Road to Paradise

Today, we had a MAF outing to a beautiful swimming pool at a hotel on the other side of Juba. It was so much fun to go out as a group for a swim and lunch at "Jebel Mountain Lodge". We have another short-term MAF family staying in Juba right now, so it was great for our children to have some new friends to play with at the pool.
It was a lovely break from the everyday routine and a chance to relax in pretty surroundings:

To reach this little "Paradise", we had a 20 minute drive across Juba. Here are some of the sights along our road to paradise... Some of these images might go a little way in showing you what Juba is like and portraying some of the challenging driving conditions we faced...

A different type of grazing ground for the goats:

I snapped the shot below as an iconic Urban Africa scene: with the ever-present stray dog, the smoke rising from the stove at a local road-side cafe, customers seated on wooden benches and plastic chairs, the informal buildings which house local shops, messy power lines draped loosely over roof-tops or between buildings- and the road-side litter:

And 2 classic pictures to illustrate how much one can load onto a trike (and how rare a motorbike helmet is!):

Unfortunately, there is a petrol shortage in Juba at the moment. The petrol stations we passed were crowded with vehicles patiently waiting to purchase fuel for their cars and motorbikes:

 The queues of cars and motorbikes snaked a long way down the roads outside the petrol stations, at a complete standstill whilst pedestrians passed by:

So here are some snapshots of Juba from the back seat of a MAF vehicle! Of course, I am very new here and have much more to see and learn, but this is what I saw today and these are my impressions so far, as we ventured from the bumpy, mud-strewn roads to the incongruous setting of a beautiful hotel in this city of contrasts.

Extra Pupil

We have had an extra pupil visiting us at our home-school:

However, I think I may have to knock some minutes off his play-time for his blatant lack of enthusiasm during our morning lessons...

...and his somewhat disrespectful approach to Esther's afternoon lessons on the Tudors!

Living in a "Micro World"

In Juba, the day to day world in which I now live has become quite narrow. It can feel like I live in a micro-world! On a "normal" weekday, I have little reason to leave the compound. Apart from the occasional walk to the nearby shops or the local cafe to get "chapati", or to a restaurant with the MAF team, I am mostly at home or somewhere on the compound, like the playground or perhaps visiting a neighbour.
This means that I hardly take any exercise- so it is back to the home-videos with Rosemary Conley for my Saturday morning exercise class!

Rosemary and her fitness companions leap into life on the screen in our lounge and I try to keep up with the work-out:

I know I look ridiculous prancing around all by myself, with the children laughing at their daft mum! I look even more silly when I pick up my "weights" to join in the lifting and toning section of Rosemary's video, with these state-of-the-art weights: (!!)

 By 09:15am, my "class" is nearly over, but even with all the ceiling fans blowing at full pelt and the air-conditioning blasting, it is very hard to cool down in Juba. I have never, ever sweated as much as I have since we got to Juba, so doing these exercise classes, even early in the morning. feels like impossibly hot work! It must be good for me! It must be worth it!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have actually had more reasons to exit the metal gates of our compound and expand my micro-world...

MAF Day of Prayer
Last Wednesday, we had our MAF day of Prayer.
All staff attended a workshop-style event to learn more about the partners who use and fly with MAF. It was also a day to take time out to pray for these organisations and for the 30 different MAF programmes situated around the world. The venue for this day out was at the "Dembesh" hotel, about 10 minutes walk from our compound.

I found it particularly interesting hearing about the amazing work of Medair (http://relief.medair.org/)
Their speaker, Wendy, explained about the incredible work they do bringing practical medical assistance and leading nutrition programmes for people who desperately need it in this country. They regularly fly to their work locations with MAF, so they are an important partner for MAF in South Sudan.
It was very moving as Wendy showed us photographic examples of children who have been near starvation and then pictures of the tangible difference that the nutrition programmes can bring to restore health and life to the most weak and vulnerable of children.
Wendy explained that the pictures were being used because the mothers of the children specifically asked her to "show the world what is going on in our country" and how much the help is needed.

When she finished talking, one of our national staff members stood up and took the microphone to pray for the work of Medair. He said that listening to Wendy and seeing her photos was "emotional" for him,as he had watched his own younger brother die through lack of food. It was a sobering moment:

However, we also saw that he people of South Sudan certainly love music and dancing! There were times for local music and singing; everyone joined in enthusiastically!

When the subject matter got heavy and the adults needed time to be quieter, I took the kids to play in the hotel's pool. We all had so much fun in the pool, which we had all to ourselves!

A new MAF compound
Another outing a few days later was to visit the proposed site of a new MAF compound. This should be developed in Juba over the next year. The staff team here is growing and that brings a need for new housing.
I climbed into a MAF vehicle with some visitors from overseas MAF offices and we all headed out to see the plot, about 20 minutes drive from our current compound. At the moment, the site is just bush!

 It was fun to explore it and hear the architect explain how it will all be developed

Just outside the boundary lines on one side, there are a few local houses:

 A couple of house are also within the boundary lines and the current landlord will have to provide alternative housing for the tenants before any building can commence. Their  traditional "tukul" home, seen here, looks so picturesque, but the standard of living it provides is very basic. We went over to meet the tenants who live there, but it was a little awkward- partly because of the language barrier (my Arabic lessons were not sufficient for conversation!!) and partly because of the circumstances, as the purchase of this land means a new location for this family.

