Sometimes you just have to laugh...

I’m not sure why I find this so funny. It could be the late hour. I could be loosing it. It was about 11:00pm and I was sitting at my computer this evening after having a lovely day off. We had a bunch of friends over for a brunch, I laid out in the sun, did a bit of painting, went for a run and then sat down to work my way through some e-mails. I got a text from a friend which read: ‘You left your radio in my vehicle. Buzz before you come to get it or I’ll drop it off on my way to jail.’ The funny thing is he’s not kidding. He might be going to jail tomorrow. It’s a long and complicated story/lawsuit in which the organization for which he works is being sued and, as the head of that organization here, the government has decided to arrest him. (I could wax eloquent about the rule of law but it would all be completely sarcastic and unhelpful.) Then, the security officer for another organization calls me to ask what I know about the evacuation of one of our field sites tomorrow. ‘Evacuation…’ I said trying not to sound both ignorant and unaware. ‘Hmmm…right…evacuation, well…hmmm…haven’t been in contact with that location today (BECAUSE IT’S MY ONLY DAY OFF!!!)…but can I make some calls and get back to you in ten minutes?’ I then wake up our deputy programme director and the head of OCHA – just for good measure – to find out how I’m so uninformed. They were both, of course, delighted to hear from me at that hour. Turns out it’s not an evacuation, it’s a ‘relocation’ – the difference between the two is mainly found in that if it were an evacuation we would all begin screaming hysterically and running around in circles into each other, whereas a relocation is much more low-key. We’ve got time for breakfast and coffee in the morning. I call back with my information and now it’s midnight and I’m wound up. My options are either stay up until I feel tired or take Tylenol PM - which I really can’t do because if everything does go wrong in the night and I need to begin screaming and running hysterically I just might not be up for it.