Day 480 - C'est La Vie

Yesterday I officially moved out of the compound I have been living in for the last nine months.

Another life altering moment in the world of Caryn. Being told I have one week until I no longer have a job was another moment I choose to remove from my memory, however it was not an entirely out of the blue thing. I had my thoughts about what was going to happen once the end of September came about. A normal person cannot just accept the worst of all options when it comes to ones job. I really did not think that I would actually be leaving at the end of the month.

The wonders of the process and logical thinking that goes into the formation of a new phase of a project will always astound me. Why does it seem like the people running the show in this world have no clue what is actually going on? How did they get to be in the position they are in today when it seems that every decision they make is illogical and only going to benefit them, not the work that is supposed to be accomplished. It astonishes me. Leaves me almost without words actually.

Who wants a stable occupation anyways? Takes the fun and spontaneity out of life does it not? If I had a stable job would I be able to go spend the next four weeks on a beach? I think not.

So to lay it all down, my time in Juba has come to an end. I am leaving in about a week and heading off on a four-week beach vacation where I can decompress, relax and get my tan on before I return to the icy cold winter that home has to offer me. 

Day 469 - We Want Peace

September 21^st was a day to remember here in Juba. As I describe it, Juba experienced its first legit concert. A group of my friends and I got together and made out way to Independence Hall, where we joined hundreds of South Sudanese and expats in the large hall, anticipating the moment when Darryl (D.M.C) McDaniels would step on stage and a great moment it was. Along with three local artists, Darryl was opening for the main attraction, Emmanuel Jal, a South Sudanese musician and former child soldier on a mission to bring peace to the world and his home country through music. It was amazing to have the opportunity to see D.M.C. perform, and even more so to see Emmanuel Jal, a South Sudanese performer. It was an incredible show, with so much energy, and a message that Emmaunel Jal is successfully spreading around the world.

Emmanuel’s campaign is called We Want Peace and it has a simple goal: to raise awareness on the fundamental principles of justice, equality, unification and conflict prevention, through the power of music, worldwide.  This campaign has high profile supporters like Alicia Keys, George Klooney, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, and the list goes on. Emmanuel has a hit song, which was written in dedication to South Sudan’s historic referendum. It is a powerful song and you should all go and listen to it now.

It is inspiring that a former child soldier, is using his story, his experiences and using those to create a movement, encouraging people to take a stand all through his words and his voice.

“We want peace and we’re gonna get it!”

Day 464 - Home Is Where The Heart Is

Being home after being away for a while, or in this case, a long time always makes me think a lot about what a home means to me and how it differs from place to place.

There is that saying, "Home is where the heart is". Home is where you make it and as long as you are happy in your heart, no matter where you are you can call home. It may also depend on who you are with. You may not particularly love the location of where you are loving but you love a person or the people you are surrounded by. 

Up until my last trip home this is what I totally thought. Home was where the heart is. Home is where you make it. To an extent this is true however there is a line that "Home is where the heart is" cannot cross. I have lived Winnipeg. So cold in the winter that you never want to go outside, but beautiful and full of life in the spring and summer. I have lived in Cairo. Dirty and crazy busy, with millions of people, including men that can not keep their mouths closed or their eyes off you as you walk past. It is also full of history, with all the amenities and extracurricular activities anyone could ask for. Cairo has its own kind of lifestyle to offer. I am now currently living in Juba. Juba has a life of its own. With a few less than adequately clean pools and restaurants being the only place to hang out besides ones own or a friends accommodation, Juba does not have much to offer a person. Oh and there is a small mountain you can climb which is actually a very enjoyable activity. Even though it is lacking excitement and tourist attractions there is a strange beauty about Juba that you do not see until you have been here. In part it is the people, and the other part is...well I am not sure what that is...when I am away from Juba I eventually find myself missing being there. Juba is a mediocre place to live compared to the beautiful places on the coast in Africa that are just a flight away, but Juba has found a place in my heart even without any fancy, lovely, exciting things to lure me in. 

However, I think the only place I will ever feel truly at home is in the tree covered land, rolling hills covered in wheat, barley, canola and beautiful skies of Alberta. Alberta is my home and will always be my home. I have lived in quite a few places, and yes I have fallen in love with those places. The love I have for these places is so different from what I feel about Alberta. It is the memories a place evokes. Alberta reminds me of the first 18 years of my life. Time spent with family. It is home. Driving down the country roads that I used to drive down every day, seeing the familiar places brings a peace that no other place has given me. 

Maybe the day will come that I will be able to call another place my home and it will feel like my Alberta home. 

Only time will tell. 

