Recovered

After a very, very nasty bout with the flu I am finally feeling better. I was bed-ridden for a full 4 days with a fever, snots, stomach problems and an earache. I knew it wasn't malaria because of the symptoms, but on day 2 when I wasn't feeling at all better and my fever wouldn't go down, I conceded to a visit to the clinic. The doctor had me do a malaria test that, surprise surprise, came out negative. I was betting that I'd be diagnosed with an ear infection or something, but nope, my blood work showed no sign of infection. End result? The doctor gave me a prescription for paracetamol with - get this - coedine. Since I wasn't in super serious pain or anything, I passed and just stuck to the Tylenol we had at home. I must say I was kind of shocked at the prescription. Coedine? The last time I had that was when my wisdom teeth were pulled in college.

Perhaps the worst part was that since I was so sick, I missed out on the monthly crafts fair that I usually participate in. I have all sorts of new pieces and was excited to do an exposition, but apparently it wasn't meant to be this time around. I'll have to schedule a jewelry and brownie cocktail party sometime in the next couple of weeks to make up for it.

Anyhow, I am now feeling much better and facing the fact that I no longer have a viable excuse to put off the work I don't want to do.

I am finishing up the FAO feasibility study on horticultural production in Maputo's peri-urban areas. It's an interesting study, but the problem is that one of our consulting team members totally cocked up his contributions to the document. Not only was his input late, the information was incomplete and in some cases simply lifted verbatim off prior studies that I had elaborated (and therefore caught what was going on right away). Now I am stuck with the sucky job of cleaning up the mess, while Rico is stuck with the sucky job of pressing this person to put in a bit more effort and contribute something decent. We've pushed back our deadline, and hopefully it will all be sorted out by next week.

My conclusion from this experience is that working with this person simply isn't worth the effort. We've had problems with him not delivering on his responsibilities before, and I'm sick of dividing profits equally with a person that doesn't pull his weight. Time to put up some limits.

Enough about work.

My friend Jenny came back on Monday from a weekend trip to Inhambane Province to do emergency needs assessments for the areas hit by Cyclone Favio. We met up for a beer and some dinner last night and heard some of her stories. Apparently Vilankulos has been hit really hard - most of the homes have been flattened, and even some of the sturdy, upscale lodges have been destroyed. Hearing about Jenny's experience made me want to participate in a similar mission at some point. I don't know how I'd go about it (Jenny has all sorts of connections through her job), but the idea of hands-on help in a disaster area is so much more gratifying and impactful than "development work" from behind a laptop.

Ah - on a totally different topic, the boys have fully recovered from the big snip and are doing really well. Not counting the first day they came home when Pria let fly 3 times to let us know she was unhappy about the whole ordeal, the boys haven't had any more revenge episodes. It seems the problem has been solved (knock on wood).

While getting the cats fixed certainly played a huge part, another contributing factor to the solution was that Rico and I finally got a proper bed. For the last year, we've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. It was an easy target for the boys, as they had to do absolutely zero work to climb on top of something soft and have at it. Now that our mattress is raised a full 40cm off the ground, it has made such a difference. No longer are we stampeded in the wee hours of the morning as the cats chase after each other and wrestle in the dawn light. Now they simply pass underneath our bed, and only hop up if they want some loving or if it's time for us to wake up and feed them. It's such a lovely change. Rico and I are sleeping better, the cats are seemingly happier, and we spend a lot less money on bleach. May this trend continue indefinitely.