Commute to work

Sunday PM: Happily packing for an 8am departure up-country to Bopolu

Thinking in my head, "I'm so glad that we're leaving early!"


Monday

6:15AM: Wake up to the roosters (I haven't needed an alarm in 2 months)

7:45AM: Walk up to the office, big smile on my face, ready to go to Bopolu, baby!


8:00AM: "Hmmm....so Phil, what truck do you think we are taking?" I ask. I was expecting that we'd be packing the truck already. I was expecting that we'd at least have a truck already. Neither were true. Oh beloved expectations...

8:15AM: Mobile Hannah (our truck) arrives! BUT, Mobile Hannah is having electrical issues. What time will we be able to hit the road?" I ask Mason our logistics guy. "10AM." he replies confidently.

10:00AM: Hannah is still in the shop with 5 maintenance guys standing around her. "Are we ready to go?" I ask promptly. They look at me puzzled. I just asked a ridiculous question. Obviously we're not ready to go. Obviously there's still something wrong with the truck because there are 5 guys standing around it. But in my mind, since no one is actually working on anything in particular, I wonder, "if you're not really doing anything, then everything should be finished already, right?"


Wrong.


11:00AM. Hannah is a still a work in progress... I walk upstairs to see Phil. He has been in Africa a lot longer than me and therefore still working on his computer at his desk with no expectation at all that Hannah is ready to go. And he was right.

11:15AM: I talk to our driver, Walker. "Ca va, Walker? What time do you think?" "We can always go tomorrow.' Walker replies. "No. We need to go today, Walker" I tell him as sternly as possible.

11:45AM: Hannah is out of the shop and ready to go!! We decide to eat first and hit the road after lunch.

12:15: Walker asks me nervously if he can run home to get his bag. I tell him he MUST be back by 1:00.

12:45: Lunch is served late and I'm told that Walker is just now getting ready to go home and get his bag. I run outside to catch him. "No, Walker. Let's get it on the way. Please go eat some lunch."

1:30: We hit the road!! Woohoo!!

2:00: We're trying to decide where to go first - to backtrack twice of three times through the city.

2:30: We're still in Monrovia picking something up. What? I don't know.

3:00: I think we actually left the city.

4:30: Yep...literally on the road...we got a FLAT tire. :)

5:00: Still fixing the flat because we had the jack was too short for the Land Cruiser so the guys are scouting out sticks they can use to prop the jack on to lift the ATV high enough to get the tire off.

5:30: On the road again... :)

5:45: Walker tells me "Je suis condu".
"Qu'est-ce que c'est condu, Walker?"
"I'm tired" he translates.
"I might fall asleep. "
"Are you serious?" I ask, almost laughing. (He is the driver you know.)
"Yeah, do you think someone else can drive?"
I look back at Phil and ask him if he'd mind.
He laughs a bit too and jumps into the driver's seat.

6:45 We arrive in Bopolu!!

Interesting commute to work, eh....