Little Stuff That Doesn't Mean Anything

--There is a tendency to lock a door for no apparent reason, but leave the key in it. I am gong to break my wrist some day.

--There is a fascination with hosing down driveways. Our guards—and it appears all guards in the country—occupy themselves by washing the dirt off the driveway—about 10 times a day. We had to ban night time hosing—we would wake up with no water for showers. As Mr. DuPuy once said when he saw our 10 bags of garbage, “you people are either the cleanest people or the dirtiest people I know.”

--The woman who cleans for us puts my stuff away where I can’t find it. Just like home. I had my bag on the floor and threw some stuff on top of it last night so that I could just throw it in today when I left. She was nice enough to put all of the stuff away, and put my bag on top of the wardrobe. Nearly missed my plane.

--Electrical outlets in Asia suck. Touch a cord and the plug falls out of the socket. When trimming my beard, I have one hand on the trimmer and one hand holding the plug in the socket. To charge my phone I have to balance it in the outlet or it falls out.

--While on the subject, the country is not comfortable with electricity—they turn off computers, AND unplug them—or shut off the power strip as well. When I go to the office on weekends, I have to go find the end of the extension cord(s) crawl under a desk, and try to figure out which switch to turn on. Nice.

--Before taking a shower each day, I have to go up on the roof and turn on the pump, go shower, and go turn it back off. Not bad now, but December may be a problem.

--The woman who washes our clothes hands them outside to dry. Which makes them stiff—they creak when I put them on. Same feel as when I was growing up and my mom hung out my pants. I didn’t remember the my underwear feeling this way though—ooch.