A day in the life..

17 Oct 06
Today has been a down day. I have been fighting the sleeping-guard symptom. It has been problematic from the perspective that I have actively NOT been looking for sleeping guards yet I cannot help but trip over them. So far I have given out four letters of warnings and fired two who were on short-term contracts. One would think the message was out about the anal-retentiveness of the CdB… Malheursement, not so much. Yesterday evening I returned home from a petite soiree with my CONCERN colleagues at 21h30. Not so late a time to expect to find the guards asleep. I shake my head in amazement at this: I had to mount the hood of the truck to hurdle the fence to gain access to my house. This is AFTER honking the horn, revving the engine and flashing the lights. I tripped about the darkness and found my two guards sleeping – snoring - on their pre-made beds and pillows. What the hell is this, a PREMEDITATED sleeping arrangement? This is not some goon falling asleep at the wheel, this is my guy sleeping by design when the boss is away and sure to return – what is he thinking???

So after tripping about in the dark, I tripped back into the house (cracking my skull once again) to crawl hand and knees (the other hand clasping my bruised brain) doing the ‘blind-man sweep’ for my flashlight. With the flashlight I found the camera. Four pictures with flash later, I kicked these two sleeping beauties awake and escorted ‘em out the door. I rest agogified!

The sign reads: Il est interdit pour dormir pendant l’heure de travaille. Nothing difficult about that.

The other day I started to compose a blog in my head but I never got around to actually putting it down to print. I wanted to speak about a typical day here to give an idea of my routine. Clearly there is no routine. My one month anniversary in Dubié will arrive in 4 days (making that 45 days in-country), and the time is flying. We are rushing madly constructing and rearranging in anticipation of the beginning of the real rainy-season, promised to arrive on Nov 11. So construction follows construction all the while the French struggles to not be an impediment (and the same goes for the sleeping guards!).

So my day:
I wake up hot and sweaty in my little single bed a little after 05h. That is the hour when the first of the two night guards makes his way home – so they talk and joke and make all the racket they can as they open the gate to let him out. Then the second and remaining guard begins sweeping the beach I call a front yard. Swish swish swish…. About this time, the guards next door at the huge tent warehouse for the WFP decide to put on their radio. It is clearly an African thing to play music at the loudest volume regardless of the sound quality. By 05h45 the sky is lightening and the pigeons (those who survived last night’s supper hunt) decide to fight each other on the tin roof of my bedroom. Then the hammering starts somewhere out there as somebody decides to work. It is a quiet morning if the trucks decide not to arrive at the break of dawn to load food and NFIs at the WFP warehouse.

By 06h I cave in and roll out of bed. I wash my face in a bucket– there is no reason to shower any more because the dust is everywhere and so I have devolved to wash only when I have to shave. Better just to stay dirty, it is an easier ploy. I use my cool bodum/mug and sit on the front step facing the rising sun, drinking in my vitamin D with my coffee. If I have any yogurt (I brought 20 and they seemed ok without refrigeration for the month?) left over I mix it with bananas. Otherwise it is just sugar biscuits. I sit on the front step because I have no where else to sit. I have no furniture other than the kitchen table and the one hard wooden chair. Often I reflect on the day to come and start the first of many ‘to do’ lists for the day.

By 07h I quit that enterprise and make for the office. It is 200m away and I kick up dust as I stroll along the path. I am greeted immediately by my backdoor neighbour lady. Then the kids off to school never fail to recognize that I, the mzungu, am also moving about. My housekeeper arrives around 07 to start her day.

I bang on the tin gate of the office compound and the guard lets me in. I have no radio and neither does he…so I say ‘open sesame’ and it works. I make the rounds of the folks already there (en forme?, Ca va? Bien dormi?) and then unlock the office building.

Then I go to work. First I try to have a sit-down work planning strategy session with my logistician. It is becoming clear that he lacks ability to prioritize tasks (or maybe I just have different priorities) so I am tiring of his universal yeses and need to remind him of the tasks of the day. He is good at overdoing the things he wants to do and leaving the others to wait.

Four weeks is hardly enough time to fix a routine. Our CNT is under utilized and it is hard to find admissions since I have grounded our Toyota from doing ‘dépistage’ rounds in the nearby villages. Our nurses in the CNT are getting cranky and so far four have decided to quit. This is not really our problem as they are employed by the government and get a ‘bonus’ from us. Still, it is not a good thing to be understaffed (but really we are overstaffed due to the reduced admission rate – today only 4 kids in PH1 of the CNT, 8 more in transition towards PH2 and 18 in Phase 2 meaning they are taking solid food and growing heavier sans souci.

