Good Morning Cockroaches, looking a little dead today

This is what I woke up to in my bathroom yesterday morning. I had sprayed for cockroaches the other day, and was greeted by no less than seven dead suckers scattered across the floor. I grabbed my camera and luckily got this shot before my battery died. It had apparently turned on in my backpack some time in Addis Ababa and I had not idea.

When I returned to our compound after work on Friday, I noticed one of our lime trees had dropped a bunch of its fruit in the wind, so I gathered some up, helped by one of our guards, Gilmar. I said to Gilmar that these would be great to have for our water. Love a slice of lime in a glass of water. So he said there were other lime trees in our yard and took me over to tree number three, which is beside our pomegranate tree. I told him I loved the fruits of the pomegranate tree and he make some sort of remark about not good fruit to which I protested. Pomegranates are some of my favourite fruits! But the low hanging fruits were still green so I said to Gilmar I would have to keep and eye on the tree for when the fruit ripens so they don't rot or get eaten by birds before I can get to them. He pointed to the top of the tree on the other side of our shade lattice where there were ripe fruits hanging and told me he would get them for me. Great!

So after a cold shower to rinse the sweat of the day off, I came out to our living room where Gilmar had laid two almost-ripe pomegranates and lit a candle (we had a power cut at 5pm in our area of town - this is the third Friday in a row we've been powerless on a Friday night). Yay! In about a week they'll be ready. This is the bounty of our garden... caputured by candle light and again in the "garden" in the magic-hour light.




Being left without power on a Friday night every greater reduces our chance of staying in. We eat out at least two times everyday. Sometimes its at the 4 star restaurant/hotel, others its from some little street vendors where they cook the fool or dinish over a little charcoal fire while we all sit around on everything from ornately carved wooden stools to empty milk tins, jerry cans and the plastic shell of car batteries.

Last night we opted for a place with beef burgers and jumbos (large draft beer, preferably locally brewed from Harar). Yum. Followed by a jumbo at the bar Mark and Kaja call "the green house" on the way home.