An Italian job

When I resigned from TAAG, I went to work for an Italian company. My friend Gisela, who worked for them, got me an interview and I managed to bag the job.
It was a building construction company, and it had contracts with the oil companies.
I can say, without exaggeration, that it was one of the companies where I learned most. Granted, maybe not essential stuff or anything I really needed to know, but nevertheless it was very educational. One of the things I learned there, was that the oil companies need buildings to store mud. In fact, that was one of the most important income sources for us. At the beginning, I thought I might have misunderstood. However, after seeing documents in French and English I had to accept that mud stores was exactly what they built in Angola.
It was also there that I learned a very important fact about Italians: they need large, spacious offices – in fact, a lot larger than the ones where we were installed in the Rua Mouzinho de Albuquerque. Unfortunately, the office was quite small. As a result, the Angolan staff always seemed to be in the wrong place – between 2 Italians - which was very bad for our health because when they talked we had to try to get out of the way of their hands and arms. The worst was that they often didn’t talk, they argued nearly to the point of physically attacking one another – and they didn’t care much if we were in the way!
It was at this job that I learned to speak Italian, even though it wasn’t strictly necessary, as the “official” language was French. However, I’ve always been very curious about foreign languages. The point is that they allowed us to go shopping for food at their supermarket and it was extremely annoying not to know what I was buying. A little like when we went to Croatia 2 years ago and my daughter asked at the supermarket if we needed some “putar” – but when I asked what that was, she replied she hadn’t a clue, but the package was pretty! To be truthful, I have to admit that there was another reason to learn the language. I was sure that I could understand Italian (OK, maybe not every word, but most of it) and what I didn’t know I thought I could guess, with the help of the other languages I spoke. However, one day I found out that was not true. They used frequently the word “pomeriggio” and I was convinced it had something to do with apple jam (don’t blame me, blame the French!) The day I found out it was actually “afternoon” I decided it was time to learn Italian! I found it quite easy, although my vocabulary of swear words increased much faster than the rest! Most of the vocabulary I acquired with my colleagues I didn’t even know in Portuguese!