Emergency Relief

I work for an emergency relief organization. I deliberately made this choice. I wanted to feel that I was doing some good and sure, I like excitement.

So this morning at 5h45 the idea came to me to create a list of top 10 emergencies in which I have been directly involved (everybody likes lists, non?).

■It was the 1st quarter budget-reporting period, so it was a busy week and would continue to be so. I had just returned from a very exhausting 140km, 7hr journey from our most distant project and I had one day to catch up on work in the office before heading out to our other 2 projects. I stepped out of the vehicle, dumped my bag, and turned on the computer to check emails.

There was a message from the project I was next going to visit. They had an emergency stock rupture. They had run out of cornflakes and mint tea – would I have time to get out to the expat grocery store?

■After a poor night of sleep, during which I had been unable to fall asleep until after 2h30, I was awoken by a rapping on my bedroom door. It was 5h30. I jumped out of bed and ran to the door. It was the expat who was catching an early flight to Europe for her 10-day vacation.

Good morning. Do you have an extra set of earphones, cuz I forgot mine in the project? No, okay, bye-bye, see you in 2 weeks.

■I stood on the terrace and watched the vehicle pull away from the house, taking her to the airport. I stood in that just-awoken daze, wondering what kind of earphones? Had she been playing a cute little joke just so she could say good-bye to me? Had this really just happened?

I then heard a cell phone ringing and ringing. I wondered why the guard didn’t answer his phone.

Then I realized that it was my phone, buried somewhere in my bag in the next room. Ah…. who could it be?

This vacationing expat just realized that she had forgotten to retrieve her banking and credit cards, which one needs for life in Europe. These cards were in the safe at the office. The car was heading back to get me… as I am the keeper of the keys.

I am sure I will be able to add to this list…..