New Digs
on Phil Bradfield (The Gambia), 22/Apr/2010 14:27, 34 days ago
(Written 22/04/2010 13:45, RED5, Janjanbureh)Just realised I’ve not posted anything for a while, and now seems a good opportunity, while I’ve got a little downtime.The main news from this week has been the relocation of the entire office. The RED staff have all been working in temporary offices (ie the meeting hall and the kitchen/dining hall) since before I arrived, as the main offices were being refurbished, and Monday was the day that most of us got to move into our real homes. Toting computers and such back and forth across the compound in the heat wasn’t the most fun thing I’ve ever done, but it was worth it, the newly refurbished offices are pretty awesome. It’s not like they’re particularly carefully decorated or anything, but they have ceiling fans and air conditioning which, as you’ll see from what I’ve written below, is a real winner. The move has meant that the last few days have been pretty busy: I’ve been running network cables, fixing components which had been jolted loose in the move, trying to find working extension leads, persuading people that they can plug in a USB mouse themselves... all in all, alongside an ongoing (and now complete!) project to clean up one of the more virus-ridden PCs and a couple of other odds and ends, I’ve not been struggling for things to do.I’ve deliberately avoided talking about the weather since I’ve been here (thought you might not appreciate it while you were freezing your collective arses off), but in the last couple of weeks here it’s really started winding up into the hottest part of the year. Since I came to Janjanbureh we’ve been hitting 40°C or thereabouts on a regular basis, but in the last couple of weeks the humidity has started to climb as well, to the point where we’ve had very brief rain showers the last couple of nights. And that humidity’s a real killer: you just sweat, and sweat, and sweat. I had a nap after I got back from work a couple of days ago, and when I woke up, my shirt... yeesh, it was like I’d soaked it in a bucket of water!But... life goes on. Complaining about the weather is as much of a national sport here as it is in Britain, so everyone has something to talk about. Half the office staff are claiming it’s too hot to sleep. I can’t say I’ve had any problems (yet), but then sleeping is something I have a certain natural talent for...