Dribblin' 'n' Gigglin'

Hah.

Work today is sooooooo boooooring. Still waiting on the next round of money before we can leap into action, so it's just me and my collague sitting here counting bricks. At least I have internet *ashamed blush*

A fellow VSOer just sent this link to Experimental Jifflings' Rwanda Restaurant Reviews which has got me chuckling away:

Where are the well heeled youngsters working for Send a Cow International (seriously, they stay at my hotel) supposed to go for their steak and chips?

:'o))

Also, I know it's a closed group but, if I keep it anonymouse, I hope no one will mind me sharing a couple of my favourite 'But Sureley's from the Facebook group. It's just cases of things people have seen/done/heard on their travels that have made them stop and double-take. A couple of mine were:

But surely no bloke would ever open with the chat-up line: "If you ever want children, I want to be the first to know"!

*

But surely someone would die of old age before being served at BCR bank: 'Ticket number 3238. Number of people before you: 51' - and surely it's sod's law the ticket counter should break down for half an hour at 3206.

*

But surely the nurse taking my blood sample wouldn't go to all the trouble of cleaning my finger with antiseptic...and then blow it dry.

and

But surely our friend’s guard didn't really misunderstand the word for (cup-a) 'soup' and isn't actually washing his socks in a bowl of it and asking why it isn't lathering up.

A couple that had me bent double were:

but surely when observing a class a deaf pupil would not pass me a note....... surely that note wouldn't just have one word written on it...........UMUZUNGU!!!!! But why?

*

First night out in a village bar...
a) but surely the barman wouldn't finish the dregs of your drink off whilst chatting to you
b) but surely you wouldn't hear the stressed bleating of a goat 5 minutes after your collegues ordered brochettes
c) but surely the brother (monkish person) wouldn't buy his driver lots of alcoholic drinks before driving us home
But surely... or perhaps I was away too long? Welcome back!

*

People are laying paving outside [location]. They are all men, apart from one woman who hands them the wee brick things. I remarked "why doesn't she help lay the paving, instead of just passing the things to the men?" But surely my colleague at a gender-sensitive organisation would not say 'She's a woman, she doesn't know how to do anything." And then when I said "she could learn how to do it in 2 minutes", but surely he would not say "No, she can't. She's a woman."

*

if you were chairing the Joint Sector in Education Review [date] for the Ministry of Education AND you were the director of [NGO] you wouldn't begin a Special Needs Education conference discussion by saying 'Who's got special needs here? I can see you have - no you, you, the blind one. Who else? Hands up! Have you got special needs? That person is a special needs person.' BUT SURELY?

And then my friend Suki back home finished off by sending this e-mail about working in the Public Sector, which is just as applicable to the Voluntary Sector:

PERSPECTIVE

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed down from generation to generation, says that when you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.

In the Public Service, however, a whole range of far more advanced strategies is often employed, such as:

1. Change riders.

2. Buy a stronger whip.

3. Do nothing: “This is the way we have always ridden dead horses.”

4. Visit other countries to see how they ride dead horses.

5. Perform a productivity study to see if lighter riders improve the dead horse’s performance.

6. Hire a contractor to ride the dead horse. (Can be useful as a saddle when it comes to covering your back!!)

7. Harness several dead horses together in an attempt to increase their speed.

8. Provide additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse’s performance.

9. Appoint a committee to study the horse and assess how dead it actually is.

10. Re-classify the dead horse as ‘living impaired’.

11. Develop a strategic plan for the management of dead horses.

12. Rewrite the expected performance requirements for all horses.

13. Modify existing standards to include dead horses.

14. Declare that, as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overheads, and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line than many other horses.

15. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position (but the competition for positions is fierce).