Last Poker for the Grinder

I’m watching the Balloon Boy thing on CNN for the first time now at the Dar airport. What a waste of time and energy! Anyhow, I’m in the Flamingo Restaurant at the airport, really the only place to put one’s stuff down and have a good meal before heading to the next part of the journey.

It was really tough to get up this morning for my 7am trip to the airport. Last night was Rafael’s last poker night, so we had it at Talapia’s Hotel. “The Band” was also playing, meaning Helen will have to perform at the same time juggling to satisfy her poker fix. The Band consists of James and Keiran, both teachers at the International School. On vocal is Helen, another teacher who will be leaving in December (will be another sad day). I stayed until 1am, went home and “packed”, then had to get up at 5am to “pack” some more. Since Rafael and Suzanna are staying at my place for their last 2 nights in Mwanza, I wanted to make the place at least as comfortable for them as possible.

Poker night started innocently enough with “The Ladies” attending one of the Mwanza Casino’s ladies’ night. It’s a marketing attempt to get more women into the Casino, but in our case it backfired. The Ladies decided that, once they have learned the rules, it would be more comfortable, less stressful, and we would have better food at home. So Anna started the first Poker Night at her place with much success. Since then, we’ve had it at everyone’s place. We stared with potluck, then everyone was too busy or tired to cook, so we graduated to Indian take out at my place, then pizza take out at Joelle’s place, then the Isamilo Lodge and Talapia Hotel. We finally decided that playing in a public place, though highly illegal, was the best option for us. Drinks keep coming, food can be ordered, and we can stay as long as we want. Best of all, no one has to cook or clean up afterwards.

It has come to a point where all of us are just looking forward to Friday so we can play. I suspect it is more about the social interaction and the fact that we can make off-hand comments about how ridiculous our jobs sometimes are. The thrill of the bet is just an enjoyable side effect.

Each of us has a poker name. I’m ‘Lil Spout, because I served water out of a defective Tanzanian jug that had such a small spout that it spilled every time one tries to pour water. Anna is straight up Bluffer whereas Joelle is Fluffer because she was once confused between the two terms.Helen is The Sack because she carries her coins in a brown crochet sachet her aunt made for her. Rafael for the longest time did not have a name because he was dishing them out, but last night we came up with Grinder, because he is in love with the movie Rounders, and he carries his coins in a pepper jar (I carry mine in a Nutella jar in case you are curious). Emily is Pinkeye because she had a bad case of… pink eye that put her out of commission for 2 weeks. And Carlos is the Jackhole. His original name is the Jackal, but because one time he was bully Cecily so much, we decided to mix it up with ‘asshole’. Cecily is Cahones because she is always willing to follow the bet, one time she bluffed the Jackhole out with nothing more than a single slightly higher card. Sheila’s nickname is yet to be determined.

  

Hard day

Today started well enough. Penultimate gym session with Rafael, came to work and my team seemed to be picking up the slacks for training, the whole day training went really well, and we had planned to have the new hires go to Shinyanga tomorrow for a field trip. Then my boss came in at 6pm to let us know he’s not happy with this plan, so we had to call the trainees to let them know they will not travel tomorrow, and the whole thing was just changed around, just like that.

I don’t mind changing plans if it is justifiable. But the thing is, my team made this decision together for good reasons, and to have it changed in the last minute really made me feel like we just made a horrible decision which had no deliberation. The decision was in fact not horrible. It was a fine one.

This is a perfect time to let go of the ego. I felt it was a personal affront on my decision making and leadership skill as a coordinator. And worst of all, it’s my boss who I thought have trusted me enough to make these kinds of decisions. In any case, I should not take it so personally, but I did, and it’s probably because of the following:

1. I did not have lunch or anything substantial to eat since after the gym, so perhaps my blood sugar was not in the best shape at 6pm when this happened.

2. I am feeling extremely stressed out because of:

a) the conference call on Thursday which I need to explain to the higher-ups why our project is such a mess;
b) the seminar on Friday which I am coordinating;

c) the monitoring visit on Friday, for which I have not prepare anything;

d) and finally, not having enough time to practice my presentation.

3. I feel that I am flying solo here with organizing this training, although there are people around me who I could delegate. I feel that if I don’t take a lead in anything, no one will pick up the slacks (this is the general feeling of being here). It is always like I am asking for a favor when I try to delegate. It’s not a good feeling.

