Seriously, there was something about the utter lack of comforts in this hotel, Chez Yege in Gabdolite, that made my just add boiled water meals from REI taste so good, even when cooked next to this disgusting toilet. My favorite was the Mac N Cheese. Duh.

I was cooking this meal next to the shower (which consisted of a bucket of river water and a hole with tile around it) because that little stove had a personality all its own. The cool think was that it burned on any kind of fuel, in this case, good ole gasoline. But sometimes it would flame out into a raving firebomb without warning, threatening to burn down the little shanty they called a hotel. So I cooked near the bucket of water just in case.

Magic 213/365, The Kitchenette, Chez Yege, Gbadolite, Nord Ubangi, DRC