Playing by the rules
on Fiona Craven (Guyana), 31/Jan/2012 21:40, 34 days ago
I’m not sure I’ve ever been a fan of rules. I definitely appreciate structure, and have a strong sense of doing things the ‘proper’ way (I think I inherited this from my Grandmother). But also like my Grandmother, I can rebel against the rules that I don’t agree with and that I find hard tosee the point of. All of which adds to the challenge of working in a developing country, because people here love rules! Crazy rules. Rules that make no sense. Rules that get in the way of progress. Rules that no matter how hard I try, I am not allowed to break.Working for a government body in any country has its bureaucracy, so my experience here is not entirely unique toGuyana. But on days like today I often have to take a moment to myself to get over the frustration of dealing with the protocol and processes involved in accessing something like stationary items. Without going into details, I’ve found myself talking with at least 7 different people, across 4 different departments, over the past 12 weeks in order to try and get some plastic sheet protectors. Without them I can’t finish making the school screeners. And without the school screeners I can’t adequately train my colleagues in the regions on how to carry out assessments in schools. The stationary item is readily available, it’s the 7 people that need to approve my request that are less readily available. There’s no overcoming this rule, protocol has to be followed and if someone misplaces the request (which hashappened on numerous occasions), then I have to go back to square one and start all over again.On a lighter note, a rule I do regularly break (much to the upset of everyone around me) is to cycle the wrong way down a one way street. Streets can become one way overnight so it’s impossible to remember which are or aren’t one way. And certain stretches are so short it makes far more sense (in my head) to cycle the ‘wrong’ way than to go the whole way round the block. But every day complete strangers shout at me that I’m going the wrong way, that the street is one way, that the police will fine me….. "one-way, one-way baby girl","she done crazy, she gon' get lock-up"Given the amount of rules I’m having to get used to I reckon there should be at least one that I can get away with breaking.So I take my chances with the police and continue to be the whitie that cycles the wrong way.