~Where we love is home - home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts. - Olive Wendall Holmes~

Day 456 - August Lost

All of a sudden it is September 8th. August is gone and September is close to being half over.

Where did the month go and what have I done?

Olympics. I watched a lot of the Olympics. I watched very little of the summer Olympics and I had forgot how much I enjoy watching them.

Work is the same old, same old. We will be starting a new period in October, meaning courses will be starting over with new scheduling and course work.

The rainy season seems to be in full swing, however, I do not think we have had as much rain this year as we did last year. I did do a lot more walking last year. Rain is easily noticed when you have to walk through mud and puddles to go to the bathroom, walk to work, etc, etc.

I arrived home on August 22. Was able to be present for a good friends wedding and visit with a very good old friend. My time at home has been jam packed with driving to and fro, visiting friends and family. The greatest day was August 29 when my nephew William was born. He is a sweetheart and has succeeded at stealing my heart just as much as Medea has. One more reason to stay around in good ol' Alberta. 

I spent time in Saskatchewan, for a friends wedding and for a visit to a very good friend who I have not seen in almost two years. I spent half my time in Edmonton and the other half in Olds. I put a lot of miles in on the road and every minute of it was worth it. I was able to spend a great amount of time with all of my family, however, my mother would probably tell you differently :) I even got to see most of my aunts, uncles and cousins.

I am actually sitting in the airport as I write this (started writing this post on the 4th and never got it finished, opps).

The last sixteen days have been an absolute whirlwind but a wonderful whirlwind that could have lasted much longer. It felt like I was home for much longer than I really was. I could not have asked for a better trip.

Day 415: Prefabs

One word for you today: Prefab.

A Prefab for those of you less informed, is a prefabricated building that is originally built in place and then gets reconstructed in a different location. What this says to me is that "it was built properly the first time and now you get the chance to screw it up the second time around". 

In our case, the second time around was not successful. The buildings where I work and live are literally falling apart. Leaking. Cracking. Being eaten by termites. Apparently termites in Juba will eat anything. They are loving the fiber glass.

I currently have a puddle forming under my chair in the office here. And no the water is not dripping off my wet rain coat, or dripping from the ceiling, nor did I track it in. This puddle is forming from the ground up. I can see where the water is filling up under the tiles. I originally thought the small puddle under my chair was from my dripping coat, however about five minutes after I mopped it up the puddle was back. After further exploration I discovered an even larger puddle under my desk. I watched in amazement as the puddle grew and slowly made its way across the floor. The more it rains the more water comes up through the grout. Oh joy. The rainy season has only just begun. We are in for a messy season here in the compound. I had a few floods in my tent when I was living in one when I first arrived in Juba but that is to be expected. A tent is much more susceptible to the elements mother nature has for us. A building with four proper walls, proper floors, etc, should not leak.

Aside from being horribly built and already falling apart, there is nothing good to say about these building except for the fact that I have a roof over my head. The walls are paper thin. Seriously sometimes it seems as though I am sharing a bed with the person living next to me. No privacy here. The students even say they would rather live in a tukul or a tent. I do not blame them one bit.

Even with all the leaks, cracks, breaks, paper thin wall, and dis-functions, this is my home like it or not.

Day 414 - Martyr's Day

Today is the seventh anniversary of Martyr's Day. A day to remember Dr. John Garang and the lives lost in the Sudanese civil war (1983-2005) I have not witnessed what happens on this day but I am sure it is peoples demonstration of the fact that the memory of all those lives lost lingers on in the hearts of all South Sudanese who appreciate the sacrifice they made for their homeland. South Sudanese Martyrs’ Day, comparable to our Remembrance Day, is a day to remember the self-sacrificial patriotism of the martyrs during the struggle towards liberation.

I just watched the regiments of the army march out of the barracks, marching band announcing their presence, in a parade towards the Memorial grounds for some sort of ceremony for the day.

Day 400 - First Anniversary

A celebration. That was what took place on Monday, July the 9^th. Contrary to what many, many news stories say, the mood was high and joyous. “S.S. marks first anniversary of independence in a wary mood”. Obviously the last 365 days have not been perfect, filled with violence, corruption and a failing economy, however the people are still and will always be forever celebrating this day until the end of time. This day is what people have fought for and will continue to fight for. This is their country.

 

Being fortunate enough to experience celebrations last July 9^th, the celebration of the newest country in the world, this year was half of what last year was. This all makes sense considering the budget for the celebrations this year was significantly less, and people celebrated this day in their own home towns instead of Juba. Many factors. Walking the same route we did last year and going to the same Memorial for the celebrations brought back great memories from last year. This year…..

