Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Day Eighty - Cooking

Yet another beautiful rainy day in Juba, I went running at UNMIS and only almost fell twice. No flattened, dead frogs, but there were a whole bunch of hobbit sized vultures. Seriously. These things are huge. Some of them are perched on top of lamp posts and they seriously look like small humans sitting up there. Massive.

Thanks to our great personalities and excellent working skills, we have been provided with a temporary office near Arkel. This could not have come at a better time considering the fuel shortage. No more long trips to the office at Jebel for a while.

The highlight of my day was being able to cook our dinner!! We made some friends who have a kitchen and do not like cooking for themselves. They offered their kitchen to us, provided that they get to eat the food we make. Pretty good deal I would say. We only have two elements to cook on and the oven did not seem to want to cooperate with us but we managed to cook up a pretty good meal of stuffed peppers and a yummy corn, tomato, red onion and feta salad. It was a lot of fun and so nice to hangout at a 'real house' and have good conversations over good food and wine.

It was a lovely evening. And of course our food was so delicious we were given an open invitation to cook for them anytime we want.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Day Seventy Nine - Shortages

Yesterday we discovered, on our way to the office, which is roughly a 30 minute-ish drive from where we live in TongPing, that there is a fuel shortage. We drove to 5 different petro stations only to find that they had no fuel. Wild goose chase. The story is that there is no fuel coming from Khartoum and the fuel that is available is from the Somalian’s who do not have a good relationship with the government, therefore, they are making it next to impossible to get petro. Black market is where it’s at yo. Our mechanic hooked us up with some petro/I think our driver had to wait in line for hours and hours to get petro. Ugg. This fuel shortage is also to be worse than the one back in June, which is not reassuring. Back in June, Lawrence once waited in line all day to get fuel and I am not even sure if he ended up getting petrol. The realities of living in South Sudan and not in a country where fuel prices are the only matters which concerns a person. Back home I would never worry about the fact that we may one day not have fuel for our vehicles. We get frustrated when the price increases by 5-10 cents. I cannot imagine what would happen if one-day people went to the gas station and they said there was no fuel. People would probably think the world was coming to an end. If fact, the world would not end, you just have to alter your schedule and limit the use of your vehicle. For example, today, after driving to the office to find that we were locked out due to the fact that it is a national holiday so our guard and fellow office mates were not working, we ended up driving back to Arkel to work for the day. Even though we wasted petro driving to the office for no reason, it all worked out. We got yogurt for breakfast and we were given a temporary office for the next month that is very close to our accommodations. And much to Alexandra’s enjoyment there is A/C, which does not really work but it is better than nothing. Back in June, boda boda’s were really the only mode of transport because no one had fuel to fill their vehicles. I hope it does not come to that. Boda’s are neat, but they are not ideal modes of transport.

I attempted to document this today, but alas I did not have my camera and my phone camera was not working for me. You should have seen the lines of vehicles and boda boda’s at the one petrol station, which was evidently providing fuel. It looked like a traffic jam but it was only people patiently waiting their turn to fill up their vehicles. The boda boda’s were the greatest sight because there were so many of them and they were in two lines, sitting in pairs. It was quite a sight.

Monday, August 29, 2011

Day Seventy Eight - So Bold

I almost stepped on a flattened, dead frog during my morning run at UNMIS. Eww.

Our enthusiasm of moving to our new compound has already slightly dissipated. We have very limited power, much to our disappointment and anger towards the manager who told us there would always be power. Bold face lie. Not a good way to start a relationship with tenants. Lying to their faces. SO BOLD. And very unappreciated. I will keep you posted on what comes of this whole situation. I really do like 4 walls, but I do not appreciate living in a place that does not have the amenities we were assured it would have. Dishonesty is not acceptable.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Day Seventy Seven - 4 Walls

The luxury of 4 concrete/wooden walls and a swinging door with a lock are surely taken for granted in many parts of the world. I moved out of Transmillenium tent camp, along with the girls today. We are all very ecstatic about it. We moved in the morning in the rain. It started raining before 5am, which is when I woke up and had to pee so bad I had to brave the pouring rain to go to the toilet. When it is raining buckets on your tent it is very hard to get back to sleep with a full bladder. I did not go back to sleep so I was able to appreciate the fact that this would be the last time I heard people banging around in the kitchen, sweeping and the dirt hitting the side of my tent, random peoples music of all kinds, the zippers of others tents opening and closing and having the slight panic that it was my tent which opened and some intruder is now in my tent. That never happened thank goodness. But seriously, all zippers sound alike. I am extremely happy with my new accommodations, even if the toilets are squat toilets. I can deal with that because I now have a mattress on my bed, which does not have the evidence of previous sleepers on it and my hipbones and shoulder blades will thank me. They will not dig into the bed frame anymore. I am also very happy to have a real tile floor and a real door that locks. Not so stoked on the fact that I now have to keep track of my room key…AND we purchased awesome fans in the market all by ourselves and even fit 3 of them assembled into the back of the Rav4 along with a suitcase. Very impressive.

The rain sounded like a fuzzy radio or lost tv channel this morning. It was strange.

