Christmas is a time for giving not for coups

As some of you have seen there was an attempted coup in South Sudan beginning last Sunday in Juba. As luck would have it, I was in Juba attending a World Food Program workshop. I was planning on returning to Torit on Monday morning until I received word that there had been sporadic gunfire in the city overnight and the US embassy and the UN were on lockdown. 

I did not think much of the situation until I went to breakfast on Monday and began to hear explosions which I learned were from the tanks shelling buildings near our hotel. Then around 9am we started to hear automatic gun fire but it was still fairly far away.  I was in the hotel with some of our US based staff and we were able to discuss the situation. 

The vivacell (cell phone company) lines were cut by the government to limit rebel movement but my MTN phone and internet still worked all day. Since I had some means of communication I called home and let them know that I was fine and would keep them informed.

Around 5pm President Kiir made a statement regarding the situation and said that the former Vice President and his followers had tried to take over the government but President Kiir was in control of the government.

The shootings continued through the night and when I woke on Tuesday the fighting was closer then on Monday. After breakfast the shooting was so close I thought the fighting was on the next street.  My co-worker took this picture from his hotel window.

On Tuesday night President Kiir once again made a statement explaining the situation. He said that the military had been arresting former ministers who were behind the coup and that the airport would be open on Wednesday.

I had thought that since the airport would be re-opening on Wednesday that I would just take my scheduled Friday flight but that changed. On Wednesday morning I found out that the US embassy had suggested that all non-essential Americans leave South Sudan. Due to this announcement my company decided to evacuate all expats from the country.

I had a choice of taking the plane that the US embassy was arranging for any interested Americans or take the flight that my company was arranging. I chose to take the flight my company was arranging for numerous reasons.

My flight was arranged for Thursday morning.  We arrived at the airport at 8am, our charter plane landed at 9:30am, we finally cleared immigration and security at noon.

 When we went out to walk to our plane another plane was landing. When it landed one of the front tires blew then as it continued to move forward the landing gear on the nose collapsed and fell.

The plane was about 3/4 of the way down the runway so we were hoping that our small plane would still be able to take off. Our pilot went and determined how much room was left on the runway and determined that there was enough room. We got lucky and were able to take off.

After we loaded our bags and boarded the plane I began to feel like the end of a long experience maybe near. Once the plane left the ground the whole plane cheered.

We landed in Uganda an 1.5 hours later and left the airport for a few hours. At 11:30pm I took off for Amsterdam. That began the next leg of my trip home. I made it home on Friday night at 10pm. In total I travelled for about 48 hours and was very happy to be home.

My thoughts and prayers go out to my friends and co-workers in South Sudan. During times of conflict it seems as if the innocent are the ones who are harmed the most. My wish for the New Year is for peace and forgiveness in the country.

Trip to Ghana

I took a short R&R vacation to Ghana at the end of October.  It was amazing to see how much Ghana has changed in the 14 months since I left.

As I flew in to Accra at night it was nice change from Juba to see that the whole city had electricity, I was so excited to be spending 6 days there without the sound of a generator and with running water.

While I did not have a visa prior to leaving for Ghana, getting a visa on arrival took no time at all.  I filled out the application at the airport and 15 minutes later I had my visa and I was out of the airport.  I never got out of the airport that fast when I had a residency permit.

I went to the taxi area and negotiated a rate to go to Labone and just sat back to see what had changed since I had left.  Between the airport and the Holiday Inn there is a new high rise mall (which I did not go to) and a few new high rises.

It was great to get to Labone and see that the area looked pretty much the same.  It was also nice to have ridden on paved roads. I remember that when I lived in Ghana how we used to complain about how bad the roads were.  I can now say that their roads are like heaven compared to the roads in South Sudan.

The next morning at around 6:30am Ben and Sam came into my room to make sure that I was really that I had really arrived.  I wondered if they would remember who I was since Ben was only 3 and Sam was only a little over 1 when left but they did remember me and they were my little shadows for the whole time I was there.  On Friday the kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes for school and I rode with them to drop them off.  They wanted to show me their classrooms and their teachers.  It was so nice to see how excited they were to go to school.

