And Then Some

George and I went and got mango juice from the bar and sat down on the steps by the Nile, chatting. Jerome came and joined us after a while. He told me someone I had met earlier wanted to talk to me, and pointed to the top of the steps where this guy was standing. I thought it was Pasquale from breakfast, so I went up to say hi. It was not Pasquale.
It was this tall gangly guy in a pink shirt, who came right up to me and leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Can I meet you after my shift?" I was so flustered and taken off guard that I just stared at him and was like "I ....dont..know" and he started talking about how he knew I was leaving tomorrow and he wanted to be my friend. And so, completely flustered as I was and persistant as he was, I ended up telling him that we were going out to dinner and we would be by the bar afterwards. And then I felt awkward and walked away. I just figured that I wouldn't be at the bar, and he would get over it, and that would be the end of that.
But it wasnt. So Jerome and Neesha and George and I got in the car and went to find Jerome's friend Emma. We couldn't find him at first and then he leapt up at Jerome's window and scared the crap out of Jerome (hilarious) and we drove a little while over to this Eritrean/Ethiopian resturant. Emma held my hand as we walked in and all these intimidating looking Eritrean guys stared at us, but whatever. Emma power. Times two!
So we sat down and got some beers (Neesha had water, dont worry Nila) and checked out the menu. There was everything! Pasta! Chicken with rice! Chicken curry with rice! Kisira and meat! Lasagna! Even burgers during the day (George was disapointed). George and Neesha got the curry and I ordered the Kisira mixed dish, which ended up being served on a 20" pizza platter completely covered in food-oops! But they helped me eat it, so that was fine. On the TV behind us were these Eritrean music video's playing, which were so epic. All of them were like, nine hours long and involved love and heartbreak and lots of beautiful women walking by and then a pining looking man scuttling behind them, singing mournfully.
Anyway we kept ordering beers (not my idea) and so Jerome, Emma and I ended up having about four beers each. Both of them are relatively small, so I dont know how they handle their liquor so well, but these beers are not only huge, but much higher in alcohol content. So i was, how shall we say....drunk. And I got the hiccups. Pathetic.
So dinner was hilarious and then we drove home and I fell asleep pretty quickly. Therefore, I was not awake when my admirerer came calling. He knocked first on our door (we were sleeping) and then on George's, where Jerome asked him what the hell he was doing there. He said he wanted to talk to Emma (how did he find out my name!) and be my friend, and Jerome told him that I was "so drunk I couldnt move my tongue" which is both disgusting and untrue but seemed to do the trick because the guy left us alone and I didn't see him again.
In the morning we got up and I had some hot chocolate and then we headed off to run errands before leaving town. We stopped at the airport, and then at the WFP headquarters and then went and had a meeting with a man from Tearfund called Dr. Chris Lewis who was fantastic and had a very gentle face. Plus their office was really nice-open, cool and decorated with pictures of how to do proper hygeine. After that we ran a coupel mor errands and then headed back to Torit.