Tuesday December 2nd 2003
Well, students came trickling in all day, Alex wasn’t around to manage the process, and yet again, I get dinged for helping out. The good news is that I did eventually find Alex, chew him out, and get the process in somewhat of an order.. the group of students (another 15 or so) finally got it together to come in one group. I spent a long time explaining to Alex that our deal changed… and that he was going to learn how to do simple project management before he touches any of my equipment again. Flush with some pocket money, he seemed to be fine with that. We’ll see how long that lasts.. both the contentment and the money.
My brain is really fuzzy. I can barely remember where I am much of the time. I feel totally disoriented, and incapable of concentrating for more than 15 minutes. I find myself obessively staring at some particular detail for a few minutes before I am even aware of what I am doing. I really need to change the meds. I am pretty sure that this is meflaquine related.
Speaking of fuzzy brains.. I met my landlord. Well, the woman who owns the property… the landlord is her nephew. He is a total crook, and of course a well respected business man in town. She is a total lush. She is in her.. oh lets say 60’s, and is drunk all of the time. She hassled Jen when I was in Yaoundé last week. This week she is hounding me. She came by when I was doing some photographs, and she started to hassle Jen. I stepped out, and introduced myself. The exchange was… well, slightly amusing, but largely, tragically, indicative of many of my exchanges with drunk people here.
-You owe me money
-I do? I don’t think so, my boss pays my rent here
-I didn’t get my money.
-You should speak to my boss about that then, I’m sure he’ll pay
-I did. He said he already paid.
-OK, then we’re good
-I’m going to go to the police, and get you thrown out if you don’t pay.
-OK. I think that might be a good idea, lets go…
-Um.. you need to pay, because my nephew hasn’t given me the money, and there is no contract
-This seems to be a problem between you and your nephew to me.
-You need to pay
-No, no I don’t, and throwing me out isn’t really going to help you is it?
-No, I guess not, but you need to pay
-No I don’t, you need to solve this with your nephew
-My nephew is a crook and he steals money from me, a poor old woman with a health condition. I suffer, oh how I suffer (on and on like this for a while)
-And this is my problem how exactly?
Etc… for about 20 minutes… sigh.
Posted by mrsclean at January 9, 2004 04:36 AM