Sunday 19 June 2011

5 things I've learned so far from 7 months in South Sudan

Putting your hand in a ceiling fan will lead to a broken finger.  It will also lead to embarrassment when done during a meeting at which the entire management team is present.

Tiny bugs can get into unopened packets of nuts and breed within.  The chances of you noticing before eating any of the nuts is around 50%.

You can't really play football in the rain in Sudan.  It poured with about 10 minutes to go in one of our games and within seconds the clay in the pitch had turned into glue, the hail was in everyone's eyes and we were staggering around like blind men wearing deep sea diving boots.

If you accidentally swig from a bottle of kerosene in the belief that it is water, lighting a cigarette immediately afterwards to calm you after your ordeal will not make you explode.

You can swim in the Nile if you watch out for crocodiles and don't swallow too much water, but you don't want to stray too far from the bank or the current will take you to Khartoum.  Seeing as virtually no expat in Juba has a Sudanese visa, a watery arrival in Khartoum is unlikely to go down well with the authorities there, who assume that most movements that Westerners make are an attempt on the President's life.

1 comment:

  1. Some of these are life lessons (not just Sudan lessons....)

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