Fire and Food

So it turns out Hollywood has been lying to us. For years I’ve been lead to believe that a couple of stray bullets here and there, or maybe even taking a speed bump too fast, is enough to make a car explode in a massive fireball. We now have reason to question these assumptions.

Whilst walking to dinner the other night, we found an (empty) car in the middle of the road with flames coming out of the bonnet. (People were around and no one seemed to be injured.) In anticipation of the potential imminent explosion, we scuttled on past to address the more pressing issue of dinner. The hotel where we ate was only a little way down the road and we were sitting outside so we certainly would’ve heard something if it did go off. We essentially sat down, had a drink, ordered food, ate it, had another drink and chat, paid up and walked home. And still not even a pop from the burning vehicle. And this afternoon, on the way to lunch, it was still there roughly intact. Hence the photo.

Tearfund's Compound

Unfortunately for the poor contractors, this incident took place on a road that’s currently being re-surfaced. It’s a process we’ve been watching with interest for a couple of weeks now. It’s a main road, and there’s usually at least a couple of massive juggernauts digging and flattening the earth. The road is blocked off at either end of course, but there’s seemingly a more relaxed attitude to health and safety and related regulations here. Often cars will remove the barriers drive down the work-in-progress nonetheless: “How dare you stop me driving down that road...can’t you see I’m in a Land Cruiser?! Out of the way – I’ll dodge those bulldozers...” So everyday it’s flattened and every night churned up again by traffic. And now there’s a burnt-out wreck there to cap it off! Poor guys.

We had a nice relaxing weekend.  On Sunday after having been to church and had lunch at Comboni (and watching Napoleon Dynamite), spent a fine evening (beautiful weather) in Tearfund’s compound playing guitars. We eat there every day so I thought I’d put a photo up or two to show you the place. It’s very relaxing (if the Guinea Fowl are absent, there’s no call-to-prayer, and Jasper’s behaving.)

The particular dinner I mentioned in the second paragraph was a weekly special treat – pizza at the Paradise hotel. (5 mins walk away from our house.) Parma ham and olives. Delicious. That’s our Sunday evening treat of choice. For the sake of completion, I’ll share our other routines:

Breakfast is had in the office before work (where we have our fridge.) This is either weetabix, or bread (bought on the day) with processed cheese or some other (marmite, peanut butter etc.) with instant coffee. The mid-week treat is on Wednesday, when we go for the omelette option, again at Paradise. Their coffee is also excellent which helps.

Lunch revolves between the Sisters’ Kindergarten Restaurant and Central Pub. Both about 10 mins walk from the hospital. Sisters’ sells proper Sudanese food and it’s generally beans and rice. We’re not up to eating one each (big portions) so we share one. That means we eat for $1.5 each. Job done. Central is a Lebanese restaurant and isn’t good for much, except they bake fresh pitta bread throughout the day which is excellent. Combined with a humus dip and green salad, you have the makings of a very refreshing lunch in the heat. Way more expensive though at around $15 each, so we only go for that twice a week.

Friday lunch is another treat. Again, the sisters, but it turns out their chips are superb. I’d be extremely happy to be served chips of that quality in a UK chip shop. Combined with the beans, you have a winner.

(Evenings Mon to Sat we eat dinner at TF for a bargain price of $5 each per night which is very nice.)

So there we are. Hope that clears that up. I’m planning to come  up with a more serious and reflective post soon, but we’ve got quite a bit on this week so hope that’s ok.

James & Matt