Our morning meeting with UNICEF was a bit of a bomb. The director with whom John communicated for a couple weeks via email and to whom he sent information about our work and received a 10am appointment for this morning, left before we got there to fly to Nairobi. His secretary, with whom John also communicated several times, did not seem to remember anything about it. We were sent to speak with a different official who knew nothing about us and who seemed totally disinterested and condescending. I explained to John that this has been my experience with the international ngo's. To some extent, I understand that they probably receive many people who want to do something but don't really have much of a plan. This is not the case with us, and John sent a plan along with our backgrounds and experience. But the official who received it was not there for the appointment.
We had a 4pm appointment with a political science lecturer who prefers to be anonymous, and several hours to fill. I suggested that we simply go to the US Embassy, as John had tried numerous times to email and call them, with no response. So we took a taxi there. It was a pretty ominous place with signs all along its gates that read, "No photos, no stopping, no - something else." We explained our purpose and finally received a phone number that had not been published on the website, tried it, got a secretary who said no one was available, but she would try to contact someone for us. About 20 minutes later, we got a call from an official who said he would be in Lira on Wednesday and we could meet then.
We decided we would leave for Lira tomorrow instead of Wednesday. The political science lecturer arrived at 4 and spoke with us until about 7. We got a great deal of historical and political background about the country. We decided we couldn't take another day of the restaurant food, so we went to Centenary Park , where there are at least a half dozen restaurants in a pretty outdoor setting and we could get something besides Indian food. At that time, I received a call from a partner in Lira telling me she cannot wait for the two of us to arrive. I have received so many email greetings from the folks in Lira. It will be nice to get there tomorrow.
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