In Which A Clear Lack Of Interest IRCs A Bit
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 14/Oct/2010 23:35, 34 days ago
My work ethic is shocking. I decide about 9am it might be worth ambling into work (a 30 minute stroll) so set off. This is what happens when you try to show up for work and just get sent away. Yesterday I was only actively engaged from 10.30am until 3pm, and it still felt like a long day.Dr S is already there, so Cliff shows me in. It is more like a doctor’s waiting room than a DMO’s office. I ask if I can have a chat with him and am told yes, when he is finished with this lot. A very important discussion about bananas ensues. I sit quietly, not wanting to interrupt. When it is my turn, the talk turns to tails (no, really), and whether or not black people have them... I try to steer the conversation back to, well, me. I have various VSO docs to complete, one of which has a deadline of tomorrow. It is a generic induction timetable, but even so there’s virtually nothing I can tick off. We have not seen the office facilities, had an introduction to the organisation, discussed holidays and health and safety and dress codes (!), gone over a job description (ha!) or introduced me to ‘key institutions in the community, market place, recreation places, transport hubs’. I tell Dr S. I need him to give me some guidance and he asks what myremit is. This does not look promising – that is theonething he really should know. I ask about office space and am told he has none, and had tried to ask the hospital but they won’t take me, so he’s stuck but ‘can’t send me back’ as if I’m some unwanted Amazon Marketplace sale, returned by an annoying buyer, accepted only for fear of the feedback ramifications if you don’t.He then confuses me further by telling me I need to speak to the IRC as they run the DHMT to some extent. I ask where they are, and it turns out they’re on none other than Hangha Road, but I am not to go and see them until he introduces us. They come to the hospital ‘at least twice a day’ but he has to leave shortly for a meeting, so if I could just hang around for 2 hours or so, that would be great... I’m leaving the UFC in search of aquieter spot to call the British IRC lead Sue, myself, when I am beckoned back as they have handily just arrived (the Kenema contingent, that is: Sue works out of Freetown). I return to the air conditioned office to meet Sam, who I met yesterday anyway, but we don't let on so as not to unsettle Dr S. During the brief meeting I am essentially packaged up and given to the IRC, whether they want me or not. Sam seems not too overly put out by this idea, but backs off when I ask him what he’s up to for the rest of the day, so instead I say I will come back tomorrow for their Stakeholder Meeting,and with that I’m done. It is 10.30am. So, another successful day at work, then.I come home via Leader Price, where Fidel asks where I was yesterday. Sheesh, maybe I do go there a little too often. I tell him I went to Choitrams instead but don’t like them as they always overcharge me (so true – since they label the shelves not the products, they think I won’t notice, but on a per diem like mine I so totally do). I’m not sure whether it’s related, or whether he’s distracted by being on the phone, but he manages to under-chargeme loads, and then round down too when he’s ringing up the purchases. I save a whopping 4500 Le (75p). Not bad, not bad at all.The reason I’m rushing straight home (or rushing as much as carrying 10 Lt of water will allow) is that loopy Landlord has rung to say the wire mesh is ready. This is a bald faced lie. They just want to measure...again...and collect the mesh which was everso sensibly left in one of the rooms here. They then want more money to complete the job, but since I don’t need every window covered when I essentially live in just 4 rooms, I say they need to do these few first, and then we’ll see...I feel like I should be researching the IRC (an international aid set up, HQ’d in New York) but their website is naff, so instead I have lunch. I’ll talk to Sue later, and I’m sure she can fill me in on the basics.It is hot, too hot almost, but with the help of an elephant bucket to dunk my feet in, I cope sitting outside. At this rate I’ll be back in the UK before you know it, and to return without a tan would be unthinkable. So I sit and read, and start to doze, only to be woken up by the carpentry lot when they return and start sending nails flying towards my head. Loopy landlord suggests I put on my sunglasses. I’d really prefer they just got the nails into the wall, not my eyes. They finish as much as they can be bothered today, I eat tea and then spray the now mesh-sealed room for bugs, and then think maybe I should have moved the bananas out of the way first. I also need to spray my bathroom because earlier when Ifound a big weird creature in there and squished it with some loo roll, it actually screamed a little insect scream, all shrill and high pitched. I don’t think I can go through that again.