Moments of victory.

Remember the victories…

Ring ring ring….click click send…type type save….These are the normal sounds of my day. Along with moments and the associated noises of triumph and even despair!  For instance today was a victory. I woke to the sound of the alarm at 545am,  bad start…but I had a ferry to catch at 710am in Edmunds.  On the way (on the ferry not while driving, officer) I called Lilian in Malawi, this time she answered (great – but does this mean I should always call her at this time?). As an added bonus I was able to use I was using skype mobile and google tasks to keep  me on task! 

The highlight was when I said “Ah Lilian oka chita bwino!” meaning you are working  well Lilian! To which she said “Ah, your Chichewa gets better every day!” Little does she know I learned this phrase a long time ago and that I am recycling.  Communicating with Malawi is a challenge so today was a victory!  They have frequent power failures, which can go for days, the mobile network sometimes just fails and they are so busy sometimes they can not answer the phone calls and emails as fast as we would like.  Other times they are just too laid back to respond, or they do not understand why we are so impatient at times.  Tomorrow in Malawi is not always tomorrow it is more like a unknown time in the future in the great white beyond.  But sometimes it can mean tomorrow…

Then I was off to a meeting with Silverdale Rotary Club, where we discussed future water plans for the Dominican Republic. All great stuff…today was a good day. But there are days when no one in Malawi answers their phone or responds to their email, there are times when I am caught in the middle of another departments desire for certain information ASAP…Malawi does not compute ASAP. Neither does the Dominican or any of our countries. So I get exasperated emails/phone calls where is that information I requested! Those are bad days…Bad days are when there is downright confusion, like “did you say you only have 50 blankets, but we sent you 500 blankets!?”  Or when a project fails or struggles to get started, do they not want our help?

But not today, today I got the information I needed and the clicks, and rings and typing were filled with satisfaction…the satisfaction of knowing that today atleast boxes were checked, to do lists finished and phone calls were made.  Today will get me through the next couple of difficult days.