Oh, it was a wonderful treat to have a holiday today! I stayed up late last night reading a book, which I LOVE to do. I'm such a night owl. And I didn't open my eyes until 9am this morning, and there was no one in the house to tell me that I was lazy for sleeping in! Then I did actually do some work - I installed some software on the computer belonging to our translation consultant. Of course, nothing is ever as simple as it should be, and that whole process took a few hours, and it's still not quite right! But I left that task and went out to the River for lunch with my housemate, Annamarie. What fun we had! It was SO nice to just be out by the river, to enjoy the cool river breezes, the trees, the birds... it feels like you're out of the city when you go to the riverside. Unfortunately, we found out that our favorite riverside restuarant has closed :( There is now just a limited menu from a different set up in the same location. Anyways, it's one of the nicest locations on the river, so we stayed, and tried the new food. I had a burger and fries, which wasn't too bad. I had a hankering for grilled chicken which the old place did very nicely (they had a whole BBQ thing set up, so nice!). But anyways, the burger was fine, the chips were crispy, the breezes were cool, the company was good... it really felt like a nice break from the norm.
I did wish that I had brought my camera, though, so I could take a few pictures (or even videos!) of the roads that we had to take to get there. During the rainy season, the roads just get worse and worse and worse. And even though I drive a pick-up truck, there are places where I feel like we just might not make it through! Annamarie was bouncing around like a rag-doll (her description!), and I was just gripping the steering wheel, trying to keep myself in my seat! Annamarie is such a hoot, though, and the adventures of driving around this town are so much more fun when you have someone to laugh and joke about it with!
After lunch, we went over to visit one of my Eritrean friends who lives here now. He's working in a hotel/restaurant with his cousin, but his own family is treating him like slave labour! He works from 7am up to 10:30pm every single day, and he never gets a day (or rarely even an hour!) off. It's really insane, and they're taking advantage of him. But what choice does he have?! I've been keeping my eye open for a new job for him, but he's quite inexperienced in anything that any NGOs would need help for, and it seems that these days there is more pressure from the gov't to hire only citizens of this country for the vast majority of jobs :(
Anyways, we had a nice visit, and I hope that he is able to find something to help him get out from under his family's thumb soon. These family things are complicated on this continenet...
After our visit with Solomon, we had yet more adventures on the roads going home. The main road where I wanted to go was closed. So I had to go down a parallel road, which I knew is always terrible... but we got through it the other day, and I thought we could do it again. But alas, there was a huge truck stuck right in the shallow part of the biggest lake, and I didn't want to risk going through the really seriously deep mud.
So we did a u-turn in the middle of the dirt track we were driving on, and tried to find our way back on the road that goes along near the river. All in all, we did quite a big loop today in the truck - 18 km in all! Which translates, all added up, into over an hour on the road. Over an hour to do 18 km, and that's not because of traffic jams! Though we did have to stop and wait for some ducks and some cows to move off the road...
Once we got back home, even though I was sweaty and dusty from all that cruising around on the crazy roads, I felt like I had had a real holiday away from work. Just goes to show that with the right company and the right attitude, you can have fun doing just about anything!
I did wish that I had brought my camera, though, so I could take a few pictures (or even videos!) of the roads that we had to take to get there. During the rainy season, the roads just get worse and worse and worse. And even though I drive a pick-up truck, there are places where I feel like we just might not make it through! Annamarie was bouncing around like a rag-doll (her description!), and I was just gripping the steering wheel, trying to keep myself in my seat! Annamarie is such a hoot, though, and the adventures of driving around this town are so much more fun when you have someone to laugh and joke about it with!
After lunch, we went over to visit one of my Eritrean friends who lives here now. He's working in a hotel/restaurant with his cousin, but his own family is treating him like slave labour! He works from 7am up to 10:30pm every single day, and he never gets a day (or rarely even an hour!) off. It's really insane, and they're taking advantage of him. But what choice does he have?! I've been keeping my eye open for a new job for him, but he's quite inexperienced in anything that any NGOs would need help for, and it seems that these days there is more pressure from the gov't to hire only citizens of this country for the vast majority of jobs :(
Anyways, we had a nice visit, and I hope that he is able to find something to help him get out from under his family's thumb soon. These family things are complicated on this continenet...
After our visit with Solomon, we had yet more adventures on the roads going home. The main road where I wanted to go was closed. So I had to go down a parallel road, which I knew is always terrible... but we got through it the other day, and I thought we could do it again. But alas, there was a huge truck stuck right in the shallow part of the biggest lake, and I didn't want to risk going through the really seriously deep mud.
So we did a u-turn in the middle of the dirt track we were driving on, and tried to find our way back on the road that goes along near the river. All in all, we did quite a big loop today in the truck - 18 km in all! Which translates, all added up, into over an hour on the road. Over an hour to do 18 km, and that's not because of traffic jams! Though we did have to stop and wait for some ducks and some cows to move off the road...
Once we got back home, even though I was sweaty and dusty from all that cruising around on the crazy roads, I felt like I had had a real holiday away from work. Just goes to show that with the right company and the right attitude, you can have fun doing just about anything!
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