Military-Flavored Doom
Jun. 8th, 2006 08:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amalthyaWednesday 8:05 pm
I haven't yet given up hope about getting to stay in this house, but various factors are coming together to make it all somehow unfeasible. The brother of Mavula who also owns this house is unwilling to jeopardize his friendship with Kasuku, the landlord, because Kasuku manages many of his other properties.
Additionally, the guys who've moved into our house illegally are just FLUSH with money, have already paid Kasuku $1000 to be in our house and have serious military contacts that are making the guys in the JGI-Goma office quake with fear.
It does certainly make one lose faith in "people" to see this sort of bullshit going on right under your nose -- in your own house even -- and be unable to stop it in any way. Essentially, Kasuku is renting the same house to two people and he has legally binding contracts with both parties. And he's considered a proper "businessman" here.
Like I said, though, I haven't given up hope, because I think that I made a good impression on the 'big man' coordinating the activities of our inadvertent housemates. He may be in Kampala, but he seemed so amenable to house-sharing previously when I talked to him that Olivier's report that he is totally unwilling (and also scary and military-connected) may be a bit colored. Salesie Laura™ to the rescue? Can I use my bullshitter's real estate diplomacy to talk us into getting to stay here? We'll find out tomorrow.
I too am a bit nervous, though, because it's easy enough to say the wrong thing, and I'm well-aware that this guy's connections could get us all scrubbed. And not in the cleanliness way.
I'm also not sure why, but Goma has become helicopter central the last two nights ... they go over, quite literally, every 10-15 minutes. Sometimes the intervals are smaller. They're really annoyingly loud, too. Is it necessary to transport everything, and everyone, by helicopter, between 6 and 9 pm?
I've become somehow convinced too that if you're not an enormous bitch when you get to Africa, that by the time you leave, you could give [insert famous bitchy person here] a run for her money. You get pushed over, around, under and over here in so many ways that you reach a breaking point a lot sooner than you might have hoped. Someone tells you that they've tried everything they can to fix a certain thing, or do something or other, and instead of saying "thank you for trying" your immediate response is "that's unacceptable. Search for other solutions."
::sighing:: I may be creative, but I have no illusions.
I haven't yet given up hope about getting to stay in this house, but various factors are coming together to make it all somehow unfeasible. The brother of Mavula who also owns this house is unwilling to jeopardize his friendship with Kasuku, the landlord, because Kasuku manages many of his other properties.
Additionally, the guys who've moved into our house illegally are just FLUSH with money, have already paid Kasuku $1000 to be in our house and have serious military contacts that are making the guys in the JGI-Goma office quake with fear.
It does certainly make one lose faith in "people" to see this sort of bullshit going on right under your nose -- in your own house even -- and be unable to stop it in any way. Essentially, Kasuku is renting the same house to two people and he has legally binding contracts with both parties. And he's considered a proper "businessman" here.
Like I said, though, I haven't given up hope, because I think that I made a good impression on the 'big man' coordinating the activities of our inadvertent housemates. He may be in Kampala, but he seemed so amenable to house-sharing previously when I talked to him that Olivier's report that he is totally unwilling (and also scary and military-connected) may be a bit colored. Salesie Laura™ to the rescue? Can I use my bullshitter's real estate diplomacy to talk us into getting to stay here? We'll find out tomorrow.
I too am a bit nervous, though, because it's easy enough to say the wrong thing, and I'm well-aware that this guy's connections could get us all scrubbed. And not in the cleanliness way.
I'm also not sure why, but Goma has become helicopter central the last two nights ... they go over, quite literally, every 10-15 minutes. Sometimes the intervals are smaller. They're really annoyingly loud, too. Is it necessary to transport everything, and everyone, by helicopter, between 6 and 9 pm?
I've become somehow convinced too that if you're not an enormous bitch when you get to Africa, that by the time you leave, you could give [insert famous bitchy person here] a run for her money. You get pushed over, around, under and over here in so many ways that you reach a breaking point a lot sooner than you might have hoped. Someone tells you that they've tried everything they can to fix a certain thing, or do something or other, and instead of saying "thank you for trying" your immediate response is "that's unacceptable. Search for other solutions."
::sighing:: I may be creative, but I have no illusions.
