A Little Bit of Justus

I was reminded of Justus, PA's favorite son Blaise Edward Defazio, this evening. The gods have been smiling upon me and have provided me with frozen boneless chicken breasts. Only $20 a pound, so not too unreasonable. Might even have been only $20 a kilo, which would be an even better deal.

2 weeks ago whilst in Khartoum I was astounded to see Old El Paso Soft Tacos in a box on a store shelf. Apparently the old embargo doesn't quite extend to Old El Paso. Or Carrier Air Conditioners for that matter, but I digress.

So I had the tacos in a box burning a whole in my food shelf and I decided to whip them up. The turned out rather well if I do say so myself. I have no spice mix leftover, but i do have some more chicken and taco sauce left for another meal.

Being the wonderful soul that I am, I decided I would offer my dutiful security detail a chicken taco. It was supposedly 'Tamam', though I will never really know if that was the case or not until I learn me some Juba Arabic. Even the worst food I cook has to be better than the best thing they get from the barracks. The local food here is just awful. I can barely choke down what the cook/cleaner prepares for us at lunch. Can't wait for TDI to get their chef over here! Hurry up already. Seriously, I can't even look at the lentil mush anymore, it's fast replacing mayonnaise as the number one item to get me to the nausea breaking point (aside from that mystery Chinatown/Konyo Konyo Market smell of course).

My dutiful security detail politely took his plate straight up back to the spigot and rinsed it off. And then promptly brought it inside and stacked it with the clean plates. He had given it the famed Blaise Edward Defazio "Once Over." Hold up there pal! That dish is not going back on the clean dish pile, no sir.

Blaise Edward had a habit of serving himself up a heapinghelping of venison or another rather unusual concoction then just rinsing the plate, rather than actually applying soap and a sponge.

Wau has it's very own Blaise Edward. Wau is the city my dutiful guard hails from.

Today was a long day. We had a full compliment of help around here, but a half compliment of management. Everything was being done frustratingly wrong. It was exhausting to run around and look at all the wrong. Paint all over the bathroom inspite of issuance and pleas for use of drop clothes. Locks on doors put in upside down and gaping holes so large you could fly an Antonov through without difficulty. I exaggerate, but the whole is sizeable, sizeable enough you could without difficulty just sneak your fingers through and twist the key inside. Oh, but wait; with the lock in upside down theives and child snatchers will be thrown off and not be able to enter, maybe the source of my frustration is really a stroke of luck or had been deliberatly engineered to safeguard my well being!

So tomorrow it all will have to be redone. It isn't acceptable. Appearances count. That being said maybe I should try shaving and wearing some item of FSD paraphanaelia from time to time. It is in the rule book afterall that I sport the logo. I hate oversized shirts now and the onlly available FSD shirts are too huge for my tastes. We're working on new order.

Thanks again to Khartoum for providing me with the culinary delight that is Old El Paso taco in a box after a long one. Went down smooth.

Now if only Juba could offer up the delightful array of foodstuffs Khartoum does. Night and day, Waertown New York, to New York, New York. Juba and Khartoum are worlds apart just like those two towns. Funny thing is a Khartoum has been 'downgraded' from a 10 weeks then a break for UN personnel to 8 weeks and a mandatory break location. Uhhhhh don't quite understand that one. Juba is 6 and a break for UN. Khartoum is lightyears ahead of Juba comfort-wise. No arguing that point. Municipal water, municipal power, paved roads, plenty of food etc. etc.

None of it affects me anyway since I am not UN, but if I were I'd be a little ticked off at my counterparts in Khartoum.