I finished my book this morning. Six Months in Sudan has come to an end. I enjoyed reading about a fellow Canadians experience in Sudan even though it was entirely different compared to mine considering her was here in 2007 and located in Abyei working for MSF. Very interesting to read, thought provoking. Reading it makes me think about what parts of my day I chose to focus on and contemplate. So much goes on and you see so many things and once an environment becomes normal you do not notice everything as easily or as often compared to when you first arrived. When I first arrived everything was so new, and incredible different it was overwhelming to the point of exhaustion.

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Day Seventy Six - Half Day

A half day of work spent at Arkel, half indoors in the climate controlled environment provided by the A/C units and half spent outside because the A/C combined with the toxins of cooking food fog my mind, therefore, making focusing on work quite difficult. It is a good thing we did not have a lot to do today or I would have not been able to get it finished.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Transmillenium and we are all feeling very excited about it.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Day Seventy Four - HI

I have been granted the position of team lead on one of our next projects. What does that mean? Well let me tell you. It means that I will be in charge of basically whole project. Eek. It is based in Juba so I will not be going to the field for a while. For as much as I like the field, it will be nice to stay in Juba for a longer period of time than just a few days.

I will be conducting a baseline Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) survey for a new organization. I will be researching what the situation of persons with disabilities and the difficulties they face. It is going to be very interesting and quite a learning experience for sure.

The goal of the organization is to reduce global poverty and promote disability inclusion and awareness in the communities the organization is working in. They promote the respect for the rights of persons with disabilities (PWD). Their aim is to develop projects that improve the living conditions of PWDs in South Sudan.

The final result of this research project will be used to inform future awareness and advocacy activities conducted by the DPOs and are presented to different stakeholders. The survey will assess the communities’ knowledge, attitude, practice and beliefs around disability.

What will be most interesting is that there has never been research like this done in South Sudan so I will be the first to do so.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Day Seventy Three - Research

When one looks up the word research in the dictionary one will find the definition according to Wikipedia is: can be defined as the search for knowledge or as any systematic investigation, to establish novel facts, solve new or existing problems, prove new ideas, or develop new theories, usually using a scientific method.
This is technically what I do but with a Juba, South Sudan/our company flair. The steps of a research project go like this (in my mind):

Step 1 – Submit bid for contract
Step 2 – Be accepted for said contract
Step 3 – Design tools, and draft terms of reference
Step 4 – Research begins
Step 5 – Write report
Step 6 – Submit draft report
Step 7 – Submit final

Our research consists of quantitative and qualitative data collection. Quantitative research is raw data collection and produces more general data. The aim is to identify features, and then make statistical models from that data. Smart phones are used for our data collection. In theory the phones are a great idea, but I really don’t like them. They cause me more stress than I would like but they do save us time in data entry and trees. Qualitative research is about exploring issues, understanding the facts and answering questions. It gives us the “why” for the quantitative research. It gives us an in-depth understanding of the community we are conducting the research in.

I enjoy qualitative research because it means that I get to walk around the markets, observe, interview retailers, and do focus groups with community leaders and other groups of people. It is very enjoyable and very informative. I am essentially getting paid to sit and listen to people tell me stories. Working with the data collectors consists of training the data collectors on the surveys we are doing and teach them how to use the phones. Then I sit in the market waiting for my data collectors to come to me with problems. It is not too stressful. The stress comes when dealing with the phones after our work in the market is finished.

This, in short, is what I/we do...

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Day Seventy Two - Flipped

Happy Aniversary Cassandra and Russ!! You are both amazing. I hope your day is wonderful!

Today I watched a lorry (a big truck) flip over on the road. I did not actually quite believe I was seeing correctly but I sure was. Another truck came and t-boned this truck, or atleast that is what I think happened, and the truck flipped upside down. Seriously i just watched the truck roll over. It seemed like it was slow-mo. I thought I was imagining things. The moment it happened people on the streets immediately ran to the scene. I assume the people in the vehicle were ok but we did not drive past. Scary. Good thing I took extra long to pay for my drinks at Arkel or else we would have been on the road when the accident happened.

I stand corrected in my last post: Benedicte is actually the person who saved me from the spider, as she so humbly pointed out. The waitress only shoed the spider away from our area. I was too absorbed in my panic attack to remember who saved me from the spider.

So the other day we got a flat tire, and after almost having to change it ourselves (because we are strong independent women) someone kindly changed it for us. Good. Unfortunately we had to take the Rav4 to the garage this evening because there was most definitely something messed with the 'spare' tire. The rim is apparently bent so therefore not functioning. I also dubbed the Rav4 with the name Bent.

This is not the Rav4 but it is a bus with a lot of character....

Monday, August 22, 2011

Day Seventy One - Relocation

Happy Birthday Father!!! I hope you had an excellent day. Miss you a little more today :)

We now have driving privileges, and by we I mean Alexandra. We have taken over the Rav4. Yay! The freedom of having our “own” vehicle is so nice. Not having to rely on a driver and waiting around to be picked is so nice. The best part is that Natalie is letting me get my driver’s license. I am so stoked. Driving here is a whole new experience/adventure due to the conditions of the roads, especially those that are more like dried up river beds, the stupidity of boda boda drivers and the unpredictability of other vehicles on the roads. Oh and of course pedestrians who do not seem to have any fear of motor vehicles of any kind. One problem we have now is that we only know how to locate a few places in Juba so we sometimes get lost or can’t reach our destination because we cannot find a passable road. We are getting better at navigation and we are even working on burning some CDs so we have driving tunes.