I spent Friday going around Accra and Osu seeing old friends.  I stopped by the Peace Corps office but everyone was in a meeting so I only got to talk to Perpetua.  In Osu I went to see Georgina at the silver store and it was like I had never left.  She said that she was glad that I came in to see her and she wanted to know everything that I had been doing since I left.  It was like sitting down your grandmother and just what I needed.

On Saturday Gladys came in from Krobo and we spent the day in the pool and then we went to an Octoberfest party at the old Ryan's Irish Pub.  On Sunday we again played in the pool and watched the partial solar eclipse and had a great barbecue.


I was scheduled to fly out on Tuesday but before I left I wanted to go to Krobo.  Before I left for Krobo I went with the kids to school to say goodbye and they asked if I would come back to visit.  I said I would and then gave me big hugs.  I said I would Skype them around Christmas time. I took a tro-tro and surprised my friends there.  It was nice to see all of them and they were so happy to see me again.  While I told them that I would be back I don't think that any of them expected me to come back so soon.  A lot of them asked what I was doing and how things in South Sudan compare to Ghana but I told them that it was hard to compare.

The trip was way too short and I did not get to see everyone that I wanted to it was a trip that I wanted to take to recharge myself after being in South Sudan for 6 months.  I left Ghana feeling relaxed and ready to face the 2 months before I leave for the holiday break.

New Pictures

Well I have finally gotten around to post the pictures from the agriculture show and from my trip to Ghana.

Now if I can just sit down and write about the experiences.. . . maybe this weekend?

5 Months in South Sudan

It is hard to believe that I have been in South Sudan for five months.  There are some days (many recently) when I don't know if I will make it another day and then I have other days when things seem to go smoothly and the lines of communication and work move properly.

As with moving any place new it does take some time to feel like you have settled in and I am still not sure that I have gotten to that point.  This is a difficult place to settle into, there are not many places where you can go to just get away.  While there is potential for tourism, it is still many years away from that point.  Although I could almost see the next season of survivor being filmed here.

Now that a new fiscal year is starting and my project is in the preparation stages for the next planting season, I feel like I understand what I am doing a little better.  I also feel like I understand more about the different theories in the development field from seeing what some of the results of the programs.

I now understand why those in the development field need their R&R breaks.  Working in the field is truly working 7 days a week, even if the contract does not say it.  At the same time, when you are in the field there is no down time so you need the R&R break just to get away and rest, like anyone in the West would do on the weekend.

The next few months will be interesting as the hot season begins and as usual more things start to break here from the extra heat and use.

I hope that everyone at home is enjoying the cooler temperatures and the changing leaves.

Things From America that Should Never Have Been Exported

As I have been traveling around the last few years I have noticed two trends that I know started in the US and have made there way to other countries. Now I know that I am not one to keep up with the latest in fashion and that since I have left my twenties behind some of the trends that I see on television have left me speechless (Miley Cyrus and the fascination with the Kardashians) but I feel an urge to list some the trends that I have seen lately that should have stayed in the US.

1. Pants worn so low on Men that you can see their underpants. I don't care how good looking you think you are no one anywhere in the world wants to see your trousers and in some cultures it is very disrespectful.  Unfortunately this trend has made it across the Atlantic to Africa where the young men think that wearing their pants like this makes them look like rich rap stars!
2. Baseball hats worn backwards.  If you need to wear a hat then the bill of the hat should be pointed forward otherwise what good is it doing?

Please feel free to let me know if there are any other new trends that I should be on the look out for here.  I am happy to say that Twerking or whatever that is has not made its way here but I am sure that it is just a matter of time.

I can finally cook in my house!!!!!

Who would have thought that having a propane canister could make me so happy.  Yes it is the little things in life when you are living in a slowly developing country that makes all the difference.

