safe and sound. It turns out that nobody had even raised an alarm that we were missing.

There were so many adventures and it was an eye opener. It was my first experience of world poverty, where the only goal for the day is to get food to eat. Something we in the West don't really comprehend.

Due to tax laws, I was not allowed back to the UK, so spent a wonderful week in Paris then three more weeks exploring other European capitals.

This started a world adventure which would lead to me describing myself as a World Citizen as I worked in over 50 countries from Canada to Columbia, from Morrocco to Malaysia and a heck of a lot more in between.

Life is what we make of it. It is an adventure that we write. We can change and control our destiny, I did and I loved it.

I have lived a colourful life, and would not change anything. I have never been afraid to take what people called risks, we only live once.

I used this for an entry to hive today :)

Copyright @TengoLoTodo 2021 and yes All Rights Reserved. All images, words, and ramblings are from the author unless otherwise stated.

100% original content from this mad Scotsman!

And don't forget ;)

Haste ye back.