The CNS activities occur every Thursday in Kato a village 22km from Dubié where 65 families get a weekly food ration. Fridays at our compound in Dubié about 200 families get their rations.

So while CNT and CNS roll on as per usual, we are ramping up our Food Security activities. Micheline is managing well the formation and the education of the village associations in 9 of the nearby villages. We continue to wait for the seeds and tools to come from the FAO to begin the distributions to 979 families. I am trying to cut a deal with the WFP to give us food to donate alongside the seeds (called a ‘protection ration’ to protect against having the seeds become supper before they are planted). Time is of the essence and the fields must be prepared last week…and still our beneficiaries wait for our tools to be delivered. When the rains come it will be too late to plant…

On the up side, our three IDP camps are down to under 2000 people from the maximum estimated at 16000. The emergency is over and the displaced are on their way home in time to start rebuilding and replanting – it helps that the village of Dubié has no water left and this is driving folks home. This is not so bad because one of the risks of IDP camps is that people stay on too long due to food and medical donations. On the down side we have no water at this time at the end of the dry season (soon to be rectified by the rain). Moreover the election is on the way and we are hearing more and more rumours of Mai-Mai movements (all attributed to moving towards DDR sites but who really knows?) that could incite another emergency if the election goes badly for someone with a grudge.

So then our pressing needs are in finishing our logistic activities before the rains cause us to shut down our outdoors activities:
1. Find two more guards for tonight’s shift (to replace the sleeping bastards I fired last night!)
2. Put mosquito netting on the newly constructed and installed window of the office
3. Plaster the window frame into the wall for security
4. Put the roof of tin on the new LOG STOCK (I cut a deal with concern-I loan them a roof rack for the Toyota, they loan me 10 pieces of tin roofing while we are waiting more than 30 days for delivery of previously ordered supplies)
5. Move the logistic supplies from the FOODSEC storehouse in my house compound into the newly roofed LOG STOCK
6. Move the newly constructed shelves (2 of 3) into the vacated FOODSEC storehouse in anticipation of FAO delivery (proposed to be last Saturday)
7. Link to the town water system to our house and CNS. Shower time!
8. Rebuild the house/warehouse in Kato to take our mobile CNS – a new roof of tin, 3xdoors, 12xwindows, replaster, paint.
9. Construct a further table and two benches for the Mobile CNS Kato
10. Build a screen protection around the kitchen at our CNT to keep the kids from bothering the cooks.
11. Finish the outdoor sun shelter for the expatriate staff (me)
12. Construct one more shelving unit for our FOODSEC storehouse
13. Fix the ailing generator
14. Lobby for logistics delivery; refuse further food deliveries as stocks are full.
15. Recover my Admin assistant who is taking the piss on an extended medical evac and now enjoying Lumbubashi. Bastard.
16. Arrange a weekend in Lumbu by the swimming pool for me.

There are tonnes of other things, but these are the biggies for the week.

A word about our water system here at the office/house: In May, when the first construction and planning for the base was underway it was established that as a condition of rent we would install a waters system to provide water to the bathroom of the house and also a water point at the CNS at the office. The conditions of rent were agreed and the system was planned and the parts ordered. We received the last of the parts last week (!) after we asked MSF for a freebie. We contacted the village association and learned Mr Corbeau is the man to do the work. He proposed 200 000 FC to do the work in a ‘service only’ contract – we supplied the tools and the materials. We had some discussions and worked out a deal for 92 000 FC. Then he made his slip – He promised it to be completed in 5 days (note the day rate for a daily hire is 1000 FC, 10 journialiers needed max for 3 days) and then proceeded to try to renegotiate extra cash for all the ‘extra’ work. Too bad, in a fit of frustration I ripped up the deal and caused him to lose face. I am ok with that as the work is easy and we have the talent to do it ourselves. On the other hand, Mr Corbeau is now on a vendetta campaign and had told us that there is only ONE person allowed to perform the actual linking of the water systems and that is him.

Our options:
1. Meet with the water committee and find out:
• Is Corbeau the only authorized person to perform the link?
• Is the system to which we are linking under the authority of the water association – we are actually linking to the private system of our local Nuns.
• Is the association interested in the 92 000 FC and THEY can be the holders of the service contract and can make all the arrangements themselves.
2. Offer Corbeau another chance to accept our original offer – who walks away on that kind of money?
3. Offer Corbeau a slightly increased value to the service contract thereby permitting him to recover some face. (it is important to show that NGOs are working for the beneficiaries and not for taking advantage of…)
4. Do all the work ourselves (digging ditches, laying pipe, building the tapstands and pads) up to the actual linking, hire Corbeau to do just the linking. For that I will pay him (by the prorata minute) at the exorbitant rate he desires of 3500 FC per day.