Creeping Tuesday

Tuesday - July 27, 2004

Annick headed off to Senegal this afternoon, leaving me to have the office all to myself. It won’t be much different than when everyone is here since we really don’t chat with each other. Annick’s phone calls will be the only thing missing.

I had to make some confusing reconciliations with the changes Yinka made to sticker locations in the financial system. Some of them I couldn’t find to move them, even though she told me from where she moved them. Now we have the situation where some of our expiring funds are overdrawn, or will be at some point. I can’t make sense of it, and I am sure that I’m missing something, but we’ll see. When I get called on it, I can ask for more detailed help. It all made sense the other day when I suggested the moves, so I’m not sure why it’s not working out like I thought.

Amy’s quest to find us a way out of town for the Heroes Day holiday dosen’t seem to be going anywhere. There are absolutely NO seats available on any flight out of town, so we are stuck looking at buses. A bus to Vic Falls would take 10 hours or so, and there’s no way I’m doing that. I wouldn’t do that on Greyhound in the US, let alone on some rickety bus here in Africa. Lake Kariba may be a good alternative since it’s only 5 hours away. It’s supposed to be a really nice recreational area, kind of like Lake Lanier from the descriptions of it. I’m afraid we might be stuck with cash, which would suck. I may chance it. If I have to borrow money, I can do that. I could have Richard withdraw money from my bank account and give it to Denise who will be coming here right after I leave. Hopefully it won’t come to that. Next time I go overseas, I’m taking out the ENTIRE advance, especially if I’m coming to the land of no-credit-cards-no-ATMs.

It appears Trent is feeling down about his birthday which is on Thursday. He’s going to be all of 22, and he’s depressed about it! I told him I’d get him some viagra and a package of Depends for his birthday. He responded he’d need them! Silly boy. We had a text message marathon this evening about whether to try again to see Passion of the Christ. At first, he said yes, meet him outside the embassy at 8pm. Then he mentioned he has a dinner with the Gunney Sgt who heads the marines here since he is going away next week. The dinner starts at 6 and he didn’t know when it ended. He seemed upset by it from his messages, so I emailed him what I considered to be a jest. I said that he should tell his Gunney Sgt that he’d promised some homo that he’d see a religious movie with him and would need to cut out early. Then he texts back that he should do that, especially since one of the marines is scared of gays and would freak out. Then he texted that he was definitely going to do that and he’d see me tomorrow. I’m not sure if he’s serious or not. We’ll see.

Talked to Leo tonight. It’s been a few weeks since we’ve chatted, and mostly we talked about what things are like here. CDC is still going through its transition and no one is sure what will happen. Hamid has been having weekly meetings with the new Coordinating Center director, but nothing has come of it yet. I found out Danielle has been moved to polio, which is probably a good thing for her, especially if they could directly move her into an FTE, even if it meant leaving the PMF program.

I followed the start of the Democratic convention. So far, it seems to be playing well. I suppose the GOP is thanking its lucky stars that Bill Clinton is not eligible for another term as President. After just reading his speech to the convention, I know he’d easily get another term or two. Maybe if he could run again, he would have learned his lesson about keeping his dick in his pants. Jimmy Carter gave a fantastic speech too. I hope it all works, and that Kerry and bounce ahead to win.

Otherwise, kind of a slow day. Tomorrow is Wednesday, though, and that means another Measles Partnership call and the quick end of another week.