Distortion

Four new teachers were supposed to start this week, but all four contracts have fallen through because...<pauses for effect>, the owner of the university has not signed their CVs. There's always some stupid little bit of Egyptian bureaucracy that gets in the way of anything running smoothly. I'm sure they do it on purpose just to make the day a bit more interesting. The contracts might as well have fallen through because the owner must be wearing his purple socks when four people are hired at the same time, and unfortunately he had his fluorescent orange ones on at the crucial time. Nobody ever questions the chain of command out here, nor the rules that are made up as they go along. It's devilishy frustrating to work in an environment like this, and my poor boss has been here all summer dealing with it. No wonder he's had enough. It's a shame. All we want to do is build a decent department, but we're given absolutely no support or resources to do so.

So, the planning I'm working on to enable us to deal with five courses, five faculties, a thousand students and a multi-layered timetable of Matrix-style complicatedness will have to wait until the owner signs the CVs. Where is he? Nobody knows. When will he be around? Nobody knows. What's supposed to be happening when everything starts in three weeks? Nobody knows. It's a wonder the place manages to run at all, but the amazing thing is that nobody seems bothered whether it runs well or not. It just runs. That's the way things are out here. No expectations. It's best that way. I find it quite amusing at the moment really (though I do feel for the boss who is a top bloke), and rather than carrying on my 'I'll change everything and make it brilliant' attitude, now I'm just thinking 'Oh well, let's see what we can do with the two competent teachers we've got and solitary AC facing the wrong direction'.

Al-humdoolilah.

(Before anyone comes out with any clever remarks about barrel distortion, it's the poorly built wall rather than my lens, thank you very much.)