Days 15-47

The following weeks are spent at the office doing the bulk of the work in the stock control system. I don’t feel this stuff is interesting enough to document, so I take a break from journal writing.

location:Harare / Reapers office
summary:Working
trip:zimbabwe01

Day 14

No word from the service provider about my enquiry for a permanent connection, so I phone them to see if there are any human beings to talk to. There are. They inform me that a radio connection will be required and that the setup cost will be about Z$400,000 with a monthly fee of around Z$6000 a month. Unfortunately a new repeater station may be required in which case the cost may rise to Z$1million, which sounds horrendous, but is actually about £5000. I call two other service providers (there only seem to be three), and am still waiting for them to call back. Whatever the chosen option it’s still going to take around two weeks to install it, so it doesn’t give me much time.

Day 4

Leaving at 7am again, Basil and I go to his office, via the Lyons office (tea company), to strike a deal. At the office I download my email and find that although the internet connection is not good, I can get on ICQ, which is actually more than I can do at home. I spend the rest of the day at the office, observing proceedures and chatting to Pam and Joyce. At the end of the day Basil gives me a guided tour of the complex, and then we drive home. Dinner is take away pizza while watching “The House on Haunted Hill”.