Some substance
Sorry, I haven't been writing much. I'm coming up for air a bit now though. Here's a rundown:
Politically, things are very volatile. The President (just about the only respected, trusted leader) has threatened to resign if the Prime Minister doesn't. Massive peaceful demonstrations are underway. No one knows what will happen. As long as the demos are peaceful, it is interesting. If the President actually resigns (though everyone from Kofi Annan on down are trying to convince him not to), the future is very uncertain. There is lots of speculation that the PM will step down today. We'll see.
For me, today is the first or second time I've slept in (until 8!)in about a month. I'm hoping for 10am tomorrow!! I'm getting to a point where I can leave at reasonable hours (usually 6-7pm) in the evenings as well.
I am trying to extricate myself from the humanitarian aid and get my long-term program (to improve water and energy in 3 rural areas) back online. Generally, I think we can do this. However, there is likely to be a change in my Ministry leadership, so we'll see how my program gets reformulated. For now, we'll push ahead. Programs like mine, outside the capital, can hopefully help stability return. On the flip side, it could be hard to get people to focus on the long term in such uncertain times. But we'll try!
I work on a tiny island off the mainland and Thursday we brought 80 tons of food and non-food items (jerry cans for water, mosquito nets, blankets, tents, etc.) to the internally displaced people (IDPs) and residents. The very unhelpful Ferry owner insisted we leave at 4am. So, my colleagues and I slept on the ferry. I found a very comfy patch of floor!
At 5:45am, I was awoken by by the phone. In my sleepiness, either I was misunderstood or I misunderstood him, but I thought he was telling me we arrived at the island. I popped up, woke all my staff and a few strangers along the way. They all looked at me like I was crazy. About 5 minutes into my rounds, I looked up and realized we hadn't actually left the port yet. The call was to ask when were going to leave. Oops! "Um, sorry folks, go back to sleep..."
We left a few minutes later after I angrily called the ferry owner and said something like "Hello sir. Are you sleeping well? I'm not because I slept on the boat. And we are still in the Port!" At which point he said he'd take care of it. Within 10 min, we were off. As with every other time we disagreed about times, I got a "its the tides" excuse...yea right. The man made my life very difficult for an entire week. On Friday, after we returned, he called and I I ignored it. I asked my staff to call and take a message since I was 'in a meeting.' I've NEVER done that to anyone before, but it felt GOOD!
Thursday was a frenzied day of off-loading 80 tons an ill-moored ferry. Because it wasn't steady enough for the trucks to be going in and out [really, because the captain didn't want to waste the fuel to steady the boat], people had to walk on and off-load bag by bag.
I returned very exhausted and remembering why I left my Logistics days in the past (I previously managed a massive distribution program here)! Sometimes, the office isn't so bad! It is now Saturday, and I'm able to smile about a lot of this...I think that's a good sign.
Had a relaxing brunch this morning with a good friend at our regular spot. Great company! For the food, well, they tried to serve me Spam. I guess since it is emergency time, the restaurant felt they could switch spam for ham in my toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. (They made me another cheese and tomato sandwich sans Spam upon request. Good thing I'm a regular!) I think it was also Kraft Singles cheese, but I let that go. I'll have to remember in the future to beware of ordering hard-to-find ingredients.
Hmm, what else? Well, yesterday I only banged my knee once! Tangible Improvement! : )
Politically, things are very volatile. The President (just about the only respected, trusted leader) has threatened to resign if the Prime Minister doesn't. Massive peaceful demonstrations are underway. No one knows what will happen. As long as the demos are peaceful, it is interesting. If the President actually resigns (though everyone from Kofi Annan on down are trying to convince him not to), the future is very uncertain. There is lots of speculation that the PM will step down today. We'll see.
For me, today is the first or second time I've slept in (until 8!)in about a month. I'm hoping for 10am tomorrow!! I'm getting to a point where I can leave at reasonable hours (usually 6-7pm) in the evenings as well.
I am trying to extricate myself from the humanitarian aid and get my long-term program (to improve water and energy in 3 rural areas) back online. Generally, I think we can do this. However, there is likely to be a change in my Ministry leadership, so we'll see how my program gets reformulated. For now, we'll push ahead. Programs like mine, outside the capital, can hopefully help stability return. On the flip side, it could be hard to get people to focus on the long term in such uncertain times. But we'll try!
I work on a tiny island off the mainland and Thursday we brought 80 tons of food and non-food items (jerry cans for water, mosquito nets, blankets, tents, etc.) to the internally displaced people (IDPs) and residents. The very unhelpful Ferry owner insisted we leave at 4am. So, my colleagues and I slept on the ferry. I found a very comfy patch of floor!
At 5:45am, I was awoken by by the phone. In my sleepiness, either I was misunderstood or I misunderstood him, but I thought he was telling me we arrived at the island. I popped up, woke all my staff and a few strangers along the way. They all looked at me like I was crazy. About 5 minutes into my rounds, I looked up and realized we hadn't actually left the port yet. The call was to ask when were going to leave. Oops! "Um, sorry folks, go back to sleep..."
We left a few minutes later after I angrily called the ferry owner and said something like "Hello sir. Are you sleeping well? I'm not because I slept on the boat. And we are still in the Port!" At which point he said he'd take care of it. Within 10 min, we were off. As with every other time we disagreed about times, I got a "its the tides" excuse...yea right. The man made my life very difficult for an entire week. On Friday, after we returned, he called and I I ignored it. I asked my staff to call and take a message since I was 'in a meeting.' I've NEVER done that to anyone before, but it felt GOOD!
Thursday was a frenzied day of off-loading 80 tons an ill-moored ferry. Because it wasn't steady enough for the trucks to be going in and out [really, because the captain didn't want to waste the fuel to steady the boat], people had to walk on and off-load bag by bag.
I returned very exhausted and remembering why I left my Logistics days in the past (I previously managed a massive distribution program here)! Sometimes, the office isn't so bad! It is now Saturday, and I'm able to smile about a lot of this...I think that's a good sign.
Had a relaxing brunch this morning with a good friend at our regular spot. Great company! For the food, well, they tried to serve me Spam. I guess since it is emergency time, the restaurant felt they could switch spam for ham in my toasted ham, cheese and tomato sandwich. (They made me another cheese and tomato sandwich sans Spam upon request. Good thing I'm a regular!) I think it was also Kraft Singles cheese, but I let that go. I'll have to remember in the future to beware of ordering hard-to-find ingredients.
Hmm, what else? Well, yesterday I only banged my knee once! Tangible Improvement! : )
posted by sue at 1:19 PM
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