Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The Real World Dakhleh: Daily Life in the Dighouse

Greek and Roman Studies blog (Aislinn Lowry)

A very entertaining (and unflinching) account of what it's like to live in a dighouse in Dakhleh oasis in the Western Desert. Aislinn starts off with an account of meals (extract below) but if you have a weak stomach on the subject of primitive toilet facilities then you may want to skip that paragraph that follows it! Anyone who has spent any time in the desert will know the truth of some of the absolute basics mentioned by Aislinn in this post. Good photos too. Great fun.

The dighouse sits a few miles outside of the capital of the Oasis, Mut, and lies atop a small hill that we share with the dighouse for the Dakhleh Oasis Project proper. Daily life at the house begins at 8:00AM with breakfast (my favorite meal of the day!). Lunch is always enthusiastically received at 1PM and dinner at 7PM. Basically our eager stomachs drive our desires and occupies our thoughts as nearly all the students count the minutes until the next mealtime; a habit we have grown comfortably accustomed to due to our outstanding kitchen and our love of food ;). Tea is served midmorning and mid-afternoon to break up the extended periods of library and work time (and give our stomachs yet another event to look forward to!) and is graciously received. It would be a safe estimate to say that in the past month I have consumed more tea than I did the entirety of last semester and I have grown very fond (dare I day dependent?) on its daily presence.

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