The people you meet are the greatest joy, in every country you receive friendliness, hospitality and interest. The nice thing about Africans is their charm and absolute lack of the sense of entitlement that we British seem to have learned from somewhere.
I only did Egypt in Africa and did find very distinct strata in the people there. Very helpful, the shop floor workers were extraordinarily friendly and always happy despite what seemed to me to be a 'do as your told or get out' mentality by anyone who had seniority. I suspect poverty was endemic for a lot of them. I gave half of my tools to some of the guys there
and had some fantastic, albeit broken, conversations with them at breaktimes. I did find the management there kinda..neither here nor there, efficient, not friendly, could have been worse. I had no intention of venturing into Kafr El Zaiat...it looked decidedly 'basic' so all my eating and drinking was on site. A week of
dodgy food but they did have beer.
I got a better view of real Egypt via my taxi driver. He took me to a couple of fabulous, roadside eateries...no alcohol but the food was awesome, as were the staff.
My colleague frequently did S Africa and despite the poverty of the farm workers, they were always smiling and happy.. The farm owners always looked after him royally. Shame I never made it there.
Spent many an evening over 10 years in various resturaunts on my todd in Cyprus and Spain, a few beers and good food made being on your own...a tad easier. Cyprus was often easier to meet Brits, usually retired expats or workers like myself.
Uruguay, meh. Mediocre food and beer.
Big silver bird to go home....my tickets were always open, , I could never be sure I'd actually make the flight and frequently didn't. I'd frequently be working up to the point a taxi arrived to take me. If something wasn't working...i wasn' coming back yet.
Miss it all...and don't. It puts a fair strain on a relationship.