Another new development today…we are moving! Sayonara Transmillenium and hello new quiet compound with a concrete room with the possibility of moving to a self-contained room, access to a kitchen and a TV. Yay! No more living in a tent. Not that the tents were that horrible it is more the compound, which I am not so happy with. Being woken up at 6am everyday to women banging around in the kitchen, sweeping, people brushing past my tent, and my least favorite is the Warrior Security men who come for training in our compound. Their staring eyes as I walk to the toilet, their shouting and scuffling of chairs will certainly not be missed.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Day Seventy - Two Words

I hit my low today with my irrational fear of spiders.

I was calmly sitting outside at Logali House (a nice restaurant with and covered outdoor area) and I look down and there is something black on my ankle. It took me a second to register what it was but once I did it was instant panic. Two words for you: jumping spider. I had a border line panic attack due to the fact that the spider was sitting on me, and due to the size of the table I was sitting at and the plastic chair not sliding back as fast as I needed it to AND I didn’t have shoes on to run away. Due to the fact that the spider can jump it jumped onto the table leg and proceeded to crawl up, once again getting close to me. I panicked. Made quite a scene. Had many worried looks come my way and the staff just laughed at me, but one waitress saved the day by shoeing it away. Alexandra made an attempt to help but she is also afraid of spiders. It was ridiculous. I eventually recovered and got a hold of myself but goodness gracious it really shook me up.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Day Sixty-Nine - Meow

First things first, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERILYN! I hope you have a wonderful day!

So today I am doing a feature post on my wonderful colleague Alexandra.

We were sitting outside sending an email, when a older man walked up and handed Alexandra a piece of paper. Once he left, we examined this piece of paper only to discover that it was an origami-esk cat with a note on the back saying "Please Open Me". Inside there was a message, "You are probably already spoken for, and I am probably too old for you, but you are hotter than hell". He put a lot of effort into this little cat and the most hilarious part of it is that Alexandra hates cats. I had major flashback from middle school when passing notes back and forth to people was the cool thing to do.

Not only are there bold bugs here, but there are also bold men here as well...



I also bought a yoga mat today...yaya!

Fun fact: Huff da (pronounced hoofda) means "oh boy" or "opps" in Norwegian. Who knew.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Day Sixty-Eight - The Office

There is nothing better then a rain cooled breeze after an afternoon of sweating profusely in a poorly ventilated office with a fan that sounds like the propellor of an airplane.

Our office is a 40 minute drive from Transmillenium over bumpy dusty roads. It is one room (the joined room is the office of the organization Compass), roughly 15x12, it feels smaller than that due to the 4 desks, a cabinet and a large table, and of course our ghetto fan. The walls are white, and kinda brown because they are dirty. There are 3 opening windows which are very very nice on a windy day, but not so much when the sun is shining high in the sky. We are attacked by a clan of ants daily, but it is getting better. I killed some today and then watched their surviving family members carry them off. I actually felt kind of bad for killing them after that. It as like they live by the motto, "leave no man or woman behind". Oh well. They bite me so they deserve it. Alexandra hates the office, she has nothing good to say about it except it is better than Arkel. (I had her permission to write that last part).

Today it was confirmed that I need to put more effort into learning Arabic. Not being able to convey what I want is starting to get a little frustrating when I can't communicate with anyone by the office. Fortunately there are English speaking people around so they sometimes act as translators but that can't happen forever.

I saw a beautiful rainbow in the middle of the sky on our drive home. I may have got a little too excited but it was the first rainbow I have seen and it was so nice.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Day Sixty-Seven - Farewell Rumbek





Rumbek I will miss you. You treated me well with your cooler temperatures, nice people, nice roads and your night skies.

Incredibly our flight left on time. We did not have to wait at the airport for very long. The flight was over in a blink of an eye it seemed. Due to the small number of people on our 50-seater plane, the landing was less than desireable. Quite bumping and stomach jolting. Gross.

On our walk to the terminal we were blasted with a nice gust of wind and filth from what I presume was a passing plane. Once in the terminal we had to wrangle our way to our luggage. It is diffcult to get people to move out of the way for you so a little shove is usually necessary.

We went to work at Arkel...remember those deadlines I was talking about...

Today was a disappointing food day. The Ethipian restaurant and the Chinese place both let us down.

I found Orion's Belt last night for the first time. It made my day! Due to the fact that I am halfway across the world my sense of direction is a little off and the constellations are in different places in the sky and are all facing other directions. For instance Orion back home is vertical in the sky, here he is laying on his side. A very different perspective.

I was also givena Dinka name by a man who was working at Safaria Style. The name he gave me was Amir. I haven't accepted it yet because I do not know what it means but it is still pretty cool. I will keep you posted on whether or not I figure out what it means...

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Day Sixty-Six - Gum Boots



I bought a pair of gum boots (what I call rubber boots) today. Slightly against my own will but I think it was a necessary purchase and I will not ever regret buying them. Alexandra would not have let me leave Rumbek without purchasing them anyways so I had no choice. Haha. I will forever be reminded of the acreage/the farm when I slip on a pair of rubber boots. Now I am one of the kawajas who wear gum boots around...

