Office quote of the day

"Yeah, those iPhones are very expensive. One thousand dollars. That is four cows!"

Ministry of Careful Planning and Organisation

I've been laughing at international organisations a bit over the last week so I think it might be the government's turn. A Presidential Advisor very sadly passed away yesterday. To commemorate his passing, the Ministry of Public Service decided that today and tomorrow will be public holidays. Chaos and hilarity ensues, as half of the office decides that this is ridiculous and carry on with work/chatting, whilst the other half decided to go home. OK so it's not that chaotic or hilarious, but finalising the government's plan for next year's budget this week just got a little more challenging.

Update: I'm now told that the advisor is an excuse, and that the holiday is really so everyone can go home and pray for the "right" outcome from the Abyei arbitration tomorrow. And the office is steadily emptying out.

Update Update: Completely coincidentally there was a big SPLM rally on wednesday.

Office Hawkers

A couple of years ago I spent the summer working in the office of a Microfinance firm in Uganda. One of the great features of office life there was the lady who would come by once a week with shoes or accessories to show to the women in the office. I was very jealous that I don't like ladies shoes or accessories.

In Juba the newspaper guy is pretty regular which is nice, the only trouble being that the writing isn't exactly going to be winning any prizes anytime soon. Today though, I did my first proper office-based shopping, a guy came round selling flash drives just when I've lost both of mine and I'm too busy to make it into the shops in town.