Assignment: Venezuela (1956)

[Music] poor favor EST equipage no I was so sure I'd learned the right pronunciation but when I tried my phrase book Spanish at maraio airport nobody could understand a word it brought home what I was told in the briefing sessions by Creole I'm starting work in a foreign country for an American Oil Company and I'll have to learn its ways just as Creole has we each represent the United States here in the eyes of the Venezuelan my baggage was at Customs as I should have known and my English got me through then the language problem ended for the moment Creole had sent another American engineer up from the oil fields to meet me and show me around before I reported the engineering [Music] office he gave me a regular guided tour of maraio everything looked just as tropical as I had expected and only 10° north of the equator it was just as hot as I had expected the first thing that surprised me on that ride was the in other residential areas I saw houses built in the old Spanish [Music] tradition then came the new again huge modern apartment buildings [Music] I almost felt I hadn't left home when we passed a big Sears Robux [Music] store another familiar site was a used car lot full of American [Music] autos but the center of the city is Spanish and you begin to realize that maraio is almost 400 years [Music] old the narrowed downtown streets along which we drove were once invaded by Morgan's pirate [Music] Raiders the contrast really hit me when we drove up to our hotel just about the most modern one I've ever seen it's a great introduction to a job in Venezuela but it's only for one night pardon my luxury dear I at the pool at the hotel as I write this my next letter will be from Lonas because I leave for the oil fields tomorrow love to you and the boys Jim to you and the boys Jim where is d Dy mommy well Jeff I'll just show you we're here in the United States and daddy is down here in Venezuela he wrote the letter from maraio but by now he's down here where the lake maraio oil fields are that's where daddyy is working Jeff and when he finds a place for us to live we're going down there too dear an well here I am at lonus in the oil fields my trip from maraio started with a ferry ride across the neck of the lake near the entrance from the Caribbean [Music] Lake maraio seemed narrow here but it's actually 60 M wide at one point and about 120 M [Music] long after leaving the ferry the drive to laganas took about an hour most of it along a road built by Creole and the other oil companies back in the [Music] 30s the offshore Wells run along the edge of Lake maraio for more than 40 miles sometimes reaching Beyond the Horizon it's quite a sight but the most thrilling sight to me was my first view of our new home Lonas right on the lake shore it's both a community and an industrial [Music] center part of my work will be in the office here and part out on the lake helping with supervision and planning for this portion of the oil field [Music] I started meeting people the moment we [Music] arrived my first stop was at the administration building where I checked in at my [Music] office my boss the district petroleum engineer is a young fellow they give responsibility early here I found that the engineering staff is both Venezuelan and American or North American as they say here then I spent the evening getting settled in my quarters a long and lonely evening dear without you the next day I was taken out on the lake to see the field procedures before that day was over I felt as though I were back in the Navy [Music] as we headed out into the lake I saw that there was no Open Water ahead just rows of oil wells and as an engineer I know that what I saw is just part of it that under the water there are hundreds of miles of pipeline connecting the wells the wells form a geometrically exact pattern carefully spaced to tap the oil in the most efficient manner [Music] Creole and the Venezuelan government work together to make sure that the field is planned for the best long-term utilization of the country's oil resources for example a careful check is kept on the pressure of the gas which forces most of the oil to the surface without pumping [Music] the gas which comes up with the oil is not wasted or burned off 7 m offshore I saw one of our huge plants which injects the natural gas back into the formation that maintains the pressure to keep the oil [Music] flowing the drilling is done with power and equipment from Big barges tied up to the well platforms I'll be working on the barges a lot of the time and I'll have to speak Spanish because 92% of Creole employees are Venezuelan that includes a large number of the engineers and more than half of the supervisors like the tool pushers who boss the drilling Crews [Music] practically all the skilled workers of Venezuela and with their housing and other benefits they receive about as much as men doing identical jobs in the United [Music] States employee relations policies are about the the same too and oil companies here operate under modern labor laws I already feel at home in my job even though I sometimes go to and from work in a boat sure it's a different country and I'm a foreigner here but the Venezuelans have already made me feel welcome all I have to do now is lick that language problem dear an and the boys here's the latest news on our house I've been looking over all the staff houses and my favorite is the kind built high off the ground to let the breeze under and incidentally provide a wonderful open air playroom they're completely shuttered with aluminum to keep out the daytime heat I saw the interior of one house on Sunday when a Venezuelan employee invited me over he's being transferred to a better job at Creole headquarters in Caracus and I hope to get