This morning I had tea in the market at a shop who's generator had just started working so they were taking full advantage. I do not know if I will ever get used to the ruckus made by generators. It is so invasive and disruptive to your senses. I was sitting on blue chair, beside a blue door, drinking my "heavy tea leaves and little sugar" tea, out of a ceramic coffee mug. I have noticed that here in Rumbek glass mugs without a handle are not very common. I was sitting somewhat out of sight of people walking past the tea shop so I could observe and people watch without much disturbance.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Day Sixty-Five - Prairie Towns

I am sitting listening to the rain fall on my tin roof and watching out the window as it falls on the ground. I like Rumbek. Maybe it is due to the fact that I have a lovely room, with real windows, doors, and I do not have to walk out side to use the toilet or the shower, but I really do think from what I have experienced and observed, Rumbek seems like a decent place to live. I like the atmosphere. The way it makes me feel. It is good. I was told today that Rumbek is at its best this time of year. It is green and lovely, the weather is cooler, rain is always welcomed here. In February it is apparently just gray. I can imagine it. I am sure it is much like how Southern Alberta falls are. Everything is blah. No color. Just brown. Maybe I will come to Rumbek in February. I would definitely like to come back here one day.

The ground here in our hotel compound is very interesting. It is different colors and I have made the conclusion that the color determine whether or not you will sink into it or not, or how deep you will sink, or if you are just going to slip on the surface. There is light brown, dark brown, greenish brown and then there are distinct paths which are sporadic but have been made from red rock. There may be another color of dirt but tiredness has fogged my mind. You certainly want to avoid the greenish brown ground. You will slip and fall. The dark brown ground will leave you with a mud caked shoe or sandle. The light brown ground or redish path are the best kind of ground to walk on. Ultimate ground to walk on!

Today was another day I was reminded how small our world is, and it was confirmed that Rumbek is an interesting place that has good people living here. I met a woman today, who is actually a friend of Natalie's. We did the normal where are you from small talk and such. She had mentioned Canada so I figured I was safe to say that I was from Alberta. She looked at me and said, "I am from Calgary". I said I was from Olds, just on the chance that she knew it and her jaw dropped a little. She has family living in Didsbury! I NEVER thought I would come to Sudan and have someone here who would know where I was from and grew up in the same area.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Day Sixty-Four - The Dinka Way

I may or may not have called very loudly/yelled at one of my data collectors from across the market today. That is right. I was the kawaja yelling from the other side of the street today. I did not care if it was appropriate or not. My patience had run out after waiting for almost an hour for my last data collector to come back at the end of the day. Benedicte and I did get to ride in a rickshaw for the first time, well the first time for me. It was fun. A good way to brighten my not so pleasant mood caused by my lack of patience at the end of the day...

I had a conversation about my age and my martial status with my data collectors and some random men who have become my Rumbek friends. I find it interesting how this is such a hot topic with the majority of men that I meet here. The problem with it is that I have a hard time lying about the fact that I am single and certainly do not have any children. When I choose to tell the truth I always end up regretting it. Haha. I have to get it in my head that making up stories are the best ways to avoid inappropriate marriage offers. After saying all of this, I did tell these men that I am engaged, or promised to a man back in Canada. One of the guys asked what kind of dowry was given for me. I said matter of factly that in Canada we do not have dowries. Wrong thing to say if I was looking for a way to end this conversation topic. The men were interested because they said if they see a pretty girl like me and find out she is promised to another man, they will find out what the dowry is and if they can, they will offer the girls family more than the man who already has her did to take her as his own. Wowza.

Lesson learned: I need to make up extravagant stories about how I am very happily married with many children back in Canada.

Best advice heard: This comes from Natalie. If a man does suggest that he would like you to become one of his wives the thing you need to say that "in my culture women do not share their men. We are selfish woman and want our man all to ourselves so there is no possible way I could become a 2nd, 3rd or 4th wife". This would be a very respectful way of turning down the proposal.

Best thought had in the Rumbek market to date: Next time some random person comes up to me and tries to talk with me, I may just pretend that I do not speak English. I think I know enough spanish to make that believable. "No hablo engles. ?Como esta? !Vete!" I think it is brilliant.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Day Sixty-Three - Remined of a Small World

Many things happened today.

I met a woman today. This woman (I unfortunately do not recall her name) had heard we were new people working in town so wanted to get to know us and introduced herself as working in the area with a North American organization. Of course being from North America I asked which one and in reply she said MCC. Awesome. Random. The mennonite world is small. She knows 2 people who I know from CMU. And there were even 2 people who graduated from CMU years ago also working here. I did not catch their names due to the fact that we were heading out to go finish doing our work. But my goodness everywhere it always amazes me how small the world really is.

I got to drive today AND the stearing wheel was on the wrong side! It felt surprisingly normal. Mind you I did not have to drive on the opposite side of the road but still not normal for me to be sitting on the right side of the vehicle driving. It was awesome. It made me want to have my own personal vehicle, except the thought of driving in Juba is a little scary. I could do it though. I am aggressive enough I could drive in Juba.



I also went swimming and basked in the glorious sun which my body was craving today. I think the last 2 days have been too overcast and my skin was revolting against the clouds. It got sun. Plenty of it. Benedicte and I even got to entertain a group of young children, who I think were mostly boys, while we were swimming. We were there for about 2 hours and while laying on the nice wooden sun beds, we noticed some snickering near us. The fence to the hotel compound is next to public property so anyone can walk past. Hence the small children snickering and staring at us. I am sure we were quite a sight with our kawaja skin showing in our bathing suits. They were probably overwhelmed with our whiteness. The total head count was 9. Then they were chased away by one of the staff from the hotel and oh man did those kids run. Haha.



