time makes fools of us all

So, I have about seven weeks before I jet off to the US and put fieldwork to bed for the time being.

Naturally, this was the week I found myself amongst a mass of people with whom I have struggled to get face-time for two years. My ship comes in just as I'm about to jump port.

But I got to hang out with some fabulous people this week. I ate lunch with former President of Botswana Festus Mogae and former President of Zambia Dr Kenneth Kaunda. I chatted over tea with Justice Edwin Cameron. I shmoozed with heads of agencies whose doors have been virtually shut to me for years, literally.

How frustrating that the kinds of situations one finds at the end of fieldwork are those that would have been most staggeringly helpful at the beginning.