Vacation blues 1

16 Nov

I am bored today. Today I was supposed to head out to LBB to start my 3month vacation. We waited for the plane and it never arrived. We finally got a codan radio call saying that it was cancelled (CANCELLED???). I tried to get the bums in LBB to tell me what was going there to cause a cancellation; and moreover, if there was a flight tomorrow, would it make the connection with my flight heading to Joberg->Maputo?

Radio comms here kill me. It is not the language which is difficult to follow but the general inability to communicate – endless rounds of repetition and verification are required, it seems, to get a simple message through. Ca me fait frustrate!

Voila, I broke regs and used the Satphone to call my friends and it is not surprising that these folks were better mis-à-jour than my colleagues. Turns out there there IS a flight tomorrow and I CAN make my flight. Whoohoo.

It is not really time for the three-month trip; it is a little early but I am good to go. The plan is to head out the Mozambique with my friends from Concern so I can have a little company on my trip. If I am not too cheap, I might even try the diving too.

In the mean time I am left with nothing to do – essentially the handover has been drafted and distributed to the staff to cover the work planning for the next 10 days. Moreover, we have peaked and are now about finished with all the work I had forecasted when I first arrived. In nine weeks we have put in place all the things I wanted to upgrade and now it is left to the little details to sweep up. I am hoping my guys can do this while I am away. The rest is a downward slide to regular operations…

In the mean time we have accomplished a great deal in terms upgrading of the base, the expat house and the CNT. We have water in the CNS and at the house. We have wired and are waiting for the final pieces of hardware to give us 24 hr electricity in the House, office and CNT. The guards have been tuned … and also have nicer digs in which to NOT sleep the nights away. We have the proper number of chairs and tables in our facilities - all that is left to build is a swimming pool and a brick barbeque for the house (to accompany nicely the shelter and swing!) Think I am joking?

We have also wrapped up the food security distributions – while we are waiting for the final supplies from the FAO to come in (10 tonnes bean seeds) the reality is that we will never see this delivery from the FAO. André has just about finished upgrading his 14 water points and we have decided to add a 15th and since we have money and time we hope to do a little bit of upgrading the upgrades on the original 14. Our CNT is down to only 22 people ( 7 phase 1, 4 in transition with one on solid foods 4 phase 2 and 6 healthy enuf to be in the Home Treatment ). We have upgraded the generator, found a new computer and hope to be internet online with a VSAT system while we wait for additional computers and Toyotas. The two new motorcycles are a hit and those who can drive are generally about town (me included) while the rest are in remedial motorcycling class taught by me on Sunday afternoons. Petite-à-petite as they say.