In this country, appliances such as stoves, water heaters, and space heaters run on butane. Each appliance has its own 5 gallon butane tank sitting next to it. When the butane is gone you simply go to the butane store and tell them you need a full tank. An employee will carry your full tank home for you (and even carry it up the stairs) and then he will switch out the tanks for you. When he is done connecting the new tank to the appliance he checks for leaks by lighting a match or lighter and moving the flame over all of the connections. Usually, nothing happens so you tip him and he leaves with the empty tank… usually.
This week, the tank that runs my hot water heater ran out of gas. Of course, this can’t happen when I am washing dishes. No it has to happen in the middle of a shower! Anyway, I followed the above procedure to get a full tank. After he connected the tank he went over the seals with his lighter expecting that nothing would happen. He was wrong! The regulator, the nozzle and the hose were suddenly engulfed in flames! I decided that this was a good time to exit the room and I left him to deal with the flaming tank of butane. He didn’t seem that phased by the flames so I assumed it wasn’t a big deal. He got it under control and after changing the batteries in my tank I now have hot water again.
My gas tank
so I didn't think to get a picture while it was actually on fire.
this is sort of what it looked like
About ten minutes after the gas guy left my house I had to go up the street to catch a taxi to a friend’s house. As I was walking some teenage boys were strapping on roller blades (not that uncommon). As soon as they had their skates on, they lined up behind a row of cars stopped at a red light. When the cars moved forward each boy grabbed on to a different car and they raced each other up the hill. Once they got to the top, they grabbed onto another car and raced back down. Drivers would try to shake them by swerving frantically from sided to side (normal North African driving, in my opinion). I didn’t stay to see who won … or who got hit by a car!
When I caught my taxi, I headed across town toward my friend’s house. As I passed the city wall (the old city used to be surrounded by a huge wall) I saw a lonely little sheep tied to a tree. For those who cant quite picture this think of a busy city street packed with cars, buses, trucks, and people. Now picture one random sheep standing in the middle of all of that.
So that was my afternoon. Just a day in the life…..
