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!