Housemate

Long ago memories of Mao on the magic porch.

Weird week.

Work has bored the socks off me. I've actually had plenty to do, which makes a change, but it's mostly re-doing work I've already done. Completed the English translation a while back and it's all been copy/pasted in the wrong order and parts rewritten in something distinctly not resembling English - so I've just been going through it all over again.

On Monday, I got called into the office to begin this process, only to find all the information scattered in about three different documents. They needed putting together so that I could proofread it. This was a long process and, after sitting in the office for almost four hours with absolutely nothing to do whilst waiting for this to be completed, then suffering a power cut because nobody had paid the electricity, I went home for something to eat.

At around 3pm the job was done and a full, printed draft was available for me to go through with my satisfying red marker. I went to pick it up and learned of a Dutch visitor coming in a few hours. Augustin had requested our presence, so I stayed and waited. We had electricity again about half-an-hour before he arrived. Really nice people. One is a Deaf Dutch guy who is touring many countries to see what can be done to help Deaf people, the other was a hearing lady who had worked with the Deaf for a long time in Kenya. She was South African originally, I think. I'd met the guy, John, before - he visited our old office about a year ago.

I finally arrived home around 6pm, got a lift back with them, and started on the proofreading until about 9pm, before my eyes fell out of my head.

Tuesday, I spent the entire day going through the corrections. There were many. What was more disturbing is that things that were right in the soft copy were wrong on the draft print, and vice-versa. How do you manage that!? If I make corrections, will there be things that were right before that are now wrong, that I won't see because they're not on the draft? It's complicated, but you can only do what you can do.

Once I'd done what I could do, I was in serious need of a beer, and headed down to Nyarutarama to see Cathryn at the tennis club. J (her partner) arrived a few hours later and we had a good chin-wag and laugh. She was feeling much more positive about her job, and life in general.

Today, I took the corrections in but it turned out I needed another document compiling before I could do that. I waited three hours, and another power-cut, before deciding to go into town instead. Safari (the publisher) said he'd have the document ready tomorrow, so there was no point hanging around.

I had just got to town, and was going in search of Ali at USA Computers to ask about my laptop (turned out he wasn't there), when my phone rings and it's Cathryn in a terrible state. I can hardly understand what she's saying, so I tell her to get to my house, let herself into the garden, and sit on the porch (our special waragi porch). I hooked a moto and headed straight home.

Poor lass, she'd had a real change of heart about her job and had decided she didn't want to do it any more. She looked exactly like me after I left my last job in the UK. We hailed a cab, went to the place she shares with her boss in Nyarutarama, and gathered up her stuff. Living and working in the same place had just worn her down, so I offered her my spare room to give her some time to get her head together.

It was a bit Thelma & Louise, really: dashing across town in a taxi, bundling everything into the car. Her boss was away in Hong Kong at her friend's wedding but due back that day. Cathryn wanted to move out before she got back, to give herself time to prepare how she'd handle it and what she wanted to say. Got back to mine, had a lovely taxi driver who was really sweet and didn't raise the price despite waiting around and helping us unpack.

We sat on the porch the rest of the afternoon. The transformation was phenomenal, from real misery to relaxed high. We've all been there. Just wasn't the right job for her, but she gave it a fair shot for six months.

So, now I have a housemate :)