communication issues

Well, the aftermath of the buying trip to Ndola was less successful than
I hoped. I purchased the wrong type of tape, and several parts of the
order were missing, despite the multiple checks at every level. We have
a lot of packing tape, but no masking tape, unfortunately. These sort
of things seem unavoidable, but are still frustrating. Never having
thought of myself as having a real strong accent, I've had a lot of
people frustrated with me this week as they haven't understood what I'm
trying to say, the colloquialisms/slang/accent getting in the way, I
guess. Of course, I take solace from other people's similar struggles
-- the Indian shopkeeper from whom we ordered a lot of bleach -- 'JIK'
-- who didn't have enough and sent his shop boy to the store down the
road to buy more to fill the order. The shop boy returns with a pile of
soap -- 'CHIK'. (try saying the two with your best Indian accent, and
you'll see what I mean).