"as in three days from now?"

it's monday afternoon...about 1pm. I'm home on a lunch/email break, heading back down to the health center for a meeting with some of the people that I work with on Nutrition stuff about the fact that lots of the supplies are dimishing without documentation of where they are going...not good...but that's to be saved for another post altogether. But I still should have about 15 precious minutes of internet time...

the phone rings...shoot...so I run to my room and grab the phone from the curtain rod (the only place in the house that gets reception), and run outside to the front yard to answer it...the voice on the other end is Ugandan, and indicates after I asked who was speaking, that she is calling from the Nursing Council...crap...And she says ever so sweetly that I will have an interview in Kampala "this thursday 19 June"...I couldn't understand her very well at that point, the connection wasn't great (surprise surprise). So I repeated what I thought I heard, back to her..."this thursday, as in three days from now?!" I was needless to say a bit surprised since she told me I'd have at least a week's notice when I talked to her in the Council's office 3 weeks ago.
She confirmed my fears and said, "yes, this thursday 19 June." Crap crap crap.

So there's a lot more to the story, including her hanging up on me, but apparently that's not at all rude here. The long and the short of it is that tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Kampala to be there for this interview on Thursday morning and then to turn around and come back on Friday.

Thankfully I won't have to travel alone (although I will be glad to do it sometime just because...). Jennifer is coming also, so that we can observe a unit treating severe malnutrition patients and then negotiate some with UNICEF in order to keep getting formula and supplies from them to treat the malnutrition patients we have in Nyahuka. That's another really long story which will need it's own post when the saga is finally finished.

So, that means that Jennifer and I will be driving some sort of vehicle (possibly the Bart's old vehicle which as of this evening didn't really so much start without a jump from the Pierce's vehicle - so that we can get new tires put on...which means the tires need replacing, which means that the Bundibugyo road, which is not exactly "easy" on tires could leave us changing a tire by ourselves...which I have, for the record, never had to do by myself, in the States let alone along the side of a narrow road in the mountains of Uganda) to Kampala to try to get two things accomplished....

1. A letter of approval from the Nursing Council of Uganda (following an oral clinical interview) required for my application for a work permit (and no letter no work permit, no work permit no Heidi in Uganda)
2. Signed agreement with UNICEF enabling us to receive and use their F75 and F100 formulas to treat severely malnourished children in Bundibugyo (no agreement no formula, no formula and we're back to buying boxed milk and giving oil and sugar to create a high energy milk for the kids to eat - effective but not nearly like these formulas have been).

So, it feels like a big trip. If you would, please pray that things would go well, and even better than we anticipate.