Yesterday my propane tank with regulator arrived and I was able to cook my first dinner in my house.  I made my usual "African Pasta" and it has never tasted so good.  You can't go wrong with fresh organic tomatoes, fresh green peppers, garlic, corn and onions sauted in extra virgin olive oil and put over penne pasta.  While I know that the parmasan cheese that I put over the dish was not of the best quality, beggers here can't be choosers. 

On my way back from Juba next week I will buy some egg plant, avacados and any other veggies that I want to cook with and eat until I can't stand myself. Oh how I like living in the house rather than the hotel.

Now that I have access to real milk I can even make some alfredo sauce.  Oh how my world is opening up to me.  I may even gain some of the weight that I have lost due to not eating enough.

I can't wait to cook, who knows I may even get the electrican to put in an outlet and use the oven.  Oh wait I don't bake.

Market Day

So today was my first day to really explore the market by myself and now I feel so much better about being here.  It is strange how just spending 1 hour in a traditional African Market can make me feel right at home.  It must be that I enjoy being out with the local people and not being driven around and kept away from everyone.

I had my driver drop me off this morning after my house keeper finished cleaning the house,  the driver went and had the oil checked on the truck and said that he would call when he was finished.  I then started wandering to where the vegetables are sold.

To get to the veggie section you have to walk through people selling various plastic pitchers and bowls, metal pans and some traditional things.  I eventually got to the bulk bean section (which since I still have no propane tank I did not buy) I walked past but I have to admit the cow peas looked really good as did some of the others.  I will be making some bean burgers in the future while here.

I then got to the veggie section and today was a good veggie day! There were lots of sellers with lots of great looking produce.  I had my choice of good tomatoes, cabbage some carrots, apples, melons, pineapple and oranges.  I  was able to buy enough to last most of the week and I think that I paid less than 10 USD and it is all organic.

I then kept walking just to see what else was in the veggie section and I came across women selling fresh bread (which I had to buy) and some various sandwich type items.  I bought a couple just to try, when in Rome right.  One was the fresh bread stuffed with Irish potatoes which was great, I could have eaten three!  The other was the fresh bread stuffed with a scrambled egg thing.  I thought about eating it after I bought it but then saw how much oil it had and decided to give it to my driver for his lunch.  He is used to the oil where my stomach is not.  The sandwiches were 0.25 USD each,  I really don't know how these market ladies are making any money selling them.

I finished my shopping and then found the Coke wholesaler and he had received his shipment last week so I was able to buy 2 crates of Coke for the house and a box of bottled water just in case I run out of the big bottles.

By the time I finished all of my shopping my driver was back from getting more oil put into the truck (the place did not fill it up when we had the oil changed last week) and the only place left to go was to the chicken place (for a whole cooked roasted chicken) and to get phone units.

While I was in the market I ran into two other Kawadjas (white people).  These ladies came up to me and introduced themselves since they had not seen me in the market before.  It is an unwritten rule that when you see another white person, you stop and talk to them here.  They are missionaries and living like I did while in the Peace Corps.  I told them that I would see them around after I was settled in more at the house.  It is nice to see other people from the US every now and then.

I think that the more I go to the market the more I will feel a part of the community.  I did see some of the people that I work with at the Ministry and they stopped and talked to me so the funk that I was in living in the hotel is lifting all due to a trip to a market.

House Pictures

Well I have been in the house for a little over a week and all of the boxes are unpacked but not everything is put away and not everything has arrived, oh well welcome to South Sudan.

From the pictures I have posted it looks like the house is ready but I am missing a propane tank to cook with, hot water heaters for the bathrooms, mosquito nets for the bedrooms, DSTV so I can use the TV and a few other things.  I will just be happy when it is all done!

For now enjoy the pictures!

Finally in the House. . . . Some other pictures posted

So I am finally moved into the house,  but I am not completely unpacked.  That will come with time.  I will take some pictures of the house after the house keeper comes on Saturday.

In the meantime, I have finally posted some pictures that were taken over the past month so you can see what I have been up to.

Facilitating Conferences

So part of my job is to facilitate training conferences for either the farmer based organizations or for the farmer co-ops that have formed.  While it might seem that if the training materials are already put together that facilitating a meeting would be pretty easy.  Oh how wrong you would be.

