lumière des étoiles

good for a laff
2008-05-03 12:41 a.m.

I think i've mentioned here from time to time just how much I enjoy Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree message board. I do have practical reasons for expressing such sentiment (indeed, I found accommodation on Paros, bicycles in Amsterdam, a tour operator in South Africa and myriad advice about border police, ATMs and altitude sickness in South America thanks to the intrepid travelers who religiously post to the boards). But mostly, the feeling surges when I stumble across an exchange like the following.

From lactisman, who began the thread under the title "Some random questions" in the Africa section (a bit vague, in my opinion):

Hi, first whats all this about fighting to get a seat on a bus, is it just a bit of pushing and shoving or actual fisticuffs!? And if I have to put one of my packs on the roof how safe will it be from either getting nicked or falling off and hurtling down a cliff never to be seen again? Also i'm not a regular killing machine but if theres loads of creepy crawlies in my room is it frowned upon by Ethiopians to kill them or is it ok to give them a big whack with you shoe? Whats the going rate these days from the airport into Addis centre?(in a taxi) Erm, thats about it for now. Cheers very much. And here, ChrisKean1's reply:

Sometimes, as a foreigner, you will get preferential treatment that may make you feel a bit ashamed--including being shepherded to a seat. This is not limited to Ethiopia. Sometimes, you will have to crowd on board with everyone else. Usually this is a quick affair involving maybe a minutes' jostling, but there can be trouble if someone dives in through a window onto you. Rarely, you will be unfortunate enough to be behind someone with large baggage or large anatomy, which you may find battering you about the head. The main fisticuffs I saw took place between drivers, not passengers. (side-bar here: I too have seen this - in Tunisia, Morocco and Ghana. Now back to ChrisKean1)

I travel with luggage small enough it will fit inside the vehicle, but though I have seen quite a few people fall off the tops of buses and the like in Africa, I have never seen luggage fall. They usually spend a good, long time strapping it down before leaving--just make sure there's nothing crushable inside, and that you cover it if you're worried about dust.

Ethiopians have been known to throw stones at creatures arguably far more evolved than bugs, so I wouldn't worry.

I have bolded the parts that made me laugh out loud. Laughing out loud = good, since right now I'm wrapped up in the following, un-funny (sucky) things:

1. Semester has ended: lots of grading to do.
2. Semester has ended: annual report to NSF due (2 of them actually, as I have pimped myself out to another PI on another grant to pay for Tanzania).
3. Semester has ended: I have now submitted two papers, one tracing the decline of state sovereignty and the ways this disrupts international agreements on women's human rights and one presenting two case studies of NGOs using technology in developing regions to address Women's human rights. I have heard neither hide nor hair about either, though both were submitted well over three weeks ago. Am I failing the course? Marginally passing? Kicking its ass with my eloquent and scholarly investigations? I suppose I must wait until the LAST DAY of the end of the semester to find out.
3. Mingus (cat #2, the boy) has a urinary tract infection. He has finally begun peeing in the litter box again thanks to the meds, but he hangs out in the box for five minutes, each hour. Can't tell if this means he's getting better or worse. At least pee comes out when he goes; the vet said that if he has a "blockage", we'd have to whisk him to the emergency vet asap. So since the vet also enlightened us by announcing that male cats have the smallest urethras in the animal kingdom, and are therefore susceptible to this sort of blockage, I now follow Mingus into the bathroom (well, his bathroom) and count how many times he pees. This can't be good for either one of us.
4. I have to go to a conference in DC (actually Alexandria,VA) next week, and I'd really rather be relaxing at home, finishing my ugly painting, watching the rest of my McLeod's daughters DVD, and reading books that have nothing to do with International Relations theory, European history, funding NGOs or UN policies on Development.
5. I'm turning THIRTY! Or as I typed to a friend in a text message yesterday, THRITY!

#5 isn't really a bad thing. It's just...odd. I by no means have a romanticized notion of my "twenties". I had tons of fun, but like my life much better now. It's just, like, this whole other set of numbers. And I can't really talk this way in front of my bestest friends, nor my husband, nor my sibbies, cause they're all well over thirty - some nearing FORTY. Or perhaps FROTY.

So thanks, ChrisKean1, for the LP post on the ThornTree. I am a proud African-Bus veteran myself. And also, I'm keen to be reminded from time to time that no matter how many items I can include on my "bad things this week" list, since I live in the developed and resource-rich world, none of them will ever involve me having to dive through a window to get a seat on the bus to make it to work or get home to my family.