Hey hey, work all day

I arrived in Salvador on Wednesday around 5pm and was due to start work the next day! The time difference vs flight time was quite actually quite reasonable so jet lag wasn't a problem, but as it had been more than 5 months since I last worked I was a wee bit concerned about getting back into it! Especially as it seems contractors have to work some pretty long hours... However getting into the swing of things wasn't too harrowing at all - the first 2 days I had no laptop and just read my book, the next 2 days I had no internet connection, then dial up, then broadband and a week or so later I finally had a fully working computer! So a cruisy first week :) but I know I'll be working pretty hard out when the swapping of sites actually starts happening.

A quick synopsis on what I'm doing here - Nokia was awarded a contract by Claro, a Brazilian GSM operator to swap all their network hardware from Alcatel to Nokia equipment. (For you telecoms ppl: Claro are keeping the Ericsson MSCs, but swapping to Nokia from BSCs down. Bahia & Sergipe together have about 1800 sites). This is happening across Brasil with the Salvador office responsible for the swap of all sites in the Bahia and Sergipe states. To give you an idea of scale, NZ's land area is approx 267,000 sq km and just the state of Bahia is 564,000 sq km - more than twice the size!

I realise a picture is overdue - this isn't great but it'll have to do for now.

I didn't do too much exploring my first few days - this is the view from my hotel.

PS The title of this blog is the opening line from 'Worksong' by the 'Otautahi Allstars'. One of the widely recognised aspects of travelling is discovering things about foreign lands and cultures but it happens the other way too... The 'Otautahi Allstars' are a Kiwi band - I'd never heard of them but I was introduced to them by a Yank of all people! What up with that eh? Anyway check them out if you can, they rock the kumara! :)