Beds...

A while back, you may remember that I mentioned I was going to start sleeping outside, due to the extreme heat. Well, shortly after that, I did get round to finding a bed, and a nice location between my house and the fence of our compound that allowed me to tie up my mosquito net:

(I went outside right now to take this picture, I hope you appreciate my efforts on your behalf).

Anyway, this has been an almost entirely positive step in my life. It's generally much cooler outside, and falling asleep under the stars is pretty amazing. It has however occured to me that there is, in theory at least, a greater chance that I may find something unwelcome in my bed (and by that I mean a snake or a spider, rather than a person - you'll notice in the picture that I have a fairly substantial stick of bamboo there, just in case).

Today, Nehemiah, our compound manager and general source of reliable information on all things Sudanese, said to me "you really should not put your bed so close to he fence, the snakes like to climb up there and jump across"

Now, it does strike me that this is a tad unlikely, however there is just enough uncertainty in my mind that I feel like I should heed his advice (despite last weeks heroiccs, I'm not sure I'm ready for dealing with a snake in my bed. I mean, would you be?). Problem is, I really cannot be bothered. I'll let you know how all that works out anyway, unless a snake gets me before I get the chance.

There haven't been many other incidents of note in the last week. Work is going well on the clinic (with the exception of one days work lost due to a lack of water), and life on the compound has got much quiter as 6 of our number left for Nairobi yesterday.

Tomorrow I have to lead a bible study with some Sudanese guys. There could be anything from 4 to 14 people there, and it's very different from doing a similar exercise with people in Scotland. This is a shame, as most of my experience in leading bible studies is with people from Scotland. Most of these guys are too young to remember anything but war, and many of them have the most unbelievable stories. I've really got no idea where to start...which is part of the reason I'm killing time by updating my blog. I'll try and keep you posted of what I learn form the experience

In a really rather random aside, most of the time I've been writing this, I've simultaneously been havin a conversation using Facebook chat with Amy, who stays in the tukul next to mine. I like to think that is a first for Sudan. It certainly is for me...