Day 291 - Ambassador P.

Another month has passed. What have I done? The same thing I have done for the last four months. Work, and enjoy my stellar social life on the weekends, which always consists of finding the “it” place to be on Saturday night and then venturing to the pool on Sunday to get my tan and relaxation on. Super exciting eh? Of course.

(This is Elie and I)

One different thing about this month was that the US Ambassador for South Sudan came to our compound to take a look at what we were doing here, and to have a tour of the Juba Military Hospital. JMH is our next-door neighbour here. AECOMs compound was built on the JMH grounds. It was a big deal to have the Ambassador come to our compound and to observe what were are doing here and how the courses are benefiting the community, as well as the extent to which the hospital needs renovations. It was a slightly stressful morning, however we got through it without a hitch. It could not have gone any better.

Ambassador Page is a wonderful woman. Amazingly intelligent and real. She walked from ward to ward at the hospital getting the detailed tour and all of the relevant information for her to realize the situation facing the hospital, its staff and patients, as well as the instructors and staff from AECOM who are using this hospital as training grounds for our courses.

(A demonstration by the Combat Medic Course Students)

We renovated the Maternity Ward and it turned out wonderfully. Eventually the goal is to have the hospital renovated but the funds are not currently there to do so. There has been an amazing donation towards renovating the surgical ward. Very good. The Surgical Ward certainly needs the renovation. It is basically a big room with bed in it. Definitely not a place I would want to get surgery in. It will be a very exciting day when the renovations start there.



A very down to earth woman whose visit was huge for the company and even more important for the hospital. The hospital is in major need of renovations. The SPLA does get money from the government but of course the hospital never actually sees the money. Yet another example of the corruption that is quickly ruining the country.

Day 289 - Back To The Basics

WHAT IS IMPORTANT

AND

WHAT IS NOT.

I live am currently living in Juba, as we all know quite well. I have been here for 10 months, give or take a few days. I was living in a tent, with the 70lbs of stuff I brought with me. For the first 4 months I did not procure anymore belongs save for a gaudy pair of shoes, which to say I do not have in my possession anymore. Living in a tent, or at least the tent I was living in, there was no luxury of having a closet, or shelf, or any sort of furniture to unpack you belongings, unless you were the fortunate ones who got a table or a chair. (I was not one of the fortunate ones but that is ok). When you are living out of a bag you never really realize how much stuff you have because it is always packed up in a bag, mainly because if you let your things sit out in the open they get dirty without even wearing your clothes or using your things. When everything is spread out, it seems like you have twice the possessions you really have. I know that this sounds like an obvious statement, things spread out, take up more space compared to having things packed up in a bag.

Moving out of the tents to a new compound has provided me with many things I did not have in the tents. I have a desk and a wardrobe and shelves where I can put all my things out and organize them. Living in luxury here. It is not like I have an unreasonable amount of things. Like I said 70lbs, and a lot of that when I got here was consumable. I also have about 7 books with me. Heavy!

I recently read an article about a guy who only owns 15 things.

http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2010/the-man-owns-15-things/

Quite amazing if you ask me. I may only have 70lbs worth of stuff here, however I have a whole lot more back home taking up space in my parents house. I can’t imagine only owning 15 things. I have about 50 things, small as they are, sitting on my desk right now. Can you imagine living out of a backpack and have every single thing you own on your person?!?

I may not want to reduce my possessions to 15 items, however, reducing my possessions to the only things necessary is something I think a lot about and wonder if I could ever do; to live with only the necessities, with some luxuries of course. I unfortunately easily gather up clutter and am slightly a pack rat. I like to keep things as memories. Notes, papers, mementos, photos, etc, etc, etc. Things pile up, then I get rid of them because it is ridiculous to keep them, and the cycle repeats. Living where I live. In a city with 7km of tarmac, trash strewn all over the streets, and many haphazardly built shops and houses, amongst the properly built buildings and the expensive vehicles, It is much easier to focus on the things that you have because there are so many people around who have very little to compare yourself to. Things don't matter. Bottom line. Growing up in a society which is surrounded by advertisements, stores with never ending things to buy, and a never ending supply of entertainment, electronics, books, games, etc. These can all good in their own way to an extent, however, I think of them more as distractions from what is really important. Unfortunately these kind of distractions can be hard to give up. To make it normal not to make purchases based on the fact you just wanted it. Not on the fact that it is necessary for your daily life.

