Questions

One week has passed since my last blog post. We are happy to report that Joel is doing well and is much better! In addition. the security situation appears calm. We are still keeping a cautious eye out for any "developments" but day to day life is happily sauntering along...

Without the more significant issues of health problems and national security, we have had time to ponder some other, less significant, questions.... such as, "What kind of snake is this?"

 Esther discovered this slithery serpent last Thursday. We were walking back from our school room to our house, at midday. Don't worry- we established the snake's certain death before I allowed her to handle it! Esther was keen to look closer to work out how it had died and whether it was lethal or harmless...

The boys also had a good look. They made sure the head was definitely crushed and unable to bite them, before picking up the lifeless reptile and using it to scare as many people as possible on the MAF compound, swinging it close to unsuspecting individuals!

 We are still not sure what kind of snake it is, although a national South Sudanese staff member told us it is dangerous. We also established from the night guard that it was he who had beaten it to death at 3am that morning.

We then discovered from the national staff that handling a dead snake is risky. Apparently, the venom can seep through the snake's skin from the brittle bones after rigor mortis sets in. If we had handled that snake later in the day, we could have been at risk of poisoning!

With that new knowledge, we will be far more careful around snakes- both dead and alive!

A second, very trivial, question has also kept us guessing in Juba: "What kind of jam are we eating?"

There was not a lot of choice in the shop for jam, so this is what I bought!
The label is not much help to me. I asked the shop-keeper what type of jam it was, but he seemed as unable to read Arabic as I am. The picture is so obscure that it does not enlighten us futher! The taste is nondescript- a sugary, fruity kind of flavour- but mostly sugar!
Such an insignificant question! But nicer than time spent recently reading up on periorbital cellulitis or anxiously reading news reports to check on security!