I finally boarded a plane to begin the rather long journey to S. Sudan. On the first day I went as far as Loki which is on the Kenyan and S. Sudanese border. Loki was once just a small town but that was a long time ago. It has since become a stop-over for aid workers and a storage place for WFP and other UN agencies. That’s pretty much all you see.
I stayed in Afex there which was really nice, pretty much like a safari camp for those of you that have experienced such. Some aid workers live there and some just pass through. We have a couple of staff there and a small office. There are two other Afex camps, one is UN and the other is Red Cross maybe; can’t remember. Regardless, my safari tent had its own bathroom (nicely tiled and built of stone) with a real shower, power to plug in my computer, a fan, etc.
The next morning, about 6:00, I went to the airport via taxi (kind of funny given the environment) along with a couple of air crew. I then boarded a WFP airplane, piloted by an Australian (?) pilot I met the evening prior at Afex and we headed for Juba.
At Juba I was told my flight to Rubkona was cancelled. What to do? With no Sat phone and no plan b I went on to Rumbek, where I was supposed to change planes, in the hopes that it would all just work out somehow. I arrived in Rumbek and, again, it’s pretty much just a humanitarian airstrip, only UN planes, and went to the office. They had already been in touch with Mercy Corps about the change and I was told to go to Afex and wait until Monday (it was Saturday).
As I settled in for a nice nap, in my tent (not nearly as nice as the last one), one of the staff came to tell me I had visitors from IRC. Surprise, surprise; who knew I had friends in Sudan? I met four young guys at the bar (how often does that happen) who were sent by Beth to see how I was. When she heard I was stuck she called them. They are our partners in the LINCS project, the project I am working on.
On Sunday they picked my up and took me to the office. I hung out, ate lunch, checked my email and then we went to a party. They were roasting a goat and celebrating with a colleague who was heading back to Nairobi. I became a vegetarian that day although I did drink a beer. I also met Esther from Guyana who just started working on this project too. All-in-all, it was a good day; met lots of people, made a speech, and had fun.
Monday morning finally came and I lugged my bags the 100 yards to the airstrip only to find that my flight was cancelled again. This time we don’t know why. It hadn’t rained. But that’s just how it is. I waited around a bit and another flight came in from Juba on which TJ arrived, another Mercy Corps staff who I met in Nairobi. With him was Nyanchol, one of our community based trainers and Richard, our mission director. Finally, I boarded a small WFP plane (Cessna Caravan) and we took off for Wunrok.
In Wunrok we have an office and I was able to check my email briefly and eat lunch quickly before a driver arrived to take us the last few miles. Leaving Wunrok was a bizarre experience. The driver heads out on a track that pretty much just turned to nothing. I kept expecting a road to appear somewhere but it never did. We just drove through the grass and an occasional track and the MUD! Actually, it wasn’t that bad, we didn’t have to kick in the 4-wheel drive until we arrived at our own driveway where we promptly got stuck. It hadn’t rained in a few days.
Anyway, we arrive in Jol Juk which is where my new home is. I use the term driveway loosely. There really was just a muddy area that clearly people had used before us. This place is one big marshland. There is water everywhere. Rainy season is something else here. It’s also beautiful right now. Everything is green. I say everything but there isn’t much. There is grass, tress dotted along a few yards, cows, goats, tukuls (mud huts), and a few people here and there. That’s it; no joke. The entire drive there were little, tiny, miniscule villages (maybe 3) and we drove for 3 hours.
Our compound is pretty big; it was built by GOAL, another NGO that has since moved out. We’ve got 4 big safari tents, and office structure, and several tukuls. We have trees and about a million frogs that croak all night.
I wish I could describe the rain and mud and do it some justice but I don’t think it’s possible. You cannot imagine unless you’ve experienced this. The first night it started thundering and lightening; the ground shook and it was bright outside for hours. It rained, it poured, it came down in sheets, for hours, at least 6 but probably more. It rained until noon the next day. When I stepped out on my porch, (I am very grateful for cement right now), I realized why I had been issued a pair of gum-boots. The mud was inches deep if you were lucky and if not so lucky, it was just a huge puddle. It’s like walking on ice but sinking at the same time. I am now sitting in the office wondering when I can make a break for the tent and the latrine. It started raining again about an hour ago and it will not stop any time soon. The thunder rolls and the lightening flashes, it is impressive on a massive scale.
But, this means that tomorrow we may or may not be able to get out, even on the quad. The Land Rover will not get through the “driveway” and will have to be parked on the road (not such a good option). Even with gum-boots I won’t be able to navigate the swamp so we shall see what tomorrow brings, tomorrow.
Now the food, well, many of you heard that I was warned my diet would be rice and lentils. There is more variety than that, but not much. Macaroni and spaghetti are common too. And tinned tuna cooked in some bizarre fashion with all the oil. I feed it to our cat and her kittens. They always cook meat but I am now a vegetarian for very good reason. So, I eat dehydrated green things when they fix it, noodles, rice, beans, and on a really good day, chapatti. In the store we sometimes have Laughing Cow too. So glad I brought all those granola bars and peanuts.
Bugs and things; yup, we have a ton. Tons of snakes in the rainy season and tons of scorpions in the dry season. Huge beetle bugs that of course freak me out. Last night, it wasn’t raining, and the porcupines were out. They are so cute and roll up in a ball if they are scared. Johnny (one of our engineers) touched it with a stick to show me. He says they live in his tukul and he keeps them because the snakes stay away. I think I’ll adopt some. You never go anywhere without a light because you might step on a snake and you always check the latrine and shower before stepping in. I don’t want to learn the hard way because there is no anti-venom here. And we have these huge flying ants that loose there wings everywhere. Apparently they are quite a delicacy in Uganda. Fortunately, not here so I won’t have to try them. Oh, and frogs, thousands of frogs. Millions of frogs. They croak all night long but admittedly, there are no other sounds, except the thunder. It’s quiet here once we shut of the generator. Very quiet. Given that not so long ago this was a war-zone, that’s a good thing.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment