Pitch Black is Beautiful........

I just have to whip off a quick post....I'm experiencing one of those "Glad I was born in the middle of the 20th Century" moments.

That makes me just old enough to appreciate the absolutely astonishing situation I find myself in. In fact, I think it has cured my technophobia completely. You see, I'm sitting on a couch in the Lira Hotel, about 3 hours from Gulu. Our technical director, Akiki, and I have spent the past few days in Lira and Kitgum, doing some follow up work with the journalists who attended the workshop.

I won't mince words...Kitgum sucks ass. It makes Gulu look like Santa Monica, and that is virtually impossible. But Lira is kind of funky cool, in a way. It's certainly a lot busier than Gulu, with a livelier market scene and more organized businesses. I immediately liked the vibe in Lira...but a day in Kitgum is all I'll ever need to experience in the entire rest of my life.

Anyway, I'm sprawled on a couch in the lobby of the Lira Hotel, one of the finer establishments in town. In Northern Uganda, "finer establishment" means there are no bodily fluids on the mosquito netting, and you won't die from the hideous, pus-dripping skin condition you'll develop if you use the shower without your own personal flip-flops. My little room here looks like it was a Catholic school dorm at one point, and it certainly makes me fervently pray I'll live through the night so I can get back to my comfy, cozy cottage on Plot 26, Samuel Doe Road, Gulu, Uganda.

For the past 15 minutes, the power has been off at the Lira Hotel. I'm not just talking dark up in this joint, I'm talking so pitch black, you couldn't see your finger if you used it to gouge your eye out with. Oddly enough, after an initial "Oooooh", other people in the lobby and the nearby restaurant resumed their conversations, kept eating, acted like nothing had happened. I'm kinda used to these situations by now, myself. The only light within a 100 yard radius is beaming from the screen of my Compaq Presario V6000 laptop computer.

And I'm online. I bought one of those portable external modems from one of the local phone companies, and figured out how to get the thing working all by my little old self. So while other folks are thrashing around in the dark, I'm chillin like a villain on this surprisingly comfortable leather couch, catching up on e-mails and such.

I'm sorry, but I have morphed into one extremely bad-assed technophile, if I DO say so myself....