{"id":1117,"date":"2011-07-03T19:06:18","date_gmt":"2011-07-03T19:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws:81\/wordpress\/?p=1117"},"modified":"2011-07-03T19:06:18","modified_gmt":"2011-07-03T19:06:18","slug":"east-africa-a-balancing-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/?p=1117","title":{"rendered":"East Africa – A Balancing Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

Things we’ve seen perfectly balanced on people’s heads as they walk along the road or have a conversation with a friend:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bags of nuts in a basket<\/p>\n

Home grown selection of organic vegetables<\/p>\n

Large branch of green bananas<\/p>\n

Long sticks of sugar cane<\/p>\n

Sack of potatoes<\/p>\n

Bucket of onions<\/p>\n

Jerry can of water<\/p>\n

Timber<\/p>\n

Handbag<\/p>\n

Wheelie bag (bit larger than hand luggage usually allows)<\/p>\n

Sewing machine (hand operated)<\/p>\n

School books<\/p>\n

Stack of towels<\/p>\n

Ten foam mattresses<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Things we’ve seen strapped to bicycles:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sacks of charcoal<\/p>\n

Wood<\/p>\n

Car parts<\/p>\n

5 branches of bananas (two on either side and one at the back)<\/p>\n

A chicken<\/p>\n

2 goats (one on either side in baskets)<\/p>\n

Numerous children<\/p>\n

Set of 6 wooden dining chairs<\/p>\n

38 pineapples<\/p>\n

Ten foam mattresses<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Things we’ve seen in wheelbarrows:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Building material<\/p>\n

Car chassis(!)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Things we only do in Africa:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Always have toilet paper stuffed into my back pocket<\/p>\n

Always have anti-bac handwash stuffed into the other pocket<\/p>\n

Shake every immigration officer, customs officer and policeman’s hand at border crossings<\/p>\n

Ensure the anti-bac handwash is still stuffed in my back pocket<\/p>\n

Smile and share a joke with every immigration officer, customs officer and policeman<\/p>\n

Pretend we don’t speak French in Tunisia, Rwanda and Burundi to assist with the daft foreigner look when stopped by a policeman on the roadside<\/p>\n

Pretend we barely speak English in other countries, again to assist with the daft foreigner look<\/p>\n

Pretend we didn’t see the traffic policeman waving his arms as we passed by<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Things we’ve seen perfectly balanced on people’s heads as they walk along the road or have a conversation with a friend:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,23,26,25,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-burundi","category-kenya","category-rwanda","category-tanzania","category-uganda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1117"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1142,"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1117\/revisions\/1142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.movinghouse.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}