The Heat of Hot Season!

We are well into South Sudan's dry season, which is also the hottest season. Day after day, cloudless skies announce hours of uninterrupted sunshine. Of course, it is lovely to have the bright days of sunny light- but it is also extremely HOT!!

In this season, two of my favourite machines are the air-conditioning units and ceiling fans!

The air-conditioners only work during the hours that we have generator power (5 hours and a half in the morning, 2 and a half hours in the afternoon and 4 hours in the evening). Outside of these times, we rely on batteries fitted into our houses to run the fans, lights and other low-power electrical appliances.

Unfortunately, we have had all kinds of drama recently, with our air-conditioners taking turns to stop working properly. This has meant some very HOT periods in our house and some rather sweaty nights! Our rooms do not get a chance to cool down in the daytime, ready to stay cooler overnight. The air-conditioning repair-men seem to be spending a lot of time at our house...!

To add to the excitement, our house batteries are getting old and sometimes grind to a halt when the generator switches off, meaning that our fans can't work because we have no electrical power. When the air is still and the heat is rising, it can feel like a sauna indoors! We are waiting for new house batteries- I will be very glad when they arrive!

In the evenings I see our South Sudanese neighbours moving their mosquito nets outdoors, where they sleep in this hot season. Grace also tells me that her house is so hot at night in these stuffy temperatures that she and her family all sleep outdoors. However, Grace is feeling very tired, as she explained to me that this arrangement is not great from a security viewpoint in Juba. She says that she sleeps with one eye looking over her shoulder all night, as she worries about thieves and armed attacks. A valid concern in this city.

One of the advantages of hot season is how fast my washing dries! By the time I have finished pegging the last items on the line, the first items are almost dry! 

Underneath my washing-line and all around Juba, the ground has become hard and brown, baked by the African sun. Leaves shrivel up, burnt and brittle- they drift to the ground from the treetops, leaving a crunchy carpet on top of the dusty, thorny ground. I always slip on my flip-flops before stepping outdoors onto dry, spiky earth!

Thankfully, we have a local hotel about a 15 minute walk (children's pace) from our home. It opened in August and has a swimming pool, where I take the children most weeks to meet up with other families. This pool is a wonderful place to cool down! After the walk in Juba afternoon temperatures, which can get up to 40'C, we are very ready for a cool drink and a swim!

Yesterday, some clouds began to appear and we had an unexpected, very brief rain shower. Maybe rainy season is on its way! It is not due until April, but I think there are many of us in Juba who will welcome the rains whenever they decide to arrive!

New Wall

The escalating crime rate here and the frightening shooting incident in September have prompted the building of a more secure wall around our compound.

The builders arrived a couple of weeks ago- and all is chaos on my short route to the school room!

From the house to the school room, there are obstacles galore! Sometimes, I can't get through as trucks arrive to off-load bricks:

This provides a novel excuse for being late for school!

The school room is the low, white, container-shaped building at the back centre of the photo. The space between our house and the schoolroom is so busy these days, with builders and workmen, even when trucks are not off-loading bricks:

Ben is loving all the interruptions and watching the men busy at work! You can just about see him in his yellow T-shirt, running to get out of the way of the wheelbarrow- or is he just super-keen to get to lessons??

When we finish lessons, we never know which new obstacles may be blocking our way home, as dumper-lorries full of stones, sand, gravel or bricks arrive daily. This was the view from the classroom door one day last week:

For Ben, life is full of excitement, as though the builders have prepared mountains to climb on, just for him:

There are no Health and Safety restrictions here to spoil his fun, so when we opened our classroom door yesterday to the sight you see below, you can imagine how happy Ben was!

The wall is progressing quickly:

It is a shame in one sense that we have to lock ourselves away behind huge, brick walls. However, it will add to our sense of security in an insecure environment. The chaos of these few weeks of building the new wall is definitely worthwhile!

Being thankful

I know that it is healthy to have an attitude of gratitude- but I had to smile when this truck drove into the MAF compound, with its red slogan across the windscreen:


I had never thought about being grateful for sewage before!

Birthday Boy

Andrew celebrated another year last week!

We celebrated as a family with a take-away Ethiopian meal. Eaten with our hands, it was a win-win meal. The children LOVE to eat with their hands -and I love not having to wash up cutlery!

I had not had time to make a cake, but Esther and I made one of Andrew's favourite desserts- a very English rice pudding! Since this was especially for Andrew, we popped the birthday candles into the pudding (but only after some of it had already been sampled!).

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

In My Bag

One of the questions I have been asked since we returned from Kampala is:

"What did you bring back with you from Uganda?"

It is always a pertinent question: which goodies do I bring in my bag, to enjoy in Juba? 

It is always nice to bring foods that we either cannot find here OR that cost too much and are cheaper to bring from elsewhere.

The random selection of goodies In My Bag last week:

5 kg of cheese ( a fab treat!!)

lots of bags of mini-cheddars for snacks (it's hard to find snacks for kids in Juba shops)

cream cheese

2 kg of cereal

brown rice, to keep us healthier

South African salty crackers for my South African husband

fish paste (I was getting desperate for some variety from peanut butter on bread at lunch!)

pepperoni, for home-made pizzas or salads

the much-sought-after luxury of FLORA!

rice cakes

I was very thankful that my bag was not too thoroughly searched on arrival at the airport! Such a random selection of luggage would appear very bizarre next to our clothes and toiletries!

When we come back to Africa after trips to the UK, the items in my bag also comprise various contingency medicines. Enough to stock my home-pharmacy with the basic essentials for family health!

