Day One Hundred & Twenty Four - Stranger Company

"Hello. My name is Caryn and you are? I am from Canada. Alberta. I have been here 4 months and still love it. I am volunteering my time at the Juba Orphanage teaching English and searching for employment."

These are the typical first words I say when I meet someone new here. I make a point to not have these sort of questions in my conversation with someone I have just met. I get very tired of answering and asking those questions every single time you meet someone new, which is a very common daily occurrence. The “What’s your name? Where are you from? Why are you here? How long have you been here?” questions are necessary at one point, but it is much nicer to go about a conversation as though you are not a foreigner, living amongst many other foreigners in South Sudan.

However, now that I am here unemployed being asked what I am doing here is a good question because it is necessary for me to make connections in order to find a job. Some people think that I am insane for staying here without a job, others are totally in support of my decision.

On another aspect of how one interacts with people here, it is as though you actually haven’t just met this person. You act as though you have been friends with most people for a while. It is like you have already bonded solely based on the fact that you are both living in a foreign country, going through similar experiences. You talk more freely about things and have very different conversations compared to meeting someone back home. You talk more freely with certain people. It is strange but in the grander scheme of things it makes sense.