Word: bishaq
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Lately, I have been driving around the desert eating roast sheep intestines. The desert has been beautiful, and the gizzards a lot better than you'd think. The problem has been the driving. Or to be specific, the driver. My problem is Bishaq...
...travel agent had assured me Bishaq was his best driver for my planned journey through the Darfur refugee camps of eastern Chad, but things did not start well. We'd arranged a 5 a.m. start in the hope of crossing the 614 miles of unpaved road to the eastern town of Abeche by nightfall. Bishaq was not only five and a half hours late, but come 5 p.m., as we passed a dust-blown town called Mongo, he suddenly swerved through some metal gates, pulled up in a dusty courtyard, stepped out and ambled away with the word: "Hotel...
...following morning, Bishaq ran down a beautiful black and white speckled wild guinea fowl. He slung it in the back and later, when we reached Abeche, he disappeared for three hours to roast the bird with some cousins, leaving me to amble the streets looking...
...Over the next week, Bishaq demanded to be fed four times a day - a mini breakfast of tea and pastries, then a bigger, meaty breakfast at 10 a.m., meat for lunch, meat for dinner, and several other breaks for sweet black tea. The fact that we were in an area where people routinely starved did nothing to stem his appetites. If, as happened on occasion, I forced Bishaq to miss a meal, he would complain constantly. "I feel faint, I feel weak," he'd say, holding up a frail hand. "It's not right. It's not good...
...Bishaq was also a terrible driver. We hit trees, bushes, berms, several other cars, and even a barn door. He got lost frequently - not a happy situation in the desert, and one he often prolonged by taking most of his directions from pre-schoolers. We also had to backtrack several times to retrieve washing or a suitcase he forgot. And besides the guinea fowl, he squashed a dog, grazed a camel, thwacked a goat, blatted a pigeon and sucked a rare-looking green finch into the grill...