Sunday, September 24, 2006

West African Reunion


Dinner at Charley & Rachel's
Originally uploaded by edaniii.

Last week KP and I visited Charley and Rachel in Columbus. For the non Peace Corps crowd, KP and Charley were volunteers together in Konni, and KP attended Charley and Rachel's wedding in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)--10 years ago next year! They've been in Columbus for a few years now and Charley works with the USDA as an agricultural statistician. Rachel works at an OSU hospital as a patient-rights advocate (aka she makes sure doctors and nurses are treating patients well in the ER).

They treated us to a West African and American fusion meal: Corn tuwo with baobab leaf sauce and lamb, roast chicken, acorn squash, and homemade apple pie. It was all fabulous (and considerably less gritty than the village equivalent in Niger would have been).

Mun gode, sosai. Alhamdililahi!

Friday, September 22, 2006

Scanning Old Slides

Playing around with AB's scanner and scanning some old slides. Not bad for 40+ year-old slides.

 Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Blabla's new ride

This is a test drive of the new Baby Bjorn we got today. I know the face I'm wearing is not one of happiness. That's because I'm already envisioning what 20+ pounds of kid are going to do on my back. I don't think this is on par with Volvos, but the Swedes sure know good design.

 Posted by Picasa

Saturday, September 16, 2006

ProtractedStayUSA

Last month my father-in-law and I took a small road trip from Maine to Ohio and broke up the drive into two days. We made it as far as western New York before calling it quits and decided to look for lodging. After a bit of driving around we found a strip of roads with a few options. We did a drive-by on Hotel A and decided that the parked construction equipment in the lot didn’t bode well. Our second stop was at a mid-scale national chain hotel, and we were disappointed to learn they had no vacancies. For a Wednesday night, we were surprised.

The receptionist recommended we try our luck down the road at a place that offers short- and long-term reservations targeted for business travelers. We pulled up to the ProtractedStayUSA and asked if there were any vacancies. The lad behind the desk told us there was one room available: a smoking, handicap-accessible room with two twin beds. Apprehensive about the room, but more so about the prospect of having to keep driving, we asked to see the room.

Walking the halls to the room, I felt a dizzying feeling overcome me. The monotony of the carpet patterns and the numbered rooms seemed to yawn out towards infinity ahead of us. I suddenly felt sorry for the people who spend their careers from one generic hotel room to the next. We finally came to our room, inserted the key into the lock and walked inside. Spartan came to mind, just after Marlboro Man. Rob and I looked at each other and took tentative steps forward. I can’t remember who spoke first, but one of us said not being able to open the windows was a definite deal-breaker. They did. Damn.

We then agreed it wasn’t the worst place we had ever stayed, but perhaps could be the worst place we’d stayed in this country. No, top honor among “hotel hell” goes to the Park W hotel in Niger, a place we stayed in 2004 on vacation. Committed, we opened the windows, booked the room back in the lobby, and then promptly left for dinner.

The highlight to the entire stopover in this town was an unexpected good meal in a nearby strip mall. Nestled in between confectionery and a shoe store was a French restaurant. Saved from a fate of TGIF or Olive Garden meal, we were whisked to a dark corner of the restaurant in what we felt was a way to conceal two men who looked like they’d spent all day driving. This turned out to be a boon, as they forgot to serve us our mains after the salad course, and after realizing their delay, comp’ed us desserts. Score.

Back at the ProtractedStayUSA, the two hours had only taken a slight edge off the cigarette smell, which was only restored to full potency after turning down the bed and releasing the latent smells from the linens and mattresses. And for the sin I committed next, I shall spend an eternity in eco-hell: I suggested we run the A/C and keep the windows open at the same time to make the room temperature more pleasant for sleeping.

I needn’t have bothered. Neither Rob nor I had anything that closely resembled sleep that night. In roughly two-hour blocks, we would walk the fine line between sleep and wakefulness, but never fully achieving either state. It came as no surprise that neither one of us minded getting an early start to the rest of the drive to Ohio. Rob paid the bill and I pulled the car around to the front to wait for him. As Rob got in, he said that the receptionist must be wise: He didn’t bother to ask Rob how he had slept.


Here are some photos you can file under the heading “Truth in Advertising”


What they say their rooms look like:

What our room looked like:


What their kitchens look like:

What our kitchen looked like:


What was already in our coffee maker:

What happened when we tried to open the bathroom door:

Scenes from Summer

Check out my Flickr account to see some scenes from our summer.


Mainely Family
Originally uploaded by edaniii.