We were attacked by a bold beetle at dinner. Actually Alexandra was attacked. Well her soup was attacked. Unfortunately I was sitting right beside Alexandra and when she freaked out about the massive beetle that had just landed in her carrot soup (which tasted like the chicken soup from the previous evening it was just orange tonight) I also freaked out because I then saw the massive black thing in her bowl. The staff and the one man sitting at the next table were all very concerned about all of the commotion coming from our table. I reassured them that we were ok, it was just a bug, and to ignore us. (This was not the first time I had to do this) Their faces were priceless though. They must think we are crazy. We must have looked so ridiculous. I swear if the bug was any bigger or would have landed in Alexandra's lap the table would have been upended. I think if it would have landed in my soup something would have been spilled. This was our dinner adventure.

Living in luxury...minus the attack of the bold bugs.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Day Sixty-Two - Bites

Today is my friend Ashley Reimer's birthday! Happy Birthday my dear!

If I were to get malaria, today would be the day. I was attacked by mosquitoes last night. Seriously. They were out for my blood and succeeded in their mission to get it. I HATE MOSQUITOES. I woke up scratching my arms. It was pretty awful.

I had my usual breakfast. I think tomorrow I will ask for an omelet…I have also realized that I talk a lot about what I eat on my blog. I guess it is because I am going through my day and obviously eating is part of that. I think this trip is a little different because we are being slightly spoiled with the food here. They are very accommodating and it is quite different from what I usually eat when I am in the field.

Going with the trend of food, lunch was vegetable pizza and watermelon. Delish.

I finished training this morning and started data collection, which meant I had free time to get some work done on one of the reports I am doing some writing for. I sat under a tree outside and worked for about 2 hours. I was busy typing listening to music on my computer when I noticed the wind had picked up significantly. That could only mean one thing. RAIN. I packed up my computer and other things and relocated to a covered pad. I did this all just in time. The moment I sat down under the covered area it started to pour. So much rain! We were stranded for 30 minutes waiting for the rain to settle down. It did not. The puddles seem to form instantly. Roads here in Rumbek are must better than in Malakal in the sense that they do not turn to mud puddles and they seem to be relatively easy to walk on. The issue here is that rivers form on either side of the road. Crossing roads becomes a big issue. I am very thankful that UNHCR has been so good at providing us with a driver/vehicle. I do not know what we would do without that.

Tomorrow is our day off, although writing needs to get done so we shall see how much time we get to spend doing nothing. I am really hoping for sunshine so I can chill by the pool, which we have not been able to use yet. Sunshine please come out to play tomorrow.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Day Sixty-One - Training Begins

I woke up at 6am today due to bad dreams and voices in my room. I may have to blame that on the malaria pills…or my insanity. Not a pleasant speaking experience. Due to my early rising I was able to get in a sufficient amount of time on the internet which was actually functioning well enough to use skype. Mom, Dan and Cherilyn were fortunate enough to get to talk with me for an hour and see where I am staying at the moment.

Saidi gave me 3 crepes, I asked for only one, for breakfast today along with some beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. I used my peanut butter for my crepes and it was delicious.

I started training my data collectors today. We found a nice place near the market to do the training, Green View Hotel and Bar. Training went well, we even started training on the phones today.

I got spaghetti with cheese for lunch today! Comfort food! It was very good.

Cattle here have the biggest horns ever. They are very impressive. Seriously one of the cows I saw looked like the weight of its horns was heavier than its backside.

I had tea this afternoon in the market. It was very mediocre. It actually made me miss Malakal. The tea was soooo good in Malakal.

I watched a goat eat a tissue today.

Peace.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Day Sixty - Rolls

I combed my hair for the first time in 6 weeks this morning. It actually felt pretty good. Tangle free for at least a few hours…

I had a decent breakfast of tomatoes, cucumber, beans and 3 pieces of toast and a crepe. They always give me extra bread because of the fact that I don’t eat meat…they must not want me to wither away and see filling me up with carbs will help.

All three of us went to meet with the County Commissioner, who was not in his office, so we went to the SSRRC office in the mean time. The formality of these meetings always makes me nervous. My tendency to giggle due to nerves decided to surface today. I managed to control it through most of the interviews though, thankfully. We made our way back to the C.C. office and met with the executive director while we waited for the County Commissioner. He was a very knowledgeable individual and actually gave us more information than the county commissioner did. Because we did not have our data collectors or translator at this point it was a short day out on the town. We did go to the market where I was able to purchase a new pair of slippers since I left mine in Juba and almost killed myself in the shower without my slippers on…and we got some water due to the fact a small bottle of water costs 4 SDG here at Safari Style.

We took lunch and then prepared for our meeting with our potential data collectors at 2pm. We actually interviewed a woman, which is very rare, but unfortunately her English was not as good as we needed it to be to be one of our data collectors. I was very disappointed. We managed to track down a 3rd data collector by the end of the day so training can begin tomorrow.

