Well, it seems my blog has been suffering from neglect. I just rarely find the time to write something that I think people would want to read. I was originally just intending to use this as a vacation blog, but since I haven’t had a vacation in a while (not counting a month back home in Canada), I haven’t had much reason to write. But I’ve been asked to provide a few stories of life in Khartoum, so here are a few anecdotes:
- the driving here is horrendous. People with no regard for road rules, and the bizarre contradiction that everyone seems to drive around like they are 30 minutes late for their wedding, but yet everyone seems so laid back and inefficient. I can almost guarantee that the guy at the phone company/government office/internet provider probably tried to sideswipe me because they were in such a hurry to get to the office, but if I want service this week, they seem to be in no hurry at all. Can't figure this out.
- Fortunately, I just moved into a flat attached to the office, so Idon't have to deal with the crazy morning traffic commute. Makes my life much better. And I have internet at home now so I can do things like catch up on personal email at 11 when I can't fall asleep rightaway.
- the heat is almost manageable again (down to the high 30s some days, low 40s in others). It’s really unbearable here for the better part of 3 months, but fortunately I have AC at home and in the office. And the rest of the year it’s quite nice, with not a hint of that minus 20 nonsense we get in Toronto.
- Me and my expatriate co workers derive constant amusement from the language mistakes that are made. Most of you have heard me tell of Malawi, where they mixed up l’s and r’s quite frequently, resulting in a headline in the national newspaper “General Erections to be held across the country on May 18th”. Now, nothing that funny has come up yet in Sudan, but the other day I got a list of our staff from HR, and it seems they didn’t know that the abbreviation for assistant is ASST. So, I was looking at our list of ass. Mechanics and wondering why we had so many proctologists on staff
Ok, that’s enough for now. I’ve got to give a shout out to my best friends Dave and Colin, who gave me the fantastic banner (pictured above my desk) for my birthday (you get extra friend points if you pick up the reference)
- the heat is almost manageable again (down to the high 30s some days, low 40s in others). It’s really unbearable here for the better part of 3 months, but fortunately I have AC at home and in the office. And the rest of the year it’s quite nice, with not a hint of that minus 20 nonsense we get in Toronto.
- Me and my expatriate co workers derive constant amusement from the language mistakes that are made. Most of you have heard me tell of Malawi, where they mixed up l’s and r’s quite frequently, resulting in a headline in the national newspaper “General Erections to be held across the country on May 18th”. Now, nothing that funny has come up yet in Sudan, but the other day I got a list of our staff from HR, and it seems they didn’t know that the abbreviation for assistant is ASST. So, I was looking at our list of ass. Mechanics and wondering why we had so many proctologists on staff
Ok, that’s enough for now. I’ve got to give a shout out to my best friends Dave and Colin, who gave me the fantastic banner (pictured above my desk) for my birthday (you get extra friend points if you pick up the reference)
1 comment:
...most recent l/r mix up I saw was on the official annual publication of the Government of Malawi Department of Povelty and Disaster Management Affairs -- and their internet address has it wrong too (http://www.malawi.gov.mw/Povelty/Home Povelty.htm) :)
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