Monday, March 16, 2009

bachelor partyin' (like its 1999)

this past weekend, i threw my first bachelor party, complete with strippers jumping out of cakes, drinking till we couldnt speak our names, and u name it, we did it. ok, just in case my lame attempt at sarcasm fell through, things didn't exactly happen like that. actually it didnt happen like that at all. this was a nice, well-behaved (mostly) bachelor party. tho, even without strippers or cakes, it was still ssssssssmokin'. i mean, actually, literally, on fire. we went go-carting for the 1st leg and one of our carts bursted in flames. luckily no one was hurt, just a few lynched body hairs and a watch band. anyway, makes for a good story.

the rest of the night was pretty cool, complete with a braai, couple drinks, wise words of wisdom from yours truly and others, and lots of chatting (no pics). i also re-enforced my amazing knowledge of cars. the groom asked me for my advice on whether to hire a c-class, e-class, s-class, whatever-class. so, of course, i responded how any reasonable guy would have and asked if i could see pictures. honestly, it seriously took me a couple seconds to even know what the hell he was talking about. anyway, apparently that disqualifies me from being a nigerian (cuz what nigerian doesnt dream of owning a c-class, right??). well, at least now i know. my life is now worth it!

back to the wedding. my name-sake is getting married; a guy that i've only known for about a yr, but it feels like we've known each other for a lifetime. and his bride-to-be is one of the loveliest people i know; someone who was more of a friend to me even before we met each other. i think the wedding is really gonna be touching; hopefully i dont have too many duties/chores and i can take a few moments to just observe and enjoy. speaking of duties, the guy asked all the groomsmen to wear beige shoes. what kind of person owns beige shoes??! so i spent all of sunday morning before my flight looking for beige shoes and finally gave up and bought a way too expensive off-white pair of shoes, which the ladies at the store assured me would work. im not so sure of that, but as long as the wedding couple don't hate me for wearing non-beige shoes, i'll live. im counting on them being wayy to busy to notice!

also, wedding's in cape town, so it should be lovely. also being a nigerian wedding, it goes on for 2 days, so im taking 2 days off work for it and aint no complaints from my side. i'll try to take some pics.

final note: i stumbled on the AMAZING website the other day. not like i know the designer or that i think she's an incredible person; nope, not anything like that...but, i gotta say, everyone should check it out. and then buy whatever she's selling, and then become *paying* clients, and then be happy. that pretty much how i've heard it goes. anyway, she's really talented; check it out; u wont be disappointed: http://www.nvision-design.com/.

Monday, March 9, 2009

botswana and the elusive search

quick question: what is the most difficult commodity to find in botswana? [answer below]

so i'm now stationed in botswana on a project. and it looks like i'll be here for a long time. its only been a week now and im enjoying it for the most part, aside from my endless search for the rare commodity. facts about botswana:

- its hot. its really hot. like houston. just not as humid. but still really hot. and the people (batswana, not botswanans) love the heat. i have to fight to keep the air conditioner on in the office. literally. i think im gonna suggest an arm-wrestling battle for the room temperature from now on.

- i was told that there would be lots of goats. and i was desperately looking forward to be mauled by goats and having them direct traffic, but up until now, i seriously have not seen 1 goat. i have my camera ready and waiting and nothing. no goats. i feel cheated. i am in gaborone, the capital city, so maybe i just need to venture further out into the countryside. we'll see. ill keep searching. and NO, this is not the rare, elusive commodity.

- this country is really beautiful. especially the house that they put us up in. much better than the hotel; pretty much a spacious 3 bedroom flat in a posh golf estates (where you'll find the only white people (and to be fair a bunch of rich blackies too), peacefully staked away in botswana). but the people are very nice. but i think wayyy toooo nice. and things move at botswana-speed. which is not very fast most of the time. this is why im starting to think that this would make a terrific vacation spot, but for work, its a bit slower than things should be. quick lunch? forget about it. quick service at the hotel lobby? nope. quick convo? please.

- and finally, the country is in serious shortage of IRONS. and no, im not talking about one of the most abundant metals on earth, nor the food group including most seafoods, beans, and egg yolk. Nope, im talking about the stupid thing that you plug in and it makes your clothes look straight and smart (supposedly). btw, i hate those things. they are a necessary evil. kind of like political parties. well, im almost positive that there is a serious shortage of them in botswana. we were staying at a hotel last week and they had exactly ONE iron for the entire hotel. one day, i waited ONE hour for THE iron to arrive. So then this week, i thought, since we moved to a lodge, things would get better (maybe they would have at least a couple). Well i was wrong. they, too, have exactly ONE iron for the whole place. So the plan now is that I will get my own iron and i, too, will have exactly ONE iron which i will take with me everywhere. EISH!


anyway, things look to be interesting for the next year. i'm very excited about the project and i hope its as interesting and challenging as i'm anticipating. its also a pretty public project (highly visible) so there are lots of opportunities for this to have huge effects. hopefully they're good, huge effects.


i'll keep people updated on my travails in botswana as well as my iron-adventures!