In summary, it was a good day turned bad within minutes. So sad. Luckily I had dinner plans with Carlos and we hung out a bit on the veranda of Yun Long Chinese Restaurant, which made me feel a lot better. We also laughed at some silly memories in Mwanza, which helped a lot.

It is too bad he is leaving soon. I promised him I’m going to build him a shrine on this blog soon. Just not now, not when I’m under this kind of stress.

Gym time

Going to the gym has been one of the good habits I’ve picked up here, thanks to Rafael. When I’m not in the field, we would go either Saturday or Sunday, around 7am, then two other days during the week, unless we have to rest because we’d be too sore.  Each visit is 2,000 Tshillings, which is less than 2 USD, it’s worth the pain.

Sometimes Haji joins us when he’s not working. Usually we go early in the morning because no one is there except Hassan, the gym minder. He is always there.

This is the place is called “Family Fitness Centre” (Note the subtitle: Exercise Delays Ages” on the sign). It used to be a bakery on the Airport Road, and since the gym had to be relocated, it moved into this empty building almost overnight. It has old but functional weight benches, barbells, dumbbells, and weight machines. In the back there is a large aerobics room (see pic on left). Also note the big baken ovens in the back, and Haj’s Obama bag on the table.

On the TV usually is bad old American movies streaming from HBO India. Hassan has recently discovered that we liked the techno trance CD so he would put it on when we are there. There is a shower, but I don’t recommend it unless you absolutely have to, and I do twice a week because I have to go right in to work after the workout.

There is a lot of potential for the place. For example, they could offer monthly membership, introduce a juice bar, have antiseptic sprayer and towels, deodorize the place, etc. The list goes on.

Being a hopeless romantic/sadist that I am, I would always start my sentences in gym conversations with Rafael with “You know what they should do…” Rafael makes fun of me about that all the time. I agree with him; it’s really pointless to think of good ideas (or good to me anyhow) when people are not going to think they are good. So I am learning not to think of what “should be,” and just focus on what “is”. That is a harder workout than bench pressing one’s body weight, I can promise you that.

After gym, we usually go to R&S’s place to have breakfast: scrambled eggs with bacon and chives, homemade bread, pickles, and a coffee. Sometimes he would whip up a blended juice of watermelon, pineapple, orange, mango, and other goodies. 24Hour Fitness has nothing on us!

T-minus: 1 week

As of today, I have one more week before leaving for Boston for the big defense. I am feeling the crunch. Within this same week, we will have a monitoring visit for the project, and there is a steering committee conference call in which I am expected to report to the investigators the progress of the study.

On top of that, there is the pressure to be social since Carlos will not be around much longer (3 costume parties in 3 weeks, it’s a bit much even for Mwanza standards). Today, it’s going as your astrological sign, either Zodiac or Chinese, or both. Next week it’s the roaring 20’s Charity Ball, then after that, Hollywood vs. Bollywood. Rafael and Suzanna will also be leaving Mwanza forever, so it’s my last week with them. There’s also yoga, frisbee, gym dates which are beckoning me. Too many social engagements, not enough time.

I also need to change my electricity meter from the post-paid to the pre-paid type, which in theory should be easy, but as was proven yesterday at Tanesco (the eletric company here), it’s going to be a bit of a struggle.

It’s a lot and am I going to be glad when I am finally falling asleep in the Emirates flight out of Dar. I simply cannot wait for that moment!

Until then, I just have to focus. Today I sent out the draft of the presentation to my committee members. Rafael (bless him) is helping me with making it pretty. I need to practice at least 50 times to get this right. It’s my only shot! But little by little it will be done.

For now, a nap. I spent the whole day in town buying plane tickets and standing in line at the bank. That will get you tired real quick around here!

Tuesday madness

Left the house at 7am today. Good thing I delegated the interviewing of new staff to a colleague;  gave me time to do all these other administrative things in preparation for this monitoring visit. Then at noon went to the gym with Rafael – had the hardest workout EVER! It’s a good thing he pushes me to go, otherwise I would have been in the office for 12 hours straight. That is not healthy by any means.

I don’t think we will be going in the middle of the day again though. You never notice the heat until it hits you after the second set of bench press. It was a bit of a struggle.

Came back to the office, rearranged more files on the server, wrote my meeting minutes, sent some emails out. There are a million things to do, my Outlook task list is a bit scary.