We now eat at 8pm to avoid the swarms of mosquitoes. Seriously there are thousands of them at dusk, they just hover around your head it is disgusting. By 8 it is dark and half the mosquitoes disappear. There is still way too many of them at this time. Tonight there was chicken soup so I didn’t have any but asked for one of the rolls. What does Saidi our waiter do for me? He brings a plate of 8 rolls to our table. Seriously. It was hilarious. Alexandra doesn’t eat them so there were 8 rolls to share between Benedicte and I. I think my mother has some competition over who is more concerned with my eating habits, her or the people here at Safari Style.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Day Fifty-Nine - Airport Fever

There is a reason why WFP (World Food Programme), which is the plane we take when flying, has had the acronym WFP altered to mean WFP (Waiting For a Plane). After experiencing the exquisite atmosphere of the Juba airport waiting room for 6.5 hours, yes six and a half hours, it was starting to lose its Juba charm. With the oh-so-stuffy air and dilapidated couches it was not where I would have chosen to spend the majority of my Wednesday.

We arrived at the Juba airport at 8am, after many phone calls to our late driver. Much to our dismay it really did not matter that we were late. We rushed through a breakfast of eggs and untoasted toast accompanied by a delicious latte (first one ever in Sudan). 8:50 we walk back through security and find a seat in the waiting room. 9:00am rolls slowly past, which was our original flight time. By 9:30 I was not surprised that the plane was late. It’s Juba, it is going to happen. A voice came over the incredibly crackly loud speaker and made an unintelligible announcement. The only words the three of us understood were Rumbek and Wau so we got in line, cattle-lined our way on to the bus to take us to the tarmack, exited the bus and were immediately told to get back on, this was not our flight. OH JOY.

There were only 10 people on the 50-passenger plane. I cried a little inside at the though of how wasteful and harmful to the environment our flight was just to get 10 people to Rumbek. *sad face*

We made it to Rumbek after a much needed nap. What did we do when we landed? Found a tree to sit under and wait for UNHCR to pick us. They never came/we didn’t have any contact information for any of the Rumbek staff so we asked the men sitting under the tree if there were taxi’s or boda boda’s we could take. We settled for the boda boda, but then some random guy called the hotel we are staying at to come pick us. It worked out wonderfully. A nice Kenyan man named John picked us and drove us the short distance to Safari Style Hotel.

We got settled into our lovely self-contained rooms. They are huge! Bachelor suite size minus a kitchen, I definitely appreciate it. I have a wardrobe! I can hang up my clothes. So fancy. I am not going to want to leave. AND my mattress! Oh my goodness. Let me tell you about my mattress. There is no evidence of any other person sleeping in this bed. It is the same thickness no matter where you lie. Fancy that eh? No mattress groove = happiness. There is a pool here. It looks nice. And internet which seems to only work at strange hours during the day and of course when it is not raining.

All of our meals are prepared here at the hotel. It is nice not to have to search for a place to eat. I have informed them of my vegetarian needs and they are very accommodating.

There is some breed of deer roaming around the hotels compound. The little ones are cute.

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Day Fifty-Eight - Yogurt

This morning I got a head start on packing for the field. Packing ahead of time. Extra points for me!

We were picked from Transmillenium and Benedicte or maybe Alexandra, can’t remember which, had the brilliant idea of stopping at the supermarket to get something for breakfast considering there is nowhere near the office to get breakfast food that is not a rolex. That something turned out to be a nice container of yogurt, which immensely enjoyed. It was such a treat. I ate the whole container throughout the morning. I got mango but will most likely get plain next time. It was a little too sweet but still sooo good

FYI: a rolex is a chapati with egg rolled into it. It was relatively good the first 2 weeks I was here but now I can't really enjoy the thought of eating one now. Not sure why that is. Chapati is unleavened flatbread, usually drowned in oil then fried. Without the generous helping of oil and the egg they are quite tasty with a cup of tea.

We worked all day. I even did a little bit of writing again. I learned that “bi” means with and “bidun” means without. And contrary to what I was told in Cairo, no problem is “mish mish cala” not “mish mish cada”.

Quote of the day: “Ants are bold here. Really ant do you want to crawl on me because I will crush you” – Alexandra. Mosquitoes may not like her but ants sure do.

Today I had the best dinner ever! The most vegetables I have seen since coming to Juba. It was delicious. So many flavors and different vegetables. The Ethiopian place is the greatest. That is going to become a regular meal for me, guaranteed!

Rumbek bound tomorrow.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Day Fifty-Seven - Rain

The sound of rain woke me up at 6 am today. I thought to myself that I should get up and look outside because it seriously sounded like there were buckets of water being poured on top of my tent, but I was way to tired to function properly to crawl out of bed. I may have been imagining the intensity of the rain in my half asleep state but it really did sounds like buckets of rain.

I had tea with real milk, as opposed to powdered milk, and it was delicious. YAY CALCIUM…

Benedicte, Alexandra and I found a restaurant just 5 minutes from the office today. It is very nice. Great food and great price. And the location is awesome considering we only have one vehicle for 6 people. We had cabbage, beans and rice. It brought e back to my days in Torit but it was still delicious. We are definitely going to become regulars there. Only essential thing we need to learn is how to ask for small amount and half beans and half cabbage. One bowl of rice they give each of us could feed a small family. Between the three of us we propbaly know 20 words in Arabic and half of those are Egyptian Arabic which are not understood here in Juba. We are unfortunately lacking in our ability to speak Juba Arabic.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Day Fifty-Six - Working on a Day Off

Normal daily routine. Wake up. Get ready. And go to work. Deadlines are a real big downer on a day off.

