Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Kinko's...Sudan Style

You may have noticed that I've been a little (okay, a lot) lax in updating my blog of late. So with this post I begin what I hope will be weekly blogs. Each week I'll tell about an experience or highlight some element of life in Sudan.

This week I thought I'd show you the local printing/copying, etc. store. It's funny to me the things that parallel things back home. If this isn't funny, or at least amusing to you, wait till next week I guess.

As you can see by the sign, the store is called Legacy Secretariat Bureau. I doubt the owner really wanted to name his store after a race horse. Probably was looking for "Secretarial", huh?

As we go through the gate to the Legacy Secretariat (snicker snicker) Bureau it looks more like the offices of an Arizona ostrich farm than a professional document solutions outlet. Nevertheless that is, in fact, what it is...or what it is reputed to be. I have never actually used the doubtless first-rate services of our local Secretariat (snicker snicker, it doesn't get old for me) Bureau.

Take a look at the storefront. You can see that professional printing and binding services are in high demand in what may be the most third-world of Third World Nations. The four employees sit on the porch and enjoy the shade. I stood and talked to them for several minutes and nobody come up. As a matter of fact, I don't now that I've ever seen anyone in there...ever. That's funny to me.

And finally, lets go back to the sign in front of the Legacy Secretariat Bureau compound. It's clearly a high-end financial district where the owner chose to locate his business. Yes, those are goats meandering through the overgrown grass near the sign. Funny stuff.
Okay, well that's all for this post. Tune in next week when I'll show you...well, who knows? But it will be something. See ya then.

Oh, I almost forgot. Here's a picture of me. I thought some of you might appreciate it. That's something I'll try to do every week too.
The guy with me is Aloro James. His picture is on another post too, I think. He's one of my best Sudanese friends. A hilarious guy!