Had dinner with Carlos and Rafael at “the Lodge”. Rafael brought a deck of cards so we played a little poker. When and how did we become such addicts? Had the usual “sizzling beef” – it was Cyrille’s favorite. This time it was too salty and they made us paid for the sides (mashed potatoes/fries). What’s up with that?

Carlos is leaving soon, going to Ethiopia. He is trying to get me to leave Mwanza as well. It is true, there’s really nothing for me here, no people anyway. Everyone, or at least most of the people I care about, is leaving Mwanza.

Got home and wanted to do more with my presentation but fell asleep before 10pm. Blame it one the gym. Or age. Or both.

Cirque du Tanzania

What a surprise to have found Mama Afrika Circus when I landed in Arusha. The acrobats, dancers, jugglers, and clowns were all extremely talented, and the whole production was so amazingly surreal.

I have heard about this circus while visiting Dar one time, but did not have a chance to check it out. Also, a circus in Africa to me conjures up images of mangy animals and half-baked acts. Contrary to my biases, however, I rather enjoyed watching the performances. All the time I am thinking: this is what the world should know about Africa. It is full of energy, vibrancy, and strength! All the acts were a feast to the eye. 

My friend Jenaya would argue that the real value of this circus is all the half naked men contorting around. Okay, there is something to be said about that. But really, for some strange reason, watching the choreographed, organized, and obviously well trained performers gave me hope for the rest of Africa, or at least for Tanzania. On the personal level, here is proof that excellence can happen with enough concentration and practice. On the institutional level, we don’t always have to give the excuse that we are in Africa and so things must be done poorly, late, or not at all. This is a PRODUCTION involving many people and a lot of organization, and it went without a hitch! My project can learn something form this circus!

 

Week in Review

After Monday madness, my usual week goes as follows:

Wednesday, October 7
Drive with Hashim (our project driver) to Shinyanga for a day visit. Shinyanga is one of our study sites and is two hours away from Mwanza. We left at 9:00AM (after stopping by Standard Charter to take out some of my own money for project spending, a bad habit I’m trying to break) and arrived at 11:30AM. The site was quiet but we got a lot done. I check some folders to make sure our participants are being followed closely. One of the problems we are facing is poor retention, so this is always an area which I need to focus on while doing field work.

Thursday, October 8
Drive to Kahama in the morning at 7:30AM. This is our second site, about 2 hours from Shinyanga. The drive is on a paved road so it’s not bad. There are many bicyclists on the road, and also lots of baobab trees dotting the countryside. These trees are amazing living things, some are as wide as 2 meters. They are beautiful in an otherwise barren landscape. Although rain season has officially started, this part has not been receiving the rain just yet.

On Thursday afternoon we returned to Shinyanga. Although I was very tired, we were invited to a good-bye party for our staff member Rachel who volunteered to move from Shinyanga to Geita site (our third site) due to shortage of staff there. It was organized by the team leader, and the whole team (of 15 people) came out, and had a really good time. we danced around the table to the tunes of someone’s phone and presented a gift to Rachel. It was simple, heartfelt, and was so nice to see this kind of community among our staff.

Friday, October 9
Drove back to Mwanza at 7:00AM with the specimen from Shinyanga and Kahama. Upon arriving at 9:30AM, I had to prepare interview and test questions for 8 interviews: 6 for the tracer post, and 2 for the nurses post. This was not done as I would expected by my colleagues, so I got frustrated and snapped at another for having to do this right when I get back from the field. Two of us interviewed 8 people straight through, not having breakfast or lunch on my part.

Friday night: bacon and arugula pizza with Rafael and Suzanna. Rafael made a great homemade pizza and truly it was the only thing I was looking forward to in the whole week. So nice to have home cooking.

Saturday morning: went to the gym with Rafael and Haji at 7:15AM. We do the usual arms and chest, but Rafael added a new twist to our routine by having us do leg exercises. The combination of having only one meal the day before plus not sleeping well resulted in me throwing after a very intense workout. As always, I felt much better after getting it all out, and went back to R&S’s place for scrambled eggs with bacon, toast, and fruit shake. It was a nice reward for the hard workout.

Saturday afternoon: Spent all day at the printer trying to print the posters for our conference next week. First excuse was no electricity, so they posters were late. Second excuse was because the file I gave them was too low resolution, so they had to redesign it. After four hours of waiting at their office (I insisted to wait there because I knew if I’d left, the work would have not been done), the results were atrocious. Lines were squiggly instead of straight, the graphics were still pixilated, and words were bold where there should not be bold.

Saturday night: Poker night at Emily’s