Just another week in Juba

Our week in Juba...

Pilot Parker and Perks of the Job

Andrew came home from his flights the other day with a gift from a grateful MAF partner, who regularly use MAF flights to their isolated area of South Sudan.

A gift-box full of mangoes:

There were plenty of these delicious mangoes to share with neighbours and colleagues. It is mango season now, so they tasted fresh and juicy, straight from the tree!

Comings and Goings

Our next-door neighbours left South Sudan this week, to return to their native Holland.

    

We will miss them! They were also part of our MAF team in Tanzania so we knew them before we moved here, although they had been based in Dar es Salaam, a day's drive from our Dodoma home.

They moved to Juba just a few days before we did, so it was strange for us to say "goodbye" to them. It was sad to wave them off.
Esther in particular will miss her friendship with their daughter. There were many tears for Esther on Monday, as she let go of yet another friend.

Tonight, another family moved in, so new next door neighbours are already installed. This time, instead of Dutch neighbours, we have a Norwegian/ Israeli family next door!
It is a privilege in our MAF lives that we live among and learn so much about different cultures from our neighbours.


Another night... another shooting

At 2:40 this morning, the owner of the small shop just outside of the MAF gate was shot and killed.

I thankfully slept through the shooting, although it woke Andrew. We feel sad for the other people who work and live at this small shop. I often nip out of the gate to buy phone credit there or bottles of water or coke. The children usually accompany me, excited to spend their South Sudanese pounds on handfuls of sweets which are sold out of plastic jars, balanced on the wooden shelves. The owners have always been kind to them, so it's horrible to hear that one of them will no longer be there to greet his customers.
The shop is usually open all day and it was sad to see it all boarded up today. I took this photo from the gate of our compound, through the tiny, barred security window (used to verify who is knocking at our gate before allowing any visitors entry to the compound).
The shop is the small, wooden structure on the left of the picture, with the closed, blue doors.

Finally... Local Weather News

The rains have arrived! Everything is cooling off... including our bathroom, which is down to a chilly 29'C. It feels fantastic!!

Let me leave you for now with a quote of the week, stated in all sincerity by Esther, "Oooo, it's only 31'C today! It feels so cold!"

Uncertainty

There has been some uncertainty here this week. The leader of the opposition was expected to return to Juba on Monday and again on Tuesday and then again yesterday, but is yet to arrive. This has created a level of tension.

As a pilot's wife, I do worry about safety for Andrew. Thankfully, all has remained calm despite disruption at the airport due to added security. Life in the city is carrying on as normal. We are careful where we go. At times, we judge it safer to stay on the compound. Of course, that is not the case for our pilots who have a job to do. They are out and about each work day:

Although our days have been continuing without any drama, the nights this week have not.

On Tuesday night, I woke up at 03:30 to the sound of four gun-shots. I sat bolt upright and took deep breaths. It was quickly over and after my heart rate had calmed down, we eventually went back to sleep. It was "just crime" and not the start of any large scale fighting. That was a relief- but I feel sorry for anyone caught up in that event.

Again, on Thursday night, there were gun-shots. Thankfully, we slept through them. Our neighbours described them as a round of 6 shots, then a volley of about 15 shots. Again, it turned out to be "just crime" and nothing more followed. Still, it is unsettling, both to hear it or to hear about it.

I am glad I did not hear Thursday night's noise. It has been a tense and tiring week. One of the reasons I may not have heard it is because I now have to wear ear-plugs every night. Our house is recently surrounded on the 3 sides where we have windows by annoying generators.
The newest generator belongs to a brand new block of flats, which has just been constructed right opposite our bedroom window. The owner proudly told Andrew, "We are installing 2 generators which operate 24 hours". GRRRRRR!!! The other generators operate in the evenings and up to midnight- sometimes a little beyond. They are quiet in the day. But now we have CONSTANT mechanical noise and there is no escape... It sounds like a giant hoover and its sound pollutes the whole air around this end of the compound.

It is stressful.

The only solution I can see is to move to a different house, or to install double glazing. One of those choices is a major hassle. The other is major expense.
So now we have further uncertainty... To move? or to pay for double glazing on our bedroom window? ....We'll keep you posted...

Confused?

I'm confused.

Last week, a new bank note was brought out. Its worth is 20 Pounds.

The trouble is, it looks exactly like the current 25 pound note. The only difference is that one of the notes has been in circulation longer and is therefore more worn. Plus, of course, the number in the corner is different.

Front view:
 

Back view:


I was just getting quite attached to the 25 Pound note. I have never worked with a banknote of this denomination before and I have discovered that it is an excellent aide to teaching decimals! I can use a single note for my pupils to visibly demonstrate 25 as a quarter of 100, to make sense of 0.25.
Since three of the notes equal 75 pounds, this makes a great illustration for 0.75 as three quarters of 100 pounds.

Now, however, I will have to watch out. If I accidentally pick up the wrong note- which will be a very easy mistake to make- I won't be the only one who ends up confused!

Food for Thought

Here are a few random food-related photos from the past week or so in Juba...

Ants, ants everywhere!

