Day Eleven - The Toad

There is a toad in my tent!!!! It must have come in lastnight...so gross. I really hope it is gone when I get home. Lisa and possibly Uncle Al have so kindly named my cricket family, Paula, Jimmeny and Ferguson. I am sure they will stick around. Pauline and Akshaya have both said they have not seen so many creatures around since I got here. I think I must attract them which is horribly unfortunate...

I went to a meeting with community leaders of one of the Payums(I think this is correct) today with Akshaya. It was very interesting to hear from them what they thought of the situation youths are facing today. It was very proper. Our translator felt nervous because he was surrounded by so many men with so much power. It seemed to be a very successful meeting and we even got a meeting set up with some women from the community. Score!

Lunch was beans, rice, cabbage and chappati (flat bread type thing). Salty but good.

And I have been preparing for Aweil all afternoon. Dealing with all of the survey phones we have is very time consuming...I am leaving for Aweil tomorrow morning. It is in the Northern Bahr el Ghazal state. I am staying at the UMCOR (The United Methodist Committee on Relief) compound, pretty sure in tents. Nicole is already there. Originally I was not supposed to be going up there, so I could only get on a flight this Friday instead of Wednesday.

I have discovered that South Sudan is made up of states, counties, payams and bomas. Spelling of these are questionable.

Rock City

Some road...

Boda Boda

Independence banners

Work...too many phones to deal with...