 It is always embarrassing in England trying to source a year's worth supply of children's Calpol and ibuprofen, paracetamol tablets, malaria treatment kits, boxes of Lemsip, anti-diarrhoea pills, motion-sickness tablets, rehydration powders, sore throat medicines, indigestion relief, antiseptic creams, antihistamine pills and potions, inhalers, strepsils, lockets, plasters, bandages.... You name it, I've got it! And it all comes distributed among our suitcases! 

It would look very suspicious to the uninformed, but is a lifeline to us. We just never know when/if we may need these medicines, so it is better to be safe than sorry. Better to have too many remedies to choose from, rather than running out of a vital medicine in the middle of a dark and dangerous Juba night.

My Juba medicine box:

This past week, my medicine box has been very useful. Last week, Joel ran a fever for 4 days and had a sore throat. Not to worry, I had Calpol, ibuprofen and throat lozenges. Just as he recovered, Ben came down with the same bug and needed the same treatments.

Joel, sleeping in the schoolroom last week while I attempted to carry on with lessons for Esther and Ben:

The day after Ben fell ill, Esther started being sick. After 9 bouts of vomiting. we knew she needed to keep her fluids up. Not to worry. I had these to treat her:

 

Today, I have also been busy making up these rehydration fluids for both Joel AND Ben. Joel started vomiting at 1am. Ben started vomiting just after I finished lessons with him in the schoolroom today!! They hate the taste of these rehydration fluids, but I'm not taking any chances in this hot climate!

I'm so grateful for the things I can bring back to our African home In My Bag!

What Does M.A.F. really stand for?

M.A.F.- what do these 3 letters really stand for?

On the MAF UK website, we can read that M.A.F. stands for Mission Aviation Fellowship; a Christian organisation, using light aircraft to: "fly medical, relief and life-transforming help to vulnerable people in hard-to-reach places."   Of course, this is the true representation of the 3 letters in the acronym.

However, during our 7 years of working with MAF, we have also heard the letters M.A.F. used tongue-in-cheek to stand for the statement, "Move Again Friend"! This is because staff constantly need to move between the different overseas countries where MAF serve. Friends and families arrive in one place, but then move on. 

Just as you get to know your neighbours and friends on the team, someone needs to move- to another MAF programme, to serve in another country or maybe to return to their home country. And if it is not your neighbours and friends moving house, it will be you! In our own stint of 7 years within the MAF family, we have moved between 3 countries: Tanzania to Kenya to South Sudan.

Life never stays the same- and nor do the friends living around us!

Last week, we had to say goodbye to a family who have served here with MAF in South Sudan (previously Sudan) for 6 years. It was sad to see them go. Ben was doubly sad as their eldest son was  his best Juba friend. Ben misses him: it feels like there is a gap somewhere.

There were several farewell events. The farewell with the National Staff was very moving, as individuals stood up one by one to make short speeches to express what this family has meant to them over the past 6 years.

The day came when this family had to leave the compound, leave Juba and begin their journey to Madagascar, where they will continue to work for MAF. 

All of the families and staff went out to the compound car-park, where we waved them off in the early morning sunshine. Eventually, Andrew stepped forward to close the doors of the vehicle, as this wonderful MAF family move on:

Over the past seven years, there have been many farewells in our journey with MAF. 

When you live far from home and are learning a new culture, a new language and a new way of life, your friends become a lifeline. These are the friends who live beside you for an intense period of time. Friends who...

-understand the learning curve you are living, because they have lived it too

-offer support and hospitality in a foreign land

-help care for your older children when your baby is sick, or who cook for you when you get ill and your husband is flying somewhere remote and won't be back for a few days...

-whose children are your own children's playmates and spend half their time in your house or garden!

-who are there on your birthdays and Christmas celebrations when your own family can't be there.

These are the friends you share your life with in a far-flung country; who laugh with you, cry with you, drink endless cups of African tea with you and pray with you when you are far from your own extended family and friends. They become like family! So it's hard to say goodbye. It is hard to accept that there's no guarantee you will meet again.

Some farewells are harder than others, as we naturally connect with some friends more easily than others. When good friends leave, those are the hardest farewells. I remember saying goodbye almost 4 years ago in Dodoma, to a MAF family who had become good friends to us there. There were tears as we let our friends go and waved them off from Dodoma...Move Again, Friend!

BUT last weekend, I received a wonderful opportunity to see this particular family again! Although they had moved far away from Dodoma and left Africa, they have recently been back on African soil to serve a shorter term placement with MAF in Kampala. Last week, a small MAF plane needed to be repositioned from South Sudan to Kampala - and there was space on the small 4-seater to squeeze in Esther and I! This was a golden opportunity to visit, before they leave the African continent again!

So Esther and I packed a bag, whipped out our passports, arranged with Andrew to look after the boys and then set off on a trans-Africa flight, on a tiny 4-seater plane! It was an exciting opportunity- and we even got to to fly right over Uganda's amazing Lake Victoria:

Safely in Kampala, at the MAF hangar. Esther stands in front of the tiny plane that took us all the way from Juba to Kampala on a flight of over 3 hours:

And here I am, with my lovely MAF friend, catching up after nearly 4 years! It was good to be able to catch up on all the news of the past few years:

We work for "Mission Aviation Fellowship" and we can also relate to "Move Again Friend", but it is good to know that with all the change and fluctuating neighbours and friends in our overseas life, paths can and do cross again! :-)