Brrr! It's Cold!

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

Eddie’s replacement was pretty punctual this morning. I thought I might be late for the subunit meeting at 8am, but of course, we didn’t have one. Robert didn’t even show up until around 9am. Robert’s an interesting guy. He’s Ugandan, and apparently once wanted to be part of Idi Amin’s army. Yes, that’s the Idi Amin who was a dictator who used to EAT his rivals. Anyway, he apparently had trouble getting into the army, and suddenly an opportunity to help out in a cholera outbreak appeared. He took it and fell in love with public health, went to medical school, and eventually joined WHO. Of course, now he’s ready to move on from measles, but he doesn’t know to what. He threatens that he’ll become a goat farmer. I’ll refrain from comment.

Last night, the power went out at the Highlands complex where I work. It messed up our internet and email servers. Within WHO, emails were going fine. Outside of WHO, nada. Even the web wasn’t working. I’m having trouble with some attachments that are forwarded. They get pulled from my emails, and I don’t know why. If I make a fresh email, it works fine. Strange.

Word leaked out about midday that John Kerry picked John Edwards as his Vice Presidential running mate. I’m pretty pleased with the selection. Edwards has amazing ability, and white southerners like him. Whether they like him enough to not vote for their god Bush, who knows? I think it will work out in the end. At least I hope so. A wise friend remarked to me via email, quoting Bill Maher, “Bush: I wouldn’t vote for him, but I would bet on him.” Very astute observation of a GOP that will do anything to maintain power, commit any dirty trick, violate any law, and generally do whatever they must to maintain power until the USA is turned into a far-right Christian theocracy.

Yinka took me to lunch today to the same fast food court we visited on Saturday. This time, they had chicken pitas, which were really good. She’s had an interesting life. Most of it has been spent overseas. Her parents were long time USAID people who lived all over Africa and Asia. Yinka is a Nigerian name which is where her parents met. She’s blond haired, blue-eyed all-American type. Yet, she feels uncomfortable in the states. She says she can go into any foreign country and have a vibrant social niche within two weeks, but in the USA, she feels isolated and alone. I can’t say I understand, but I find it sad that someone is so alienated from her native country. Of course, she really doesn’t have a native country as she’s never spent more than 5 years in any one nation. I can’t imagine not having roots anywhere yet having them everywhere. I like having a place where I grew up, and I like the USA. Traveling and living overseas is cool, but I can’t imagine not wanting to live in America.

After lunch, things were slow. I managed to get my passport back with the extension visa stamped into it. That happened pretty quickly, so I was impressed. WHO may be this incredible bureaucracy, but just like the US Govt, it can MOVE when it wants to. There’s a contractor WHO is bringing on to be the measles contact in Cote D’Ivoire. His packet must be copied before I hand it over, as the lady who is supposed to process it is notorious for losing things. The weird thing is that I can’t make copies on my own. There’s a guy who’s sole job is to run the copy machine. I’m not kidding. In my little office section, there are 4 secretaries. I’m not sure what some of them do. I can’t imagine such things happening in today’s federal government. Shoot, Bush is looking to get rid of all support staff for programs, as if they can just run on their own.

It was cold today too. I woke up to a cloudy sky, which really made the temperature plunge. I couldn’t laugh at the Zimbabweans talking about how cold it was…it had to be in the low to mid 50s. I could see my breath this morning! Certainly not Atlanta July weather :) On the way home, I saw several large brush fires being set along the road. I wonder if it had to do with keeping warm, which would mean they were homeless. I haven’t seen any homeless like you see in the US. No cardboard boxes or men who look like they haven’t showered or shaved in weeks. I wonder how they keep the fires from burning out of control.

It’s a quiet night otherwise. I cooked some butterflied steak I bought on Friday. It was pretty good. I cooked it with soy sauce which made it pretty good. It’s kind of cold in the cottage, so I’ll probably take a hot shower (if the damn water pressure doesn’t give out!) and get under the covers with my remote control. How sad…barely 8pm and I’m ready for bed.