Photo of the day: half of my living room plus balcony. Currently planning on getting (what else?) a large rug and shifting quite a bit of furniture around. Poor Jack - only been here a week and already planning renovations...
Talking about mood swings, I’m in an absolutely fantastic mood today. Happy to say, though, that this is mostly due to a day’s retail therapy rather than any incipient borderline personality disorder (I hope). Whoever said that consumerism is just empty gratification is obviously a) a guy, and b) has never shopped.
Reserved Lidaniel, one of our drivers, to take me to this huge supermarket where he made the fatal mistake of offering to come along with me to do my shopping. Poor deluded guy. I basically made him visit all 178 aisles at least three times while I piled more and more stuff into the trolley. It was great. They even had sesame oil and soy sauce and my favourite brand of shampoo! So much for me lugging huge amounts of toiletries with me in the belief that I wouldn’t be able to find them here...
Although I love Jack to bits for staying on for a month’s handover, when it comes to making his flat homely, he is a self-confessed barbarian. After more than two years’ living here, there is nothing even remotely personal about the flat: it looks and feels like something out of an estate agent’s catalogue. And the kitchen is worse. Those of you who know me will probably be laughing at this but even I couldn’t believe the lack of basic provisions in the place – I mean, the fridge, the cabinets, the work surfaces were almost empty. OK, so I ended up spending nearly $200 to fill it up but it was so worth it. Well, at least until my visa card bill comes in. I have a wok and a stove kettle, so life is worth living again.
Also spent a bit of time generally walking around central Petionville (an upmarket suburb of Port-au-Prince where I both live and work). Got a tiny bit of hassle but nothing on West African standards. Again, the beauty of the place kept striking me: the verdant mountains, gorgeous blue skies, French colonial architecture, the deep and vibrant colours of the houses and their overflowing bushes dotted with lovely pink flowers. And the abundance of restaurants, shops, street art and wonderful strolling/meandering opportunities just made me incredibly happy to be here. Although I don’t yet feel at home, I feel like I soon could be – and that’s about as good as it gets after just a week. I mean, it took me a couple of months to feel the same way about Beirut.
On my meanderings, I chatted to this painter who introduced himself as M. Liquidation (“2 for the price of 1”) where he, eventually and in very good English, bemoaned the lack of tourists. When I asked about selling his stuff in the Dominican Republic, he told me that it was possible but that it was extremely expensive for Haitians to get across the border, not to mention the unofficial bribery and bullying that apparently goes on. Food for thought there. I did promise to come back and buy one of his paintings and will probably do so, although I might need to own up to my fictional husband and my real name...
The rest of my colleagues have gone off for the weekend to Jacmel (a city in the south of Haiti) to celebrate carnival there and Jack has been feeling poorly - the result being that today’s been a guilt-free day completely for myself. I was going to go to Jacmel with the crew but so glad I didn’t – I really needed some time to adjust to being here, get a bit more settled and to simply get my equilibrium back. Not to mention my new DVD player and home internet connection (from Monday/Tuesday, insh’allah). And besides, the real carnival is in a week’s time so I won’t be missing out too much.
Workwise, things are looking up. I’ve met a few colleagues whom I think I could really get along with. I also had a four hour meeting with the Assistant Country Director for Systems on Friday, a guy whom I was rather intimidated by/resentful of earlier in the week, and discovered that he’s a pretty good guy (if a bit “me me me”, but then he is Dutch), and that we actually agree on a lot of things. I get the feeling that he probably had a similarly negative first impression of me, so our long “chat” really cleared the air. Still, it confirmed my suspicions that any necessary changes (and there are quite a few, IMO) to the organisation is going to be both slow and frustrating, with a management who are perhaps rather set in their ways and rather too programme-focused. Although he assured me of his full support as another systems person, I’m still unsure of whether he’s the sort that says one thing in private and another thing in front of the Country Management Team. Well, we shall see...
Also, I’m hoping to catch up on my reading and figuring out of how the accounts work tomorrow. I think I need some time alone in the office to just get my bearings and be more proactive about what I want of my handover/induction.
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