Into the Bush

Finally, after an exhaustingly long day traipsing all over the State of Jonglei monitoring distribution of mosquito nets, I was able to crawl under my mosquito net at the Freedom Hotel and collapse into bed. Sleep came quickly, deep, and long. Until first light when my subconscious started picking up something in the distance. I have been in Sudan long enough to know when I hear that noise that it is NOT fireworks, and apparently I was still not tricked in my half-asleep, half-awake state. Granted, I very, very rarely hear that noise. But no, these were definitely gunshots. Still not wanting to open my eyes I listened to the pattern. PA PA PA PA PA. Then after a few seconds’ pause, from a bit farther away, pa pa pa pa pa. Then even closer, PA PA PA PA PA.

At this point my mind shook off the rest of the sleep and I opened my eyes. Oh right! Today, May 16^th, is SPLM day. “Into the Bush” day. Commemorating the day in 1983 when the South took up arms against the North by going into the bush (basically the wilderness) and fighting back. And how do we celebrate holidays in Sudan? By firing our weapons. Oh yes, on Christmas, New Years, and, apparently, SPLM Day, soldiers and civilians everywhere shoot their AK-47s off with glee with complete disregard to what happens to the bullets once they are fired up into the air. At 6:03am in Bor Town, the capital of Jonglei State and the home town of many of the SPLA leadership, it sounded like everyone was getting in on the action. The number of guns being fired increased, always in a call-and-response pattern.

My boss (the head of our office) as well as someone in the HR department from my organization's DC Headquarters was also on this trip, but staying at another hotel on the opposite side of town. Just to be sure, I sent them a text: “Please tell me this is because of SPLM day, right?” a few seconds later came the response, “Oh right. I hadn’t thought of that. Good I’m glad it sounds like it is really close over here.” I should mention that I was staying in a room in an actual building that the hotel had just opened the week before – usually hotels in the field are really just tents. My boss and the HR guy were staying in tents. Not somewhere you want to be when bullets are being shot up into the air!

Now this hotel had very good security – several guards on duty at all times. One of these guards happened to be stationed almost directly under my window (the building only had one story). I heard him audibly stretch, very loudly hock a loogey, spit, scrape his plastic chair across the concrete as he stood up, heard the metallic click of his AK-47 being cocked, and then he joined into the firing. Don’t worry it was away from the building of course! But damn, was that thing LOUD!!! There are basically no furnishings in the hotel building, just concrete, wrought iron window bars, and glass in the windows. The guard firing right next to the room made a very loud BOOM echoing around the room and it felt like everything rattled – nothing to absorb the noise.

At this point only about 5 minutes had gone by since the first gunshots. It dawned on me that what goes up must come down. I looked over at my window, realized my bed was directly under it on the other side of the room

(please refer to this incredibly high quality rendering of the floor plan to my room), decided that was not a very prudent place to stay should a stray bullet come through the window, and crawled out of bed over behind this weird outcropping that will one day house a bathroom (had not been installed yet – everyone still was sharing pit latrines) and made myself comfortable.

That’s when I realized I had to pee.

Seriously, that timing was SO BAD!

About 15 minutes passed, just sitting there, waiting. The gunfire began to taper off. It was then I realized that I had a video camera in my bag. We were doing a mini-documentary about the distribution, and the consultant we hired gave all the staff in the field digital camcorders to document some of what went on. So I crawled over around the outcropping, grabbed my bag, and turned on the camera. All you can see is the window, but you can definitely hear the gunfire. There is not much of it left, but still. Unfortunately I no longer have access to the footage, but I will definitely try to get a copy, at least for posterity.

Storytelling: God of Rain

***I am going to start posting a series of stories. Some stories are mine, and some stories belong to others. I leave it up to all of you to decide which ones are which. And no, judging whether the story is written in 1st or 3rd person will not help you!***

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22 kilometers off the main road from the town of Kapoeta in the South East of Southern Sudan a charity organization based in this small village was very excited at the prospect of setting up their new generator. It had been 1 year of operations without electricity in that location, with the mainly Kenyan staff driving the 1 hour each way it takes down the bumpy road to Kapoeta several times a week to check and send emails.

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As a side note, and completely unrelated to this story (or maybe not???), this is a region where use of clothing is alternative at best and optional to say the least. Unmarried women are bare-chested and married women tie a piece of cloth over one shoulder, exposing only their right breast. It is completely common for men to wear no clothing at all, and if they do wear anything, it is only a shirt. This village Chief, for example, favors wearing nothing but a suit jacket. In meetings with him you have to sit and manage to have a serious conversation about the future of your program all the while looking him in the eye and keeping a straight face and trying not to visibly react when his 1 year old grandson crawls under his legs, looks up, and STARTS PLAYING WITH THE CHIEF'S ROD AND TACKLE with no reaction whatsoever from the Chief himself. Not even a glance in the direction of the grandson. If that is not a trial in self control I don't know what is.

