Why there?

What possess you to live in a toilet my little amphibian friend? Have never seen one of these little cuys anywhere but in the toilet, never. Strange place to spend ones time. They have to come from within into the bowl, which is just strange.

Please Mr. Bol, Pay Us A Visit

We've got the new FSD/SIMAS basketball court set up. I'm quite the sharpshooter from 15 feet or so. It's been nice, gets you out from in front of the computer between 530pm or so and 730, 745ish. Shoot some hoops, shower, take dinner and you're most of the way through the evening.

We've had a lot of extra people around this week to help with the Christening of the court. It's been fun to watch the locals give it a go. Not a particularly atheletic bunch these deminers, but they make up for that in spirit. I don't know very many of the deminers all that well, but those that I do know better are particularly interesting to watch play, because you can see their character traits come out. The guy who is the most analytical in the bunch really 'measures' each shot for example.

I heard there was a Manute Bol sighting up in Wau recently. Maybe he'll come spend an afternoon with the likes of us, instructing on the finer points of offensive rebounding.

I'll take 5 Realms Please

Realms, rim, rimm or ream? It's a ream of paper, right? I've been trying to introduce real procurement procedures here, among them the idea of forecasting needs and buying in bulk. I've started off with office consumables and paper being the primary consumable, it gets a lot of attention.

I've been requesting quotes from various parties and in response a number of strang sounding products and interesting offers have been presented; realms, rim and rimm. My personal fav are the realms. I am thinking a few alternative realms here in Juba wouldn't hurt. Would allow for easy R & R, just tear open a realm and off I'll go.

It's What's For Dinner

Portable Sanity Preserver

While the HMTB assures its user a chance to shake his money maker for as many of the two minutes as he/she can tolerate at the opening and close of each day (I have now worked up to 1 minute 25 seconds), the Sony PSP really does yeoman's work when it comes to staving off the onset of boredom.

Newly acquired at Christmas time--sincerest pf thanks to all who provided me with the machine and the dozen games I now have--I am already through a quarter of an NBA season in a few short weeks.

It is very easy to pass a couple of hours obsessively trying to get less than spectacular NBA players, like one P.J. Brown, to score in the double digits against the 'Lake Show' as one B.E.D. refers to them (I think B.E.D. has received more references in this blog than communications from me in the last night). My college roommates and I all rather enjoyed playing NBA Live, passing countless hours in front of the glowing box playing 'vintage' NBA Live (being from 94 or 95 qualified as vintage in 1998).

One of the favorite facets of game play from that era was the deliberate playing and virtually exclusive use of a single player from outside of the starting roster. Andrew Declerq was a favorite of mine (he had an illustrious career with the Celtics in some of the leaner years of their decade of despair). B.E.D. eclusively used Jeff Hornacek of the Utah Jazz and Reg made a habit of using Horatio Llamos, who was a Phoenix Sun at the time if I recall correctly. Reg was a real wiz of the joystick, he could make Horatio move in the paint in ways that Andrew DeClerq couldn't even dream of. B.E.D.'s mastery of "Hornball's" 3 point shooting prowess was truly remarkable. a 70 point game for B.E.D. and Hornball were the rule, not the exception.

I guess not much has changed in a decade. Wow, a decade. A decade has passed since my glory days as a video game player and here I sit in sweltering dusty Sudan trying to rekindle the flame.

I certainly have time on my side when it comes to rekindling the flame. Once I satifactorily rekindle the NBA Live flame, I will move on to Madden 2009 and see if I can't get Rookie Tight End to get his spin move on.

Time to power up, have an Oreo purchased in Kenya, made under license in the Philipines and get playing.

Cyley Myrus

Brother in law bought me a Hannah Montana singing toothbrush. Broke that out the other night and have been using it ever since. It's quite high tech and most righteous. It's a beautiful concept in dental hygiene. Brush until the music stops. Most of us don't brush out teeth long enough and that pattern is established when we are youts apparently. The inventors of the Hannah Montanna singing toothbrush want to nip poor dental hygiene in the bud with the help of America's favorite poplet by issuing the youts of America with singing toothbrushes. Apparently there are many youts out there who want to listen to the little Cyrus girl. You have to brush in order to hear the sweet siren song. If you stop brushing the volume drops.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, even when brushing the music does not really blast out of the toothbrush in a way that would cause the demining types to take notice and raise an eyebrow.

Through some sort of high tech, parent sanity saving magic, the music is conducted through our teeth into our melons and this only happens while we brush. If we stop brushing, the volume drops and I believe, though I can't be sure because I can't stand next to myself and listen, that the music is not really audible by others hardly at all. I am somewhat disappointed by that fact. It would have been nice to make the new tenants think I am weirder than they already do because I don't drink a minimum of 8 beers a night.

