Top Ten reasons you've been in Sudan a long time...

1. You say "sorry, sorry" when someone trips or you hear of a mutual friend being ill.

2. You get excited over canned fruit or canned cheese, and popcorn becomes a vegetable or even a replacement for a meal.

3. When shooing the flies away after you flip up the toilet seat becomes normal.

4. Everyday conversation is about food back home and you begin to salivate over the thought of lettuce, broccoli, or anything green.

5. When 77 degrees Fahrenheit is unbearably cold.

6. You pray for rain so that you can bathe and do laundry without having to take several trips to the borehole.

7. You pray that it doesn't rain so that your clothes will dry, and so that your home-made yogurt doesn't get spoiled while your in town.

8. Walking 200 yards in the middle of the night to the latrine (sometimes several times), while winding a flashlight, is normal and part of your workout routine.

9. You can remember how to say a word in Juba Arabic and even French (from College), but not English.

10. When you see an airplane and you stop mid-sentence to see what kind it is, and if it lands you run to the airstrip with all the rest of your Sudanese friends just to see modern technology at its best.