GMail, Oh So Hateful!

Okay, well, Gmail still hates me and is giving me the "Server Error" error, which is either easy to fix or not. I mean, this guy lost his email for 7 days!! And it seems like all the people who "fixed" the problem just did totally arbitrary things. 

Clearly emptying my cache and my cookies had no effect, because it seems to be multiple-computer-wide.

I'll just hope that it will clear itself up in a day or so. Or rather, in an additional day or so.

I had an appointment at the doctor today at 9 am for my x-ray, so it makes perfect sense that when Richard, the project director, called them they told me the first available appointment was at 11 am. 

So, since I had a little bit of time, I walked into town (despite my many offers of a ride, which I think I'll chronicle in my next Muzungu). I stopped at the Post Office to get a post box, and discovered that I needed passport photos and a reference, so I'll have Richard refer me and I've already stopped at a little photomart to take my passport photos.

It's 25,000 Ushs to get a post box for a year, which is like... $12? Doesn't that rock? 

So now I have some time while they make my passport photos, and I have to get envelopes to mail various letters, along with finding "grade b" hospital by 11. Not very comforting that the two hospitals are referred to as "grade a" and "grade b", huh? So, I'm sitting in an internet cafe which has reliable wireless to my great excitement, but... of course no one is online.

Anyway, I'm clearly continuing my tradition of posting oodles and oodles. Here's me, signing out again.

Tuesday morning, 7:52 am

Sometimes, merely from a statistical point of view, the people you live with can be assholes. 

Last night was my roommates' night.

Here was the scoop: I had to wake up super early today to head off to the doctor and get my chest x-rayed, to prove that I didn't have TB so that I can go on a chimp forest walk on Thursday or Friday. 

So, while everyone else went off to Kampala (the biggest city, about 1.40h away), I stayed home so I could go to bed early.

I was the only one home, so I was put on puppy duty. I was also put on "open the gate" duty and given the keys to the castle. Ben didn't have keys, so I was to hear him knocking and let him in.

Liz, Julia and her dad didn't have keys, but were coming home far later so I was to hang the keys on the inside of the backgate for them to reach in and use. 

The puppy decided that it was probably not in his best interest to sleep. Plus, he's really bitey, and people have just been encouraging it by playing with him even when he non-play bites them. Bad dog!

I'm too tired to actually try to make the story funny, but the point was - the puppy just didn't go to sleep, Ben just didn't show up, and by the time I was allowed to go to sleep by the puppy around 3am, the Kampala-trekkers were back and in the house.

So they'd be quiet and let me sleep? Right?

WRONG.

Julia lay in bed, chatting on her mobile, and when it rang again 30m later, it took her a good 15 rings to get it (no voicemail here). She chatted loudly! I mean, shit. 

I'm not on spring break here. I don't need to go out and party, but to be stuck with a puppy who won't sleep, tugs my mosquito netting, howls painfully, pizzes on the floor...

No thank you ever again please. I still don't know if Ben made it home, but if you know people are having to stay semi-alert to let you in, doesn't that make you aware? I'm just babbling now.

I have to take a shower and go into somewhere. I don't actually know where, or how close it is. I'm hoping Lilly will get here and tell me. 

Fuck, I'm in a tired, sour mood.

Clarification

pattiejoe made me realize that I should clarify that I'm already being UK-ized in my nicknames.

Biscuits are not like Pillsbury crescent rolls.

They're more like graham crackers. :D

Alas, my loves!

Monday night: 9:20 pm


Alas Alad?... my internet connection leaves a lot to be desired. Along with GMail's apparent weirdness that prohibits me from getting in. I'm going to give it a day or so, but already I've been informed of exciting emails that I can't read!

I got to try out skype tonight with my mom and reverend_dave and got to chat online with reene, grysar and pattiejoe.

I'm also unfortunately "torch-less"... meaning that I forgot my flashlight, and, to somehow balance out power usage in Entebbe, the local electricity company just has power shutdowns every 2-3 nights. And I'm "lucky" because the entire other side of Entebbe is without power tonight. Or so Peter informs me when he stopped by to get his computer tonight.

So I didn't feel extra homesick as previously thought by going on AIM. Probably because I still feel sort of numb and limbo-y. I haven't really gotten settled here, nor have I grasped the duration of time that I'll be here and subsequently away from my friends.

The poor internet perturbs me, because as semi-discussed with drdelirium, my nudity requires some sort of base in the familiar. I.e. I need to retain contact with the friends who I feel the most myself with in order to keep that piece of what I consider "me".

Bah, I'm getting far too esoteric and annoying myself.

