In Which The Only Thing Missing Are The Lemon Soaked Paper Napkins
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 15/Oct/2010 22:51, 34 days ago
I eat breakfast before remembering the bananas might be toxic. Whoops. I also find a dead cockroach in the living room where I sprayed which is interesting / alarming since I’ve never seen any live ones, but this implies maybe there are tribes of them that come out to play at night. This is why, much to Junior’s dismay, I always wear flip flops inside.Cliff rings at 8.30am to say he is unwell. Well, yeah, he’s had Malaria since Wednesday and yesterday proudly showed me his ACT. Anyway, he’s not coming in today but that’s fine. I don’t need a babysitter. I have something on the agenda for today and actually have a proper, printed agenda for it too. Whoop.It starts to rain so I decide to bike in. The problem with the (obviously immensely important) VSO rule that we never go on Ocadas without helmets is that it totally blocks any spontaneity. If I want to bike home from work, I need to lug my helmet in with me in the morning. If I start to walk but it starts to rain, I can’t hop on a bike because I don’t have the headgear. If I trip over and sprain an ankle, I’m screwed unless I can flag down a passing UN truck and hitch a ride.I get to work in record time (6 minutes, door to door), greet the nurses and settle down to wait for Sam to collect me. The meeting starts at 10am. Yesterday it was stressed that it had to start on time. Dr S only agreed to go if it was under 2 hours, as well. When 10am passes and I’m still reading, I investigate, discover where the meeting is and walk myself over. The room is set up (plastic, garden chairs for us minions, a couple of table cloth clad desks boasting neon plastic flowers in a clashing burgundy vase for the important people) but there are only two people there. I get a new agenda. It’s like the one I got yesterday, but with times on. The meeting is scheduled to last 4 hours...We eventually start about 45 minutes late. It’s going to be a long morning. Luckily some things have too much time allocated. Like prayers, the second item on the agenda. We’ve been given 2 minutes but people mumble something in barely 20 seconds, and then we move on. People talk. I listen. They argue. I make notes. I learn more about whatthe IRC do. I try not to close my eyes. The windows are open but it’s still warm. People outside jump up and down to attract attention, and then pass papers in and out through the windows for people inside to sign. It’s one of the most bizarre things ever.Starting about an hour in, it suddenly becomes a cross between a board meeting and an aeroplane trip. Random women start up a drinks service. Seriously. First we get given 500ml bottles of water. About an hour later we get given further water, this time 1.5 litre bottles each. Given the state of the loos in this place, it is a particularly cruel joke. Then comes lunch: it was scheduled for the end of the meeting but we’re still talking as they dish up ahead of schedule. It’s chicken, rice and something that looks like worms. Just like on a plane, everyone gets the same. Except me. They plate up in the corner, so I nip over and ask for just rice. We eat. The rice is spicy. I sip the smallest drop of water, lest my bladder burst. I consider catheterisation as a sensible option for the rest of the year. They clear the plates and come round with ‘pudding’ in the form of individual packs of Rich Tea biscuits. No one eats them, they just stash them for later. I do the same. Finally, we get one last drinksservice in the form of ice cold cans. I take a Sprite just for the sake of it. Plus it feels nice and cool.Maryline off of the IRC says we should speak to Dr S, given that he is gifting me to them. I agree so we corner him, but he doesn’t have anything he’ll admit to wanting me to do, so we give up. Maryline says I should come to their 8.30am staff meeting on Monday, and with that I’m done for the day... I walk to Choitrams and discover they’ve had a delivery. They now sell ice cream sandwiches. Hell yeah.I bike home to find Junior has cleaned in my absence. As Monica would sayI gave him a keeeey for emergenciiiiies. I had locked my room anyway so that’s still in its nice messy state, but he has lined up the furniture in the living room, mopped the floors, done the washing up I’d left soaking and, perhaps most spectacularly, cleaned the backpack I was fully intending chucking out since it had gone mouldy. I guess he’s not entirely useless.