Tomorrow

Tomorrow morning, we plan to be landing in Manchester airport. Exchanging the blue skies of Africa for the overcast skies and colder climes of north-west England!

Our journey entails 3 aeroplanes:
Juba to Nairobi
Nairobi to  London
London to Manchester.
Then either a taxi or train journey of 2 trains, with 3 tired children, suitcases galore and 2 frazzled parents!

This time, we fly only on large, commercial airlines: we will not be travelling on the small MAF plane to Nairobi- much to my relief! Last time our MAF flight from Juba to Nairobi was rather memorable- for all the wrong reasons.
It was in March, when we flew Juba-Nairobi for our R and R. I left the MAF compound at 7am with children, but Andrew had gone on ahead with the staff team. Andrew was our pilot that day and needed to pre-flight the plane. I would not see him until we boarded our MAF flight.

Once I got the airport with Esther, Ben and Joel, we were overwhelmed with the utter chaos at the airport! The machines for scanning luggage had broken down. This seemed to be causing untold problems for passengers and staff. Crowds of people with suitcases surged forward to try and push their luggage through to the area where their bags could be loaded ready for the flights, while desperate staff members tried to process and check the suitcases by hand. This created a back-log which translated into a sweaty mass of humanity, squashed into the small room which is Juba Airport Departures.

Trying to manoeuvre 3 small children and our bags through that heaving, pushing crowd was a miserable experience. By 7:30am, I was soaked through with sweat as I was shoved first one way and then another by anxious co-passengers, all of whom were also glistening with sweat. It trickled unchecked down our cheeks and dripped onto our bags. It seemed that the idea of forming any sort of a queue had occurred to no-one. It was each man for himself as we all tried to work our way through the mass of bodies to present our passports for inspection and proceed to the small door where we could be admitted to the actual Departure Lounge. Some people appeared at my side with suitcases held aloft over their heads as they made their slow, forceful way through the tide of stressed passengers. Tall Sudanese surrounded us on all sides. I felt dwarfed by their height and overwhelmed by the pressure to push through and force our way out of the messy situation.

No-one acknowledged that I had small children with me. I hoisted Joel onto my spare hip, balancing my luggage on the other side of my body. I instructed Esther and Ben to hold on tight to the straps of my back-pack, so that they would not get swept away by the surging crowd, Esther leaned forward and shouted over the din of voices, "Mum! I can't breathe!" Being much shorter than most of the crowd, the children had very little space to catch their breath as the room got more and more stuffy. More and more passengers pushed in from behind us as the crowd kept growing. I felt almost hoarse from the effort at shouting into the ears of shoving co-passengers, "Please do NOT squash the children! Please look out for the children!"

After that ordeal, the journey did not really improve, It was around 5 hours flight from Juba to Nairobi, with 3 stops en-route to pick up and drop off other passengers, During that time-frame, poor little Joel, who was sharing a double seat with me, was sick EIGHT TIMES. After the first time, I used up all my tissues to clean him.
After the second time, I used up his spare outfit.
After the 3rd time, I used up the spare clothes in my bag for Esther and Ben.
After the 4th time, I gave up. There was nothing more to use. We sat surrounded by dried and drying and fresh vomit, little puddles forming at the back of the seat, the smell clinging to us both.
After the fifth time, I joined in with Joel and started being sick myself!
I arrived in Nairobi with a little collection of sealed, bulging air-sickness bags, filthy clothes and a splitting headache. Then just to top it all off, Joel was sick once more in the car on the way from the airport to the house!
What a horrible day.
I had a word with the pilot, but he claimed no responsibility for the bumpy weather which caused such a turbulent, upsetting flight...!!

Hopefully, our 3 flights today and tomorrow morning will not be so turbulent and not cause any upset! It seems the larger the plane, the smoother the ride. Joel and I had never been air-sick before travelling on small MAF aircraft. I'm not sure what kind of a MAF pilot's wife that makes me??

Last night a friend asked us what we are most looking forward to for our time in England.
Esther said, "Ice-cream!" (we can't get it in Juba)

Ben said, "Spending pocket money!" (he has been earning English-currency pocket-money, as there is not much in Juba that children can buy)

Joel is not sure. England is a strange, far-away land that he has only the vaguest notion of.

For Andrew, it is being able to buy new ear cushions for his pilot head-set, as his current ones are disintegrating -and maybe also some chocolate :).

