 |
In his work for an international engineering concern, Scotsman Andrew Mackay worked in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and North America. Now retired, he looks back on that period of his life sardonically as a kind of prostitution. Supervisors told him where to go but not exactly how or when to get there—or even what to do or with whom once he arrived. He endured extremes of temperature, food poisoning, and the hostility of locals. On his first trip to the North Sea, he realized on arrival that the very brief instructions he had received before leaving in no way covered all the problems he would encounter; this turned out to be the “new normal” for most of his career. His adventures ranged from enjoying glittering carnival nights in Curacao to seeing a decapitated body lying by the road in Nigeria. He took it all in stride and did his job, though not without the occasional, justifiable complaint.
Mackay writes with good humor about his career, and despite occasional editing glitches, much can be gleaned from his accounts. He heard rumors of war and saw some of war’s results. He describes navigating within complex cultures and encountering vastly different attitudes towards concepts and actions taken for granted back home. He depicts his varying living conditions, from luxurious hotel rooms to crowded dorms and bunk beds. He writes of times when his life was in danger and had to think fast to avoid an international crisis. He concludes that people are pretty much the same everywhere in their basic needs, and all want to be treated with respect. Both travelogue and career memoir, Mackay’s book will engage those who have done their share of international working and trekking while also informing those just setting out.