Did I do that

So, today I have felt like I constant cultural fopah. At night I usually find my phone and put it beside my bed...a weird ritual and largely because all I have to do is push a button to see what time it is....rather than find my flashlight and shine it on the clock when I can't sleep. Well, last night I couldn't find it. Oh well, I told myself it is probably in the other house or on the porch...I will check tomorrow. Well, I wake up this morning and began looking for it. I couldn't find it. I asked Bob...he said he didn't know. So, I told him to tell Elise our house help to keep an eye out. I knew it couldn't have gotten far and it would show up sooner or later. We looked around one more time and I sat down to work. I do this all the time...no big deal...it will show up. Not so in this world, within ten minutes there was a little bit of activity going on. Next think I know Bob is asking me to get up and keep looking for a little bit and Farel my accountant pulled out his phone to call it. (I would have done that eventually). Well, we found it at the bottom of my trunk and all the guards, garden help, and house help were following me around looking very nervous. What I then realized is that we are in a secure fenced in area and their job is to make sure everything remains safe and nothing is stolen. If something turns up missing, they get extremely nervous that they will be blamed for it. So, they were pretty much freak'n out. I felt so bad...that was the last thing I was trying to do. I lose things all the time. Mental note....keep looking hard before you raise an alert with the workers of the house. Man...it was bad.

Today was the last day in Berberati...other than my big issue...nothing of large note. I had wrap up meetings with people and last minute conversations. I did have to have a heart to heart with one of my accountants but that even turned out good. Bob told me that they are not used to having people actually talk through perceived issues with them...usually it shows up in a meeting and the head person (that would be me) blows up and drops the hammer. He said that this went really well and hopefully they will take it to heart. I have no idea if they are used to people dealing with conflict the way I do...but it did end up fairly well given our cultural differences.

They guys want to leave at 3 in the morning. I think they are crazy but I am going to do it. Ugh. On the last trip, I slept the first 3 hours. I am not sure if I will be able to do that this time as the beginning of the trip is all the really really bad holes in the road. Oh well.....I can sleep on Saturday night and all day Sunday if I need to.

The good thing about Bangui is the pool should actually be working...I truly hope so. And 6 more days till I board a plane and 7 more days till I am home. I am really looking forward to getting back to comfortable friends. I don't mind the days here...it is just work. But at the close of the day, I wish I had a good friend to detox with...still overall the trip has gone smoothly.