These five flags represent the five countries we have lived and worked in over the past ten years.
We are just starting to settle in here in Juba; it is good to have a home again with all our belongings, after an unsettling period of uncertainty in Kenya.
We find ourselves living on a secure compound, shared between MAF and another charity called World Relief.
Behind tall metal gates lies the MAF base for South Sudan, complete with pre-fab offices, car-park and a residential compound.
Here are a few pictures...
Our house is lovely and new! It was completed only last year, with the aim of housing a staff family for MAF. It is fun having a recently built house, complete with the wonderful invention of air conditioning units! What a bonus in this hot and sultry land! It also comes with plenty of security, with bars and security gates and panic-buttons for emergency situations that we hope will not arise, but that we have have to be prepared for. I still have not worked out all the different keys for the all the different locks! That is on my to-do list for this week!
Outside the front door, I was delighted to discover the beautiful flowers pictured below! It was a welcome sight on our arrival here almost two weeks ago. I did not expect to see such colourful blooms in such a hot place, but in this rainy season, I am seeing that Juba is incredibly green and fertile. These pretty flowers were planted by the previous occupants of our home. I hope I remember to water them enough, as I love this splash of colour by my front door!
On coming out of the house, it is a short walk down the garden path, past our next-door neighbour's house and up to this bamboo fence, to enter the MAF car park and office area:
Turning away from the car park, there are a set of metal gates to pass through, which lead into the main section of the compound...
...where an oasis awaits! This green, shady area is a welcome relief from the hot sun and the dusty, busy streets outside of the compound gates. In addition, it provides us with a great place for the children to play...
Today, we had a team photo of the MAF South Sudan International staff who reside with us on this compound:
The place looks pretty good. It looks kind of similar to the Dodoma compound in some ways based on the photos you have posted, although I guess this might just be because the pictures cover similar things - like a house, a play area, a parking area ... and based on the team photo, a number of families with kids :)
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ReplyDeleteWell your experience of living in St Leonards vicarage might have set you up for some security know how. Yes the house and compound do look very inviting and similar in some ways to Dodoma as Tim commented. We were trying to pick out the de Waal family. I think we found them ok. Someone from St Johns commented on the metal compound gates and also hopes you will turn your blogs into a book x nana
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