I had my first banana in South Sudan for breakfast today. It was delicious. Mother has expressed concern about my getting enough protein. Rest assured I am getting enough protein. What you should be concerned about is getting scurvy. Vegetables and fruit seem to be lacking all the time. I am slowly discovering ways of obtaining these things on a regular basis. We discovered that the Ethiopian restaurant we went to the other day has the most amazing vegetable dish and salad. Seriously vegetable overdose! Most amazing meal ever. Vegetables couldn’t taste any better! Scurvy avoided!

I wrote for one of our reports today and survived. Yay.

We successfully had lunch at Migingo, the place that we attempted to eat at that was smoky and super loud due to the generator. It was good. No smoke or generator. A way more pleasant atmosphere during the lunch hour.

My little miss Medea is 11 months old today! I can’t believe it.


Saturday, August 6, 2011

Day Fifty-Five - "Training"

I woke up at 6am to what sounded like buckets of water being dumped on my tent.
Sleeping in was an option today but of course I did not. The rain kept me awake. I did have a relaxing morning though.

We left for Arkel in the pouring rain. It didn’t stop raining until noon.

Knowing a little bit about what the road to Arkel is like is important in this story. The road from Transmillenium to Arkel takes about 10 minutes by foot provided it has not rained. When it had rained you have a whole other situation to deal with. For those of you who have grown up on a farm or ever been out to the section out at the Flinn farm, the access roads to the fields are a good comparison to the road here except I think the road here may be worse. There are good parts and there are horrible parts. There is a section very close to Trans that turns into a lake when it rains. Then there is a small ditch that turns into a creek when it rains. And then there is what I have dubbed “the ditch” which turns into a river when it rains. Seriously. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it today. Thank goodness we were in the car. It is becoming clear to me that I need to invest in a pair of gumboots. I may have said that already but I will be purchasing some in the future.

This is a section of our road, not the river though, just one of the lakes...very tricky to walk around, especially at night.



We had Forcier Consulting training today. It was more conversation about any issues we were having and learning how to determine whether or not our translator is doing his job correctly. Learning to decipher whether the translator is not telling you everything or translating what you are saying incorrectly is crucial for our work. You may ask the question, “what are the issues facing the youth in your community?”, the translator may say, “she is wondering about the youth and what they are doing”. There were better examples in the meeting, which made me laugh because they were so ridiculous but I don’t remember them. Basically you need to make sure you are very clear with your translator and if you say 10 words and the translator only says 3, he obviously is not translating correctly. And the same if the person you are talking to talks for 5 minutes and the translator only says a few sentences back to you. He is not doing his job. It would be perfect if I were able to download languages into my brain. That would be amazing!

We ate at an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch and it was so delicious. They were slow but the food was worth the wait. We will certainly eat there again.

Training was finished at 4.

We attempted to try a new restaurant for dinner but when we got there it was terribly smoky, the generator was deafening and all of the tables were full. There was no way we were going to enjoy a meal in in that environment so to Wonderful Chinese place we went. We had a very hilarious experience. Alexandra spent a year in China so knows Mandarin. There was a group of men speaking Mandarin behind us and I notice Alexandra was quite distracted listening to them. She leaned over the table and said to us, those guys have been talking about how beautiful we are for the last 20 minutes. And then…one of the guys was very drunk and came over and talked to us and they found out that Alex could understand them. They were horrified to find that she knew what they were saying. It was hilarious.

Peace!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Day Fifty-Four - Locked Out

We went to the office, which is a 30ish minute drive from Transmillenium, at 9 to find that none of us were in possession of the key for the pad lock on the door. So we made our way to the teashop down the road. Rose is the name of one of the ladies who works there. I am sure we will get to know her well. One of them has a daughter and she is so precious. She stands there and stares at us. We enjoyed a cup of coffee, which has some sort of spice in it, possibly cinnamon and some bread. Not a well-balanced breakfast but it would hold us until lunch. We sat for probably an hour and eventually got into the office.

We worked until 6 in our office. All 6 of us crowded in the relatively small room, which has been invaded by ants. They are everywhere! They seriously crawl out of our computers. When we have that many people breathing in the small room it gets warmed up pretty quickly. It is a bit of a relief when people leave to go run errands and such.

Once we got back to Thong Ping, we had an unplanned pre-dinner walk because we could not find the restaurant we wanted to eat at. It is a Kenyan place called Karibuchoma. We did find it after walking back and forth and around the block twice. In this adventure there was a man bold enough to not call us Kawaja but shout out, “White ladies! White ladies!”. The restaurant was actually quite disappointing. We were attacked by mosquitoes, and none of us got what we ordered, AND we ate in the dark. Haha. Probably won’t go back to that place any time soon.

I talked to Lisa this evening. It was excellent. She was at work painting and I of course thought about how my painting arms are certainly not as strong as they used to be. I may need to scrounge up some painting projects while I am here to keep my arms buff and strong…

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Day Fifty-Three - Return to Juba



I woke up at 7 and felt exhausted. I was so cold all night, therefore did not sleep well. We had breakfast. Mandazi is a locally made bread/donut type thing. It is quite good. Reminds me a little bit of Gramma’s homemade donuts. UNHCR actually came and picked us up to take us to the UNMIS compound for a de-brief and then back to the airport. I was impressed. They finally did something right. We got to the airport just after 9 and waited at the airport until 12:30. Our landing in Juba was very rough. I do not like turbulence one bit.

