A Day in Juba

What can a "normal" day look like in my little world on the MAF compound in South Sudan?

I decided to try and document a working day, as I look back on today so far. It is now 4pm, so I will try to catch up on the blog before I get too busy to sit anywhere near a computer...

"But what about the children?" I hear you ask. "How are you managing to get a few minutes away??"

Well, I am a little embarrassed to admit it, BUT I have resorted to the easy way out. I have allowed  our live-in ”baby-sitter” to entertain them- a babysitter commonly known as Mr. DVD! So all 3 children are now watching “Shaun The Sheep” in the lounge. They seem to be enjoying every minute, judging by the happy giggles filtering through the door to the school room, where I am typing this as fast as I can! We don’t have a TV, but Andrew has mounted a projector high on our wall so that they can watch DVDs on the blank wall facing the sofas.

So here is a rough breakdown of a Day in the Life…

6am- Andrew’s alarm goes off.

 I wake from a groggy dream where I was climbing a wooden fence in a South Sudanese cattle camp, frantically trying to get away from an enormous African cow with dangerous looking horns! As my brain starts to engage with the real world, I become aware of the wailing sounds from a nearby mosque. The low baritone of the call to prayer is distorted in our room so that it sounds like the lowing of cows- maybe that was the cause of my bizarre dream! 

The heat of Juba in this hot season also lends itself to fretful nights and strange dreams, so I am thankful that it is morning!

I take around 15 minutes to fully wake up, but Andrew is already downstairs, getting ready to leave soon to go to the airport. He leaves every day around 7am.

06:45- Now I am up and have fed the boys their breakfasts. They are early risers and were up just before Andrew. 

Today, they have a treat for breakfast: Honey Loops!  Andrew bought this tasty treat in Nairobi last week when he went for a routine flight test. Honey Loops makes a nice change from the Weetabix that we normally eat. A friend sends up the Weetabix from Uganda on the MAF flights. To buy breakfast cereal here would be absurd: a 450g box of Weetabix would cost £15.

I don’t even like Weetabix!! But we eat it here, as there so few choices for breakfast. I did see mueseli here, but it cost around £8 a bag: there is a limit to what I will pay! So we settle for Weetabix , the easiest thing to get hold of via friends, from Kampala or Nairobi.

Another choice would be porridge, but it feels too hot already at 30'C downstairs. I don't want to start the day making a hot breakfast in a warm kitchen! 

7am- 8am: Andrew has gone to the airport. Esther and I eat breakfast. Esther: Honey Loops. Me: Weetabix!
The boys get dressed. Then I dress Joel again.
"You don't need 3 pairs of shorts on top of each other, Joel," I explain, as I help him to re-dress (!!).
The boys go outside to play in the MAF play-ground. 

I start a loaf of bread in our bread-making machine, put on the 1^st load of washing and sort out Joel’s snack-box for school.
The boys come back. They are hungry again. They have a second breakfast, but this time it is Weetabix!

 I order some fruit and veg from a local market dealer, by text message. He will bring the fresh produce to the compound for me: horray! Such a big help.

I phone him to check he got my text message.
He does not have much English. I have no Juba Arabic. It is a confusing conversation!! I try again to call and this time I think we established that he did get my text message! I hope he will come later with the food!

8:15: we start school. Ben and then Esther start with piano practise. Joel looks at some books.

  We do a Devotions time and then I set Esther and Ben off on some independent work.  Then it is time to get Joel ready for school while the other two work.

08:55- I walk Joel across the MAF compound to the Windle Trust compound and drop him off at his school. It is lovely to see how happy he is there now! I then jog back to the MAF office- I need to pass on a message to one of the staff members, before going back home.

09:10- time for Maths! I set Esther off first on Y4 work, then work with Ben. Whilst we are busy jumping in 2s, 5s and 10s on a chalk number line outside the front door, someone comes to ask me for a key for another house. I feel a little frustrated. It is hard to keep the momentum of a lesson going with interruptions, but not everyone respects or can actually read our school sign that we hang on the front door in lesson times.

