I want to apologise for not posting this week.
I do not have a good excuse for it.
I do not consider myself a very busy person. I know some maafakas out there who are hustling like a piston when the rev counter is on the red at 7000+rpm hehehe…
But sometimes my week is just odd.
Sometimes I want to put up a post or update something on this blog but I just don’t get to doing it…it leaves me feeling guilty.
Why does it take long for me to post something some times? Well, I cannot say that I do not have time for doing it, not really. It is just that the things I am doing kind of crowd out my thoughts. Or just that I do not have the fortitude inside to put those things aside and put up a post. The last one week has been one of those times.
I have avoided putting stuff that is too personal out here, but for this post, I want to change the tradition kidogo. I will put out a raw version of my last one week. I think it might give one a glimpse into what Cheupe’s week might look like. The times are approximate…I am working from memory; mostly.
Monday:
0800-1830 (8am to 630pm): Seeing clients.
1730-0800 (530pm to 8am) (Yaani Tuesday 8am hehehe…): On night call; the night is quite busy. I don’t get to sleep until 630am or something like that.
Tuesday: (Public holiday):
0630-1000 (630am to 1000am): Sleeping kidogo hehehe…
1000-1500 (1000am to 300pm): Indoors, playing with the kids and finishing up a document on some eternal project. (This project thing is killing me!) Meanwhile, the mzungu lady deputy secretary of the project taskforce calls me to tell me she is going to the US the following day?! What the fuck?!
Ati I must have missed her mail because she send mail to all taskforce fellas the week before. I was secretly planning to dump a Thursday-Friday taskforce workshop on her…so much for that! Now I have to do it myself!
1530-1730 (330pm to 530pm): Out of town to follow up on some lawyer issue. Promised that the cheque should be in my hands this May hehehe…I hope those are not idle words.
1730-1800 (530pm to 600pm): Hunting for the mysterious woman. I get to college and ask the first group of student women I run into at the parking lot. She actually told me her real name?! Nice. They direct me to the Library.
Hunt successful. (I consider myself very lucky considering I do not have a phone number hehehe…) I find her in the library typing away on some archaic laptop…she seems rather surprised to see me but I am still able to detect some delight in her face.
She sees me out and I get her number. I give her some little cash and she seems glad to have it. We chat some and shake hands respectfully and we part ways. She runs back upstairs to finish whatever she was doing…Somehow she does not feel so mysterious any more hehehe…lakini I am not drunk.
1800-2030 (600pm to 830pm): Back in town. It crosses my mind, (Again!!! for the 100000th time!!!) that I should probably employ a driver hehehe….I have been starting to see how much time driving wastes! Aich.
2030-2300 (830pm to 1100pm): Working on the project. Retire to bed.
Wednesday:
0700-1200 (700am to 12noon): Free day. No patients to see for another whole day! Playing with the kids, some gym time, marking a thesis. Some foreman fella calls to give me an unpleasant update on some finishing hiccups on some building. I am not going there today!!! I am not fucking going there again! I basically remind the maafaka what we agreed the last time we met and hang the fuck up.
Then my head goes into overdrive::::
“How many times do you have keep on putting fucking tiles on a fucking staircase before you do it right just this once???!!! Ok! That staircase is cursed… they do it, and either they broke something, or the rail is in the way, or the lines are not square…and then when it is done right…someone says one is sticking up above the others, so we decide it must come out. And then they start to remove it and break four more in the process…and then he calls me for more tiles at a time I want to rest kidogo. Go fuck yourself you maggot! Buy them yourself and fix them. Aich”
OK. I call the maafaka back. Then MPESA. Hehehe…
“Go buy the fucking tiles. I am not coming there till kesho evening”.
1200-1700 (12noon to 500pm): Out of town again to meet some don. The meeting is great. I am happy to pick some scrap to help me complete something on the project. (When you lie to people that you have what it takes to make a proper budget for a project on something you have never done before…hehehehe…)
1700-1900 (500pm to 700pm): Chatting with an old friend at a pub. He has a young friend who is going back to town and I am glad to let him drive. We drink some, eat some meat (At the time, I realise that it was also lunch for me!)
