it's not just a condom

it's romantic love rubber (don't ask me why the picture is upside down).

101 uses for a kikoi

as a follow up to my previous post on how much i love kikois, here are a few reasons why. you can see it's not quite 101 yet (still working on it!), so feel free to add to the list! big big thanks to two friends (m & j), who's idea the concept is, and whose ideas i've stolen (with permission of course) below.

1. picnic blanket
2. skirt/sarong
3. dress
4. towel
5. massage cloth
6. laptop carrier
7. scarf
8. baby carrier
9. shopping tote
10. smoke diffuser (when the smoke detector at home drives you crazy and you’re desperate to stop it beeping, you wave the kikoy in  front of it to diffuse the smoke! genius!)
11. camera wrap
12. headscarf (bit bulky but works)
13. cleaning cloth for specs, hands, face, cars, car windows, etc.
14. sun shelter/parasol
15. blanket
16. shawl
17. pillow
18. pillow cover
19. rain cape (not amazingly effective in torrential tropical downpour though)
20. table cloth
21. superman/batman cape
22. dust protector
23. throw (for beds, shelves, sofas, etc.)
24. “garden glove” to pick up spikey leaves
25. steering wheel cover (if it’s too hot to touch)
26. modesty screen/lap sheet (e.g. when wearing  short skirt and having dinner at a Korean resto, i.e. sitting on the floor)/cleavage cover
27. wall décor
28. curtains
29. oven/stove glove (otherwise known as a potholder - very useful especially in Sudan because we can't seem to get off our asses to buy potholders!)
30. ring polisher
31. giant hanky (eeew)
32. giant serviette (also kinda 'ick' but beggars can't be choosers!!)
33. liner for a holey backpack (to stop small things falling out)
34. bedsheet/duvet cover
35. fire blanket/extinguisher (for small fires only!!!)
36. neck protector (for when you're in a car with unadjustable seat belt heights, and the seatbelt rubs your neck raw)
37. ironing board cushioning
38. closet lining (for when you're too lazy to clean the closet because you're not staying long, but you don't want your clothes to get dusty)
39. hijab

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.' (....)