To facilitate a meeting here you have to plan for the unthinkable.  When I would facilitate these types of meetings in Ghana I would have to worry about the two languages, prayers, snacks cell phones and the  agenda.  Here I have to worry about at least 3-4 languages (English, Juba Arabic and 2 local languages), prayer, proper protocol (you can't start a meeting until the local government official has opened the meeting), a morning tea break, rules for the meeting, the agenda, the afternoon tea break, how much you are providing to the participates for them attending the meeting (sitting fee), how much you are paying the participants for their transportation and then their lunch and dinner.  It seems like the participants were more worrying about how much they were going to get paid to attend the conference they about what they were going to learn.

Once the basic issues were taken care of, it then is an issue of getting the participants to actually participate.  While no one actually enjoys sitting through lectures all day about new things, when I would try to ask them questions to relate it to their experiences I would be met with blank stares.  Now I know that I am not a trained teacher but I am pretty good at talking to people and when you just get get blank stares it makes providing training difficult.  I then had to remember that in the school system in Africa the students are taught to memorize and not ask questions or to speak at all.  It is so much different than the US system.

During these training I always have to think on my feet and add activities for the participants to do so I know that they are understanding what we are discussing.  While they usually don't want to get up and talk to other people and work in groups in the end it is a good indicator of whether they are learning anything.

After 3 full days of facilitating a conference, I was bone tired.  I still have to put together a training on costing and pricing for our substance farmers by the end of next week.  I think that the honeymoon phase of my job is over!

Change in Power

Well I should have expected this since the country is only 2 years old but when it did happen it took me by surprise.  The President here made a big change and removed his vice-president, ministers and some police officials.

I was at a conference on Tuesday, for our farmers for which I was facilitating several sections regarding working as a group and co-operatives.  When we arrived in the town, the group heard that the President had removed his executive board and VP, I then received a call from my office in Juba to confirm what had happened.  They suggested that we not travel really early in the morning but they said that everything should be fine.  Of course this was the subject of discussion for the evening and all of the farmers were subdued and one of the people I was with knew several people at the ministry and kept trying to get information to no avail.

Early Wednesday morning, I received an email from the US Embassy (I had registered that I was living in South Sudan with the US Embassy so I receive email alerts) regarding the situation.  According to the Embassy things were currently calm but the Embassy was going to be closed until 10am that morning and the staff was to only travel for essential business.  I heard from friends that the UN had told their staff to stay home until the situation was assessed.  The military was out in the streets but that was more to ensure that nothing did happen and to ensure that no one went into the ministry buildings.

By the end of the day nothing had happened and everything was calm, as I expected.  While I am glad that everyone took the situation seriously and that this has not turned into an Arab Spring, I think that the people here are really looking for peace and really just want development throughout the country.

According to the follow-up email messages that I have received from the US Embassy, everything is normal throughout the country but there is an earlier evening curfew for the Embassy staff. Normally the Embassy staff and UN staff need to be back at the compound by around midnight during the week but that has now been moved to 8pm.  They have also put a hold on all non-essential travel for their staff.  It seems as if we everyone is just in a wait and see pattern but as of yet nothing is happening.

Everyone who was let go by the President last week is calling for their supporters to maintain peace and  for them to show their support during the next election.  So far it is refreshing that there has not been a call for a return to tribal or ethnic rivalries.  I hope that this continues.

While I know that most of you are watching both the international and domestic media about South Sudan but please remember that it is the job of the media to sell stories.  The things that they report are usually over exaggerated so please don't worry.  Remember that I am 5 hours away from the capital so if you see something that is happening in Juba it does not mean that it is going to effect me in Torit.

Wearing shorts . . . Not a good idea

So I am almost ready to move into my house, God willing, and I decided to go over to the house and give it a good cleaning.  Since the generator has not arrived and therefore there is no electricity I knew that I could not wear long pants or a skirt so I decided to wear my shorts to clean.