Whenever I think of living a simple life I think of Gandhi and monks. The way they strive to live their lives, as extreme as it may seem, is quite inspiring. The simplicity of their lives, the concentration and mindfulness of every activity, the calm and peace they find in their days.

Lately I have been running around day after day, stressed, frustrated, trying to find enough patience to get me through the day. This is not how I want to be living my days.

Everyone lives differently. I encourage you to consider what is most important to your life, and make room for that by eliminating the other less essential things in your life.

I would like to live more simply and learn to focus on the important, uplifting and calming parts of life.

“Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” - Lao Tzu

Day 281 - The Work Place

My desk is located in what we call the Conference Room. For the last two weeks I have had this whole room to myself, save for the people walking through and anyone who needs something from me. It is a big room. Four desks and a large conference table…all to myself. It is oddly quiet at times but I welcome it. Quiet means that no one is interrupting me.

The people I work with are a very interesting bunch. We are from all over the world. Currently I am the only North American. We represent Australia, New Zealand, England, Fiji, India, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and South Sudan. So many people from so many different countries all working together to make our project function.

If someone from home were to come to my workplace I think they would be quite surprised. It is different. Now that there are not was many people working for the project it is a whole lot quieter compared to about a month ago, however, the office can get rather chaotic. And at times silly. Other times extremely stressful and frustrating (I am sure it feels like I am describing your work place).

I had a moment today where I was totally overwhelmed with the fact that I work and live with 23 people who I know only snapshots of who they are and what they did before coming to South Sudan but regardless of how little I know about the people I work with personally we are all a big family. We work together, joke together, we eat together, we relax after work together and we live together. I know that back home I can experience the same sort of work environment, get along well with your co-workers, however because I am in South Sudan it is totally different. I think I have said this before but Juba/South Sudan brings a certain kind of individual to its land. I think everyone who comes here has a certain type of personality or quality inside of them that keeps them in Juba for a long period of time. It is hard to explain without you meeting the people I am surrounded by, but that is the best explanation I can give you. It must have a lot to do with the fact that at the end of the day we don’t go our separate ways.

Office dynamics are of the special kind here.

I like it...most days :)

Day 269 - Burn One Down

This evening Konyo Konyo Market burned to the ground. How much of it I can not say, but by the smoke that was billowing into the sky I would say a lot of it. Konya Konya is/was the biggest market in Juba. Recently the city had started tearing it down in order to replace the makeshift building with proper structures. Slowly people were closing down shop and relocating or closing down their businesses. Konyo Konyo employes a lot of people and was a main source of income for many people in Juba. At 6pm I saw a huge cloud of black smoke in the sky, which is a relatively normal occurrence, however this cloud was too large to just be trash or grass burning. Later on in the evening you could see the red glow under the black smoke. This is when one of my co-workers told me Konyo Konyo was burning. Horrible. Really sad to think about the livelihoods that have been destroyed in the fire. On my way out to dinner with friends we were driving quite close to the area and you could actually see flames rising up over buildings from a distance. And this was 2 hours after I initially saw the smoke. The fire was huge. A combination of lack of emergency response and what Konyo Konyo is comprised of, which is a lot of flammable material, is what caused the fire to be so out of control. One friend pointed out that it is good there is little electricity in the area which would reduce the damage made.

I can't imagine the aftermath of this fire. All I hope is that no lives were lost. Quite tragic.

No happy note to end with on this one...