It's a little strange, because tonight I'm alone in the house for the first time. It's a little creepy, and I'm suddenly very aware of all the padlocks, gates, guard rails, and other security measures. Not only that, but the room that I'll be inhabiting in a week has a "panic button"... is it such a regular occurrence that we'd get stormed by rebels? Or thieves?

Speaking of which, Debbie and Annie are out right now, in what was originally described to me as "Congo". I automatically assumed PRC (People's Republic of Congo) since it's the country not overrun by guerilla forces and the like, but nooooo ... they meant DRC. Democratic Republic of Congo. Debbie apparently goes a lot, and I've gotta say, if I was going to go to DRC with someone, I'd go with Debbie. At dinner on Sunday night before they left, it was surreal to actually be having real discussions about what to do if you are taken by some sort of guy pointing a gun at your head. How to behave, what not to say.

Does it seem totally wacko that it all seemed sort of exciting? Debbie seems to go with some regularity, and I'm secretly hoping I can come along next time (she seems to invite people from the house). I'm sure my mother would freak out. But again, I'll reiterate, if I was going to go with anyone, I'd want to go with Debbie. Her Africa-savvy inspires a confidence that I'm not sure rebels could shake from me ;)

So, I tried uploading some pictures to petridish today with limited success. As in, ONE of them uploaded. I want people to see what the house looks like, and who some of the players in my little saga are, and see the cuteness of the bad bad puppies we have in the house!

I guess I'll try again tomorrow, but it's not very encouraging. I wanted to be far more connected! I might have to venture into one of the web cafés to see if I can get any better results.

Tomorrow morning I go to the doctor to get a chest x-ray to prove that I don't have TB so that I can go on a forest walk with the chimps. My official go-to-the-island day is Thursday, now. I'll probably get to stay until about Saturday too. (whee!) Until then, more training with Liz.

Provided I can get some sleep tonight! I have to wait for Ben to come home from Entebbe so that I can let him into the gate...

Net-Stir Crazy

I think this is the longest I've been without the internet in... well, in a damned long time. Today marks uhh... 4 days? The last time I had net access was Friday. So fine, 3 days. It feels like 4.

Bushnet says the problem is supposed to be resolved within the hour. Gahhhh.

Okay, so other news.

I'm getting pretty well familiarized with the house thanks to Liz. It'll be likely in the time that I'm here that I might be sole ward of the house from time to time so I had to learn about the general day to day things... the dog feeding, security lights, washing machine, etc.

It's far more complicated than the house in Isecheno ever was, it being a compound and all. I got a sense of what regular non-weekend life is like here by starting off today waking up late and scurrying downstairs for a Monday morning staff meeting.

If I thought the AOP meetings were long, they were nothing compared to this meeting. Everyone has things to talk about and ideas to share, and we tended to go off on tangents quite a bit, and since I didn't know what was being discussed most of the time I phased in and out. It didn't help that one of the puppies kept tugging on my pant leg either.

I did get a chance to show a little of my (now experienced and expert) opinions with regard to marketing and merchandise. It did feel like my element, which was nice.

Also, they've been struggling for a year to put PayPal donations up on their site with little to no success, which strikes meas odd because it took me about 2 hours to set the whole thing up on Mason's site.

So, that's something I'll be doing here.

After the meeting, I started my training with Liz. It's all pretty basic, and I feel like I have a good grasp on most of it. There's tons more to be done, considering she essentially does Development here and Merchandise/Marketing, so I'll see what all I can bring to the table. The donations system seems pretty passive, too. So... we'll see what we can do about that.

I didn't sleep well at all last night, and I lay awake in my bed thinking about my relationships (not just sexual/romantic). It's hard not to feel sort of separated from yourself, because what really defines you? The things you do? The people you hang out with? The things you talk about? So, being separated from myself, I was doing a little forced perspective.

I think I'll get more homesick probably once I can go online and see all the things I'm missing. I hope grysar's party went well.

But yea, sleeping has been weird and slightly difficult. I'm not sure what the problem is.
Even though I stayed up reading a big packet o' stuff Liz gave me to read so that I'd have some free time today, I don't think that I'll get to go to the Post Office today. Drats.

I'm also going to have to consider using the gmail pop client. Because man, from here, the web client isslooow.

Oh, and additionally, when I said I'd have better net access here than I had in my gacked wireless apartment in the States, I was smoking sugar cane.

If I can check my email at all right now I'll be lucky.

Grrrr....

Finally

After 4 days with no internet, our connection just got restored by bushnet.

So, go check my main page and see all the entries I wrote, dammit :P