Are you on Twitter? I'm not and I hardly understand what it all means. I do know that it's a pretty big deal and lots of people tweet and in the world of twitterland there is all sorts of lingo and such. Just last night I learned that if you have a twitter account you can categorize your tweets into groups by something called a hash tag (#).
If I was a twitter-er I'd have a hash tag for my third world problems. For the most part I don't complain or discuss my third world problems much on the blog. I've been trying to focus on the positive here in Addis Ababa. It's helped my overall psyche. But some of my third world problems are kind of funny and interesting to hear about if you've never lived in a developing country. I find it funny that a some things have just become "normal" for our family.
So here is what my #thirdworldproblems tweets would look like;
"Spent the day airing out the house and washing all the linens from the burnt beef lung (for the cats) that my housekeeper left on the stove until all the water had boiled off. Don't worry, the house isn't on fire, it's only the smoking beef lung." #thirdworldproblems
"Another fly colony has hatched in one of our bathroom floor drains. Thank goodness we put packing tape over them so we can't smell the sewer every time we flush the toilet. Only now the clear tape gives us a very interesting view of the fly's life cycle." #thirdworldproblems
"All of my clothes that hang out to dry smell like diesel exhaust from the generator that runs when our power goes out. I get a headache sitting in the car with my fumy jeans on." #thirdworldproblems
"tired of pulling out clothes from my drawers that have been folded and put away inside out by my housekeeper." #thirdworldproblems
"My trash can gets raided every week by our household staff to see which empty boxes or containers can be reused in their homes. Cool until my trash gets piled up in the yard as a new flower pot or something equally as tacky." #thirdworldproblems
"Playing, Is that a dead person or just someone sleeping on the side of the road, with the hubby as we drive through town." #thirdworldproblems
"Mom, is that human poop or cow poop? "I don't know, just don't step in it." Is a common conversation during our outings." #thirdworldproblems
"Must be a holiday in Ethiopia, the bloody sheep skins are pilling up on the sides of the roads." #thirdworldproblems
"Grown men peeing on the side of the road" #thirdworldproblems
"One of my household staff is out ill almost on a weekly basis usually from eating rotten food and giving themselves food poisoning." #thirdworldproblems
"Power's out, generators on, shut all the doors and windows so we don't gag on the fumes."
"There is no water today girls, you can only drink juice." #thirdworldproblems
"Giving the baby a bath again because after playing with our household help she smells like B.O." #thirdworldproblems
OK, I'm going to Hell after that last one for sure!
If I was a twitter-er I'd have a hash tag for my third world problems. For the most part I don't complain or discuss my third world problems much on the blog. I've been trying to focus on the positive here in Addis Ababa. It's helped my overall psyche. But some of my third world problems are kind of funny and interesting to hear about if you've never lived in a developing country. I find it funny that a some things have just become "normal" for our family.
So here is what my #thirdworldproblems tweets would look like;
"Spent the day airing out the house and washing all the linens from the burnt beef lung (for the cats) that my housekeeper left on the stove until all the water had boiled off. Don't worry, the house isn't on fire, it's only the smoking beef lung." #thirdworldproblems
"Another fly colony has hatched in one of our bathroom floor drains. Thank goodness we put packing tape over them so we can't smell the sewer every time we flush the toilet. Only now the clear tape gives us a very interesting view of the fly's life cycle." #thirdworldproblems
"All of my clothes that hang out to dry smell like diesel exhaust from the generator that runs when our power goes out. I get a headache sitting in the car with my fumy jeans on." #thirdworldproblems
"tired of pulling out clothes from my drawers that have been folded and put away inside out by my housekeeper." #thirdworldproblems
"My trash can gets raided every week by our household staff to see which empty boxes or containers can be reused in their homes. Cool until my trash gets piled up in the yard as a new flower pot or something equally as tacky." #thirdworldproblems
"Playing, Is that a dead person or just someone sleeping on the side of the road, with the hubby as we drive through town." #thirdworldproblems
"Mom, is that human poop or cow poop? "I don't know, just don't step in it." Is a common conversation during our outings." #thirdworldproblems
"Must be a holiday in Ethiopia, the bloody sheep skins are pilling up on the sides of the roads." #thirdworldproblems
"Grown men peeing on the side of the road" #thirdworldproblems
"One of my household staff is out ill almost on a weekly basis usually from eating rotten food and giving themselves food poisoning." #thirdworldproblems
"Power's out, generators on, shut all the doors and windows so we don't gag on the fumes."
"There is no water today girls, you can only drink juice." #thirdworldproblems
"Giving the baby a bath again because after playing with our household help she smells like B.O." #thirdworldproblems
OK, I'm going to Hell after that last one for sure!
8 comments:
You make me laugh - venting is good for the soul. For an equally funny laugh, my kids frequen the site/#first world problems! Check it out. I think it will also be good for your psyche!
hope to see you on twitter soon - in the meantime, this is the best "twitter in a nutshell" i've found so far, http://www.jhische.com/twitter/
as for third world problems, right now we're all first world all the time but these definitely sound familiar from several places we've lived/traveled before!
If you're going to Hell, then I'm going too, because I'm laughing pretty hard!
Haha this made me laugh. You should totally get on Twitter! Sometimes I feel like I have a lot of #firstworldproblems, like: I really NEED an iPhone at post. Or: How am I going to live without immediate access to the new season of "Downton Abbey"? You know, the important things.
I recently found your blog via some other Foreign Service bloggers, and I'm really enjoying reading about life in Ethiopia. Definitely amused by this post!
If you're going to hell, we can meet there! I'd like to add "playing dodge the cockroaches and street-dog poop on my morning run" to the list.
These are all great! Glad to know I'll have some friends in Hell! Dodge the cockroaches is one I would have tweeted while in Manila. Dodge the roaches in my own house!!! Luckily there are no roaches in Ethiopia. Plenty of poop though!
First of all...very entertaining! Second, I really really really appreciate this post. I love that you focus on the fun and positive--but sometimes (especially as a potential FSS) I want to hear the real nitty gritty of life overseas. This is my one issue with blogging sometimes, that it doesn't always show both sides. A fly colony in the drains! Sewer smells! This is the stuff that brings me back to reality that my potential FS life isn't going to be all romantic travels, household help and whatnot. So thank you for showing some of the other stuff of reality when living overseas :)
Post a Comment