Zimbabwe Trip 4 - Part D

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

I did crash last night! I slept from just before 8pm until the alarm went off at 6:30pm. I didn’t order breakfast, so I read a bit of the paper, and then showered. My hair actually did much better today having washed it in the morning. The only drawback is that my driver showed up early and called my room. I had to skip the tie today, which was fine. I was more comfortable, and no one said anything to me.

I was the first in the office once again. Being picked up at 7:30am usually results in me being at the office at 7:45am. Another drawback of not having your own transportation! I didn’t get much done today. The problems of conflicting numbers and poor labeling have pretty much stymied my progress. I’ll have to talk to Casey about that tomorrow to find out which of these figures she wants me to use. I could randomly choose, but that wouldn’t be defensible if anyone asked questions. When it comes down to it, this task is tedious and boring. No wonder Casey pawned it off on me. She does have enough to do without having to go through this noxious exercise. Yet, here I am…stuck doing it for another two weeks.

I’ve noticed something strange since I got here. White people seem to be popping up everywhere! When I’ve been in Zimbabwe before, I rarely saw white people except in unusual circumstances. This time, I see them all over the place. Waiting for a bus downtown, at lunch, all over the Meikles, and anywhere else I might go. It’s bizarre. Debra thought I was crazy, because she find that anywhere she’s gone in Africa is about 50/50 white/black except for Nigeria where she really didn’t see any white people. This is her first time in Zimbabwe, so I can’t speak to her experiences in other countries. Whenever I go to Africa, I take it for granted that I’ll see maybe a handful of white people while out and about. I wonder what’s behind this resurgence of white folks in Harare…

I heard some good news from home today. The Fulton county judge who heard the case against the gay marriage amendment in Georgia threw it out for violating the single topic rule. It was brilliant. In their haste to ram through a prohibition on gay marriage and gay relationships in general, they violated the rule that you can vote on only one question at a time. To make it even more obvious, the ballot question on the amendment asked only the first half of the amendment, the definition of marriage. The second part banned anything arising out of a same sex relationship that even remotely resembled heterosexual marriage rights. This could potentially mean that documents gay couples now use to protect one another like powers of attorney and the like could be null and void in Georgia. The celebration may be brief. I’m relatively confident that if asked, the Georgia Supreme Court will uphold the Fulton judge. I think the next thing will be for Sonny to call an “emergency” session of the General Assembly for the sole purpose of repassing the amendment as two separate questions in time to get it on the ballot for 2006 and secure GOP dominance of the legislature while re-electing Sonny Perdue. But for the moment, we are vindicated and Sadie is exposed as the hateful cunt she is.

Email tends to be pretty quiet when you’re 6 hours ahead of your friends. I get into work and it’s approaching 2am at home. By the time folks wake up and get to work and can email me back, it’s almost time for me to go home! I have to be ready to go by 4:30pm for the WHO bus, which is 10:30am at home. Oh well, it makes me focus on the task at hand rather than waste the day away on the internet, which I’m very tempted to do, especially when I have as unpleasant a task as I have here. Well, unpleasant may be too harsh…let’s just say boring.

I’ve become obsessed with BBC Food this week. The cooking shows are fascinating, and I wish I could cook like that. I wish I had a reason to cook like that. When you live alone, cooking for just yourself is underwhelming. Of course, there is that accent. LOL It’s funny what I’m a sucker for. Men in a US military uniform. Charming accents. It’s also funny who I end up having crushes on, especially when I’m pretty sure there’s no chance of anything really happening with that person. Some of my friends would know exactly whom I am referencing. Hint: He’s gay, and he’s not someone you’d automatically think I’d be interested in. Look at me; almost 31 years old and crushing like a high schooler.

Beth called this evening after I got back to the hotel from work. She wanted to know if I’d go next door to the shopping center to look for food and souvenirs for her family. Unfortunately, everything here closes at 5pm it seems. All the souvenir shops were closed, as were the restaurants. One restaurant that was open was a “steak house” that was set up like a cheesy Mexican joint. Beth had the “fillet” which should NOT be mistaken for filet mignon. She also ordered it rare and it came out well done. I had a cheeseburger which was good, even though the bun was half gone. The meal was pretty inexpensive at $1.6 M for cheeseburger, fries, and two mineral waters. It’s funny how $1.6 MILLION is considered cheap. Well, once you realize it’s less than $10 at a sit down restaurant, it isn’t bad! Beth is headed back tomorrow to Atlanta. I wish it was me, but oh well. I’m sure the rest of the trip will be fine. Casey is hosting a party tomorrow night at her house. Well, more of a dinner. But it will be Mexican fare, which should be nice. Hopefully, I’ll get to see Amy and her new baby. She’s the only friend from my first days in 2004 who is still here. I wish the Marines I knew were still around, along with Annie. But they aren’t and such is life. It’s fun to travel overseas to places you’d normally not go… but I don’t like the solitude. Some solitude is good, but this gets to be a bit much. I miss interacting and talking with people. I miss people who get my sense of humor. When you are not a native English speaker, it’s difficult to understand my humor which can use a lot of double entendres. I tried a little joke I read online today with Beth, and she didn’t really get it or think it was that funny. The joke went like this: “The correct answer to, ‘Is it in yet?’ is to say, ‘I think so because I just got pulled over for being in the HOV lane.’” Yes, it’s a gay joke about someone with a loose ass, but it could easily work for a well-used vagina too. Beth’s an American, but she’s also an Alpharetta mom, so maybe that was the problem.

Well, it’s getting late here, so I will sign off and go to bed.