Akshaya and I spent the afternoon together at Nimule lounging in the sun. It was very relaxing. She is leaving tomorrow so it was good to spend one last afternoon with her.

I had the best vegetarian pizza for supper and we enjoyed a night out on the town to celebrate Askhaya’s last night here.

Days for travel are lost days in my mind. Nothing ever really gets done on a day of travel, no matter how long you are travelling for. I am totally fine with that. It makes a good excuse to have a day off.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Day Fifty-Two - Malakal Finished

We were delayed by rain, which decided to fall right at 8:30 when I was supposed to meet my translator. My plans to go to the river and find a fisherman to interview but that had to be cancelled. The rain didn’t stop until 10:30, which was the time I was to be meeting with the SSRRC director. I made it just in time for that meeting. We drove 20 minutes to the outskirts of town to talk with returnees. Most of the people who have recently returned have to move out the villages, which is not entirely safe. There is nowhere for them to live in town. People’s belongings are sitting in piles outside. It being the rainy season makes this quite an issue. Belongings are being ruined and there is nothing they can do about it. After my interviews I made friends with 5 of these adorable little children. They were stalking me during my interviews, and coming up and touching my arm, then giggle and run away. So cute.




I talked with a man who sells sheep. The sheep here do not look like the sheep back home. They have the weirdest tails. They are long and very wide. It almost looks like a deformity. Very strange. And then I talked to a cattle keeper. He was a nice old man, with a very large family. I got an excellent photo out of the interview.



I did a lot of walking this afternoon. I feel like I walked around half of Malakal. Probably not a possibility but I sure did walk a lot. And I was definitely sitting in the sun without my knowledge when I was interviewing the women returnees…

We ate supper at the hotel tonight. 25 SDG for a plate of barely warm food. Very pricey compared to my 4 SDG bowl of foul.

Tomorrow we head back to Juba. I think both Lawrence and I are very happy about the fact we are leaving Malakal. Malakal was not very nice to us.

Farewell Malakal. Don't worry, I won't miss you too much.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Day Fifty-One - Malakal Teachings

Always assume you will be rained on at least once a day.

Accept mud covered feet and pants.

Gum boots would have been a good investment.

Never trust a taxi driver who tries to majorly over charge you the first time…he will do it again.

People run on their own agenda here.

I have to learn to be patient. As Cherilyn tells me, my grip reaction is to panic and over-react. I need to switch from panic to patience. Think it's possible?

The tea is delicious. It almost tastes like chai tea from home.

People are always enamored with a kawaja.

Dress code matters in the field. According to a certain someone, not naming names here, tights are NOT pants no matter how long the top you are wearing is anywhere besides Juba. AND tank tops are a no-no. Pants and covered shoulders = increased safety and appropriateness but not immunity to the stares from locals.

The laowa is a traditional article of clothing for women in Malakal to wear. I learned this from the woman who was fascinated with my eyebrow ring. She couldn’t believe it was actually pierced through my skin.

There are many different forms of scarring for each different tribe. I would be very interested to learn the meaning of each kind. I know it differentiates tribes but I am not sure if that is the only thing.

Water is brown here. Just have to accept the facts.

Agriculture and fishing are dangerous occupations for locals.

Malakal is not the safest place at night.

One small orange cost 2 SDG.

Lemons are tiny and green.

A white girl in a small market creates overcrowding and staring from 15 children and 10 adults and many more stares from passerbys.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Day Fifty - Patience

It's August!

I have lost all my patience and a little respect for Malakal UNHCR. After having to leave our accommodations in UNMIS compound, we had to wait for 3 hours waiting to get a ride into town. The whole time they told us “just wait, the driver is coming in 10 minutes”. Longest 10 minutes of my life.

I dreamed last night that we were late because of UNHCR delaying us and I missed my meeting with the SSRRC. I woke up in a panic, and already knew that this morning was going to be like every other morning at the UNHCR office. My dream was only partly accurate. We were horribly late but I still managed to meet with the SSRRC director.

Our only option for accommodations in town was at the New Sudan Hotel for around 300 SDG!!! Too much money but we had no choice. The rooms are huge and self contained and very nice. I thought it was a double bed but it was actually just two single beds put together…disappointed but not complaining.

We ate lunch at our usual place. I got lentils today! They were very good and a welcomed change from the foul.

I worked on case studies this afternoon but was cut short due to rain. I talked with a woman who owned a restaurant who insisted that I take her home with me to Canada, even after I said that I was not going back to Canada but to Juba. She was cute.

With an hour of rain the roads became nearly impassable. I even had to get Lawrence’s assistance in crossing some of the larger puddles. I did not feel like being the kawaja covered in mud for the rest of the afternoon.

The water at this hotel is absolutely filthy. I feel as though it is counter productive to shower with dirty water. Washing one layer of dirt off while adding a new one. It is probably straight from the Nile. I seriously thought that I had that much dirt on my person, until I realized that was a ridiculous thought and it was not possible that I was that dirty. Brown water = Malakal quality.

I would also like to take the time to point out that I have spelled forty wrong in all of my day forty posts and no one made a comment....don't I feel like an idiot...