Streets were cleaned, flags, banners and signs hung, soldiers and security spread out, roads closed, shops closed for business and hundreds of people walking down the streets. Celebrations actually began at the night before with tons of kids, youth and adults packing the streets of Juba. People crammed into Prado's, trucks, anything with wheels on it, driving around the city and honking horns to mark the first anniversary since separating from Sudan. It is seriously amazing how they manage to fit some many people in/on a vehicle. Dangerous, but still impressive. There were flags, spray cans being lit, spraying flames. I am not sure why the celebrations involved so many dangerous activities...it was still an awesome sight to see. Everyone filled with pride and joy, and in a lot of cases a lot of booze....

What I would call a parade, consisted of each military sector in S.S. accompanied by the military equipment and machinery, as well as, a fire truck and two transit buses. Transit buses in Juba! Can you imagine? I have no clue where they are from or where they came from.  It is amusing to me that I was more in awe of the transit buses passing by, rather than the massive tanks and machine guns or grenade launches (I am no expert) mounted on the back of trucks passing by. We were able to take photos without any problems for about half of the parade, then a very angry soldier came charging past yelling, “NO PICTURES! NO CAMERAS!”. Of course we put our cameras away as asked and brought them back out once the over zealous soldier had gone. 

  

The Memorial was full of people. Some packed under the shades provided, people straining to see and hear the speeches of dignitaries and the President. There were some dancing; some playing drums and others wandering around aimlessly congratulating each other while taking in the sights of people joining together to celebrate a great day.  Some were taking photos of the sights, or of the khawaja’s walking around, they/we were seriously a big spectacle at times, including us. We were 7 khawaja’s walking around taking pictures brings a lot of attention to a person. We were constantly having photos taken of us, videos, and asked many of times to take picture of and with people. It was entertaining that is for sure. This year there was a truck throwing, not handing out, that would not be the South Sudanese way, throwing water bottles to the crowd. The number of people passing out last year during the celebrations must have taught them something. Good thing they stepped up this year and provided people with water, even if it created a danger of being hit on the head with a flying water bottle if you were not paying attention. 

 

Halfway through the celebrations two helicopters passed by overhead and threw some unknown papers out. We thought it must be flags but it did not really look like that. None of them actually fell over the Memorial grounds so we will never know what the papers had on them. The helicopters were awesome though. Just look how cool they are.

A GREAT DAY.

"We want to... see a South Sudan that grows its own food and is eradicating poverty and ignorance"

I agree Desmond Tutu.

Day 383 - Water

A Global Crisis

• 783 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. this is roughly one in ten of the world's population.
• 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, almost two fifths of the world's population.
• Around 700,000 children die every year from diarrhea caused by unsafe water and poor sanitation - that's almost 2,000 children a day. 
• Women in Africa and Asia often carry water on their heads weighing 20kg, the same as the average UK airport luggage allowance. 
• 1.1 billion people live more than a kilometre from their water source and use just five litres of unsafe water a day. 
• The average person in the UK used 150 litres of water a day. In Australia, around 500 litres, and in the USE, over 570 Litres. 
• Water in Accra, Ghana, costs three times as much as in New York. 

Borehole - the generalized term for any narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. Typically, a borehole used as a water well is completed by installing a vertical pipe (casing) and well screen to keep the borehole from caving. This also helps prevent surface contaminants from entering the borehole and protects any installed pump from drawing in sand and sediment. 

When I was living in the tent camp, the camps water was stored in a 500 litre water tank. At times the water delivered was from a borehole but it was more often from the Nile. Nothing like showering under a stream of brownish water. BUT it was water so it did not matter. A shower was a shower regardless of the condition of the water. When it was brown you just didn't brush your teeth with it.

After living with 6 hours of water per day since November, and the occasional bucket shower, we have water 24/7. No scrambling to have a shower before nine pm. No limitations.

 This is how we do water in Juba.

Day 370 - Wahid Sena

I departed Canada on June 13^th and arrived in Juba on June 17^th meaning that it has been one year to today since I arrived in South Sudan. When I arrived it was not yet a country. It was still part of Sudan. Today, South Sudan is its own struggling country.

I have gone 6 months at a time not seeing my friends and family. I decided to stop eating meat a year ago. I have experienced first hand the importance of a mozzie net and the strange comfort it provides when it surrounds you. I have gone through checkpoints and I have also learned the back roads you can take in order to avoid these checkpoints. I have driven on the atrocious roads that Juba has so kindly neglected and survived. I have learned how to drive manual and I am rather good at it. I have travelled to Kenya. I have floated down the Nile. I learned some Swahili and Juba Arabic. I met the US Ambassador for South Sudan. I have rode a boda boda many times and survived. I have trekked through the mud to get to work way too many times. I have experienced the shocks of what conflicts with neighboring countries does to the economy and way of life. 