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Finally the anticipated day arrived and the generator was installed, hooked up, and turned on. BRRRRRRRRRUP BRRRRRUP BRRRRUP BRRUP BRRUP BRRUP BRRUP BRRUP went the generator, and after the cheers of job from the staff all hell broke loose. Villagers came running in from every direction totally freaking out, shouting "Shut it off! Shut it off!" very visibly distressed. Two things were the matter. One, no one in that village had ever heard the sound of a generator before and did not know what it was. Second, all the shouting villagers were gathering around one tree in the compound. It turns out that the piece of land given to the organization by the village Chief to build the compound happened to be the location of the one sacred tree where the village's God of Rain lived. Coincidentally the generator house was located right next to the God of Rain's Tree and when turned on, all the people were convinced the noise would anger the God of Rain and bring death and destruction to the village. Why was this organization never told they were the protectors of the God of Rain? No way to tell.

Three months later the solar panels arrived, and weeds had begun growing around the generator.

Jonglei - and more pictures!

On my recent trip up to Jonglei State we stopped at one of the cattle camps by the Nile to take pictures and attempt talk to people. There are thousands of cows at these camps sprinkled throughout Southern Sudan.

The people there were great and all the men, one by one, lined up to have their photos taken with their chosen cow. Not their wives, mind you, but their cows. I really should have invested in a polaroid camera so I could leave the people with something! Imagine seeing a picture of yourself for the very first time on a digital camera, and then having it taken away.

In addition, people take ash from burning cattle dung and rub it all over themselves and the cows to keep away insects.

It turns a greyish color on the skin.

The smell is intense to say the very least. However, it was very strange when I stepped with my Crocs (yes, I wear Crocs here. Screw you if you think they're dorky.) directly into a lovely concoction of cow shit and mud. I let it go for a bit, but then before climbing back into the vehicle spent a few minutes scraping the muck off my feet and leg. Of course there were quite a few people standing around the vehicle at that point, curious at the Khawajas, and when I looked up at one point I just thought, "Huh. These people are watching me carefully scrape this stuff off of me while they go out of their way to purposefully rub it onto themselves."

It's so interesting to see the differences across the different regions of this country. How the houses (tukuls) look,

the scenery, the people, the churches,

and yes, even the cows. The large structure on the left of the photo is the house for the cows and the one on the right is for the goats. The people sleep either outside or in a small hut out back. Shows you where people's values lie!

Driving back after the cattle camp we came across millions of cows being driven up the main road. I'm telling you, there were millions! The governor of Central Equitoria state told everyone tending cattle in his state to move to Jonglei, where there is tons more room, and it is where their part of the Dinka tribe is from. So there was a mass migration north, making our 5 hour drive actually take 6.

There was a separate migration once we got closer to Juba - the Mundari tribe was moving their cattle north from Juba to Terekeka County (still in Central Equitoria State). When we passed the herds of Dinka cattle they were very orderly and well behaved. The Mundari cattle, on the other hand, were all over the place! Wandering off the road, stopping in front of the vehicle and refusing to move, and just being ornery. Maybe they missed their breakfast that morning.

Picture Post 1: Faces

Wau is Wow!

Earlier this week I spent 3 days setting up a new program in the "city" of Wau which is the capital of Western Bar El Ghazal state. Bar El Ghazal means "river of the gazelle" - pretty, no? Below are some pictures from the trip.

I have to say, it is pretty disconcerting when your plane is about to land and you can see two crashed planes just next to the dirt airstrip...

Wau was one of the last places to be handed over to the Government of Southern Sudan after the signing of the CPA. There are more arabs in Wau and people speak and read Arabic (rather than Juba Arabic which is a mixture of arabic and bari, one of the local languages, and is spoken throughout the rest of the south). Most of people who fled during the war from Wau went to Khartoum rather than Uganda or Kenya, and most of the returnees are therefore from Khartoum.

Joint Integrated Unit gate (JIU is the combined army division with personnel and commanders from both the north's army and the SPLA).

Crashed Iraqi Airlines plane a little farther away from the airport

People who saw me taking pictures and wanted their picture taken. All three of them were smiling, joking, and very happy, but when i was going to actually take the picture they straightened up and put a very stern look on their faces. Normal in Southern Sudan because people think it seems more formal. Don't know if you can see it, but the man has the v-shaped markings of his tribe scarred on his forehead.

Cows being hearded across the bridge from the Eastern Bank of the river Jur into Wau town.

Brickmaking on the banks of the river Jur - doesn't it look like they're building pyramids?

