Kampala Capers

It’s been a long week. D went up to Kampala on the Tuesday. He called around twelve hours later to say he got there. You can imagine my surprise when I went into the office the next day and found E still there! Apparently his out-bound papers had expired, so he’d had to go to the Ugandan Embassy and get a temporary pass. Okay, no worries.

I was a little less impressed the next day when he was still there, knowing that D couldn’t come back until E was sorted. This time it was something his mum needed doing. He promised he’d be going the next morning – Friday.

Friday was a looooong day. I was up at 6:30 and at a meeting across town for 8:30. A meeting that was supposed to start on time and finish two hours later - at 10:30 - so that I could get back across town for my next meeting. As it turned out, no one turned up until gone half-nine, then the PowerPoint projector didn’t work. We faffed around for another hour and started the meeting around the time it was supposed to finish.

Léon, Francois and myself were there, so my job was interpreting, which I don’t relish but even less so when it’s not an English meeting. It was mainly Kinya and French. I had an English interpreter so that I could interpret into sign. This never, ever works. Especially not when, halfway through, your English interpreter leaves the room to take a phone call.

It was a meeting on Effective Financial Reporting. I just had to stop, it was like explaining algebra. Francois had never seen the forms, I had never seen the forms, and the English translation was painful at best – lots of vagaries like ‘then you put the 2,500 into column D and the balance of that into the other column’ – which other column!? Give me an A, give me a D, give me a C or something, but when I can’t see the form, don’t tell me ‘other column’ – there are many other columns. 

To be fair, Francois isn’t responsible for reporting, Léon is. I was just happy he made it. Our reporting could stand a little improvement. I'm determined to deliver Interpreter Awareness Training to VSO. There is absolutely no respect for interpreters, they never get to finish what they’re saying, everyone always talks over each other, and anyone reliant on an interpreter is lucky to understand half the proceedings yet alone contribute to them.

Quad-lingual meetings don’t work! Not without a FRW 250,000 a day interpreting company and headsets. Then they work. Just.

Eventually, Francois and I crept out and went for a cigarette behind the complex before I made a last minute mad dash across town to meet the Disability Meeting group.  Thankfully I was in time to eat at La Planet beforehand. It was a good meeting, but it was my mate Jo’s last day. She’s left VSO now and taken a consultancy contract. She and her fiancé Pierre are hoping to head back to the UK in September so that he can do his MA. Then they plan to return here to live in the house she’s currently building. I’m glad she’s still around for a while. Sue and Eric are also leaving. It’s all change with old-hands heading out and new people arriving.

After Disability was Capacity Building, which I was chairing. Having become Jo’s prodigy, I'll be taking responsibility for this session in her absence. I feel more nervous about taking charge of her meetings than her cats lol She’s so damn efficient. Big boots to fill.

We finished at five, so I’d been going ten and a half hours. I was knackered. Did manage to flog six RNAD sign language T-shirts, though. We all piled into Stella after the meeting. Several people commented how happy I was looking *sigh* I’m missing D terribly. We call each other briefly each night. It can never be more than brief due to the cost of phone credit here – it’s crazy bad. At Stella I sent him a text saying what a long day I’d had. I told him that I was out, but would call him later. He called straight back: ‘Hey, I miss you,’ he said. ‘I’ve got someone who wants to talk to you.’

It was E! He was finally in Kampala! I was so happy lol They reckon they’ll be back on Tuesday, which might mean Wednesday or Thursday. It already feels like he’s been gone an age, but I guess a few more days won’t kill me. I’m so due a holiday. I am knackered. Went home from Stella after a couple of beers and was sitting on my porch reading a collection of short stories (First Love, Last Rites – Ian McEwan. Average.) when I get a call from Drew. 

He’s been busy with his visiting American boss the past week, but the guy had just gone home and Drew was on the liquor train. He came over about an hour later and we sat drinking and listening to music, then headed over to Chez Lando to join Cathryn, Paula, Angela and two new vols: Viviane and Luna. The latter is a business consultant from London, a really nice guy but hyper-happy to be here lol Makes a change from the glum problem-weary faces of the less positive newbies and bedraggled oldies. Cathryn and Angela are off to Zanzibar for three weeks today – jealous, moi?

We all ended back at my house for a few more drinks. I was going to change, then we were off to One Love, but I was just sooooo tired. Everyone left around midnight and I collapsed in a heap on my bed and just slept for nine and a half hours. My house is an utter state. Three kittens and no time this week to keep on top of the mess, plus the water’s been off for almost four days now. It mystifies me why, it’s been tipping it down for three of those!  

I’m going to do a clean-up operation, then I'm meeting an American lady at Chez Lando who wants to get involved in RNAD - she used to work with Deaf students back home. Also received a text from Parfait this morning saying that the UN have agreed to fund the Indonesia trip for Deaf youth! 

Amazing luck. I wrote the application, he delivered it – team effort. I also finished the Democracy & Human Rights application to the American Embassy, which I’ll deliver on Tuesday. That took a lot of brain cells. It’s a cross-cutting project to raise Deaf people’s awareness of their basic human and disability rights, whilst providing ministerial Sign Language and Deaf Awareness courses, and training Deaf people into employment as teachers. We want to kick-start a Sign Language industry to help RNAD and self-employed Deaf people to become more independent whilst, at the same time, increasing advocacy and consultation opportunities at grass-roots level. It’s about $2,000 over-budget but, being honest, even in Rwanda - what can you really do for £10,000? Quite a bit, but not a lot. The $ plummeting is a pain, and the Kenya situation has pushed the price of transport and purchasing right up. Fingers-crossed the little extra may be acceptably overlooked in light of a decent and well-presented project.

It's going to be another long week next week, getting the American application in, holding a meeting about the JAM training on Monday, organising Indonesia, setting up the IT training for our vols and hopefully heading back down to Gitarama to meet the lady from YWCA. At least I feel that I’m really achieving some things. A lot of vols get disheartened in their placements, feeling that they’re not getting anywhere, but I feel I’m actually contributing. There’s some really good stuff on the horizon that I’ve played a key role in bringing about.

Although I’m tired, I’m really happy and contented at the moment: good friends, lovely fella, job satisfaction, and a wonderful home. What more can one ask?