The sad thing is that the HMTB has not fulfilled its goal of improving my dental hygiene. So painful is it to listen to Hannah Montana tunes, that I can't make it through the full song.

I will keep trying.

Otherwise, it is very hot and dusty here. Working on installing a wiffle ball field and a basketball court. Need to find an a/c too. Busy week of working, lots to do.

Need to get back into the groove of updating.

Enjoy the photo of me and the HMTB. Thank you Kristopher.

Maybe they will come out with a Dave Chappelle or Bernie Mac singing toothbrush. Now those would be something. 'America...'

Is This Who You'd Want Your Children Taking Driving Lessons From?

After a very long silence I've decided to start sharing my musings once again.

As you might have guessed by the extended silence, the last few weeks have been quite busy. I left Sudan on December 20th for a whirlwind 13 day vacation. 27 hours in the air in 5 days. I flew all the way to LA from Zurich to finish packing up my apartment there, get it loaded and shipped across to a storage facility in the hometown Skarhead and Freddy Madball.

Once that was taken care of the remaining days were great, spent seeing family and friends. Very short stay given the amount of effort required to get home, nevertheless I appreciated and enjoy every second of being able to grace our fine country's shores with my presence. I really appreciate living there now, let me tell you. You get used to the simple way of life and the hardship that comes with living in a place like Juba, Sudan, but that doesn't mean you like it, or would trade it in. No way, no how.

Like my trip to Khartoum I transited through Nairobi, Kenya. Nairobi is an ok town, kind of like the LA of Africa, minus the film industry and the beach and the mountains. What I mean by the Los Angeles of Africa is that it is quite sprawling so, while many rave about its beauty, it is rather difficult to get a real feel for it because there is so much sprawl. Oh, and the traffic is perhaps worse than LA's. Yeah, it is that bad. Apparently, I am hearing this second hand from a taxi driver, past governments and possibly the current one, pocketed money that was to be used for infrastructure improvements like highways. Instead everything in and around Nairobi effectively travels on city streets.

The drivers are somewhat better than in Sudan, but the distinct lack of lines on the road results in a positioning free for all, and while traffic lights appear to exist, they don't seem to be in use or heeded.

The other days whilst driving downtown to get a multi-entry visa I spied the above photo which should help you understand the type of driver one can expect to encounter here.

The traffic is so bad, it is hard to get more than one thing done per day and there is no alternative but to take some form of an automobile, preferably not one of the mini buses that dart in and out and al over. I had the uncomfortable fortune of trying one out the other day. They are their own thing, the are painted up, emblazened with rappers' visages or soccer team logos and blare loud music. This is mass transit here and interestingly folks from across all walks appear to use them, unfazed by the bass thumping.

I ended up sitting all the way in the back on top of the bass in the particular mini bus I entered. This was not good and not for the more obvious of reasons. Firstly, you are far from the door, which personally bothers me. I want to be able to get out when I want to get out, I don't want to be encumbvered. Secondly, when you are behind or on top of the rear wheels things are naturally bumpier and less comfortable. The real issue, however, was head room. I was sandwiched in there like a sardine. Of course as soon as I realized this I wanted to make a bee line for the door, but it was too late we were in motion. I literally had to sit leaning forward into the seat infront of me much to the delight of the middle aged female there. Not understanding at all.

I thought, ok, this isn't fun, but I can deal. That was before my esteemed chauffeur decided to get all Travis Pastrana on his passengers and go rally racing. Nairobi, being fairly bucolic in nature is not without dirt and grass. Well, my esteemed chauffeur took it upon himself to make use of all available surfaces and space to make his way around the city. This was not fun. Try to imagine offroading in an old VW van jammed with people. Not designed for such activities.

After what seemed like an enternity, I finally mananaged to get the driver to stop and tripped my way out on the roadway. Phew. I started the walk back up to the area where I am staying. Not too far and far more pleasant than staying inside that pinball machine. Amusingly, the guy passed me a short while later with a bemused look on his face. Why was he looking at me that way when he was driving in the opposite direction from where he was supposed to be going? I should have been giving him that look. These guys just cruise all over trying to stay full. When I got out there was room, schedules be damned, he was gonna check the hood for a new passenger.

This wild ride and semi-tear gassing while downtown as they dispersed an anti-Israel protest were two unique experience during the course of an otherwise fairly normal day in a fairly normal place.

More later, forgot my adapter.


Went to the Nairboi National Park yesterday afternoon.

Only taxis in this land from here on out.