Now I know that here they consider legs very sexual and the thighs really should only be seen by a woman’s husband but I was only going to my house and I was not going to see anyone.  I put on my shorts which by American standards were on the longer side, they came about 2” from my knee and I only wore them from my hotel room, to my car and then to my house. 

The looks that I received by the other guests at the hotel were shocking. You would have thought that I had walked through the hotel naked based off the looks that the men were giving me.  When I talked to one of the men I was working with he said that based on what I was wearing, I was harassing the men and that they were upset.  I asked him what about what the women in Juba were wearing and he said that was different; women in the villages have to dress differently even Western women.  He said that there is no difference between the weekends and the weekday; you always have to dress properly.  I explained to him that when I was in my house I was going as I chose and if someone came to visit then they could not get upset.

I now know that I won’t be wearing my long shorts to the market like I used to in Ghana while I am here in South Sudan.

One of My Worst Nightmares. . . .

I remember that when I was little I used to have a nightmare that I was sleeping in my bed and there were train tracks around my bed and the trains were on the tracks going very fast and would not let me get out of the bed.  I know that this sounds like a very strange dream but I was also very small.  As I grew up my nightmares became more realistic.

When I moved to Ghana and I saw the public latrines I began to have nightmares about them when I was overtired. Let’s just say that they were not the cleanest or safest things that you have ever seen. The nightmares would be varied but would usually involve me being stuck in one being unable to get out.  Then last year I saw an article that a public latrine collapsed in a tro-tro (bus) station with someone in it and the man died.  The nightmare returned.

Last weekend in my town in South Sudan we had a lot of rain; I was beginning to think that I was going to need a boat to get out of my hotel.  I had a reason to worry.  On Monday morning I went to drop some things off at my new house (no I have not moved in yet) and to pick up some shirts and the guard at the house showed me the outside latrine.  All at once my stomach dropped.  The concrete on the outside of the latrine was falling off (think stucco) and then I looked closer and there was a large hole next to the wall that went down about 3 feet.  At first I thought that well this can’t be too bad it can be filled in, and then the guard showed me the inside of the latrine & bathhouse.  Well let’s just say that I am glad that I was not in it at the time.  The entire floor had collapsed and was sitting at a 35degree angle towards the back and I am not sure how the walls were still standing.

I notified the landlord the next day and he is sending out the engineer who built the house to try to fix the latrine.  I am glad that I am not the one who has to use it but it does need to be fixed hopefully before I move in next week.

When I told some of the people at work I said that when I first saw the problem I thought it was my nightmare come to life and once I realized that I was not stuck in the latrine that it would be a good story to add to my future book on living in Africa.

South Sudan's 2nd Anniversary

July 9 is Independence Day in South Sudan and it is celebrated a lot like we do in the US but without the great sales and fireworks (unless you count the celebratory gun fire).  In fact people here go to church on the Sunday before Independence Day to pray for the country and then again on the day before Independence Day.  On Independence Day, the government leaders have a large gathering with lots of speeches and then everyone starts to drink for the rest of the day.

On Monday I received my invitation to sit in the "good" seats at the Eastern Equatorial Celebration of Independence Day.  I asked my office if any of them wanted to go since it was really their Independence Day but they all declined, they all had parties to attend and did not want to sit through government speeches.  I was then left to go to the event.  According to the invitation the event was to start at 8:30 am and crazy me I thought that since the Governor usually is on time for his meetings that this might start on time.  No, the event finally started at 11am.  While according to the schedule from 8:30-10:30 was just for arrivals, the event was still 30 minutes late for the actual program.

I was seated with other NGO representatives, UN Staff and the ministers who were to pray over the country.  Before the program started the protocol officer told all of the people sitting on my side that we were not to take any pictures during the event, even with our cell phones.  I quickly understood because when the program started the military, police, prison guards, and wildlife officers were presented to the Governor and then they stood in front of our section.  At no time are foreigners allowed to take pictures of the military or police in any African country so the protocol officer was worried that we would get in trouble by accident.

