Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Our logistics team is out of town. They've left for a week to stay in Kailahun in the far eastern part the country, near the Liberian border. Freetown is in the far east next to the ocean. This departure on their part is problematic for my NGO because every time they leave everything goes wrong.

The Logisitics Team is in charge of doing all the necessary things that the rest of the staff either can't be bothered to do, or simply can't do no matter how much they are bothered. When a computer breaks it is Brian, our Head (and up until last week only) Logistics Guy who phones all the pseudo-computer-tech stores to get someone to come in to fix it. Brian is the one we call when we have a car accident, when we notice our guards falling asleep on the job, when our tanks run out of fuel, when the front gate to the compound becomes so covered in rust that it breaks at the hinges and falls off. We call Brian when we are in danger, when we are lost, when we have been robbed, when our car breaks down in Kenema 5 hours from home. Brian is the lifeblood of the NGO who ensures that everything that needs to be done is done. He makes sure we have water and electricity, air conditioning and petrol. But now Brian is gone and he's taken his new recruits with him. Since Brian left yesterday, the following has happened:

- The residential compound has run out of water. We are expected to have enough left to last us until tomorrow. Rumours in the newspaper talk of breaks in the water pipe that extends from the ocean through Freetown. It was built in 1965 by the British and is a corrugated mess. We have emailed Brian to tell him that none of us will be showering for the rest of the week. While we wait for Brian to come home next week and solve the problem for our apartments we will pray for rain to fill the well on the compound. We will use rain water for our showering, bathroom and cooking needs until Brian comes back.

- The generator at work has just been turned off. I've mentioned several times that we have two of them - the main generator and an auxiliary. I frequently complain about the lousiness of the main generator that constantly breaks and the weakness of the auxiliary that serves little purpose. Usually something breaks with the main generator so we turn on the auxiliary to at least have basic electricity. The auxiliary generator has enough strength to power our computers, but not the air conditioner, which usually leaves me in a sweaty, unproductive heap at my desk. Today, we have no generators - main or auxiliary. Apparently there was a considerable fuel leak in the shack that houses them and now neither can be used. As I write this I am wasting batteries on my laptop in a black office with no air conditioning and a lot of hot air.

I absolutely hate it when Brian leaves. The last time Brian left Charly and I got in a car accident and had to flee the scene for our safety. We swore to each other in a panic that Brian is not allowed to leave ever again. Brian is our guide, our contigency plan, our mechanic, and our hero. But since Brian is not here, we are going to bathe in residual rain water and work in darkness, and if the President is murdered and we need to be evacuated, the five white expatriate ladies working in my office (myself included) will call Brian in a hysterical panic. Oh Brian, how I wish you'd return, I'm so very sweaty right now.

In other news... Freetown has run out of milk.

In other other news, my project is coming along splendidly and I am so very proud of myself. :)

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