17 August, 2007

Zanzibar

I got back to Sudan yesterday after an enjoyable time in Zanzibar with three other South Sudan staff and a few days in Nairobi. There are a few pictures of Zanzi for your viewing pleasure, but if you want to see any that include some of the ladies I met, you’ll have to ask. It is a beautiful place that also happens to be the home of Freddie Mercury. I didn’t and probably still wouldn’t know who that was except that my friend Aaron who was along is a pretty big Queen fan. It was way more fun than it probably should have been, but we spent a whole afternoon searching the island for the birthplace of the lead singer of the musical group Queen. Not only that, but when we ate dinner at a restaurant/bar named after him, Aaron sang “We Will Rock You” and “Fat-Bottomed Girls” in an attempt to get the waitresses to recognize who the bar was named after. It is rather ironic that none of the people who worked in the restaurant even knew who the guy the place was named after was. (Other songs by Queen include “We are the Champions” and “Bicycle”).

Some of the other stories of the island include almost spending a night with some remote fishermen due to the tide coming in after a 20 km walk down the beach when we kept thinking there would be another resort just around the next point. If it hadn’t been for Ndumi, the guy who helps run the bungalows we stayed at, and the rescue boat he sent for us, it would have been a very chilly and uncomfortable night’s sleep. Instead, we got to enjoy a sunset and starlit cruise back to where we stayed. There was also two days of renting dirt bikes and cruising the island, one of which was with some new friends, and also a cookout with the yellow-fin tuna and mahi-mahi that two of the guys caught while fishing off a dhow.

I found out quite a bit happened while I was gone. You can read about some of it on Phil’s blog from the link on the side. Things haven’t slowed down any, but are still rolling along in spite of the rains. Our plans have been changed somewhat due to the conditions of things here, but we are adjusting accordingly and will continue to adjust daily as that is a fact of life here. It was a bit more difficult returning this time compared to last time for some reason, but I trust that getting back into the flow of things will help. I do hope that you are all doing well and enjoying the last bits of summer.

Zanzi pics

Fletcher’s catch of the day


Out for a ride


Is this Freddie Mercury’s home?


The second largest smile I saw on Matt’s face. . .





Some sweet sunsets

04 August, 2007

Aversion to Polls

Ok, ESPN.com is one of my favorite websites. While I am a sports fan, possibly the biggest joy I get out of going to the site is often because they always have a poll on the side of their website. Plus, at some of the various individual sport main pages, they will have various additional polls. For some reason, I love voting on polls. I like comparing my votes to others and putting my input into various questions I have an opinion about. And while Page 2 of ESPN usually provides some good reading, I almost always vote in a poll while there are many times I only read the titles of the articles on Page 2. Of course, whenever March Madness is going on, I'm definitely going to be checking how I'm doing in the tourney challenge.

So, I've noticed that only 10 people voted in my poll that I started last week. And two of those people work with me here in Sudan (in fact I think they each voted two or three times). While I am considering that maybe I'm odd in my fascination with polls, I'd imagine at least a few more people would be interested in voting. Unfortunately, I've also considered that it is likely there aren't many people who find my blog interesting and so they don't come to the site and thereby don't have the opportunity to vote. The poll is one way that I will try to keep the information on this blog interesting, but if you have any other suggestions, please feel free to comment and tell me.

I am leaving in just a few hours on an overnight bus to Dar es Salaam and will be catching a ferry from there to Zanzibar where I will spend a little time. So, I hope that you are all enjoying yourselves as much as me this week. My poll this week will be related to this journey. And, for those of you intersted in last weeks answer, I accidentally had a trick question there. At first I thought it was between one and two months, but then when I was trying to track back to the last time I had actually used soap or shampoo, I realized it was probably right about the two month mark. So, if you voted early, it may have been in the one to two month range, but it is likely that it was actually the over two month answer that was correct. Well, keep on keeping on.