When the program did start they were then worried about the possibility of rain so the speakers had to cut their speeches down, in some cases from 6 pages to 4.  The school children singing and dancing was a nice bonus to the day especially since it was one of the few things that I could understand.  Most of the speeches were in presented in one of the local dialects and were not translated for the development partners.

The event ended at 2 pm after the Governor gave his speech calling for everyone to work together and to move away from dependency and move towards hard work and self-sufficiency.

Besides the day of speeches the biggest difference between South Sudan's Independence Day and ours is that the only businesses that can be open are hotels, restaurants and bars.  If any other business is open then they will face large fines and harassment from the police since it is supposed to be a national holiday.  I can not imagine if the government tried to tell any business in the US that they could not be open on a holiday.  But South Sudan is only 2 years old so there is no telling how things will change as time goes on.

Happy Fourth of July

I hope that everyone at home is having a wonderful July Fourth.  I am thinking about all of you while I am sitting in my office working on spreadsheets to determine a proper statistical sampling of farmers.  I do wish that I was home with you enjoying a good barbecue, salads, fruit, ice cream and most of all the gathering of good friends.

Rather I am here working, but don't feel too bad for me, I will be off on July 9th for South Sudan's Independence Day.  Although I do have a feeling that I will have to go to some function at the request of the Governor which makes me feel like I am working back for Congress again.

Please enjoy your Fourth of July and if you feel like it send me an email of what I have missed, it will almost make me feel like I was there.  I will also try to take some pictures of the South Sudan's Independence Day celebration, if the soldiers who are parading around won't mind.  Usually they get a little upset when you take their pictures.

I miss you all,  enjoy your day!

Farmer Meeting - Development vs. Dependency

Some people have sent me messages asking what I am doing over here and I thought that I would explain my project as simply as possible and also what my small part is in the larger picture.

The project is to move farmers and farmer based organisations (FBOs) from dependency based aid to development based aid.  We are working with FBOs to teach them good farmer practices (i.e.. planting in straight lines, using certified seeds, using one seed per hole, proper weeding, using fertilizer, etc), providing grants, which they have to pay a portion of, for ploughing and harrowing their fields and also for seeds.  This is different from what other organizations do here which is to just hand out cash and not  do any follow up to see if the money was used for the intended purpose.  Our goal is to encourage behavior change and to provide the skills they need to be successful.

We work with the FBOs to provide sound foundation in addition to working with them to see if to see if they will be able to form co-ops.  If they are interested in forming co-ops we work with them to complete the process and develop business plans and become successful co-ops.

Here farming is not necessarily seen as a business but as a way to sustain their lives.  The government understands that improving the farming sector will help make the country food secure and increase the income for the farmers and the entire value chain.

The missing links here are numerous (lack of tractors, unwillingness to use fertilizers, lack of certified seeds, transportation, etc) but education and the feeling that traders are trying to take advantage of the farmers and the lack of market is the largest problem.

The marketing and education on how to cost your product is my main farmer focused project.  The farmers do not currently understand why the traders who buy their products have to make a profit, the farmers think that they should be able to sell their product for what they buy it for in the market.  They have not heard the phrase we use in America "Farmers sell at wholesale and buy at retail."

In addition to working with the farmers I am in charge of the office for the state of East Equatorial South Sudan.  I get to attend all of the meetings with the state and county government relating to food security and agriculture.  I also have direct report of 5 people in my office and 27 people in the 3 counties.  A lot  of what I do is coordination of projects and people.  It is challenging and fun and exciting when I get to work with the farmers.

Traveling on Bumpy Muddy Dirt Roads

So last week was my first trip back to Juba since I arrived 7 weeks ago.  My town of Torit is located about 80km from Juba (as the crow flies) so one would think that going back and forth to the capital of South Sudan would be reasonably easy, oh you would be wrong!

We are currently somewhere in the middle of the first rainy season and since the paved roads are either in capital of Juba or the one "highway" which runs from the Uganda border to Juba, I travel on red, clay dirt roads.  When I first saw the red dirt roads I thought of the Brooks & Dunn song but their dirt roads were in much better condition. When I first made the trip there had not been any rain in about 3 weeks so the roads were in pretty good conditions.  Yes there were major gullies and they were bumpy but they were passable now is a different story.

