Happy Birthday!

Today's topic is birthdays: those very special days which define you, make you special and unique just because you were born on that day.

Isn't it funny when you meet someone who was born on your same day? Like my friends Tiffy and Djules who both celebrated their birthday yesterday... happy birthday ladies! :*

Such a coincidence makes you think about odds and probabilities and all those statistics..

Which leads me to the next point: an event like a birthday is not a coincidence here because, guess what? Everyone is born on the same day, the easiest and most obvious you can think of:

I am aware of the fact that this happens everywhere in the world so that does not come as a surprise. I have always been surprised though by this choice. Why the 1st of January? And why is everyone assigned to that date? Can't they just pick days randomly? I mean here almost 85% of the population is born on the 1st of January and that just creates confusion (especially when they also have the same name which yes happens quite often, too). Besides what is this hurry of choosing the 1st of January? That makes you basically one year older cause you would be born right at the beginning of the year!

Anyways, I can just let you imagine all the conversations I had with some locals at the beginning when I was asking birthday related questions: what is your sign, what is your element and stuff like that. I could see black holes in their eyes; astronomy is definitely a non existing science here.

Plus birthdays are not that important; they are all born on the same day, no big deal. You cannot have a big celebration for the whole population of the village, definitely cannot bake cakes and/or blow candles on them. Think of all the things that happen to you on your birthday: 90% of those are not likely to happen here. No presents, no cards, no flowers, no wishes. 

So a birthday is just another day.

But I am a huge fan of birthday, its the day on which you were born, that gotta count for something right? Celebrate it properly, it only happens once a year.

This is why today I also want to say happy birthday to my friend Gaga!!

Even if civilization is a bit far away, it's hard to forget days like this!

Easy driving

Last night I was in a hurry, I had to go out for dinner and I was late. So I took the car and decided to do my usual "sporty driving" just to get to destination faster.

Ahh wish I could actually do that. After getting out of the gate I realised it was Mission Impossible 7. The road in front of our compound looks like it has been bombarded with grenades (well it probably has): so full of (like my friend Charlie would say) "lunar craters" that it would just be easier to walk. And this is not even the worst. 

When it rains, because there is no tarmac everything becomes mud. It's a nice mix of black mud, brown mud and whatever else is on the road plus puddles which are never small or shallow. 

I could tell you of a million situations I found myself into but probably a picture will suffice.

Try to change a flat tyre when you're stuck in the mud and another car has to pull you out:

and that one wasn't even that bad: it took us one hour to fix everything and hit the road again.

When driving around though you really have to watch out for two crazy elements on the road (and if an Italian person is saying this, it must be really bad):

Number one: people on motorbikes. Because the road is so bad people on motorbikes jump around when hitting holes on the road. Most of the times they fall, laugh about it and jump back on the bike. Seeing people falling on their bikes happened to me twice: the first time there were two guys on the bike who fell and just stayed there on the ground. The second time the guys were four, all of them drunk: they fell and they were just laughing and laughing.. almost contagious!

Number two: drunk people walking along the road at night. So picture the scene: midnight, driving on the worst road you have ever seen, no lights, lampposts.. anything and at the very last minute you see a guy zigzagging his way back home. That's when you have to show your driving skill and prove yourself that, yes, if you can avoid the guy you're pretty much awesome.

Well all I can say is that you get used to all of this quite easily. I am the proud owner of a South Sudanese driving licence and I am currently learning with my drivers how to drive through deep puddles of mud and rivers (yes we have to do that too).

I think I may deserve some sort of award for that...??  

Best degree of civilization? PIZZA

Ah it's coming.. My favorite night of the week.. pizza night!!

I love it just because it's my favorite degree of civilization of all: expat night, the foreigners'dinner.

All the kawaja (it means white person in the local language) reunite at our compound, which let's admit it,  is the best to eat pizza!!

Our cook Timothy actually makes great pizza so it's not a bad experience.. not at all! Plus I love it cause expats night means story sharing night which means tomorrow I'll probably have something funny to tell.

Pizza night is a nice break from the crazy working days, the going around, the dust, the heat, the impossible situations we find ourselves into every single day. We just sit and eat and laugh cause honestly laughing about situations here makes it all so much more fun.

So it's me (italian/half irish haha), giacomo (VERY italian), paola (italian as well), debbie (the most hilarious british person I've ever met), fiona (a great scottish lady), camille (very french guy) and hayelom (an ethiopian guy who works in our compound). It's a lot of fun cause we are all so different but pizza night, CIVILIZATION night, brings us all together.

i'll sound very Italian here but it's true... food can do miracles!!

Sorry for the sentimental post but these nights are part of this crazy life too!!

Enjoy your meal, we will certainly do!!!!

Just say "I do"

Let's talk about obsessions here, again.

More than one month ago, I took a few days off to fly to Italy for a couple of friends' wedding. The thing that shocked the most when I was explaining this to the people was their reply:
YOUR WEDDING?

Ehm, no people. If I were going home for my wedding I wouldn't take just 5 days off; I mean I've never been married but I'm positive that a wedding takes a big amount of time, preparation, effort, coordination. Definitely not 5 days.

But then again I was forgetting who I was talking to. Marrying someone is NOT  a big deal here.
I received two proposals yesterday, just like that.
" Anna did you see the rain last night? Rainy season has begun (yes the rainmakers are safe.. for now)! Anna, why don't you marry me?"
yep, just like that.

And me, silly me, trying to explain that you know, marrying someone is a big deal, you do it for love and when you do it you want to be sure he's the one and you will love each other forever blablabla..
First reply was: well I love all my wives!! (mm ok..)
Second one was a simple: nahhhh

The worst part is they keep insisting, they can be very persuasive. obviously I cannot give up so I just keep saying no. then one of them who unfortunately knows I have a sister goes:
sell me your sister! 30 cows? she comes to live in South Sudan, she happy and she cooks for me!
I've been quite mean to her but I just cannot do this to her. so I said no.
So the guy proposed again to me.
It's a vicious circle.