August 22nd 2005, 1855B
You have to laugh at army life. I mean, really you do, otherwise sometimes you’d have to cry. You remember how I’ve mentioned a few times previously how I was going to be rotating back to Bujumbura on this coming Wednesday or so, when the new contingent arrived? Well, about 10 minutes ago the signaller came to me with the message that there’s no relief available & that I need to stay here longer.
Which in and of itself is not a problem, & I’m actually having a quiet chuckle about this. Ok, I’ll admit there’s an element of cynicism to it – “typical army, couldn’t get laid in a brothel” etc - but it’s still a chuckle, ok? In fact I’m really quite pleased by this turn of events, as I’m happy & comfortable here, and I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned previously that I’m not keen on the idea of working in Bujumbura :P
The sad thing about this is that it’s hardly surprising at all, which is where the cynical chuckle comes in. This really is par for the course in the Defence Force & I have a fair idea that in this organisation the only time that something goes as planned is entirely by accident. In my experience it’s very rarely by design. There’s actually an “in-house” acronym that’s perfect for when this kind of thing happens : SNAFU. Situation Normal, All Fucked Up :P
Admittedly logistics is a very complicated business, but it’s not as if it wasn’t known at the mobilisation centre in Bloem how many people were needed, where they were needed, and when they needed to be there. The new contingent has been sitting at de Brug for the best part of three weeks now, doing their mobilisation, so the people who set up the pax lists for the flights knew who was available. They knew how many people they could fit on a plane. They knew how many flights would be available to transport the personnel & their equipment to the mission area. They knew who would be flying back from the mission area & when, so they knew who they needed to send to replace the returning personnel. You’d think they’d be able to prioritise, wouldn’t you? Especially seeing that at the mobilisation centre they’ve had over 5 years experience of mobilising, deploying, & de-mobilising personnel for external operations. But even so, things have once again not happened as they were supposed to.
Now don’t get me wrong here – I’m really am happy about things not going as planned, at least in this particular instance & it’s doing wonders for my disposition to know I’ll be staying longer in Mwaro. But I can tell you now, that in 5 or so months when it’s time for me to come home, there will be a similar SNAFU on the very day my flight is due to leave, & I’ll end up staying longer. And on that day I will be very un-happy, I can assure you. I’m prepared to put money on it – a modest amount, to be sure – but anyone interested in taking that bet is welcome to let me know. Be prepared to lose your money though :P
It’s exactly what happened to me last year in the Congo after all, as some of you may recall. I remember how it felt to call Ash two or three days before she expected me home, to have to tell her that I may not be coming home at all for another 6 months because there was no relief for me. I remember how it felt to phone her again a few days later when she thought I was already in the air, on the way home, to tell her it was going to be at least one more day. And I remember how unhappy at the delays I was at the time. I also remember how pissed off I was at the extra expense I incurred because I had to hire a car to get home because my transport plans went out the window because of the delay.
At least I won’t have to worry about making my girlfriend very unhappy this time, should there be a repeat performance, but it’s discouraging to be as certain as I am that there will be a screw up.
But don’t mind me – I’m just feeling cynical & disillusioned with the military. God only knows what else I’ll do, but I think that maybe the time has come for me to explore life outside of the military, at least in this country. By the look of it I’ll be discharged from service in September next year when my contract expires, because of my dual citizenship. It may be that this is just a bullshit rumour, & that my contract will be renewed for another few years regardless, but I think it may just be an idea to leave the military anyway. Employment opportunities being what they are in SA, I’ll possibly end up back in the UK, & I may look at re-enlisting there - assuming they’ll take me at my age – but I think it might be an idea to try life as a civilian for a change. I’ve been a soldier all my adult life, & the thought of doing something else is a daunting one, but also an intriguing and exciting one. Who knows, maybe I can get a job taking tasteful photographs of beautiful, naked young women. Or even a job taking smutty photographs of beautiful, naked young women – you can’t afford to limit yourself, after all lol
Otherwise there’s not much else in the way of news. The last day or so have gone quite well, & I’ve been fairly cheerful even – knowing that I’ll be avoiding Bujumbura at least a few days more has also improved my happy thoughts some :P
I’ll still be going in to the capital tomorrow though, to collect that money I was supposed to get last week. Apparently a message was radioed through last week Thursday saying we should have come in to get it on the Friday, but neither myself nor the other medic here ever heard a whisper of that. It’s not that either of us a particularly hard to find – our tent is right next to the bloody signallers here, so all they had to do was shout & we’d have heard.
It’ll be nice to get out of the camp here for a few hours though, & I always enjoy it when people give me money, assuming things go as planned this time. It’ll also be good to get to a phone to speak to a few people back home, which is something I’m really looking forward to. Hopefully I’ll also get chance check my mail, and get these last few missives off the hard drive and added to the blog where people can read them.
Anyway, I’m going to finish off here and go make some coffee, & then read awhile before I crash. Till next time ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment