Strains, Pains & Mud Stuck Wheels

It’s been a while since i’ve had the time to sit down and write this blog – probably since my Finance Manager left & I ended up running an organisation on my own! Still, i’m not complaining – it’s great experience and i’ve probably achieved more here in 5 months than in ten years at the Post Office.

Anyway, since I last wrote I’ve managed to suspend my field worker, recruit a finance manager, organise & run a four day board meeting, discipline my field worker, spend another half day goat searching, be offended by two lots of rude english people (!) and get stranded in the bush in my mud splattered truck for three hours before being rescued by DRFN.

It’s been rather a long two weeks (or is it three..they’ve kind of all rolled into one..) planning the Board meeting, making sure 9 people scattered around Omaheke (which is about the size of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Merseyside, Cumbria, Midlands & Anglia all rolled in together) got the message and turned up, planning and writing the agenda, booking the venue, arranging accommodation & food, budgeting, asking the council to release the chairman (whilst the council secretary had an epilieptic fit & got carted off to hospital), training the board to interview, arranging interview schedules, writing the practical test, hiring someone to adjudicate the practical test and ‘gently’ guiding the board in making the right selection (!)
Sunday was supposed to be my session writing day, with the board meeting starting at 9 on Monday. I’d also agreed to talk to 32 Uk Uni students about the San Trust at 10.30am with the Board chairman, so I was up bright & early & myself & the chairman were waiting expectantly from 10.15 for Deborah Sporton to arrive with her students.

At this point the chairman expressed concern that the donkerbos board members didn’t know about the meeting & were still in Donkerbos (!) After a quick discussion we decided i should drive out (3hrs there, 3hrs back) to get them after the students had been. At 11.40 we were still waiting for them. When Deborah called back I explained that we had to leave town oursleves, but as this was a good awareness opportunity I offered to make time for her & her students on Tuesday lunch time between Board sessions at 12.30.

I got back from Donkerbos at 8pm on Sunday, so we postponed the start of the Board till 12.30pm so that I could finalise the preparations. Poor Esther bore the brunt of my frustrations on Monday morning when she arrived from DRFN & I pointed out that I hadn’t downloaded from her memory stick yet because i’d been too busy driving out to donkerbos because her colleague forgot to tell them about the board (!) However, my first Board training went well, & I sat like a proud mum the next day when they professionally interviewed their first candidates. Heck, the Chairman was even cracking sarcastic jokes to put everyone at ease (not sure where he got that from..) by the second candidate!

We managed to get through the morning candidates in time to be back at the office for 12.10 (whilst the others had lunch) to prepare for the students at 12.30ish. Deborah called at 12.15 to say they were just eating lunch, but would be there 12.30. 12.30-1 which I took as from 12.30 until one. At 1pm we decided we had to get back to the board and get some lunch ourselves, so we had just locked up when up rolled Deborah at 1.10. I thought at least an apology might be forthcoming but instead I was greeted with a breezy ‘Hi here we are!’ – as I was pissed off to say the least that she thought it was ok to turn up whenever she pleased when my lovely San people were sat patiently waiting for her foregoing their lunch (bearing in mind most of them wouldn’t even have had beakfast) whilst she & her students had their leisurely lunch, I could only manage ‘it’s 1.10’ in response. To which she replied ‘but you said it was ok between 12.30 & 1’ and then like a spoilt child ‘well its ok if you dont want to thats fine’ (she was at least late 30’s) ‘we’ve been all the way to the campsite’ (ie she’d spent money at a San camp therefore she was entitled to take liberties now because she’d invested in the community) & she qualified her lateness by complaining about how difficult getting students together is. I was pretty disgusted and I pointed out that we had only a few minutes left before we had to go back. But we took their questions for a good half hour sat in our craft shop, and at the end we were rewarded with ‘no you can’t make purchases as they have to go back to the board meeting, don’t you Kathryn?’ Fortunately i’m getting very used to biting my tongue these days, but to say I was disgusted by her is an understatement.

Anyway, the rest of the board went very well – the candidates were very promising, though I was absolutely shattered by Wednesday morning, after working before and after the board & taxiing people to & from epako outside Gobabis (the township) to the venue. So I was quite low on energy when the actual meeting took place on Wednesday & I was a little apprehensive as it was my turn to talk through my work & open myself up to criticism. I wouldnt have been so apprehensive had I not read copious back copies of previous boards and the terrible arguing & mud slinging that seemed to be a regular fixture.

