Living in a "Micro World"

In Juba, the day to day world in which I now live has become quite narrow. It can feel like I live in a micro-world! On a "normal" weekday, I have little reason to leave the compound. Apart from the occasional walk to the nearby shops or the local cafe to get "chapati", or to a restaurant with the MAF team, I am mostly at home or somewhere on the compound, like the playground or perhaps visiting a neighbour.
This means that I hardly take any exercise- so it is back to the home-videos with Rosemary Conley for my Saturday morning exercise class!

Rosemary and her fitness companions leap into life on the screen in our lounge and I try to keep up with the work-out:

I know I look ridiculous prancing around all by myself, with the children laughing at their daft mum! I look even more silly when I pick up my "weights" to join in the lifting and toning section of Rosemary's video, with these state-of-the-art weights: (!!)

 By 09:15am, my "class" is nearly over, but even with all the ceiling fans blowing at full pelt and the air-conditioning blasting, it is very hard to cool down in Juba. I have never, ever sweated as much as I have since we got to Juba, so doing these exercise classes, even early in the morning. feels like impossibly hot work! It must be good for me! It must be worth it!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have actually had more reasons to exit the metal gates of our compound and expand my micro-world...

MAF Day of Prayer
Last Wednesday, we had our MAF day of Prayer.
All staff attended a workshop-style event to learn more about the partners who use and fly with MAF. It was also a day to take time out to pray for these organisations and for the 30 different MAF programmes situated around the world. The venue for this day out was at the "Dembesh" hotel, about 10 minutes walk from our compound.

I found it particularly interesting hearing about the amazing work of Medair (http://relief.medair.org/)
Their speaker, Wendy, explained about the incredible work they do bringing practical medical assistance and leading nutrition programmes for people who desperately need it in this country. They regularly fly to their work locations with MAF, so they are an important partner for MAF in South Sudan.
It was very moving as Wendy showed us photographic examples of children who have been near starvation and then pictures of the tangible difference that the nutrition programmes can bring to restore health and life to the most weak and vulnerable of children.
Wendy explained that the pictures were being used because the mothers of the children specifically asked her to "show the world what is going on in our country" and how much the help is needed.

When she finished talking, one of our national staff members stood up and took the microphone to pray for the work of Medair. He said that listening to Wendy and seeing her photos was "emotional" for him,as he had watched his own younger brother die through lack of food. It was a sobering moment:

However, we also saw that he people of South Sudan certainly love music and dancing! There were times for local music and singing; everyone joined in enthusiastically!

When the subject matter got heavy and the adults needed time to be quieter, I took the kids to play in the hotel's pool. We all had so much fun in the pool, which we had all to ourselves!

A new MAF compound
Another outing a few days later was to visit the proposed site of a new MAF compound. This should be developed in Juba over the next year. The staff team here is growing and that brings a need for new housing.
I climbed into a MAF vehicle with some visitors from overseas MAF offices and we all headed out to see the plot, about 20 minutes drive from our current compound. At the moment, the site is just bush!

 It was fun to explore it and hear the architect explain how it will all be developed

Just outside the boundary lines on one side, there are a few local houses:

 A couple of house are also within the boundary lines and the current landlord will have to provide alternative housing for the tenants before any building can commence. Their  traditional "tukul" home, seen here, looks so picturesque, but the standard of living it provides is very basic. We went over to meet the tenants who live there, but it was a little awkward- partly because of the language barrier (my Arabic lessons were not sufficient for conversation!!) and partly because of the circumstances, as the purchase of this land means a new location for this family.

Visitors
Aside from getting out of the compound recently, there has been the novelty of visitors to bring a bit of refreshment- and some much-appreciated chocolate (!!) - from the outside world into my micro-world! Last weekend, we enjoyed meeting the visitors from the UK and Oz MAF offices and after a staff pizza evening at the compound garden area, we hosted a movie evening in our home.

 I just had to take this photo as our guests arrived: this is definitely the way you know you have visitors in Africa: all the shoes at the front door!

Celebrating British traditions thousands of miles from the homeland!
It was also fun marking Bonfire Night on Wednesday evenning! The Brits here are few and far between, but one suggested a bonfire in honour of November 5th, so we lit the fire just after dark, (around 7pm) at the edge of the compound:

There were no fireworks, but we enjoyed a few home-baked biscuits! 

It was a good opportunity to share a bit of English history with the children. And a good way to remember traditions from a place which sometimes seems like a million miles away from our life here, but is still a part of our history and culture, even within the smaller environment of life on a compound in South Sudan!