View from Wau River Lodge where I stayed

In Juba, most of the fences around people's property are made of bamboo. In Wau, bamboo is not widely available, so people weave fences out of grass.

Random sculpture of an ear of corn at one of the roundabouts in town

Such a positive and inspirational message, no?

Instead of boda bodas (motorbikes), Wau has rickshaws (pronounced "rakshas") which are really the same tuk tuks you find in India. There are swarms of them all over the place!

All in all Wau was fantastic, and was a nice break from Juba. It's great to get out in the field and get your hands dirty (literally - the place is covered in dust!)

Gotta love the rainy season

Here are some pics from my recent trip to Mundri. More specifically, the road between Mundri and Juba after it had rained overnight. Fun fun! As you can see the roads are seriously messed up. At one point our vehicle had to be pulled out of the mud by a crane (!!!) Plus there was gorgeous scenery along the way. And we bought some freshly-collected honey.

The trip itself went ok, it was just for two days so nothing too hard core. I went there with one of our donors to assess the VCT services provided by another organization to see if we can potentially support their work to expand services. What was there on the ground was appalling. Worse than Tambura. This org claimed to run 4 VCT sites, but upon further inquiry we found that one site was closed because they had no counselor to work there, one was closed because the roof had blown off the structure back in March 2008, and a third site was actually funded and run by another organization - this org just does supervision to the counselor. So they really only have functional operations in one place. Not to mention that they brought us to the site that was run by the other org as one of "their" sites. There were test kits which had expired in 2007, a sharps container that did not contain disinfectant, no confidential filing system, and it goes on and on and on. And that site was even closed because the counselor was away for the past 3 weeks for training! Their compound was literally built on top of an anthill so there were ants EVERYWHERE (outside, in the mess area, etc), their generator had blown up so there was no electricity, both their vehicles were grounded pending repairs, and all 4 of their motorbikes were also not functioning. Plus the entire 2 days we were there I didn't see them actually doing any work. It's like they just sit around and let their clinics run themselves. If you ever hear me complaining about Juba again, just remind me of the fact that I work for an organization that is able to get things done, whether it is running programs or fixing vehicles, I don't live on an anthill, and I work for a boss who actually provides support to the org instead of sitting around doing nothing.

Updates

Thought I would give some updates on my most recent blog posts. In no particular order:

1. After all the tension over the ICC announcement, it is back to business as usual here in Juba. The UN and US Embassy have restored pre-announcement security levels (although Darfur is still level IV), and everyone acknowledges that the news of whether or not Bashir is actually indicted will not come for some months. So you can all stop worrying :)

2. In response to the whole ban on women wearing pants fiasco in Yei, the issue was taken up by a UN Agency at the higher level with the Government and found to be a local order initiated by the County Councillors in Yei. Police have been asked by Higher Government Authorities to withdraw that order immediately. And here is a picture of me with the same County Commissioner (far left in the brown suit) who gave the order. This was taken at the event presenting certificates to our trainees marking the beginning of services to people living with HIV. So he wants to be seen as supportive of PLWHA, as long as women don't wear pants. I would like to point out that I am wearing pants in this picture. Ha! The following are some more pics from Nimule and Tambura including: me trying to get satelite phone reception standing on the back of one of our vehicles, and my FAVORITE picture of the trip of this woman eating an apple.

3. Simba is doing better, although is still sick. But his wanker boss tried to get him to come back to Juba for a week to train his fill-in because his boss felt like taking an impromptu holiday in the UK. Simba refused, because, um, HE'S STILL SICK, but agreed to come for one day (in Friday, out Saturday) as long as the company paid for my plane ticket to come back with him to Nairobi for 2 days. Booyah! Civilization, here I come! It is completely the opposite of cost effective for them, but whatever. I'm not complaining.

4. My face is doing much better - the burns have gone down significantly, and now it just looks like I am recovering from a rather unfortunate bout of post-pubescent acne. Not that I ever had any during that time. Seriously! I was pretty lucky.

5. A few weeks ago, I had a gchat conversation with Beatrice and Beatrice, and happened to casually mention that I had eaten flying ants for lunch. Since it was the start of the rainy season it was the time when the flying termites/ants come out. These are also considered a delicacy. Beatrice proceeded to flip out, with comments like "Petunia. We have EVOLVED. You don't need to eat INSECTS." I was highly amused by this whole conversation (unfortunately I didn't have the program set to save the conversations, so I can't post it in its entirety here). But here is a picture of a plate of these tasty creatures (which happen to taste like duck pate, by the way).