So I somewhat defensively invited feedback, and the chief had her first rant…about me not putting the car in the garage (!) Guilty. But then…..nothing. No other criticism. Lovely quiet Frans from Donkerbos starting speaking in Afrikaans, and I waited for the translation to hear his complaint…’we think you are doing a good job, when we need help you come to see us like when our shop was robbed you came and went to the police for us, so we are happy’ (!) I was really touched. Only the day before I wrote an email to my brother to say how tired I was and how I don’t get thanks for it (not that i’m doing it for thanks)… But the biggest surpise came at lunch break from my ex-finance manager. She told the board she was sad to leave and wished them well, but had never seen them be so professional & so polite & working together like this and that she was really shocked. I was really shocked when she then suggested I was doing something good for them to make them be like this. But most of all I’m really proud of my board because they showed us all that they can be just as good as anyone else with just a little bit of encouragement.

The next day was a little trickier as the Board had to select a finance manager & also discipline my devious, suspended field worker. It was a looooong morning of voting & deliberations (and me trying to be neutral whilst trying to project the name ‘joyce’ telepathically to the room). They wanted Paulina. Yikes. Cue lots of ‘but she was late & do we want somebody unreliable?’ (!) Very interesting to listen to their reasons though. Paulina was non-threatening, older (young ones are hard to control) and non-hererro. The two best candidates were Hererro. The racism issue finally came out & once we tackled it head on, they re-voted and picked what seemed to be the right candidate, regardless of race. Fast learners.

The field worker kept his job, but it was a fair decision. He gets one last chance. Unfortunately driving me mental isn’t a good enough reason to go – or theft/petty corruption/lying/not turning up for work.

So, Friday morning I set off at 6.30am in the pouring rain with Paulus & Skepes to take them home & also take part in a Campsite meeting in Corridor. It took us 5hrs for a 3hr journey due to the amount of water on the sand/gravel roads – it was like driving on ice. My knees had turned to jelly by the time we reached the camp. But we made it in one piece and we had a good meeting with our new & improved manager (which the uk students raved about).

I then drove another four hours to Blouberg (by Botswana border) with Paulus & enjoyed less rain, and more wildlife – kudu, tortoise, foxes, squirrels, monitor lizards & babboons! Paulus was particularly amused when one Babboon stood up ‘like a human being’ heehee. I’d just dropped off Paulus at blouberg, was literally 5mins drive from tarmac & the transkalahari at 5.30pm, when disaster struck!

I was doing about 40k’s/hr when I hit some mud, the wheels skidded, so I did what you do & let the clutch off and steered into the skid….except the car decided to steer straight into a foot of water & mud at the side of the roads…..and it didn’t want to steer back out again.
Despite its protestations, I clambered out of the drivers side & into the foot of water & mud beneath (fortunately I had cropped jeans & flipflops on) and plunged my hand into the gunk to put the wheel locks on. Ick. Then I tried again back & forth with the 4whl drive, but I all I did was create a bigger hole – physically & metaphorically! Slight panic. Middle of nowwhere, about to get dark, what should I do?!! Think, think. Does my phone have a signal…yes, phew! Who to call?? The San don’t have cars…Gobabis is over an hour away. Lily. I called the peace corp because…she’s sensible?! So she tells me to call the police…and gives me a number that doenst work. DRFN? I try Klaus’ mobile – stright to answerphone. Try Hosabes, again straight to answerphone. Shit. Who else?! I have the office diary with numbers in, I flick through – I could try the DRFN landline as a last resort (by this point I have about 50p of credit) – Klaus answers – hurrah!!! They’re in Gobabis. Klaus straightaway offers me Simon & their truck plus tow rope & promises he’ll be there in an hour. Two hours later, at 8pm in the pitch black, I’m starting to feel a little vulnerable out there on my own….but finally I see headlights & after half an hour of mud slinging (I knew there had to be some this week!) we finally get me out & on the road home…to bed at last after a vvvvv long week!

What I learnt:

1. English folk can be v rude
2. Kalahari mud is not restorative in any way
3. Oba didn’t select the born again christian becuase he thought his ‘Father’ would look after him if he didn’t get the job
4. Sarcasm is alive & well in Gobabis
5. I love my San people