Wednesday
Once again, I got up about 8 am. I finally got out of bed when I heard my
housekeeper knocking on the door. I
stumbled out of my room to let her in. I
don’t really do mornings...
We talked for a bit, both about what needed to be done that
day, but also about life. I had some
extra time that morning, so I wrote emails and got organized for the day from
home. I usually dress professionally for
work, and couldn’t decide which necklace to wear... thankfully Pheona (the
housekeeper) was able to give me a good opinion.
I was excited on Wednesday.
While it would be a long day, it was scheduled to end with dinner with a
long time friend from Europe! I was
excited to reconnect with someone I consider a mentor.
I arrived at work right around 10 am, to find Frank ready
and waiting for another day of work.
Right away, I sent Joshua (formerly an intern, now a junior staff
member) to go and buy us receipt and accounting books. By 10:20 we were all set up in the fellowship
room, and started working. (We don’t
really have an office. I have a desk I
share with 3 people, but Cornerstone Veritas doesn’t have any designated space
yet, so we use the fellowship room)
Wednesday was Cornerstone Veritas finances. Frank, our new staff member, was specifically
brought onto our team to help with facilitating our course and managing our
account. I am not great with finances,
and I needed some help to set up a usable system. We did an overview of our 2012 budget, then
all worked together on our projected budget for 2013. It basically doubles our monthly
expenditures! We are growing really
fast... not sure how we are going to pay for that growth.
Then we did a dream budget.
If we could have any amount of money, how much would we have and what
would we do with it. This was a lot more
fun than the boring yearly budget, and we were all laughing by the end of
it. At 12:30 we needed to leave, but it
was lightly raining. We decided to go in
spite of getting a bit wet. So 3 of us
jumped on bodas, and went to mass. It
was the Feast of the Assumption. We were
crammed into the balcony with God only knows how many other people, but the
mass was nice. I had asked them to keep
some lunch for us, so when we got back to the office we ate together.
In the mean time our accounting books had arrived, so in the
afternoon, Frank and I sat and discussed at lengths the type of system we
wanted to set up. Once we had finally
come up with a good option, we went and presented it to David, Cornerstone
Development’s financial controller. He
liked the plan. I then taught Frank how
to withdraw cash through our accounting system and we did our first voucher and
put it into our new book. I’m looking
forward to seeing this successfully continue!
Finally, about 4:30 we finished. I sent Carol and Frank home, and stayed at
the office to work on a few things. Then
I went to Nakumatt, a large department store, to buy light bulbs. Can I comment that buying light bulbs is
really stressful. The last time I was
there, there were no 40 watt bulbs that fit my fixture. So I got a 60 watt, and it works. But this time, there were only 40 watts! Ugh!
So I bought 2 light bulbs, and when I later tried them at home only one
of them worked. And I almost broke the
light fixture trying to get it in. Sigh.
Thankfully they are cheap. I also
bought a 10th anniversary gift for 2 good friends in Cornerstone.
After light bulb shopping, I got a boda over to where I was
meeting Martin. I was an hour early, but
that was planned. There is a beautiful
little coffee shop that I love in the same complex as the restaurant we were
eating at. I ordered a soda, and did
some emailing and worked on a variety of things. At 7 pm, I headed over to the restaurant and
had a lovely (and super delicious) dinner with him. We talked all about different dynamics in
Africa and it was a lovely evening.
I live all the way across town from where we ate, and I took
a boda home (I was using my helmet). The
driver, to avoid traffic, took me through a back part of town. I know the area, but it was pretty
deserted. In a particularly dark,
deserted stretch, the bike starts having trouble. All my senses went on high alert.
It was 9 pm, and it is dark by 7 pm here...
in a dodgy part of town. There was a
bike repair shop that “just happened” to be right near where we broke
down. About 7 large, somewhat dubious
men were outlined by the light coming from there shop. I jumped off the bike and was ready to run at
the drop of a hat. The driver said that
the clutch wasn’t working. Another guy
started a bike and came over. After a
slightly confusing negotiation I got on the other bike and left... very
thankful to be safe.
I got home, talked to the roommate a bit, watched some West
Wing, and slept.
Thursday
We didn’t have a work day planned for Thursday, and I had to
organize some accommodation for the European team which was coming in. I woke up and wasn’t feeling well. Somehow I managed to get out of the house by
about 9:45. I jumped a taxi and boda to the
first guest house on my list. Upon
reaching, I found it was booked for Sunday night. The man directed me to a guest house which
doesn’t advertise that was just around the corner. I went, and the place was great. I got all the info, and told the woman I’d
get back to her.
Then I got another boda into town, to check out yet another
hotel. I got all the info, then put in a
call to the UK. I bought airtime on the
way home and called Phil when I reached my apartment. We talked for a while, getting things settled
and arranged. He asked me to do some
other work for him, and I agreed. I
often work from home 1-2 days a week, and Thursday was a home work day.
I called taxi drivers, finalized with accommodation people,
and organized some other things. I then
did a variety of other work throughout the day, and rested a bit because I was
a bit tired. That evening I had invited a missionary couple over for dinner. They work with AIM, African Inland
Mission. We originally met in Sudan,
some years ago, and Linda, the wife in the couple and I have met several other
times. We had seen each other at a play
the weekend before, and I’d invited them for dinner.
So about 4:30, I went shopping at the local fruit and veg
stands for a variety of veggies and fruits to use in my dinner. I rarely eat/cook meat. It’s expensive. And it’s not easy to find good meat. Veggies are so cheap and good! I found green beans, which made me happy because
it meant I could make my Chinese noodle dish.
So I chopped, cooked and made jello.
We had a simple dinner... basically stir fry with lots of soy sauce
cooked with spaghetti noodles. Then we
had jello and fruit salad for dessert.
The conversation was lovely, they got me talking passionately about what
I do! We had a great discourse on
several issues, and it was nice time.
After they left, I did dishes. My housemate had left for Gulu for a week
that morning, so the house was quiet. I
was online later, and connected with a friend who is in the army in
Afganistan. He and I had been meaning to
skype , and we both had time. We skyped
until 1:30 am (my time)! He is
interested in going into International Development work, so I was giving him
some perspectives and thoughts on the field.
Needless to say I went right to bed.
one more tomorrow!
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