The area from Torit to Juba has been getting rain/downpours at least 3 days a week for the last month so while it has helped the farmers, the road conditions have changed.

Last week I spent almost all of the week on these roads.  Monday I went to Juba (5 hrs), Wednesday I came back to Torit (5hrs), and Friday I went to Obbo and then came back to Torit (6hrs).  On the way back from Obbo we were driving in the rain and driving through huge puddles of standing mud.  It is a good thing that the vehicles that we use are designed to go through the water because several times we had water over the door jams and I am sure into the engine area.

These trucks take a lot of abuse and so does my body due to the bumps.  I have bruises from the seat belt keeping me in the seat when we hit a bump.  I am trying to think of something to put on the seat belt to keep it from digging into my skin.  The drivers keep telling me to gain weight so I won't feel the bumps as much, that is not an option.  If anyone as any ideas as to how to avoid the bruises please pass it along.

Pictures

Just a quick post to let you know that the pictures have been posted.

Interesting week. . . meeting with the Governor, Land mine stop, inspecting cassava plants and drinks with UN staff

Well this has been an interesting week.

Monday started with an early morning phone call saying that the working group that I sit in on once a month has been requested to meet with the Governor of East Equatorial (where I live).  Of course the call came in at 7:45am and the meeting was to take place in 1 hour.  Now I am not saying that my town is big, because it is not, but I had just gotten out of the shower and I had not had my breakfast, so I had to hurry to get ready for work and this meeting that I knew nothing about. Great way to start my 3rd week in country!

The meeting went fine and it turned out that there was nothing for my organization to do, the work that the Governor wanted done was in a part of the state where we don't work.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful: meetings, email discussions, etc, etc.  By Thursday I was tired of being in the office so I decided to go out into the field to meet with the farmers.

What was supposed to be a quick 1/2 day trip turned into a whole day excursion, but then this is Africa.   We started to drive to Kudo and about 30 minutes into our trip we are stopped by a rope across the road and some UN vehicles.  Seeing the UN vehicles is nothing new here, I think that more than half the cars on the road are UN.  When we get to the rope we see that it the land mine removal group and that they had just put up the rope.  We now had to wait 45 minutes for them to finish what they were doing on the sides of the road before we could continue.  They close the roads down when they do these projects so that if they miss one of the mines no one driving by will be injured.  Since I had experience with road trips in Africa I knew to bring a book along with me, so during the land mine stop I just opened up the book and read.

We finally got to one of the farm areas and started to distribute the seeds we brought with us.  When I got out of the car and met with the farms they thought that it was interesting/strange that a woman was the boss.  The female farmers started laughing at me and then when they were told that I was the boss, their eyes got really big and they wanted introductions.  The children were different story, they all ran from me.  I am not sure that they had ever seen a white person before and I was scary to them.

I have pictures from the trip I will try to load this weekend.

Thursday was a long day of distributing seeds but worthwhile to get a chance to see where the farmers work and how they clear the land.

Friday was another day in the field, but this time we were looking at the fields of cassava that could be purchased.  We were on one of our farmers lands looking to buy his cassava stalks to provide to other farmers for the next planting season.  We had to determine how many acres were available and ensure that the plants were disease free.

Of course on the way to the field we got a flat tire, no trip is uneventful.  A trip that was to take 2 hours once again took all day.

I got back to the office on Friday and was looking for something different to do, rather than sit at the hotel for the evening.  So some of the other aide workers and I went over to the UN compound and had drinks with the UN MISS workers.  It was a good night.  It is hard to describe the night.  The bar is an open cabana with cold beer, flags from the countries that are working on the compound and lots of trailers.  The guys were great and the stories were interesting.  Most of the people that were there work with the Policing unit so they thought that it was interesting that I worked with farmers.  It was nice to sit and talk with them but I know that my body could not keep up with them over a long period of time. Lets just say that the Bosnia's can drink and smoke more than anyone I have seen!

