IDP blues
on Kenya VSO (Kenya), 03/Nov/2009 10:54, 34 days ago
Every professional group develops a specalised language with acronyms and abbreviations, one from the 'development industry' of which I suppose I am now a small part is IDP. This stands for internally displaced persons, Kenya still has some IDP after the communal violence that followed the last elections. Politicians here make announcements about resettling the IDP, while those who fled across the border to Uganda are another problem.Meanwhile the IDP count has increased by one, me! During the water shortage in the summer my landlord added a five thousand lire water tank to the existing tower beside my house. The expected rains have started bringing an end to the regular power cuts, although we still get the unplanned suprise cuts) and fresh generations of mosquitoes and the water tank is no longer beside my house, it is inside the house.At three in the morning I was woken up by a loud crash and drenched in cold water, after the initial shock my first thought was who is playing this joke on me? No prank this time, a full five thousand lire water tank had smashed through the roof.Luckily the tank and debris from the roof missed me, although not by much while Daniel my house mate was smart enough to turn the power off before helping to force my bedroom door open.Everyone in the compound turned out to help, somebody rang the VSO Kenya emergency number and by five Daniel and I were moved to the Methodist Guest House, who put us into room 101 !, shades of George Orwell 1984. Since that night I have shared the IDP experience of sit and wait to find out which hotel I will be staying in, where my stuff is being kept, how bad the damage is (so far I know my computer is dead, it got hit by something hard). As all IDP know, and mostly their situation is far worse than mine after the initial panic comes the waiting but I am ok, anything lost or damaged beyond repair, well it is only stuff and stuff can be replaced.No photo because for now I have no camera.