Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Equatorial Africa Guesthouse

Let me describe the "hotel" I stayed in while I worked in Sudan. My room was approximately 10' x 10' and consisted of a bed, plastic chair and a fan. The fan worked from 6pm to around 1 or 2am, when the generator went off. Then you used evaporative cooling, meaning you sweat and lie still enough for the sweat to evaporate. There were 14 rooms, and there was a gent's toilet room and a ladies' toiletroom, (sqatty potties and a bucket of water) one cold water shower for each gender, a urinal out in the open, and one sink. The hotel was arranged in a square, with the rooms surrounding a dirt courtyard that served as a bar for local military until the generator went off.

The people who worked there were friendly enough and tried to accomodate us as best as they could. We drank a lot of warm water and a few cool sodas. The guys in the group were great. We laughed about the things we didn't understand or couldn't change, and each of us kept great attitudes, even when we didn't feel good or had difficulty with the logistics of enduring diahrrea over squat potties. They all accepted indiginities with grace and humor, and there was not a whiner in the bunch. Good guys, all.

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