Into the New Year….

January 6th 2006, 1630B

Ok, so New Years was actually the best part of a week ago, but late is better than never I guess. In my defence it’s been a little busy since I got back to town – half the guys are on leave, so the rest of us have to take up the slack – so I’ve not really had chance to sit down & type anything up for this, but it’s weekend now so I have the time.

So far, 2006 has gone pretty well, & I’m quite positive about the rest of the year. Staying an extra few days in Mwaro – we were supposed to return to Bujumbura on Sat 31st, but eventually only came back on Tues 3rd due to problems with transport – started things off on a positive note, and it’s helped me maintain my cheerful disposition since I’ve been back in town.
New Years Eve itself wasn’t too bad here, & was a far quieter affair in Mwaro than it would have been here in town, which I’m really glad about as my sense of humour at the time really wasn’t up to dealing with large numbers of drunk & noisy idiots. I gather from Noelles’ blog that most of my friends ended at the party held at Marks place, & it seems a great time was had by all, which I’m happy about. Paul, however, may well have felt rather tender for the most of 1st January, but I guess that’s one definition of a successful New Years Eve :p
I have an idea as to how he felt though, having wrapped myself around a few bottles of wine which is never a good thing for me to do – wine is most certainly not my friend lol – and I was in bed by 2300 or so. I’m not sorry that I didn’t see in the New Year, as it’s something I’ve not been fussed about in a long time – I’ve ended up working most New Years’, this year being a case in point, & there’s not a whole lot of point in getting excited about it if you can’t spend it with the people you actually want to.

As I said earlier, this year is going quite well so far, even if it is far too early to say how things are going to turn out. There’s a ridiculous amount of bullshit going on at the office though, & the internal politics are way out of hand again – to the point where people are laying complaints & charges against each other for the most pathetic crap you can imagine – but I think it’s mostly “end of deployment frustration” making itself known, & I’m making a concerted effort to avoid it as much as possible. Some of it does affect me directly though, such as the security officer taking the details of all personnel here at the base in town, & going around to all the local shops to ascertain what debts people have. I understand the reasoning behind it, that people have been returning to SA without settling their accounts, which reflects badly on the SANDF & UN, and this is an attempt to minimise that as much as possible. But so far as I’m concerned the private financial arrangements between myself & some shopkeeper represent privileged personal information, and what I do with my salary has sweet fuck all to do with the military or the UN, and I see this as a gross invasion of my privacy.
Something else that rather annoyed me was that this morning I found out that my financial authority to be in Burundi expired after I’d been in the country for 6 months, so my allowances have been stopped with effect January 1st. It’s nothing too serious to sort out – it takes a simple computer action to fix – but it’s offensive in that if the army was prepared to significantly disrupt my life by bringing me here the best part of two months early, then the least the bastards could have done was make sure that all the administration was in place. It’s also a little worrying because of the timing, in that salary administration closes on the 10th of each month, so if HR drags its feet even in the slightest, I won’t see any allowances this month at all, either in my account or the “cash in hand” one we get. I’ll manage, in that my credit card has never looked as good as it does right now, so if I need money I can get my hands on it. But I’ve got plans for that money, and day to day expenses because the army fucked up are not among them. That I’ll get the allowances is a given, but if it isn’t sorted out now, then I’ll likely end up waiting a good three months before I see the outstanding amount.

Enough of that though – I promised myself I was going to keep the bitching to a minimum in this for a change. In fact, something that has been surprising is that my sense of humour has survived the aggravation pretty much intact, & I’ve actually been quite upbeat the last few days. Like I said in the last post, this festive season was even less festive for me than it usually is, but I seem to have shaken off the worst of the fugue I’ve been in for so much of the last 6 months. Maybe it’s because the last few days have also had some really good points to them, but I imagine that there’s a certain amount of “light at the end of the tunnel” going on right now. I mean, I know that one way or another in a few weeks I’ll be at home, and will get to spend at least some time with the people I’ve missed so much since I’ve been here. Sure, the date for the end of the mission keeps changing, and I still don’t know if my extension has been granted, so I can’t know for sure when, or for how long, I’ll be home, but I do know that it won’t be too much longer.

So far as the good things about the last few days is concerned, probably the highlights so far have been having chance to chat to a few people on the phone since I’ve been back in town – I just cannot get through to G or Shirlz though, which is annoying – and also the brilliant surprise from Noelle I had waiting for me. The last time we chatted on MSN, she mentioned she was going to be sending me a “little something”, hopefully in time for Christmas. To be honest, I’d actually forgotten about it – have I mentioned that I’ve been a little…..”distracted” lately? :p – so you can imagine how pleased I was when I was received what she’d sent. It turns out that the “little something” was a card with a really thoughtful message in it, & also a dvd full of photographs, little video clips, a few movies, books, & so forth. There’s more than enough on the disc to keep me busy and entertained for weeks, and that she took the time & effort to put it together for me is really appreciated – I can’t say a big enough thank you. I think I may detect Pauls’ hand in the one rather……interesting Japanese comic that’s on the disc – Noelles’ sense of humour can be nasty at times, but I don’t know about that nasty lol – but I had a damn good laugh at it all the same. I sent an sms as soon as I received the disc, but I don’t know if she got it as the report came back as failed, so once again thank you VERY much, Noelle & Paul. I owe you big time for when I get home ;)

Something else that has helped has been that the last few days have been the busiest I’ve had since I got to Burundi. With half of the section being on leave at the moment, I’ve had something to do every day since I’ve been in town, & it’s made for a pleasant change. It may only be for a few hours a day, but that’s far better than the few hours actual work a week that has been the norm up until now. Much more of this and I may even develop a work ethic :p
Being comparatively so busy has also provided opportunity to take quite a few photos lately, especially on Wednesday, and I’ve had a pleasantly surprising number of them come out quite well, something that always makes me smile. There is, however, a downside to my renewed enthusiasm for photography – I’m once again having to struggle against the temptation to splash out large sums of money on lenses lol Up till now I’d been able to talk myself into waiting until I had confirmation of my extension, or the increase in allowances that we keep hearing rumours of, before I ordered the lens I want, but I’m suddenly finding it very hard to not go ahead and order the damn thing anyway. I should find out if I’ll be able to afford it sometime in the next few weeks at least, & I should be able to resist the temptation till then lol

Anyway, I think I’m going to end this off for now & see if I can’t find an internet connection so that I can upload it. Being a Friday, the one here at the base shouldn’t be too busy, but failing that there’s always the net café around the corner. I’ll likely only get to that in the morning though – I’m for an early night tonight, as I’ve been overdoing it on the Chinese & beer the last few days, & the liver is starting to complain lol

Cheers for now though ;)