the house his wife showed me all through [Music] it this one had two bedrooms some have more [Music] I was pretty happy about the possibility but it didn't work out as luck would have it the house has been assigned to another family whove been waiting some time meanwhile living in one of the quanset huts and so that's how we happen to be moving into their quanset Hut on October 1st I rushed right over to see [Music] it it's temporary housing of course but these people had fixed theirs up attractively we can do the same while we're waiting for one of the permanent houses [Music] we'll need just about everything we have at home except the kitchen sink so you better start packing be prepared for a heavy social life too everything from bridge parties at home to sports at the [Music] club my favorite spot is the pool cool even though it's mighty lonely there without you no fun at all [Music] really you asked about Medical Care there's a creole dispensary for both employees and dependants [Music] I've looked over the school too it's also maintained by the company the principal is a North American but education is in both English and Spanish they try to make all the children bilingual and Jeff will start learning Spanish in the first grade Mike [Music] those kids made me feel a little ashamed of my Spanish or lack of it everything I've described is inside the oil camp but Creole is now trying to get away from the old idea of a company Camp eventually they want their people to live in regular towns where that's [Music] possible I saw some results of this new policy when I visited creel's Refinery at am recently we drove through the residential area where many of the homes were built by private contractors partially financed by the company the houses are sold or rented to anyone not just Creole employees the worker is even helped with his down payment if he needs it but after that and his family are on their own just as in the United [Music] States instead of company commissaries they have privately operated shopping centers some of them started with loans from Creole the idea of this community integration project is to make people independent instead of having to look to the company for everything it's an interesting new development and speaking of new development an I'm being sent for a month's study of Spanish in Caracus that's where I'll be writing from next I traveled to Caracus by air of course landing at mtia right on the shore of the Caribbean then we started up through the mountains on one of the most remarkable highways in the world the aop Pista [Music] it took us just 20 minutes to climb to 3,000 ft the altitude of Caracus suddenly we were in the city it's laid along a narrow Valley just behind the coastal mountains the downtown area is dominated by the central Simon Bolivar a Building Development something like Radio City except that super highways go through it and under it [Music] I had the driver take me for a ride around the [Music] city he showed me the new sections in the East where just 10 years ago there were sugar cane and coffee plantations [Music] they use a tremendous amount of color on the buildings sometimes just a very [Music] pattern and sometimes for artistic effect giant mosaics 6 to 10 stories [Music] high some of the residential areas are almost futuristic but others are so quiet and tranquil that you seem to be in another [Music] world since that first day I've spent most of my time studying Spanish I'm even writing this letter between classes but tomorrow is Sunday and and I expect to see more of the city I've told you how modern much of karacas is well if the rest of the place is modern they'll have to coin a new word for University City believe me this is no Ivy covered campus University City is one of the impressive sites of karacus another example of the prosperity oil has helped to bring to Venezuela [Music] the university isn't tucked away by itself it's part of the city and it provides the city with many things from Medical Care to a beautiful stadium for soccer and track and another for [Music] baseball the kakos are especially proud of their low rent housing projects huge apartment buildings in clusters on the hillsides we have nothing like them at home but some things are just like home the new business sections the shop Windows filled with Goods purchased in the United [Music] States and the familiar look of all the American cars the not to mention the [Music] traffic I've also seen some of the historic spots of Caracus like pla bivar the old Spanish square with the statute to The Liberator who led Six South American nations to freedom and kasan natal the birthplace and home of Simon Bolivar the Old Colonial House is now a museum of Venezuelan [Music] history I was told that many families in karaka still live in gracious old homes like boulevards showing only blank walls on the outside and looking toward beautiful inner patios open to the sky [Music] my karakas life for most of the past month has centered on just one building the Spanish [Music] school we Norte Americano study Spanish 8 hours a day 5 and a half days a week it's been hard work but it's been worthwhile seor Corporation perfect I'm really learning the language now just wait until you hear me when you reach marao next [Music] week La the Venezuelan aine announces the arrival of fly 2011 from Miami [Music] imigra and passengers will exit at the E end of the terminal [Music] is this all no we have two more bags waus lenya esia oh no we've been studying Spanish too well that's how it goes you work hard to impress your family and they end up telling the porter what luggage he has to find it's good to have them here though and I'm looking forward to a good life with them during this assignment in Venezuela [Music] the [Music]