Fire & Feces

• Taxi ride across town=120 afs
• Pumpkin Soup at the French Restaurant=250 afs
• Coffee to warm up from the freezing temps=100 afs
• Falling into frozen feces up to my knees=PRICELESS

So I'm still here in Ktown. (We're hopeful that we may get out tomorrow, but there are no guarantees.) Today has been an interesting day to say the least. It started out at 6:30am...freezing cold in our room. The gas for our heater was empty and there was no way to warm up. I quickly got dressed and made sure my things were all packed up (just in case we were to leave). We ate breakfast and began the wonderful routine of calling the airlines every 30 minutes in hopes of an answer. At about 8:30am this morning we were told there would be no flight today. (Lucky for us, that was about 3 hours earlier than usual.)

We decided to head over to the coffeeshop, knowing it would be warm and in an hour or so we would be able to check email. Much to our chagrin, upon arrival we discovered that the fire in our favorite wood stove had not yet been lit. I decided to take it upon myself to start that baby. Well...that was until the cleaning lady saw me take out her MASSIVE piece of wood (along with a large number of other pieces of wood). She quickly came running over, yelling at me for taking out her wood...what am I doing...I'm not from here...I don't know how to light a fire...and other things of the sort. I tried telling her that she needed to start with the smaller wood and work her way up, but she was quick to prove me wrong. AND...after about 5 trees worth of cardboard...she did just that. The funniest part of the whole thing, was that after the fire was going, the lady tried telling me to put my hand in the fire...and then she grabbed my hand and tried to FORCE it into the fire...proving that I'm not accustomed to such a task. H, S (one of the workers) and myself tried to maintain our composure as I fought to keep my hand from being burnt. I sooo wish you all could have seen it!

And as if that weren't enough....

At about 11:30am, H and I headed into the city. Upon arrival to our destination, I got out of the taxi and within two steps I had come face to face with my greatest fear in this country. NO, it's not a suicide bomber. NO, it's not a landmine. NO, it's not a plane crash. And NO, it's not getting worms (I've already had those).

My greatest fear in this country is falling into the ditch (which, in this language, is called a "jew-EE") and is usually filled with raw sewage and trash.

YEP...within two steps from the taxi, I had fallen into one of the deepest "jew-ee's" in the city. It was covered in ice and dirt and with first glance, looked completely full. WRONG! I was knee-deep in "frozen feces" and had no idea how it even happened! H helped me out and the taxi driver and other bystanders got a good laugh. Lucky for me, I'm still new enough to this place that I was able to laugh as well. But unfortunately we had some other stops to make before heading back that afternoon, so for several hours I walked around with my bottom half wet, cold, and dirty. Yuck!

Would someone please cue Daniel Powter's song "Bad Day" now?!