Can't stay away...

I’m writing after a long day digging and moving dirt and bricks in the sun to repair a road (that’s right, I’m an engineer now), so if some stuff here doesn’t make any sense, it’s a mixture of gentle dehydration and tiredness. It’s been a week with plenty of familiar faces and places, most significantly me moving home on Wed a few hours before the return of the Dr!

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves, a narrative that breaks simple chronology seems a bit beyond me today, so I’ll start with Tuesday! Almost every Tuesday, I drive to the village clinic in the Landcruiser taking the Dr, a clinical officer, two nurses and a lab assistant (Tuesday is Bukaweka market day so there are lots more patients) but this week the Cruiser had been dispatched to Kampala to retrieve the Dr so it was a choice between going in the pickup with some staff riding in the back or sending everyone on matatus and spending the day doing odd jobs around town. Due to the absence of tread on the rear tyres, I opted for the latter which turned out to be a good idea as the Manafwa Traffic Police just happened to decide to set up roadblocks and check all vehicles papers and tyres that Tuesday, uncanny hey! After odd jobs, I went out for dinner with Team Admin which was wonderful.

Team!

Rather than be at work, pretending I’d been working hard constantly since she left when the Dr returned, I decided I’d  take the day off. Part of this was the need to move house (two whole bags worth of stuff), part was the need to Skype Min and part was sheer tiredness. What was funny was how strange it felt to be back in the Dr’s house despite having only been away about two weeks! Anyway, chatting to the twin was thoroughly wonderful, though did make me miss home a bit. Was great to have the Dr back and I endeavoured to not tell her everything that had happened and everything that needed her to make a decision on in one evening.

On Thursday my firm approach finally met a brick wall. Local government here is often a massive headache. Not only is it difficult to find them in their offices due to starting late, leaving early and almost always being away on some conference or other but when you do, but you can be there for hours once you get someone, trying to find who the right person to talk to is and trying to work out which is the appropriate form. For illustration, I went to see the DHO on Tuesday, but he was in Kampala at a conference. I was told this by his secretary who was leaving the office at 11 am, and locking up; I mean, why work when the DHO’s away? She told me he’d be in on Thursday so I faithfully returned on Thursday morning. I found the place staffed which was novel, but the DHO was at a conference until the afternoon, maybe I could come back at 3. Cautious of arriving late and being told smugly he’d gone, I arrived at 2:55. No one was there. Literally no one. I pushed the door and waited in the lobby reading posters until finally someone came. When the DHO came at 3:25, he read the letter I’d beautifully written and told me it was good, but I needed to talk to the CAO (pronounced cow with no trace of amusement by the government staff). Off I went to the next building. I entered the lobby to find 6 staff sat there with no obvious job to do. One of them kindly directed me to an office on the first floor where I was then led to another office in the basement. Still, I did succeed in finding the person I needed. She told me in needed to fill in this form. Unfortunately, she only had one copy so I needed to take it to the top floor to photocopy it before filling it in so she could set off to Kampala. I went to the top floor to the room with the photocopier, but obviously they had no paper. None. So I went back downstairs with the original before one of the staff sneaked off somewhere and came back with 10 copies which was perfect. I filled the form in beautifully and in duplicate and handed them over, but then the lady’s face dropped. She’d just remembered that the Bank account name needed to be the same as the Supplier name on the form. I asked why, ‘It does’, ‘But why?’ ‘It does’, ‘But I don’t understand why that would be’, ‘That’s the way it has to be’, ‘For what reason does it have to be that way’ (I’d genuinely become convinced the lady didn’t know what the word ‘why’ meant), ‘That’s the way it’s always been’, ‘But the two aren’t the same, one is the full name but we operate under a shorter version’, ‘But the two need to be the same’, ‘But why?’…On leaving, I put my ensuing rant against people who can’t explain the reason for something but just follow blindly down to my needed holiday but recounting this story makes me feel it was probably coming. Unfortunately, being firm doesn’t make so much difference with the government, why would they care if I don’t fill in my form on principle? Why would they care if I look upset with them? Realising my firmness had had no effect (no positive effect), I gave up and filled in another two forms but did insist she tried to submit the first ones before moving to the second.

I got back on Thursday to discover we’d be given two forms that needed filling in by Sunday. They had the word ‘September’ on them, which made the deadline seem initially reasonable. Thus, on Friday I set off to the village (I couldn’t stay away a whole week!) in order to fill in this form. There were a few issues with matatus generally delaying, but I was soon on the back of a boda, enjoying the view of the countryside. I’m not turning into a biker (I’m not sure I could pull it off) but there is something wonderful about driving along dirt roads on the back of a motorbike, through mountainous surrounds with little children waving and smiling. After I’d found what I needed, I was back off to town. This time I shared the boda with Jackie, an enrolled nurse who was returning to Mbale early due to a funeral. I’m not a grumpy guts (I’m not sure I could pull it off) but there’s something uncomfortable about sharing the back of a boda with a lady who’s sitting sidesaddle. The main complaint is you end up with your waist (by which I mean crotch) uncomfortably close to the driver, but one also feels more precarious driving over slick, clay roads. Entertainingly, we reached the end and the driver charged us both the fare you’d pay if you were on your own. I’m yet to ask Jackie why, if she knew this, we didn’t just take two bikes? Anyway, she did then buy me charcoal grilled maize so how can I complain!  Friday evening was curry night! About ten of us mzungos, including the new Jenga lad, Sam!, went to a curry place in town which is wonderful. The curry is from a slightly different region of India to most of that in the UK, but it’s still really good.



Saturday was pretty wonderful. It started with an early trip to Barclays (what a start to the weekend!) but then got better when I set off to help pick up 200 bricks in the pickup. The best thing about this was having to drive through a small patch of maize to get through the bricks; I’ve never gotten to mow down crops whilst driving before, but I felt suitably cool (whilst also concerned about the pickup getting out again!). After loading and unloading, (with a break for egg and chips in between, ideal), I set of to the market with Dan and Sam. I love bartering here so love the market, but we’ve also got a few guys we usually go to, so are developing the ‘regular’ relationship. Dan got given a free clementine by one of our favourites which made it all good. Then Sam cracked out some great Swahili to secure bargain prices on two pineapples. We then went to watch some footie (live Premier League Games, ideal) before heading back to BJH for Cottage Pie. As it was pretty late when we finished and we’d yet to start on Sherlock Holmes, I sneakily asked if I could crash there and ended up back in my green box room (I just couldn’t stay away).

It's pineapple season

Yesterday was the best Sunday I’ve had here yet and also one of the best days here so far. Church was delightful, real community, real banter, great sermon,. After the meeting, I got to carry little Joshua home, wolfed down some lunch and then went swimming in the sunshine. Found some of the gang at the poolside already so had a nice afternoon before heading back to GJH for cake and cards. Obviously I got tricked into staying for dinner follow by further games, banter and generally comedic times. Great day.