our cooks was taught by Michelle, our intern, to fix “macaroni tuna” with canned cheese and Blue Band (margarine). Add a Coke and you’re set! I’ve never had a diet this bad.One week in and I’ve nearly given up many things. I can’t quite let go of my deodorant although it makes absolutely no difference. I’m hot and sticky all the time so there isn’t much point but I just can’t let go. I have given up brushing my hair most days, it’s too much work and nobody can tell the difference. My feet are clean for 2 seconds when I get out of the open-air shower we have. I am covered, covered in bites of some kind. I don’t think they are mosquito bites but who knows. I’m pretty sure I got them when I traversed our swamp to get to the Land Rover.
We have to park on the road across the swamp because everything gets stuck now. Even our quad bike got stuck today. If only I could send some of this water to California!!
We’ve had a fair amount of excitement in the last several days. There are a lot of changes taking place and people are moving around. Shortly after I arrived, Richard (mission director), JD (former program officer for TARGET), and Chris (new program manager for TARGET) arrived in Juol Jok. All of the LINCS (my program) staff arrived at the same time and we had 20 people in the compound. On Saturday we hosted a big party in Abyei town (technically in the north) for the opening of our resource center. We had the Abyei Jazz Band (damn good), a drama troop, roasted goats and lots of speeches. It was very successful. That evening we transported the band along with three Land Cruisers full of people to another town of which I don’t know the name. I’m not sure it’s really a town, although I’m sure it has a name, but it’s a market that the TARGET program helped electrify. The band set up, we toured the market, and then had another party. This one we didn’t host but it was to honor us. Who knew? I thought we were staying for 10 minutes to see the lights. We had more speeches and more dancing before heading back to camp where we all collapsed of exhaustion after a beer and the chasing of a cow. But that’s another story.
OK, this is a short one because there are bugs eating me alive here. I have to shut down the light.