Today, Saturday, was the first day that I walked around the town by myself.  It was a short day in town but I went to the market to see what I could get and I will be in good shape when I finally move out of the hotel and into my house.  The interesting thing is that being in the market was the only time since I have been here that I have been called "white person" or one of the two local words for it.  It has been nice being in town and not being called that.

Hopefully next week will be uneventful but since this is South Sudan I am not counting on it.  I hope that everyone at home is starting to enjoy the beginnings of summer.  I will be thinking of you while I am hotter than you know where.

A Few Pictures

Well just a short note to let you know that I posted a few pictures of my town.  They are the same ones that I put on Facebook but I know that not all of you use FB.

A quick explaination of the pictures:

The donkey cart is how some people get river water. . . . don't ask.  My water is clean this isn't.

The spice plate is salt and hot pepper and is on every table when I go out to eat.

The round plate of food . . . well the red bowl is a lentil dish I used to like until it got me sick on Friday and the other dish is some kind of beef soup.  It tastes better than it looks.  The bread is great!

The men on motocycles are boda-boda drivers and they are the local taxis here.

The round clay building with the straw roof is called a Tokors (probably spelled it wrong) but it is the traditional house)

I have a video that I will try to load at some point this week.

Never Dull

While I never thought that my life here would be boring I did think that I would have more down time than I have had in the last 2 days.  Here is the story. . . .

Tuesday was a normal day, meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and his Deputy Minister and sitting with them for about 1.5 hours and discussing the finer points of development in South Sudan.  In short he expects all of the partners (international agencies and NGOs) to be transparent and open with the state government about their goals and results.  The last thing that he wants is for their to be overlap of projects when there is so much work that needs to be done.

I get home to the hotel on Tuesday and order my hamburger and chips (french fries) and sit down to study and my cell rings.  My co-worker calls to tell me that he is not feeling well and needs to go to the clinic and someone who lives in his compound is taking him.  I tell him to let me know the outcome.

15 minutes later, I get a call that he is felling worse and he is by the side of the road and I need to go to him.  Keep in mind that I don't have the car.  So I call the driver and have him come and pick me up.  30 minutes later the driver arrives (he had to walk back to the office and then come and get me) we arrive at where my co-worker said he was and he was not by the side of the road but actually in a clinic.  What he thought I could do since he was already receiving medical attention I was not sure but I went in anyways. 

I talked to the very nice doctor who had already run some tests (malaria and typhoid) and had the results.  He had typhoid, go figure, glad I updated my vaccine!  She decides to treat him for malaria at the same time since they usually go together (even I knew that one) and writes up his bill, 155SSP for treatment. While that seems high it really is only $50, but my co-worker did not have that much with him so he needed me to loan him the money so he could get treatment.  What was I going to say, No, of course not, I said sure just pay me pack on pay day.

The big problem was that my co-worker was in charge of two meetings on Wednesday that he would not be able to facilitate these meetings so it fell to me.  Now keep in mind that I had only been in town for less than a week.

So my first meeting on Wednesday was with all of the partners that deal with Food Security in this area.  I had to present what my project had done in the month of May and what we were planning on doing for June.  Luckily another co-worker had sent this ahead of time and I had time to read up on this and knew what I was presenting.  I was able to meet the other partners in town from WFP, Canadian Red Cross, Caritas, CRS, FAO and the others.  It was an interesting meeting.

The second meeting was more of a challenge.  The farmers spoke several different languages so we had to translate everything into 2 languages and I don't think that they agreed on much. By the end 8pm I was ready to say take it or leave it but I just decided to say nothing and let the staff from Juba take the lead.  It was not a fun meeting.

By the end of the day I was ready for a shower and bed.  I am glad that today I can just catch up on emails and update everyone on what it going on because I have a meeting tomorrow with the Governor of the state and I have a feeling that it is going to run long.

I have a feeling that I am going to have a lot of days like yesterday coming up!