Slow Day: Coca-Cola Was the Highlight

Today I had a veeeeeeeery boring day at work.

Hugh Marlboro goes out of town every weekend and only returns to Mozambique on Tuesday mornings, leaving me to fend for myself at the office on Mondays. As I get more accustomed to my job and the work begins to pile up, I suspect that my one day per week without a boss will become something I look forward to. But for now, having Hugh Marlboro out of the office means that I am bored.

I had one big task to do today - create a management plan and a policies and procedures chart for one of the smaller companies in the empire - and I finished it by 11am. The rest of my day consisted of making about 18 different lists (including Things to Buy in the US, To Do - General, Jewelry Supplies to Purchase, Things to Ask Rico Before He Leaves, To Do - Professional, and Clothes Wish List) and writing some letters. I will mail the letters this week, but whether or not they arrive at their destinations is another story entirely.

Perhaps the highlight of my day was when Ahmed, the supervisor of the fresh produce warehouse that Hugh Marlboro runs out of the first floor of our giant office complex, came upstairs and offered me an ice-cold Coca-Cola. It was the first truly welcoming gesture I've had from one of my colleagues, and it was especially nice because it was hot and humid today and I had already sucked my water bottle dry. I tried to open the bottle using the metal bit on the door jamb as a lever, but only succeeded in slicing my finger. I finally had to ask the secretary if she had a bottle opener (the reasonable thing to have done in the first place, I know), only to watch her wedge the bottleneck in the door jamb of her office and pop off the cap with one swift jerk of the wrist.

I am puzzled by a few things in the new office. Most notably, it seems as if nobody eats lunch ever, period. I don't even see people snacking during the day. At first I thought it was just Hugh Marlboro's strange habit to avoid meals and chug along all day fueled by multiple cups of coffee and sugary tea. Since I am currently shadowing Hugh M., I am somewhat at the mercy of his aversion to lunch. My solution is to keep a drawer in my desk full of treats that I can quickly eat or drink down while Hugh M. is in the toilet or on a phone call (i.e. juice boxes, trail mix, granola bars, cookies). However, now that I've been in the office more than a couple of days, I've noticed that nobody freaking eats in the place! Every 2 hours the office maid comes around with an unsolicited cup of tea or coffee, but that's it.

The second strange thing is that we don't seem to have a constant supply of water to the office. The toilet many times refuses to flush, so we have to resort to the old bucket flush or simply let the yellow mellow, so to speak. This means there is also no water in the sink for hand-washing (I keep sanitizer in my drawer, just like a good American thank-you-very-much), and all water for tea and coffee, I imagine, must be bottled or else there is a secret supply of water in the kitchen downstairs. So I bring a sports bottle full of filtered water to work every day, trying to lessen my part in the massive consumption of bottled water in this country. It is ridiculous how much plastic bottles of water contribute to waste and pollution, and it is easy to forget that, as an expat in a developing country, this is not the only solution for safe drinking water.

I'll step off the soapbox now. Don't worry. But it's annoying that when my water is gone, I can't refill and have to resort to drinking tea, coffee or a juice from my stash. I brought in a sack full of Splenda today and instructed Dona Regina, the maid, to put one packet in each hot beverage she makes me. This way, at least, I can guzzle tea and coffee all day with a slightly less-guilty conscience because I'm not rotting my teeth or consuming unnecessary calories.

Hugh Marlboro is back tomorrow, thank God. This means good things not only for my level of occupation at work, but also for the blog. Hopefully tomorrow I'll write of exciting things like learning how an irrigation pump works, or why bananas suffer more from stem rot in the winter than in the hotter, stickier summer months.