1900-2230 (700pm to 1030pm): We leave for town, I sit at the back and try to sleep without much success. It rains like crazy, it is not until 1030ish that we get back. I take fruit salad and sleep, only to be woken up at midnight.
Thursday:
000-0530 (12midnight to 530am): Trouble in hospital. They cannot reach the on-call, and someone is dying. I do not sleep until 530am
0700-0800 (7am to 8am): Awake again and driving out to join the taskforce people. The administrative assistance has done such a good job at setting up, I am delighted. I catch the guys at the dining hall. The wazungu fellas checked in the night before. My Kenyan colleague is also around. The other Kenyan colleague says she left at 4am but her (really big) car got stuck somewhere on the way to the main road! Hehehehe…how do you get an off-road 4×4 stuck in the mud on a road?! Hehehe… I also did not know until now that she lived in a village! I warn the guys that I might have to leave in the afternoon and come back for the night session. The guys wait for me to take my breakfast as we catch up. Great breakfast lakini.
0800-1300 (8am to 100pm): Great time going through the project document via beamer. The lady gets in at around 1030am. We carry on till 1pm and head for lunch. I excuse myself to attend to some clients (my colleague is leaving town and my clients need someone to take care of things…) So, I have to hand over the reins to one of the wazunguz. He does not mind. I pass by the reception and tell her to book a room for me as I would likely be spending the night in the premises and not at home.
1300-1430 (100pm to 230pm): Taking lunch and then drive back to office.
1430-1730 (230pm to 530pm): Seeing clients
1730-1930 (530pm to 730pm): Drive back to the workshop venue and arrive at around 6pm. The mzungu proxy is so happy to see me, he transfers the reins to me instantly. Aich.
1930-2030 (730pm to 830pm): I take supper with the taskforce fellas.
2030-2230 (830pm to 1030pm): We go in for the night session. We were hoping to close at 1100pm but at 1030pm when I stand up and declare that I am literally sleeping on the job! I am so tired I can hardly follow and type-in the corrections and additions streaming in from all the fellas at lightning speed. We agree to start at 730am the next day. I beg to leave early the next day to attend to my clients.
2230-0630 (1030pm to 630am): One of the most peaceful nights I have ever had! I slept like a baby!
Friday:
0700-0730 (700am to 730am): Breakfast
0730-0900 (730 to 900am): Doing the project thing with the taskforce. I leave at 9am to attend to my clients and leave the taskforce fellas to finish the remaining part of the work.
0900-1730 (9am to 530pm): Seeing clients.
1730-2030 (530pm to 830pm): At a site. Looking good actually…the water meters have been fixed and working. Some two guys at the kitchen cleaning. One of the guys was cleaning the panes and broke one and so they had to fix it back and now someone is also cleaning the panes on the window. The tiles are back on and the stair has been cleaned too…these guys are walking on the tiles before they dry up? OK. The lights in the front look beautiful hehehe….Aich.
There is going to be a lot of work to landscape that compound…it looks like a war zone. I pay Mulu and head off. In notice some of the guys have converted the place into a home…hehehe…they sleep in there, apparently shower there too, and even eat there. Hehehe…
Excavations have started in the next compound. Hehehehe….Aich. That guy is in for it. I don’t envy him at all.
I hope no one comes to say any of those tiles are sticking up above the rest again or anything like that.
2130-2230 (930pm to 1030pm): Back in the house. Check out my mail and realise they have already mailed me all the work we did before they left the workshop venue at 3pm earlier in the day. I spend the evening reading through it. Aich. This thing is killing me. Hako kamzungu kakirudi, I will dump this thing on her so fast!
2230-0708 (1030pm to 708am): Sleeping.
Sato and Sunday:
Maafakin on call!!!!!!! Again!!! As I type this, just coming out of surgery.
So, if I don’t put up a post, fucking forgive me.
Sometimes I feel as if the wind is flying up my ass instead of down hehehe….