Phase Zero
-day 5-
at 7am i meet my colleagues on the parking lot of the Grand Hotel, they want
to have breakfast in the cafeteria of the UN peacekeeping mission. a notice
on the door says it opens at 7, but not this monday morning it seems. we find
some food in a lebanese cafe and i have fresh mint tea. in the office i cannot
really do anything, the two desks are taken by my french colleagues who got
here first, and there is no computer for me either. one of these weeks the
hardware for our Mine Action and
Coordination Centre will arrive.
i call antoine, the guy who is showing me some apartments, because he was
supposed to fix us a meeting. i tell our driver max let's go, but he says
we need fuel for the car. i ask my colleagues what the story is, they laugh
and say we have to wait for someone to arrive and authorise something-
i am getting used to this kind of surprises, at the end it is always money
that is the problem, so i buy 5 litres of fuel to get through the day.
we find antoine, but he has not fixed the meeting, we have to sit down
and wait. i explain him that the day before, my belgian friends introduced
me to another belgian who has some apartments for rent here, and that i am
planning to check those out. suddenly he realises he will not get a commission
in that case, and he starts calling around. in the mean time i decide to
go to the belgian embassy, to register my presence. again i am disappointed
by the reception. the lady refuses to speak dutch, makes a copy of my passport,
gives me the emergency numbers, and au revoir.
we have a short meeting with an apartment owner, the price is 50% higher
than what antoine told me, so we leave. he tries to show me some other houses,
but nobody has the key; he even wants to use my phone to call. i decide to
drop antoine and head for the belgian connection. they show me a spacious
place on the 8th floor overlooking the congo river with the city of brazzaville
on the other side. they agree to arrange the apartment as soon as possible,
and on the way back to my office i relax a bit, realising i was lucky with
this belgian connection. in fact every day i am surprised to see products
from belgian supermarkets; napkins, olives, tuna cans, juice, cleaning
products.. in other parts of the world i have to explain where belgium is, here
people know all too well!
i sit down in the UN cafeteria and after a long wait
my cheese sandwich arrives, he admits the other waitress forgot about me.
while i am eating, a shower of rain comes down and suddenly a giant grasshopper
lands on my back. i am embarrassed to see how my colleagues at the neighbouring
table treat the waiter.
i have come to build a landmine information database, but our project is still
looking for offices and the equipment has not arrived yet. some people had told
me that i should be ready for some surprises, but still i had not imagined it
to be like this.. i guess there is still a lot to learn
Tom Tobback © 2002