I thought it was a cleaver title. You have been in suspense since Monday wondering how we got into Dale's office. Even if you haven't, the story is typical. Dale asks his department secretary what can be done to let him into his office. Remember, the key broke into three pieces when dropped from too large a height. The secretary called maintenance and they said they would be right over. After a 20 minute wait, Dale decided to go over to the library to finish grading papers. When he returned, the maintenance folks had been and gone -- without opening the door. Another faculty member called them back and they arrived with a 5 gallon bucket full of keys. All of the doors come with two keys, one they give to a random person so that the rightful owner of the office has to search out this unknown (or not in the country) person to find their key. the other key goes into this bucket.
The bucket was poured out onto the concrete floor in front of Dale's office and two maintenance folks and two faculty got down on their knees and compared each of the 1,000 or so keys with the broken key. Rejects were thrown back into the bucket until a reasonable facsimile was found. It opened Dale's door. The rest of the keys went back in the bucket for the next emergency. I guess this is one way of doing it. Unfortunately, now the spare key is in use and the next time a key is lost or broken, this office will have to be abandoned.
Today Caleb and I bought 250,000 Tshillings more electricity for the three apartments so that Stiles, Petits and Bega Kwa Bega don't run out of power before we depart on the 17th of December. After that, who knows? We also found more Airtel (cell phone) minutes for our phones and Internet and a replacement power strip for one flooded in Marilyn's apartment. We considered ourselves fairly successful even though 2 months ago we had no idea how to do this. I like bringing Caleb on our trips to various offices. We can form a human barrier so that others stay in line. At the electric company today as Caleb is about to turn in his money and meter ID card, a hand reaches around under his armpit and puts a card and money on the counter. Queues are not in any order here -- my students in queuing theory would be confused by the algorithm to decide who goes next.
Dinner was topped off by chocolate milk shakes. We figured that even though a 2 liter container of ice cream is $10, it is far better than the things they call "milk shakes" at the Warthog Cafe. Another thing we have encountered is ice cream that doesn't melt. We think it is mostly chocolate flavored wax as it melts a little but looks much the same 10 minutes after delivery to our table. We pretend it is good. Also, if you haven't seen radiated milk, that too is a treat. It is totally unbaceriaed (I made that up.). It comes in a liter carton and has an expiration date usually about 6 months from filling time. It need not be refrigerated until opened and acts very strangely in the microwave. I think it curdles when it reaches room temperature, so one must be careful not to leave it out of the fridge too long. It has been irradiated (with like x-rays and kryptonite) so it cannot be sold in the U.S. -- that would make too much sense. And I only glow for a couple of hours each night -- enough to read my "Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency" books by.
Well the dogs may stop barking soon and I think the party at Mama's across the street is quieting down, so I will wrap this up and get my beauty rest. Take care and we miss all of you.
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