Zimbabwe Trip 4 - Part C

Tuesday - May 16, 2006More insomnia last night. At some point (probably tonight), my body is going to crash. It will be better than these nights of 5 hours of sleep, let me tell you. Work was OK today. I'm already bored with this "assignment" and am not sure at all what it is I'm supposed to be doing. Well, it's not that I don't know...but I don't know how to proceed. I have all these files, some with contradictory information. Not all of them are labeled so that you can make sense of it. And I get the feeling that they want more detail than the chart that Casey has put together to be filled out. For instance, while all money is funnelled through UNICEF and WHO, that money doesn't all come from those organizations. The Measles Partership has donors like CDC, American Red Cross, Gates, UNF that all funnel money into the UNICEF and WHO. There is no way I'll be able to untangle those financial relationships in the time I'm here. I'll be lucky to find out what WHO/UNICEF spent in each country for measles...b/c the amount alloted does NOT equal the amount spent most of the time. You can't just look at the accounts to see how much was alloted in them...you have to check to see what was SPENT. It's a mess. And I'm frankly not that interested in it. Oh well...it's what I'm being paid to do.

Got on the correct bus this time and was dropped off at the Meikles with no problem. I went upstairs, relaxed a bit, and then got some food from the lounge. I wish they had an in between restaurant from the uber-relaxed lounge (which is really set up as a tea/cake operation) to the very fancy La Fontane. I'd like a place to go, sit, and eat without a lot of fuss. But that's not available. I ended up having a chicken sandwich and tea for dinner. Another $3M Zim down the drain :) Anyway, I left the receipt and took the copy with me. Not 30 minutes later I get a call from some woman demanding I return the copy. I guess I don't get a copy. It was weird. It also kind of pissed me off, but I let it go. I did finally get a room service menu, so maybe I can get my more casual options for eating now. The sad thing is that there's nothing close to the hotel to walk to. Not that walking is safe around Harare, at least at night. And the sun is going down by 5:30-6pm. No way I'm going to be caught walking the streets of Harare after dark.

I figured out that the air conditioning must be centally controlled somehow,and since it's winter, they're keeping it slightly warm. TOO warm for me, though! The hallway is much cooler than my room, and I wish it was just the opposite. I figured out that I could open the window in my room and let in the cooler air from outside and make my room tolerable. So I slept with the windows open. Hopefully that won't pose a problem.

I have gotten sleepy pretty early..it's only 7:30pm and my eyes are heavy. Maybe I will get a good night's sleep tonight after all.