10:30- we are finishing maths when my phone rings. The market man has arrived an hour and a half  earlier than usual! I go to meet him at the compound gate. It takes a while to calculate the bill and sort out payment, find the right change etc etc. then cart the bags to the house. The children have followed me out of the classroom. We go straight into break time, but I first need to rush upstairs, empty the washing machine and put on the 2^nd wash. No time to hang out the wet things, but it does not matter. Juba is so hot in this season, I could hang it out at 5pm and it would still be dry by 6pm!

Just enough time to grab a cuppa and take the bread out of the bread machine (a lovely loaf! Well done, my marvellous machine!!) and then back to class.

11am- time for Literacy and English!

12pm, we finish off  the English lessons and today it is Esther’s turn to go and fetch Joel from school. She is a little late – my fault, as I made her finish her comprehension work before she left the classroom! Joel comes home in tears- he feels quite put out! Sorry, Joel :-(

12-1pm: a crazy hour of getting lunch, hanging out washing, starting the process of washing the fruit and veg in sterile “Milton”, checking a neighbour’s house who is due to come home to Juba today, after time away…

1pm- I glance at the kitchen clock. I think there is just enough time to start a bit of washing up. We have guests coming tonight, so if I do not wash up now, dirty dishes will be piled up when they get here and we won't have enough cutlery!
Esther helps by clearing the table and sweeping the floor.
Ben helps as he peels and then mashes some slowly decomposing bananas- I want to rescue them before they turn into mush!
Esther promises to make banana bread later. I put on a 2nd loaf of bread- we ate the first one for lunch.

1:30pm- we start Science. Thankfully Esther and Ben’s new topic for this half term match: Forces and Friction. 

Joel feels left out and destroys one of Ben’s plant investigations where he was growing some seeds for observation. I am so cross with Joel, he gets upset, we stop everything to sort it all out, we both say sorry and then the lesson can proceed, with Joel on my knee. It is hard to be 3 years old and left out of the bigger sibling’s schooling. Joel struggles and I still have not found the right way to do afternoon lessons with Joel at home too. It is a very difficult balance.

This afternoon, the very practical Science lesson involves play-dough (exercising Forces) so at least Joel can play with the play-dough and feel part of everything.

3pm- end of school.

Now it is time to clean the the downstairs bathroom before guests arrive, continue cleaning the veg and get ready for cooking dinner for 11.

4pm, I make a cuppa and take at breather to write this. Now it is almost 5pm I am very behind with my meal preparation- so I’d best go and get cooking! Andrew is now home and Esther is patiently waiting for me to help her organise her baking session. 

Esther hard at work making the banana bread:

10:20pm- dinner was a fun time, there were 3 other younger kids to entertain our 3! 

Esther's banana bread was fantastic- well done, what a wonderful little chef! 

Once the children were in bed, as we were clearing up, we heard some gun-shots in the street very close by. I carried on sorting the dirty dishes, for Grace to wash them in the morning. I like to rinse and stack to discourage my arch enemy cockroaches, which still plague me here!

Andrew came downstairs to insist that I leave everything, turn off the lights and come upstairs. I am task-focused and want to finish sorting the dirty dishes, but although I feel outwardly calm, I see how much my hands are shaking as I fill my glass of water. It is time to abandon downstairs and be sensible. Juba is not a place to put yourself at risk when you can avoid it, especially when Trouble seems close.
Unfortunately Esther heard the shots too. She is worried, but we speak calmly and she settles down to sleep.

This afternoon, shots were also fired in a nearby street, where I often walk to a nearby shop with the children. I am so grateful that I did not choose to go off compound today! I am glad to be writing this now in a peaceful house, before settling down for the next few hours before tomorrow's 6am alarm starts another Juba day...