Today was so full of bloggable moments, I can hardly remember them all!
The day started as our usual Saturdays - a little work in the office. Jackie, as usual, doing a lot more work than me! I took my time and actually ate my usual breakfast of jam and peanut butter on a bun in the house, rather than taking it to the office like I usually do! We did some work, had some lunch, then took off for an adventure!
We went in search of, get this, a swimming pool!! Yes, a new lodge has opened up, and for the low price of just $5, you can sit in the coolness of the pool and enjoy the chlorinated freshness! I took my camera, and meant to take a photo or two to post, but, well, I forgot to take my camera out of my bag! So, sorry, no photos. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back again :)
It's a nice place, though I think they're still getting a bit set up - no chairs around the pool yet. But there's a little bar area with some chairs and places to sit and drink your Coke before diving into the pool! It was amazing to see glittering blue water in this town - the first time I've seen a swimming pool here, though there have been a few very restricted access pools for some time here (one is in the US Consulate compound - very high security, and the other is in the Norweigan Ambassador's residence - very elite!).
The enjoyment of the pool was slightly marred by the large group of Russian or Bulgarian or Ukranian men doing a round of cannon balls and synchronized diving into the pool all afternoon, but I just stayed on the other end of the pool and enjoyed feeling almost cold after a while! I think I may have gotten a bit too much sun, as I'm just not used to being in the sun anymore (it's just a bit warm to be sitting out in the sun around here!), but it was so worth it!
I'm sure the place is going to get extremely busy as more and more people find out about it, so quiet weekends around the pool are probably not going to happen... but Jackie and I were musing about the possibility of taking an afternoon off work sometime and going to have the pool all to ourselves... afterall, we DO work most of the day on Saturdays every week!
Anyways, after our refreshment at the pool, it was time to get dusty and sweaty again, so we went off to the market to buy some material for curtains for our new office, as well as our fruits and veg for the week. The road that the Lodge is on is basically just a dirt track, like most roads in this town. It's just a bumpy, holey track that winds through the tukels and around the trees. From this side road, we had to connect to the road that would take us to the market. Now this road to the market is the main "highway" out of this town, leading towards International borders. But we had a hard time identifying the road - our dirt track sorta led to another dirt track, and we looked at each other and had a bit of a discussion about whether or not we were on the "highway"! Probably that's not as funny to you as it was to us, but we had a good chuckle over yet another typical Jb conversation - "Is this the main road?" "I don't know, just keep following the tire tracks..."
Anyways, we made it to the market, got what we needed, including a nice little helper who had us following him around the market as I looked for some new clothes hangers! One of my favorite shopkeepers who has a shop full of dishes, brooms, pots, mats etc. didn't have any clothes hangers. But the guy who sews clothes outside the door to his shop thought he knew where we could get some hangers. So we followed him around to a couple of shops, but no one had hangers. We eventually ended up at yet another shop where that guy took over and started bringing us to another few shops to find some hangers! Eventually that guy found us some, and for $0.50 I had myself a set of 10 new hangers! Amazing. They're really, well, quite rough, and who knows how long they'll last. But they sure are cheaper than the last set of hangers that I bought here, which I think I paid $0.50 for each one! I think, actually, these hangers must come with some of the clothes that come from China, and the shop keepers in the clothes shops don't need them all, or when they sell the clothes, the customers don't want to take the hanger with them. Anyways, I feel like I got quite a good deal! Probably the cheapest thing I've ever bought in this town!
For some reason, me and Jackie were the main event in the place where we parked the truck in the market today, too. Some of the more polite call-outs from the lounging men were "Sister, how are you?" "Madam, I am here!". Then there was the typical, "Hey!" and "khawaija!" and "mzungu!". We normally get some of the call-outs in the market, but for some reason, today it was pretty impressive how many guys were hollering at us. It must have been that refreshed, fresh from the pool look about us... or maybe they were all impressed that Jackie could back the truck into the parking spot that we chose :)
The next bloggable moment came at dinner tonight. We don't like to cook in our house, as you may have already noticed, so Jackie and I went to the nice Eritrean restaurant a few blocks away from our house (where, of course, Celine was playing, along with the Backstreet Boys and some Tigrinya pop). It's my new favorite place, and the people are so wonderful - they know me now, and always greet me in Tigrinya and give me a good price for the food! It's really a lovely place.
The set up is such, though, that you sit rather close to your nieghbors. Basically, there's a long bench along one wall, and then a couple of little tables with chairs opposite the bench. So you're basically sitting right next to the people at the next table. Which is fine, normally.
But tonight, a neigbor came along who was quite chatty. A local guy who left his village at the age of 9, joined up with the army, then eventually ended up in the USA for several years. He's now back here doing something, though I never quite figured out what. Sounds like he has a very well connected family, with relatives in all the high places. He was dressed to the nines, too, in a suit and tie.
Of course, his English was really good, so we started chatting. He asked where we were from... and when I told him which country I'm from, he immediately said, "Oh, I like Cdn girls..." Sigh. It's so difficult being so young and beautiful in a place like this. He proceeded to chat me up, and I proceeded to not be rude, but to not seem too friendly or interested! Jackie tried to keep the conversation away from me and kept chatting, so I wouldn't have to! One of the funny parts came where he started talking about how he really wants to do something for his people and he wants to help everyone in his village... but he's not been back to his village since he was 9, nor does he have any plans to go and visit!
I sure do admire the directness of men around here sometimes. A guy came into the office last week, while we were moving, so I was tromping around cleaning and carrying stuff around. He looked at me and said, "You look strong. I like strong women!" Um, yeah, how does a girl respond to something like that?!
Anyways, this post sure is getting long enough, so if any of you are still with me... thanks for reading :) And don't worry, I haven't gotten married off to any of these direct men yet...
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