00:20 - I fall back into comatose sleep, dreaming weird stuff. Like every night.
07:23 - My alarm is ringing, trying to wake me. After two snooze-episodes, I actually realize what’s going on and drag myself to the bathroom. When you’re living with your colleagues, who have to leave the house at the same time as you, every opportunity of an unoccupied bathroom has to be seized.
07:50 - I’m crawling back into bed with a cup of coffee, trying to wake up slowly (and escaping the cold of the room under my warm blanket) while watching an episode of friends.
08:40 - My colleagues are already gone in one of the two cars that are parked inside our gate every day. I am leaving the house in a rush, swearing at the lock we use for our gate - as every morning. Locks tend to be always jammed when you’re in a rush. Or carrying several heavy bags. Or in the middle of the night when you just want to fall into your bed instantly. Or when it’s raining, like today.
08:43 - I am finally on my way to work, accidentally hitting a deep pothole and feeling pity for our poor rental. I am overtaking several cars, swearing. Why is nobody able to drive in this country? If they’d go any slower, they’d go backwards.
08:46 - I arrive at the office, looking forward to a relaxed morning and my writing afternoon. During our morning meeting we realize that we are short on drivers and I have to go into field. I am annoyed. Possibly because I was too lazy to eat breakfast this morning and a lack of food doesn’t do any good for my mood. Possibly because it’s raining and I don’t have a jacket with me, nor proper shoes to be outside for more than 2 minutes.
09:15 - I speak to my team about two possible referrals from the last days. Two Teens seem to be having a high suicide risk. I am glad that it’s not a rape case.
09:30 - Grumpy because of a lack of breakfast I rush home again, grabbing a rainjacket, some leftover food from yesterday’s dinner and putting on proper shoes. Now I am ready to face a rainy day in field.
09:45 - I am at the office again, trying to coordinate my team. Everyone is pissed because it’s raining, one of our team members didn’t show up, we haven’t recruited a community guide (for safety and navigation) yet for the township we (or actually they) are going in today and generally everything’s chaotic. As every morning. Having a small office jammed with 45 people every morning is prone to being chaotic, but you’re still annoyed every time.
10:00 - My team is ready to go, still lacking one member. I send them off anyway with one of our drivers and rush to another group who’s waiting for me to be their additional driver as we only have three big cars who can fit a whole team and only three hired drivers, but four teams. So we bring out the fourth team with two small cars and two Fieldwork Coordinators (FWC) as drivers.
10:10 - I am finally sitting in a car with half of someone else’s team, waiting for the other half to go in front and guiding the way.
10:15 - We’re still waiting.
10:20 - The other half of the team is rushing by, just through a yellow traffic light, not to be seen again.
10:21 - We’re calling them. They’re at the petrol station. We decide to go first and find our way. Another car with a project manager (PM) and a community guide trainer should be following us but it’s not coming. So we are waiting. again.
10:25 - We are finally on our way, with the other car following us.
10:40 - Arrival in the township, waiting for the community guide. And the other half of the team. I decide to finally go for some breakfast, indulging half a grilled cheese sandwich, some fries and two fried mushrooms. All leftovers from yesterday’s team dinner at a restaurant. All cold. All tasting like crap. But it helps to boost my bloodsugar just enough to take my grumpyness away.
10:50 - The other half of the team is finally here and ready to go pick up the community guide. We follow them and so is the other car with the project manager and the community guide trainer. What a weird parade. People in the township are looking at us, quite irritated.
10:55 - We are at the community guide’s house. Waiting. Two Research Assistants (RAs) are going off to do an interview. I have no idea what’s happening. No one actually has. Apparently, the community guide is not showing up, so we are turning around and trying to pick up another one. The car with the Project manager is staying behind. We lose the car in front of us as the two RAs are coming back from the planned interview because no one seems to be at the house. Now we are 6 people in a car with 5 seats, trying to find the other car again.
11:05 - We are united again, driving to the second community guide who is actually there, dropping two RAs off on our way so we are finally having enough proper seats again for all the people in the car.
11:10 - We are stopping outside a house to drop 2 RAs for an interview.
11:11 - They are coming back. The Teen they wanted to interview ran away and is not to be found. Just after threatening his mother to stab her. Because he wants all the grant money for himself. I’m not even surprised anymore.
11:12 - We are trying two other houses for interviews, but as it’s the beginning of June, everyone seems to be in town to buy food from the grant money they always receive in the beginning of the month.
11:30 - We are waiting for the other car again.
11:45 - Finally everyone is in one place. All three cars. So the community guide trainer can train our picked up community guide in finding programme participants for us. We are waiting again. In the meantime, I chat with one of our RAs about beer, whiskey, rock music and claustrophobia and sending a gps link to another pair of FWCs who are about to join us, respectively take the second shift in field as me and the other FWC-driver are actually supposed to have our writing afternoon off.
12:00 - Everyone actually arrived. We swap cars and drivers and I am finally off to the office, surprised that I can leave this early and very happy to leave the field chaos behind.
12:30 - I am finally home, switching into sweatpants. I call my team to check if everything’s going alright with them.
12:40 - I start writing this blogpost, sipping coffee and freezing in our living room without heating, running into my bedroom from time to time to check if there is water coming through the roof as it started to rain heavily again.
I wish I could say this was a typical day, but it wasn’t. Not only because it was just half a day (which I can enjoy maximum once a week, if at all) but because there are no normal days here. Everything is madness. And chaos. But at least not boring at all - well, apart from the hours spent waiting somewhere in a car.
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| Office Chaos |
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