[rim] Doors

[Will Holcomb]

Mauritania is sort of like a video game. As you get better and better
at dealing with it, it comes up with new twists. For instance, I was
nearly getting to a point where I could come to the University and get
work done on a regular basis. My group's mid-term reconnect is at the
end of the month and I just about have the place ready to demo as a
model for labs that we can help them set up in their sites. I also
have a ton of music downloaded so that our mtr party could be held
with all the latest tunes that we haven't heard in the last year.

Given that things were getting easy, I should have been prepared to
come to work last Thursday and discover a big metal bar across the
door secured with a padlock.

I went to find the guardian for the University and unfortunately it was
the not so useful one. It took me about five minutes of "pardons" to
awaken his nearly comatose ass and then all I got out of him was a
string of Hassaniya. Eventually, using the ancient art of
gesticulating wildly, I convinced him to come with me and upon seeing
the bar he spurted another stream of Hassaniya which was clearly along
the lines of "why have you barred the door?"

Since this was obviously a dead end I gave up and wandered the
University for another half hour looking for anyone else, but it is
summer and after noon on a Thursday, so I was the only one there. I
decided to give up and come back on Sunday.

On Saturday I was lying around my house being frustrated because I
couldn't get any of my work done and decided to go over to the
University and try my hand at removing the lock myself. If lock
picking skills were ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 where a 1 has
difficulty operating a key and a 10 can open doors using the powers of
his mind, I managed to hone my skills to a solid 3 back in the States.
This means that given good tools and about half an hour I could open
one of four locks purchased on sale at Wal-Mart. I figured "what do I
have to lose?" and off I set to try my hand.

All that I managed to achieve was a solid confirmation of my amateur
status. I did have fun though. All that I had was my multi-plier and
so I was wandering around the University picking up pieces of garbage
and trying to form them into lock picking tools. If I had managed to
get the door open I was going to make myself a little MacGyver merit
badge and stitch it on my hat. Unfortunately though, I hadn't the
skill. After about an hour of cutting up tin cans and filing broken
pieces of door jams I gave up and went to the bureau where I could at
least check my e-mail.

Sunday I came back and was fortunate enough to be able to hunt down a
French speaking guardian. He told me that he had no idea about the
lock and that I needed to talk to Moussa. So I set off to find Moussa
who amazingly wasn't in his office. After about half an hour of
wandering I managed to find someone with his phone number and so I
called him. He told me he had no idea about any of it and I needed to
find Ahmed. Ahmed was, of course, not here today and so I needed to
come back Monday.

That brings us to today. I sent Malick a SMS message to see if he had
any leads on Ahmed and he came by to help out. I managed to find Ahmed
who told me that it was the Secretary General who had locked the door.
Great. I found Malick to discuss this latest wrinkle and he told me
that the Secretary General tried to have him dismissed a while back
and replaced with a Bidan (white moor), and that he wasn't especially
fond of Americans either. This is all largely moot however since he
isn't here except in the afternoons on certain days. In the one
convenience to date though this day happened to be one of them and so
after a mere five hour wait we get to see him.

His first questions are about a video projector used in the Cisco
classes sometimes. It came and went from the classroom according to
some logic I couldn't fathom and never asked questions about it. It
hasn't been there for a month at least though, since we stopped
teaching classes. I'm guessing it has turned up missing. A couple of
computers have been missing out of that lab for a while and I had just
assumed that someone authorized had taken them. I'm hoping that I was
correct. I didn't get into it with the Secretary General at this
juncture.

He did say that he had locked the door and that I could get in to work
next Sunday. Why it needs to stay closed for a week? (Until just after
mtr.) No explanation. I've decided it is just because I nearly had a
plan work out well here and whatever cosmic force has aligned itself
against this country couldn't see that come to pass.

Anyhow, I reckon I'll figure something out. I'm going to get my music
out of that room if I have to take a blowtorch to the door. This is
the last time my group will be together for another year and we're
gonna do some dancing by golly.

Love,
Will