South Sudan’s Rolex

In Wau, you can buy a Rolex.  It is smooth, and classy and not what you expect.

You probably think that the Rolex must be fake.  Must be cheap garbage but it is real and delicious and you can even make one yourself.

How do you make a Rolex? Take two eggs, scramble them and cook it into a flat omelet. Layer the flat omelet onto a chapatti and  roll the two together.  Now you have a ROLL-EGGS (Rolex), get it?  HILARIOUS! (see picture above) 

Christmas Day and My Office Christmas Party

Yelling.  That’s what I hear outside my windows.  Yelling and lots of it.  Christmas here is somewhat different than the rest of the places I have been.  In Canada, the streets are empty but the movie theatres and Chinese restaurants are full.  In Australia, the clubs are packed and the party is hard.  Here, in Liberia, people flood the streets after having whatever meal they can afford.  After the main meal eaten with their family, children come out to play on the streets.  After the kids, come the adults and many have been drinking.  I have been warned to keep off the streets and so, I spend this day at home. 

Christmas is not just a day off but a whole week off here.  Everything grinds to a halt as everyone, especially all the expats, take their holiday.  As luck would have it, my house is also finding ways to take a vacation.  The internet stopped, the TV subscription stopped and I have run out of cooking gas which is held in a tank next to my stove.  During the working hours of the week, there is no power in my house and so I find myself without TV, internet, power or the ability to cook.  All this will be returned to me when everyone comes back from holiday on Jan 4th.  This will be an interesting week.

I wasn’t planning to stay but there is a need for me to be here and so someone found some money for my salary in a budget line here or there.  I will be in Liberia until the end of February and then we will see if my contract gets renewed.    

And now here are some photos of my office Christmas party. The office sponsored a lunch with jollof rice, potato salad and fruits (and don’t forget the cola – lots and lots of cola all the time… )

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Food,Office Life

Toulouse: A European City

I have been to many European cities.  I have lived in Europe for two years in two separate cities (London and Prague) and travelled through many more.  Toulouse feels like a very European city.  The six story building with their ancient architecture , a central main square and undefined sidewalks which blend into roads detail everything I remember from many years of travel through Europe.  Toulouse has a typical quaintness to it.  I didn’t take too many pictures as you can find millions of these all over the internet. 

I headed to Toulouse to get my vaccinations for Africa – Yellow Fever, Typhoid and Hep A/B.  Taking the train there, I got to see the magnificent Southern French landscape and, every once and a while, I get hit with the idea that I am in France – a warm glow envelopes me and I realize that my adventure is just beginning.

I got to do some very typical French things in Toulouse which I can’t do while staying at the gite.  I ate a crepe with sugar (though I regret not getting it with Nutella – France’s national nut-infused chocolate spread).

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Then, I had a very small coffee with Nutella in it.  In typical French fashion, the coffee flavour was well burnt and the Nutella unremarkable even though I did order a ‘Noisette’.  It was a 30 cent experiment.

I did find what made Toulouse unique.  It appears that Toulouse is the home of the French alien communication center as can be seen by the satellite dishes in their main square though it is also possible that these could be for some sort of rock concert/festival but I choose to let my unjustified illogical assumption of alien communication be correct.  Also, I may have heard someone say in French “I can’t wait to get off of this god damn mostly-English speaking ball of mostly water” though I may be wrong as my French is VERY limited.

Also, I noticed that the French have a hard time fully understanding the concept of a grilled cheese sandwich.   Either these are to be used to appease their alien overlords or they need to send a sandwich ambassador over to Canada to see how to make a truly awesome grilled cheese sandwich.

For those interested, I got all my vaccinations and even got a Polio vaccination added to the mix just for the hell of it – it was free!

Technorati Tags: France,food,Nutella,Toulouse,aliens