In Which Zoë Is Rejected Faster Than An X-Factor Contestant With Visa Issues
on Zoe Page (Sierra Leone), 19/Oct/2010 19:10, 34 days ago
Message from the British Embassy in Freetown:Wells Cathedral School Choir Mini ConcertMembers of the British community are invited to attend a mini concert presented by the Wells Cathedral School Choir, who are visiting Sierra Leone this week. ... Please bring with you your British passport (s) forsecurity / ID checks.Seriously...who would want to crash that? Anyway, it’s a no from me, but thanks for asking.I head down to IRC but alas it is not to be a repeat of yesterday. I sit and read for 45 minutes, deciding it’s appropriate enough to read some chick lit since it’s Maryline’s almost namesake (Keyes) and then she and I go to see the Field Director who essentially says that since Dr S hasn’t written the letter he promised to, I can’t continue squatting. Their Country Director is coming today and will not like it if I’m here without explanation so I am rather hastily evicted from the office. They drive me to the hospital to see Koi, who shows me a page of data for maternal mortality of the year to date. I look at it and then look at him, but he’s hard at work, so I look back down. I readthe numbers again. And again. And again. Not too taxing. And then I delicately dig out my book and crack it open. Half an hour passes. He looks up, switches on one of the other PCs and lets me look at their database. Is very nice. Is not totally populated. Is...just a database. I’m at a loss as to what I should be commenting on so I just nod wisely. Then he says I can wait in Dr S’s office for him to return, except he’s in Freetown and then going to Bo, so won’t be back until... maybe Thursday. Huh? I politely (I hope) explain that since everyone and their dog havemy number, they can call me when Dr S returns, but that I may as well get out of their hair (aka leave). So I do.It has started to rain. I am wearing ballet flats with holes in them. I don’t have a cardigan with me, nor my helmet. Silly me for not realising that starting the day in the IRC office (10 mins walk away) would surely mean I’d be ending it, before noon, at the hospital, a good half hour up the road. I um and ah over going to Choitram’s, but the shoes make the decision for me, so I go see Fidel instead. He likes the weather. He very much enjoyed his Turkish coffee this morning.Theresa rings. She has been following up my email from Friday (and for‘following up’ read forwarding it to people I had no intention of it reaching. Argh!) She talks about various problem people in the picture. Says an option is to withdraw me from here and move me to another district or to, if only, Freetown. Says she told the CMO not that easy. I came here withmy heart set on Kenema, expecting to be based here.Quick now. Tread carefully. How to explain that Freetown would actually be super dooper fantastic without seeming ungrateful at all the time spent trying to get the Kenema house half-decent...?Call ends. Mind wanders. Which better: sharing a house with (potentially) no electricity or water in place when there is job, or lovely own house with all of the above but no work? Hard to say. Freetown has beaches, Bliss and better chocolate. Kenema...doesn’t. Mind wanders further afield. Start thinking about Argentina. Wondering if can move to Buenos Aires. Would anyone notice? Siempre quiero hablar español aqui. No es tan útil en Kenema.Lovely (ego-stroking) email from friend’s ex’s father (random!) Reminds me why I am here. Will persevere for now. Nothing for CV if go home just yet...