photocopying is hard

while photocopying one day, i looked at the copies that came out of the copier and tried to compare it to what i was holding in my hand. it took me, embarrassingly, more than several moments to realise that the reason they did not match was because what i was copying was still in the machine and what i was holding was the subsequent pages of the same document. 

in my defense, it was probably the 2561st piece of paper i was copying, AND, the document was in arabic!

afternoons in sudan

what do you do with afternoons with no electricity, in a place where there's nowhere to go? i think if there's one lesson i've learned in sudan, it's how to sit under a tree (for hours at a time), more than content to watch the world go by (trust me when i say this takes a LOT more patience AND practice than it sounds). 

naps under the tree

life can be very hard

it's a job trying to avoid the sun

waiting for the evening

08.37 vs 20.37

one night, while looking at my friend's phone, i noticed that it said 08:37. so i asked him, 'why isn't your clock at 20:37?' he's like, 'why should it be on 20:37, it's still the same time.' and i was like, 'well, how else would you know whether it's AM or PM.' (....)

lost in translation

i came across this purchase request the other day. i guess we're purchasing '3 dozen different types of women', oh and '5 dozen different types of women jugs'. :) talk about double entendre!

conversations in the field

one evening i found myself having a conversation with a grasshopper that was climbing up the side of the cooker while i was cooking (er, if you can call making ramen noodles cooking, i guess). it went a little something like this-

me: (pointing a damning finger at the darn g'hopper) you! go away.

g'hopper: ....

me: i mean it, go away!

g'hopper: (still slowly but surely climbing up the side of the cooker) ....

me: come on now!

g'hopper: ....

me: fine!! don't go away but don't jump in my food!!

i did think i was going a little bit crazy until later that evening i heard my friend talking to a frog.

friend: you, frog! don't go in there!

frog: plop plop plop

friend: no, no, no! get out of there right now! go go go!

i later witnessed the same friend talking to a cat: you idiot monkey, get out of here! 

there's actually sanity in there somewhere.

old school

a colleague wrapped up a discussion we were having on a (not very good & rather old) engineer that is working for us thus: "the problem is, he is 1960s series."

one of life's more difficult dilemmas

i'm still trying to decide whether this was an insult or a compliment: 

one day, our driver was trying to open the plastic packaging of a torch that he had just bought. so i took it from him, whipped out my leatherman (which sounds vaguely dirty i know), and knifed it open. 

so he turns, and says to the finance assistant who was sitting under the tree with us (life is hard, isn't it?), 'i just need 10 women like her'. i was like, 'err...' because i couldn't decide then and i still can't decide now whether it was a compliment or an insult!

irony at its best

this is what i get for making fun of other people's english. 'deep friend & minced' indeed!!

deep fried AND minced!

yummy!! only in thailand, right? have always loved creative thai english.

this biscuit...

...smiled at me before i ate it's face off :). a friend asked me if it was yummy - i told her not really but it sure was fun! yes, i am easily entertained. 

only in america

so i will admit to being totally fascinated by this contraption in the states - an escalator especially for carts!! crazy!!

taken at Bed, Bath & Beyond
Los Angeles

a spot more trouble

got in a  car accident in somalia once, when a truck carrying goats literally ran us over after hitting 3 cars before the car i was in. despite the totaling of 3 cars and 1 kiosk, nobody was hurt.

the truck that ran us over

the car it was trying to pass

the first car it ran over

the second car it ran over - our security car

our car, which was hit,
then dragged for about 5 feet, which hit...

this kiosk

a spot of trouble

so we had a spot of trouble one morning. 

funny story - while we were waiting for the tractor to come from town to pull us out, a bus came by. the driver of that bus came out and asked our driver, 'why are you parked there?' our driver said, 'well, we thought it would be a great place to park and wash the car.' hahahaha. i love this man, truly. :)

this is what we were trying to cross

oops

yep, well and truly stuck

tried to use the winch,
but tree was too far away

you might wonder why the car looks so clean

it's because our industrious driver decided
it was as good a time as any to wash the car

and because we're good employees

while waiting for the tractor to arrive

we used our 'on the clock' time wisely

and took pictures

after all, i AM M&E, i document

i suppose it does kinda look parked

if you close one eye, squint the other and
cock your head to the left

tractor finally arrived

we DID manage to get out

but we were so stuck it took a good
20 minutes, about 10 different tries and 3
different kinds of winches