For me, it is definitely chocolate! And having Grandparents nearby who are happy to babysit! The opportunity to rest completely and let grandparents have fun with their grandchildren is a heady, glittering prospect after all the demands of home-school!

On the "Most-Looking-Forward-To" list for our tine in England, I could also add...
ice-cream
fresh milk (no powdered milk for a while!!)
green grapes
variety of breakfast cereals
variety of bread
bacon
mushrooms (it's funny what you miss when you live here!!)
variety of meat
drinking water straight from a kitchen tap
Oh, and did I mention chocolate? (!!).

So here we come... the bags are packed, the passports and yellow-fever certificates are ready, the tickets are prepared and friends will give us a lift to Juba airport in a couple of hours. This time tomorrow, all that chocolate should be within easy reach...!!

Jogging in Juba

Just a quick blog post to provide proof of our early morning jogging in Juba!

Since February, I have been 2 or three times a week, at 06:40, when it is first light, for a short and not-very-fast jog around the streets of Juba. We avoid the litter and the stray dogs and ignore the taunts from local teenagers, who find it very amusing to see foreigners running around their city so early in the morning! There are several other groups of runners, some local, some Kenyan, some Ethiopian, some American, speeding around the streets, much faster than I can go! Some are wearing sporting gear and looking very serious. I admire these very fit runners!  Most of them friendly as they acknowledge the solidarity of the early-morning jogging crew.
My running companions vary, depending who is around. We don't mind the 06:40 start, as daily life in Africa starts early. plus it is the coolest part of the day and therefore a pleasant temperature.
We have to be back by 7am, when Andrew leaves for work, so it is never a long run, but just enough to run off any stress-related energy. And great for justifying a biscuit or two with my cuppa, as I feel like I've actually done a bit of exercise!

Emergency Evacuation

Saturday, April 25th:
Last Saturday seemed like an ordinary Saturday.
But in the evening, we had a phone call to change what was an average Juba weekend into a rather tense working weekend. Andrew was being asked to fly to a remote airstrip in SS to pull out a team of Medair workers and evacuate them from an area where the security situation had deteriorated.

A UN situation report the previous day had alerted us to the possibility of troops moving into this particular area, but I hadn't taken special notice. We receive these reports almost daily in our inbox. Often, the places in the reports seem very far away; it is too easy to become desensitised. I feel concerned for the people caught up in these situations, but often they do not impact us directly.

However, for the second time since arriving in SS as a family, Andrew was preparing to fly into an area of potential danger to evacuate a team of medical workers. Last time this had happened, a few months ago, Andrew's flight had been recalled after an hour or so of him being in the air, as the security situation had become too dangerous for the medical team to get to the airstrip. He had to abort his flight and return to Juba. Another team of MAF pilots had tried again a couple of days later, this time successfully pulling out the aid workers who needed to be removed from the fighting zone.

But now, Andrew was in line for his second evacuation flight. The request came through on Saturday evening, meaning that the flight would have to take place on Sunday morning. MAF does not normally operate its aircraft on a Sunday, but last weekend was an exception. The Medair team on the ground were getting very concerned about the risk to their safety as troops were reported to be closing in where they were based. Locals were already abandoning their homes, fleeing on foot to the nearest town about 60 km away. My heart went out to all those mothers and children who had to leave their homes so suddenly out of fear of what may happen to them if they stay. What a dreadful situation to be in.

 As soon as the call came through, Andrew and the Operations staff sprang into action. Over an hour of meetings, risk assessment and decision-making took place before everything was decided and then organised for Andrew to fly out of Juba early on Sunday.

Sunday April 26th:
At 06:45, Andrew was already on his way, climbing aboard the MAF vehicle to take him to the airport. The Operations staff were already at their computers in the office, manning the situation.

At home, Sunday was now underway. The children were soon up and needing breakfast. I decided to take them all to church as normal, despite the torrential downpour!

In these situations, there is always a certain level of tension. For Andrew, security and the risk factor are foremost in his planning and weigh heavily on his mind. This can be tangible for the rest of us from the moment the flight is confirmed. I feel the risk too. I have to try very hard not to worry. So you can imagine how relived I felt when this text message flashed onto my phone screen half way through our church service, from our new Operations Manager, Andy Judge:

It was a relief to know that:

1. Andrew had landed safely and successfully evacuated the medical team 

2. He was safely on his way back to Juba!

This was the rural airstrip where Andrew had flown in to carry out the evacuation:

And this is the Medair team with Andrew, thankfully safe on the ground back in Juba by lunchtime on Sunday! :-)