Mind the Gap

I'm sure many of you have seen the signs in the London Tube (subway) that say "Mind the Gap."  As Americans, we love this little turn of phrase that is so different from how we would say it.  The signs are there to warn passengers to be careful of the small gap between the subway cars and the platform.  However, once in a movie or something I saw someone apply it to the gap between expectations and reality.  I think that perhaps the thing I will come away from this experience is a more skill in that particular area.

Anyone who has lived in a developing country can tell you that there is always a gap between what you expect and what happens.  You expect a bus to arrive around a certain time and it never comes... you expect a scheduled meeting to occur and no one shows up... you expect to watch a little tv and the power goes out.  The combination of an extremely poor country, a raging epidemic, and staff that are stretched to their limits means that expectations are further from reality than I think they have ever been for me.  As some of you may know, I like to plan just a little bit.. and I don't much like not being in control so this week I found myself testing the limits of my patience.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was supposed to go to my site visit in Kenema on the UN helicopter.  The tickets come the day before the flight, so although nothing was confirmed I wasn't worried.  I went to a meeting at UNICEF that I expected to last for 2 hours... but the reality was that it lasted for three.  I got back to the office after 5 and found no ticket... I called our Administrative person who just said she wasn't in the office, so that wasn't much help.  Turns out no ticket had been bought, but it was ok because someone was going to set up a car for me.  Expectations: 0, Reality: 2

I was told I would be leaving at 11, so I was in my office just trying to get a few things done when I get a call from my boss who tells me I need to be leaving right now.  The drivers didn't know this, so although I got in the car to leave at 10:15, we ended up running around to get gas and whatever else to prepare for the trip and I still left Freetown at 11.  Expectations: 0, Reality: 3

By this point, I was close to tears and so frustrated I could barely talk.  All along the way to Kenema, the police set up checkpoints where they make you wash your hands and they take your temperature.  About 3 hours and who knows how many checkpoints later, I met up with the colleague who was coming with me to Kenema.  This colleague had been slow on emails and I didn't expect to really get along with her, but she was great.  Expectations: 0, Reality: 4 (see, they aren't always bad)

In any case, I think get the idea.  Despite my difficulty in getting to Kenema, my visit there went really well.  The OICC that GOAL is running there is very impressive and it was really nice to get out of the office.  I did a good job strengthening my relationship with one of the nurses on my team as well as getting to know my colleague who will be in charge of another OICC that we a planning on opening soon.  I left Kenema feeling really happy with the visit.  And I left on the helicopter :)

So, the first 10 or 15 minutes of the trip you feel like perhaps one of the coolest people in the world.  Then you realize that the noise is nearly deafening and you can't really do much and it does get old kind of fast.  But still, it was pretty cool to ride on a UN helicopter!!  I'm going to post photos in another post :)