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We have been without telephone connections or internet connections from Friday until Monday lunchtime and it seemed forever !
At first the people manning the zain tower thought it was because they were running out of fuel so on Saturday we loaned them a 200litre drum of deisel fuel but when by evening they were still non functioning I sent to ask what the problem was and they said they were waiting for another technicien to come ! He obviously came today with good results and they also got a delivery of fuel so were able to return our drum to us.
Some of you may be familiar with the title " The curious incident of the dog in the nite-time " well we had the curious incident of the roofing iron in the nite time !!
I was working at the Maternity one morning when someone came to inform me that the roofing iron sheets had been stolen from the holding tank of the hospital water system. It seemed such a senseless theft but following on other incidents I decided to make a fuss...I said that the next day the outpatients dept would only see emergency cases. I also sent all my non essential workers home....this turned out to be a good move although not a popular one but they were so mad at loosing a days wage that they began to do some investigations themselves.....when the elders came out of church the following morning they discovered an anonymous note pinned to a tree outside the Maternity naming two people who they said were involved. We called those named and they came with members of their families and spent the morning denying any involvement and stating catorgorically that it was not in their hearts to do such a thing! We had to let them go but I said I would give them until after the weekend to think about things before I sent the paper naming them to the authorities in Dilolo 45 km away.
Well those fellows had hardly gone before someone else turned up to tell us that 4 of the 7 sheets had been found. Apparently the one who had bought 4 of the sheets when he heard all the fuss got cold feet and decided to return them and lo and behold he confirmed that the two who had spent all morning denying everything were indeed very much involved! Praise the Lord by evening we had all 7 sheets returned and all the guilty ones confessed.
It is very hot at Katoka at present we are waiting for the rains to come and while we have heard thunder and seen lightening several evenings the rain just hasn't come to Katoka. One of our builders was late to work this morning because he said they had had very heavy rain in his village which is just about 10km from here.
Sandy and Bethany have just got back from a quick trip across the border to Zambia they took two more patients for special surgery which can be done at Kalene Mission Hospital which is in Zambia's North West Province so reasonably accessible to people from here.