Yei for Free Rice

Yei is a town about xx kilometers southwest of Juba, and it is absolutely beautiful. The rains started there long before they started here (speaking of rains, they are very slow this year in coming to Juba!), so everything is lush and green. The dirt airstrip was so small that you can't even see it properly from looking out of the side of the airplane, so it is a bit disconcerting when you are decending what seems to be directly into the jungle. Highlights of the trip included feeding a lolipop to a pet monkey named Max, finally getting to walk around instead of being driven around in a land cruiser, actually having a fabulous night's sleep because it is cool enough, and learning that if you crush the leaves of a teak tree, it produces a red dye that you can use as nail polish.

On the drive back to Juba we passed the first primary school built in Southern Sudan, the place where the late John Garang went to school. It didn't even look that old. It's crazy to think that schools are considered a modern invention here in Sudan.

I saw Salva Kiir this morning, the President of Southern Sudan driving by us on the way to a meeting at the Ministries - his caravan is only a few cars long, and although he has bodyguards that hang out the otherwise tinted windows of the SUVs, he keeps his own window open and his trademark hat on so that he can wave to people. So you can literally see the President, not just the motorcade, when he passes. Given the history of the country I personally would be crouched down in a ball on the floor, but you have to give the man props.

Right after seeing the Prez, I got a call that Simba had to be flown to Nairobi to go to the hospital. He has typhoid for sure (two tests came back positive), but there's something else wrong as well because he had a killer headache and fever that wouldn't go away. So off he goes for a week in Nairobi to rest with his family. I have to admit I'm just a little bit jealous :)

My mom sent me this link - www.freerice.com - where you can play a multiple choice vocabulary game and for every word you get right the sponsors of the website donate free rice to the UN World Food Program. Pretty cool!

Travel and Iodized Salt consumption

Today the first ever Sudan Household Health Survey report was officially launched - this is the first research study of its kind encompasing all of Sudan since 1983. While the statistics were staggeringly horrible (the only health indicator that is stronger in the South than in the North is iodized salt consumption), the launch event itself was absolutely hilarious. Keep in mind that this was a high-level, Ministry of Health/Government event which was attended by the Vice President of Southern Sudan, Ministries, consulates, UN officials, NGOs, etc.

In the echoey main hall of the Beijing Juba Hotel, the dissemination started with a reception where printouts of graphs showing the indicators by state with labels hand-drawn in red marker were taped to the walls . Local artist John Junub lip-synched songs he had written with themes drawn from the health indicators being presented while 5 men in work attire plus one kid in a torn t-shirt danced on the stage next to him.

The ceremony started with a procession by all the VIPs. The opening remarks were all "Your Excellency" this, and "Your Excellency" that, and then the MC asked all the VIPs, who up until this point were all sitting at a panelist table facing the audience, to move chairs into the audience so they could see the Power Point Presentation that was prepared. At which time 2 chinese men hastily hoised up a white bedsheet with lengths of blue wire, which then hung lopsidedly between two pillars. A Power Point Presentation graced with cheezy clip art projected on the sheet which awkwardly billowed from the air of the ceiling fans. Awesome.

But in all seriousness, it is fabulous that this report is out, because now we can base our program design on solid reseach and hopefully measure progress, i.e. whether or not the work we are doing is effective compared to the data in this baseline.

The normal questions that you get asked every day by every expat you meet here in Juba have recently changed! The famous list of 3, which you cannot have a conversation without either asking or being asked,

1. Where are you from?

2. Who do you work for?

3. How long are you going to be in Juba?

has been replaced with simply "When are you leaving for the holidays?"

And when am I leaving for the holdiays? TOMORROW!!!!! Booyah. Nairobi tomorrow where I get to see the boy (he's from Nairobi originally), flight to London Thursday, and back in NY on Friday. Where I will go almost immediately to see Stefan, the hairdresser extroardinaire (my Mom has been getting her hair done there since I was 10. It's a family legacy at this point). Can you tell that I'm excited?

For those of you who care, here is my schedule for the next few weeks so you can make your holiday plans. Because the world does revolve around me, after all (j/k!):

12/21-22: NYC

12/22-23: Reading, PA (holiday party with 80 of my closest relatives)

12/24-12/30: Pawling NY & NYC

12/30-1/1: Washington, DC

1/1-1/8: Santiago, Chile (for Katina and Renzo's wedding - can't wait!!!)

1/9-1/10: Nairobi

1/10: Juba

And with that, I will say bon voyage and leave you with some pictures. And the jealousy of realizing how many frequent flyer miles I will accumulate over the next 3 weeks.

1. Normal road conditions in Juba
2. Road between Juba and Torit Junction (notice the rusty vehicle on the right - landmine casualty)3. SPLA Soldier stationed in Juba
4. Barracks (village) where SPLA soldiers are stationed at Torit Junction.

5. Nuer man at Torit Junction

Peace

Petunia