 

For five months I was privileged enough to experience living in one of the last existing tent camps in Juba. I was surrounded by 30 plus people, sharing a living space; sharing 2 showers, one toilet, one squat toilet and one sink with roughly 10-15 women. In order to have my clothes washed I collected it in a pile on the floor in the morning and when I returned in the evening it would all be hanging on the clothes line strung up from my tent poles.

For four months I flew and drove in an out of Juba living for weeks in other towns and states learning about the different cultures and customs. I experienced six different states within South Sudan. I met community members, county commissioners, NGOs and the like. Sat under mango trees, lived on beans and rice. Experienced what driving on a dried up riverbed is like.  Drove through the beautiful mountainous Eastern Equatoria.

 

The birth of a new nation. The newest country in the world. The 193^rd country on record. I was here to experience that. To experience the unending joy of the South Sudanese people. To be carried away in to the overwhelming emotions of Independence. To become a part of it. Once in a lifetime experience.

I have met people from all over the world who have to South Sudan for various reasons. There are two classifications for the ex-pats here: 1. There are the ex-pats who have come here to work with an organization of company to help the people of South Sudan and help build the country. 2. The other ex-pats are the ones that have come here for the business opportunities $$$. I am sure you can guess which group I belong to…

I have lived in the  Barracks for almost 8 months now and live to tell about it. (Strangely when I tell people our compound is within the  barracks they become very concerned and say that must be scary. It really is not. It is a decent location, very nice for going for runs. The security is just higher than elsewhere and outsiders are not particularly welcome. The soldiers at the gate know us by now and do not give us any grief.)

I have worked for a massive American company, providing medical training for soldiers. I have obviously not done the training but I am behind the scenes. I help to ensure that the courses are organized and supplies with all the equipment and materials required to make them function. It has been a challenging and rewarding experience.

I have experienced, from a distance in Juba, the never-ending disputes with Sudan and inter-tribal fighting. I experienced the repercussions of the fighting with seeing the influx of casualties in the  Hospital, which is our neighbor.

I have been able to get a glimpse of what South Sudanese people have been through and continue to go through each day. No matter the negative opinions many people surrounding the country have about the South Sudanese people, I believe that they are a resilient people. To survive what this country has gone through says nothing less. 

I have experienced so much more than just what I have written here. I have experienced so much it is almost hard to remember everything all at once. The experience will continue and memories will be made. I am excited. 

Day 343 - A Different Way

This afternoon I climbed another side of Jebel Kujur with an excellent groups of friends. We did not really know where we were going in the beginning, which meant we climbed up the other side of the mountain and not the usual trail...we used what Arabic we had to get directions and they never led us astray. We did come across where all the rock crushing families slaughter their animals and it was horrid. Cow horns strewn all over, organs, left over bits and the most unforgettable part, a puddle, I kid you not, a puddle of blood. To say the least we did not hang around here. We slowly made our way, asking people along the way if you were indeed going in the right direction. It was such a great feeling to reach the top. We made it. The view was gorgeous. It was overcast, windy and so lovely and relaxing. A perfect way to spend a Sunday. 

Day 331 - So Long Cairo

My trip to Cairo has come to an end. After spending five days in a city busier than the heart of a beehive I am ready to be back in Juba.

Sunday morning I left for a trip to the White Desert. 7am a driver picked me up from my hotel and we started our journey. I had expected that I would be travelling with some other tourists, however tourism in Egypt has decreased since the revolution and still is not back to normal. Alas I was alone in a hardtop land cruiser with a driver and my guide. My decision to go on this trip was last minute. One of my friends went on this same trip in 2009 and loved it. I have been on trips to the desert before and there is something amazingly calming about the vast distances of sand and rocks that one is surrounded by in the desert. There are amazing natural springs South of Cairo. The first one we visited was very warm, clean water. The second one was incredible. This water was boiling hot. There is no way you could immerse yourself in this spring. It was hard enough to put my feet in. They say that the springs have healing powers, particularly the boiling hot one. After 10 minutes of dipping my feet I did really feel somehow energized and uplifted. That may be all in the head but still...the water is so rich in minerals there has to be some sort of positive effect on the body.

Surrounded by light sand and white rock we made camp and prepared for dinner. Watching the sunset and the stars come out one by one in the desert is a gorgeous sight. The desert is completely silent apart from the noise we were making and the wind. The best part of being in the desert that night was the full moon. Watching it rise, bright and full into the sky was beautiful. An evening spent in natural beauty, untouched and uninhabited. 

Ripped my pants climbing this 5000 year old tree