I woke up cranky today. Apparently it was a sign on how the rest of the day was going to be. It’s now 14 hours later and I am completely exhausted from my day. Slightly frustrated, somehow annoyed, vaguely irritated but mostly… tired.
Yesterday I had the best day where we went to visit a coffee station in the middle of the most stunning lush mountain landscape I have seen in Rwanda. And this morning, I had the most wonderful breakfast with fresh strawberries from that same mountain. So far so good, you would say (except for the grumpiness, something that Mikkel can confirm)
My working day started with on the program my first real fieldtrip to a coffee cooperative south in the country. I had quite a good start: we had a car, I had company (my colleague and the driver) and we only left one hour later than planned. So what’s the big deal? Well, here comes the cocktail for my frustrations:
- A very winding road in combination with a let’s say, a-just-as-winding driver (= me fighting nausea)
- A three (!) hour meeting in the local language where I only got sporadic translation (= me in utter boredom)
- A smelly toilet in the coffee plantation mostly inhabited by big noisy flies (=me wishing there weren’t so many people everywhere so I at least could make it a nature visit)
- No food or drink until 16 in the afternoon (!). Apparently people find that the most normal thing here (=me secretly sneaking out of the meeting trying to comfort my crying stomach with an old banana that was still in my bag)
- An un-smooth interview in French about fairtrade certification (=me stumbling in French and the interviewee stumbling in French…lost in translation?)
- One of the workers drying the coffeebeans giving me the desperate ‘Give Me Money or Food’ gesture and the accompanying look of hopelessness (= me returning this with a desperate but semi-friendly smile)
And then, many hours and winding roads later, when we almost reached home and I had no more credits for accepting anything but nice things, my new colleague asked me the question: ‘what religion do you practice?’ Aaaaiii. I cannot handle this but I cannot lie either.
When I ‘confess’ to her that I don’t have any, she is giving me the most horrific looks and attitude that you can imagine. And tells me she is terrified to ever send her 6 children to my part of the world, where the rich people have lost all their sense. There goes all my good efforts of building up a good rapport with this woman, with whom I have many more field visits to do.
This was my day. I'm tired ok? I just want work to be fun and comfortable ok? Can someone up there promise that? Sincerely thanks for listening, I needed to get it out somewhere, and you became my victims!
Have a lovely weekend (I surely need it more than ever and the good thing is: it’s there in front of me, jeeeeee)
janine