Since the hot season began in earnest, around the end of January. a colony of tiny little ants have moved into my kitchen.
They are the same colour as my work surface and hard to detect. It is irritating, as they get into everything. For a while, I moved the sugar bowl into the fridge because the sugar was a magnet for these ants.
When I went to make bread the other day, I was annoyed to find them in the margarine:

I scooped out as many as I could, but I am sure the crunchy particles in our bread were the left-overs!!
The ants also love to climb into our kettle and swim around. Since we drink cup-loads of tea in our house, it is fortunate that we are not too fussy about ants in our tea!

Veggie Tales

I did an experiment the other day and decided to order broccoli from the market, for the first time. I had heard a rumour that someone could source broccoli...

Since we have never had broccoli in Juba, I texted an order to the market stall holder who helpfully brings fruit and vegetables to the compound for us. I was looking forward to having a change from the carrots and courgettes which are regulars at the Juba market.

This was my broccoli:

It was more expensive than other vegetables and I could not glean a single floret of broccoli from the multitude of leaves and thick stems! That is one item I won't bother to order again...

On the other hand, I ordered a kilo of sweet potatoes last Saturday- and the generous size of this one potato fulfilled the entire order!

This sweet potato was absolutely delicious, mashed with butter, milk, salt, pepper, a hint of cinnamon and a tea-spoon of (hopefully) ant-free sugar!

A Sanitary Affair

A few months ago, I was given the task of helping to source sanitary towels for women in local refugee camps who cannot afford this basic necessity.

The ladies on the MAF team here and at our Juba church generously provided packs of sanitary towels and money so that we could help to get these goods to women who need them. I found myself with the rather unorthodox task of sorting and counting boxes of sanitary towels and storing them in our home!

With the cash raised, my friend Sue did some investigation into the best way to spend funds. She organised the purchase of some new products, from Uganda, which have been specially designed for women living in impoverished conditions. These are called, "Afripads".

Afripads are a novel and brilliant way of providing this most essential item- as they can be washed out and used again - and again. Each pack comes with careful instructions that allows ladies to hand wash the towels, dry them in the bleaching, germ-busting African sun and re-use them. What a great idea for ladies living in poverty, who cannot simply buy a new pack once their old ones have been used up.

Unbelievably, political sensitivities and red tape meant that we were sadly refused access to the ladies  who live in the Juba camps and who need these items. It's a long, complicated story which I won't go into...

 However, the need for such a product is also, unfortunately, prevalent among the street girls of Juba- so a friend at MAF contacted a wonderful lady called Cathy Groenendijk-Nabukwasi who works tirelessly for the rights and protection of street kids here. We asked her if she was interested in using the boxes of towels- and the Afri-pads- to distribute them among girls and young ladies who need them.

Cathy was enthusiastic about being able to distribute the goods. She came to collect the Afri-pads, excited to actually have the product to give away; she had previously only heard about them. I was pleased that, finally, this practical product could be given to those who need them (and it was nice to have our office space back, rather than working around boxes of sanitary products!).

(Cathy has pioneered an amazing refuge for vulnerable children in Juba. To read more, visit: www.confidentchildren.org )

Cathy's staff came by to pick up the remaining boxes, all carefully packed in old cardboard boxes from local shops. The products would be carefully given out to those needing them.

It is hard to think that for many women worldwide, basic necessities like these are denied them: they are simply too expensive and inaccessible. But it is also good to know that there are companies in existence who carefully consider the needs of those without means and work to create products such as "Afripads" to provide practical solutions for such basic needs.

Easter R and R

We returned on Tuesday this week from Nairobi, where we have just spent a week of obligatory "R and R" away from Juba.

When I was at school, the word "compulsory" often had negative connotations, Phrases such as "compulsory maths lessons" or "compulsory exams" were not popular with me. However, having a compulsory R and R break away from the intensity of life in Juba gives the word in question a thoroughly positive meaning! We had a wonderfully restful and refreshing Easter week in Nairobi.

To celebrate Easter, the children enjoyed some fun theme activities...

Colouring boiled eggs:

Making mini Easter gardens:

 

During the week, we gave each mini-Parker the choice of a Nairobi outing.

Esther chose a visit to "Planet Yoghurt": a cafe where you choose your favourite flavour of frozen yoghurt and add toppings of your choice. Delicious AND healthy- what a winning combination!

 

Ben requested a trip to Nairobi's National Park:

Joel's choice was the Giraffe Sanctuary, where we had fun feeding the giraffes who live in this protected centre:

There was also time for Esther to try some baking. In the cooler climate of Nairobi, baking feels like fun, rather than a test of heat endurance, which is the case in my Juba kitchen in this current hot season!
She delighted us with her strawberry roulade and her millionaire's shortbread:

 

This week, we got back to work again. Lessons recommenced at home-school and Andrew has taken to the African skies, including flying a medical evacuation flight for a man who had been shot in his shoulder and leg. Only Joel is still on holiday, but his school starts again on Tuesday. It will be good to settle back down to routine... and we have plenty of weeks ahead of us to plan for our next R and R in a few months...!! :-)