The GEE Residence

The residence was completed at the end of September at which point I happily moved out of communal compound living.The move wasn't without its discomforts, however. For the first 4 weeks we had major problems with power - the generator broke and the city power which had just arrived to our part of town was off and on, mostly off. I threw out so much spoiled food in the first 2 weeks that I gave up grocery shopping for next next few weeks, instead dropping a load of cash (meals in Juba cost easily $20 - 40 per meal) at nearby restaurants. I also had some challenges with the water - it took a bit to get a system down for when city water would arrive, when to open the valves, when to pump water from the lower tank (connected to the city water) through the filter and into the upper tank (which feeds into the house). There was also the issue of the guards. One night I came home and couldn't get beyond the front gate because the guard wasn't responding. Fortunately the security hotline was quick to respond and deal with the guard who was actually drunk on the job. Now the guard thing is sorted, though my favorite guard has malaria and yellow fever and hasn't been at work for weeks! There was also the problem of the locks. Sudanese locks are pretty low quality - they will just decide to freeze up on you and there is no getting in. The residence has 2 exterior doors and one door has had the locks freeze twice and the other froze once. There was one evening I couldn't get into the house because both doors had frozen locks. It was dark out, and the city power and generator were both not working. I called a colleague who ended up climbing through my window which, fortunately, I had forgotten to close in the morning while trying to dress in the semi-darkness. Now the locks are sorted out...we have padlocks and they work great! The final challenge was the Internet which wasn't working (part of the reason why my blog is so far behind!) But it seems to be working, unless there is sever thunderstorm, as does the satellite TV. Here is a photo of our livingroom. The furniture is very comfortable, though outrageously expensive (about twice what we should have paid. Welcome to the Juba economy!) But it was either that or plastic chairs and I decided to be high maintenance after going for a month with nothing to sit on. I lost out on the cute throw pillows (maybe I can get some in Nairobi). You may notice a gawdy pink foam pillow - you'll see a close up in a subsequent post - that's the closest I've gotten so far to my "splash of color."

Here is my housemate and our dinning area. We inherited the cheap pink plates, which will be replaced as soon as one of us gets to Nairobi again. . Here is my room. My only complaint is that the bedposts lean because the carpenters were in too great of a rush to put the bed together and didn't let the wood dry properly. They still hold up the mosquito net so I shouldn't complain too much. It's just hard to see things *almost* done well

 Finally, here is my bathroom. Notice the missing shower curtain...the Sudanese don't seem to do shower curtains.

Church in Juba

On November 29, 2009 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints organized its first branch in Sudan. The Juba Branch will be led by President Charles Lott, with Brother Levi as First Counselor and Brother Ismael as clerk. Other positions will be filled over the course of the next few weeks/months. Above is a picture of the members and friends of the church in attendance.  Below are a few pictures of previous church group meetings.

Thanksgiving

Most of the staff are traveling this week and next, but those in Juba were invited to their first Thanksgiving feast. In order to ensure they enjoyed the holiday meal, I asked the cook to make Sudanese food. It didn't seem fair to torture them with unknown things like turkey, cranberries, stuffing, and pumpkin pie...not that ANY of those things were available. DRAT! Thanksgiving dinner is my favorite meal of all times and I missed it!

To my delight(?) the menu included kisra (spongy flatbread made of fermented sorghum batter, much like injera, for those of you familiar with Ethiopian food) and okra soup, which, for lack of a better analogy, is the look and consistency of snot. The kisra is the crepe looking item in the food picture. I unfortunately didn't think to remove the covers before taking a photo!

Here are some pictures of the staff enjoying the food. I was kind and didn't make anyone dress up like a pilgrim, indian, or turkey. One staff member insisted that we pray, since this holiday was to give thanks to God for our blessings. So I was voted to say the blessing.

Fletcher Alumns in Juba

As follow up to a previous post where I mentioned how interesting people are always popping up in Sudan, here is a photo of me with a fellow Fletcher alumn who works for the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance based out of Europe/Khartoum. We got linked up through the Flether Women's Network, met for dinner, et voila! a new link forged in the Fletcher network (mafia).

 Not quite sure about the UFO in the background...

The Sky is Falling!

                           

Here is a photo of some of the staff of my project, the Gender Equity through Education (GEE) Program in front of the GEE office. (No, I don't wear that same shirt everyday!)

And then here are some photos from the staff work plan meeting we had in October. Due to the delay in funding from our donor we had no money to rent a location so we had the meeting Africa - style, meaning under the mango trees at the residence (i.e. my house). Fortunately it wasn't mango season yet because apparently you can get a concussion being hit by a mango, and I'd believe it after hearing mangoes dropping onto our corrugated metal roof over the past few weeks now that mango season has begun in earnest.

In the back you can see my new house and the security guard sitting by the water tank. I swear the guy is only about 16 years old!

An enterprising staff member rigged a flipchart stand from an old wire hooked onto the security razor wire atop the wall. (Incidentally, this is the same staff member who sent me the outfit from Malakal, which, to her horror was tied wrong in my photo in an earlier post.) Having previoulsy worked at NGOs with a strong training focus, I was caught unawares that the project didn't own a flipchart stand - let alone have a training room! Despite our humble facilities the meeting was very productive.

Lazy Blogger

I can't believe it's been nearly 2 months since my last post. What a slacker! Though, to be fair, October was filled with a lifetime of meetings, writing the project annual report, revising staff contracts, a week of R&R in Nairobi, and I don't know what else! Despite all the work, I did find time to have some fun. Here is a photo of me and some of my Winrock coworkers at De Havanas, a restaurant/bar/nightclub in Juba.

One of the most difficult things about Juba, or Southern Sudan in general, is that there is little to do beyond going out to eat - and that gets horribly expensive. And everyone seems to drink and smoke an aweful lot...though some claim that the alcohol kills stomach parasites and smoke scares off mosquitoes, which could be true! A good thing, though, is that there is always plenty of time to talk and every person here has a fascinating story to tell which they are typically more than happy to share. At the risk of sounding like a looser, I'll admit that I have a greater variety of friends here in Juba than I had in Washington, DC. And on the whole I have gone out more often and had more rewarding interactions with people here in the past 4 months than I did in my 1.5 years in DC. I think the difference here is that everyone is a little lonely and eager for social interaction. Anytime anyone I even remotely know comes through Juba, we go out for dinner, usually with a good size group of people that we collect along the way. Any/everyone is invited to any/every event. "The more the merrier" truly applies here. We are each others' social network and family!