Breakfast (Not
sure I would actually call this a breakfast. Gosh I miss the yummy juices
Moncef used to make in Rabat!) is served at 7am, so not easy to manage to
meditate a whole hour every morning. But I try to at least do 40 minutes.
Today is the
Muslim holiday of Tabaski, or Eid Kebir as we call it in Morroco. It was
actually declared a national holiday only yesterday. Quite a positive move from
the government in order to show religious inclusion given of the international
press is stupidly and incorrectly labeling the conflict a religious one.
So I was
told yesterday that some of the staff would not show up and the other half
would stay until midday only. OK, fair enough.
When I
arrived at the office, I saw everyone waiting outside, like in recess. It made
me laugh when they told me that they were waiting for everyone to arrive to
start the generator. REALLY???!!! They
all need a computer to work? I know that for the work needed right now, half the
staff is not needed.
And so now
that we were all there, they start the generator. I start working on my laptop,
but out of curiosity, I get up and walk around the offices to see what people
are doing. NOT ONE is actually using their computer. I feel like breaking something
and pulling my hair off because of how ridiculous the situation is. Right away
I tell them to shut the generator off.
The driver
comes by around 10 am asking if I need him to take me anywhere. He wants to
leave for the day. After all it is a holiday. SO OK, anticipating how the rest
of the day will go if I stay in the office, I tell him to take me to the
offices of Caritas Holland. They have way more money and way better offices…with
all day electricity, wifi, and even AC! Yay!
And so I
spent the entire day there, being quite productive actually. I intend to show the
staff tomorrow all the discrepancies within all the reports they had sent to
Paris, so that we can finally have an accurate database from which to work, and
be finally able to actually start the project.
Today I let
two other Dutch expats. Really cool young people with incredible humanitarian
experience. It was so good to be able to unload my bag of frustration with
them, and hear that they had similar cases within their team.
Another
good dinner and now off to bed. Tomorrow is Friday and promises to be yet
another “interesting” day.
Am curious
to see what the weekend holds for me…
Buenas
noches!
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