The Saloon and Water Bottles

Every day there are new little "shops" sprouting up all over the place. The market is starting to spill over onto "our" side of the main shop, and we have a shorter and shorter distance to get to the market! Already, we have a few vendors using our fence to hang up their wares. One of the newer tin shacks that's gone up nearby is a new "Saloon". Any guesses on what a Sudanese Saloon is for?! For hair dressing, of course!

A few weeks ago, when our esteemed branch director was here, though, we set up our very own saloon in front of the guesthouse. It felt quite nice to get a bit of a trim. Grace (our Ugandan cook for the week) and Vicky (a local girl who helps us in the house) were recruited to help hold bits of my hair. Of course, not really having had much exposure to "white" girls' hair, they were both quite fascinated by the texture of it. Vicky was horrified that I would actually cut my hair, as she's convinced that white girls should have long hair!
All in all, I've been very happy with my short hair here. Mom and Dad, you can pass that message on to Judy for me :) I've even given Grace a bit of a hair trim, using the techniques that my hairdressing friend at home taught be before I came. Everyone agreed that I had done quite a nice job.

Akol, one of our Dinka collegues here told me the other day as I was fixing the Internet in the office for them, told me that I'm becoming a "jack of all trades, and master of none". But today he offered to give me a certificate for being funny. He said that when an hour goes by and they don't hear an eruption of laughter from the guesthouse, I must be out somewhere! So apparenlty, I have become a master of making people laugh! Those Dinka, they're quite a hoot.

Speaking of Akol, as we were chit chatting with him about the teacher training the other day, he was wandering over to our refridgerator to get some cool water out of it. As we were all sitting around, he cracked open the bottle, wrapped his lips right around the neck of the bottle, and took a big swig. He continued to swig straight out of the bottle until we were done our little meeting. There was still some water left in the bottom of the bottle, but he then proceeded straight to the water filter and filled up that same bottle. He then stuck it right back in the refrigerator where we keep several other bottles of water that we all pour our drinking water out of.

Of course, the bottles are pretty indestiguishable from one another - they're all just old mineral water bottles that we fill up with filtered water... so... hmmm... I'm not quite sure who else has been drinking straight out of the water bottles! And I wonder why I've got a cold...

Just another one of the delights of communal living!