Visitors
Aside from getting out of the compound recently, there has been the novelty of visitors to bring a bit of refreshment- and some much-appreciated chocolate (!!) - from the outside world into my micro-world! Last weekend, we enjoyed meeting the visitors from the UK and Oz MAF offices and after a staff pizza evening at the compound garden area, we hosted a movie evening in our home.

 I just had to take this photo as our guests arrived: this is definitely the way you know you have visitors in Africa: all the shoes at the front door!

Celebrating British traditions thousands of miles from the homeland!
It was also fun marking Bonfire Night on Wednesday evenning! The Brits here are few and far between, but one suggested a bonfire in honour of November 5th, so we lit the fire just after dark, (around 7pm) at the edge of the compound:

There were no fireworks, but we enjoyed a few home-baked biscuits! 

It was a good opportunity to share a bit of English history with the children. And a good way to remember traditions from a place which sometimes seems like a million miles away from our life here, but is still a part of our history and culture, even within the smaller environment of life on a compound in South Sudan!

Driving in Juba

I am not yet ready to take up the challenge of driving in Juba.

One of the off-putting factors is that the driving here is on the right-hand ("wrong"!!) side of the road:

This means that I would have to get used to sitting on what would feel to me like the "wrong" side of the car:

The actual roads themselves do not intimidate me, since we had 4 years of dodgy road surfaces in Tanzania to give me a bit of practise with roads like this one near our MAF Juba compound:

We also had dusty roads just like this one here in Juba, where sand and dust fly up from under the wheels to obliterate the vehicles in front:

 However, the roads here are much busier than the roads I navigated on the left in Dodoma! To switch to the right-hand side of the road, with all the extra cars around and all the new bumps to discover, all the dust and all the pedestrians crossing the road, does scare me. I can't help feeling like, with me at the helm, the possibility of an accident would be much increased!
There are also lots of roundabouts in Juba- I would need serious training to remember to go around them in the correct direction!

The type of traffic here also scares me. There are large trucks, lots of shiny 4x4s, military and UN land-rovers and lorries- plenty of larger vehicles like this one, to fight for space with on the bumpy roads and tracks:

 I always worried about hitting a motorbike in Tanzania or Kenya, especially since many drivers do not wear a helmet. In Juba, I believe that even fewer motorcyclists wear helmets! On Saturday, on a trip across town in a MAF car (I was a passenger!!), I had to smile at the irony as we actually spotted quite a few helmets on motorcyclists- most unusual in my brief experience here so far!

We also witnessed a motorbike going "CRASH!" into the back of a 4x4 truck, with the driver dramatically flying off his seat and being propelled through the air until, thankfully, he landed on the  road, sat up and looked dazed, but OK. I hear that the incidence of such crashes is extremely high.

And, as a foreigner here, if I was involved in such an accident, I would be instantly considered guilty unless I could be proven 100% to be the innocent party. Apparently, the view here is that locals have much to gain financially from crashing into "rich" foreigners. Plus, there is so much corruption that it would be very, very unfortunate for me to be involved in a road accident. Alot of hassle and trouble could ensue. This makes me extra nervous to get out and try my hand at right-hand driving in a city which does not exactly provide a gentle learning ground!

So, for now, I think I will stick with being a passenger and a back-seat driver; if I do become braver, I will be sure to blog about that at a later date! Incidentally, I seem to have lost my South Sudanese driver's licence, which is the only licence you are allowed to drive with in South Sudan. I just can't find it anywhere! But maybe that is fortuitous for now!!

Extreme Africa

In my experience, it seems that things which may be mild in England are much more extreme in Africa.

Take, for example, the weather. In England, a hot day is uncomfortable, with temperatures in the 30s ('C); but this is nothing like the extreme temperatures of a hot African day. Days when the sun beats down relentlessly from a cloudless sky; when my skin feels like it is being fried under the scorching sun and I can do nothing to stem the tiny rivulets of sweat; when my eyes hurt from the bright glare, and my whole self cries out for shade and relief from the unforgiving heat.

When it rained in Dodoma or when we have rain in Juba, we don't get precipitation falling steadily from the skies. Rather, it seems like the skies have been ripped apart by a huge giant, who then pours bucket-load after heavy-handed bucket-load of water directly on top of us. Water crashes down with great speed and volume. The noise was deafening on our tin-roof house in Dodoma as sheets of water thundered down from rain-soaked clouds. In Juba, the rain seems even heavier, gushing down and quickly flooding the garden and pathways outside. Then the rain stops as suddenly as it started and the heat begins to rise again.

In Africa, indigenous wild animals are spectacular and much more thrillingly dangerous than the wild-life of England. Here, we have scorpions and all manner of biting spiders to replace the harmless British spider. There are all kinds of snakes, with all kinds of markings from sandy brown to riotous skin colours and varying degrees of poisonous bites. Our house-lady Grace recently showed me the scars on her leg and foot where she had been bitten by a snake. Thankfully, she recovered, but the marks are there as permanent reminders of what could be lurking in the shadows for the Unsuspecting.

We can also visit wildlife reserves in Africa where we have seen incredible creatures: giraffes, hippos, rhinoceros, lions... This all seems a little more extreme than the tamer deer or ponies that come to mind as I try to picture the animals of Britain...

Even the insect life in Juba is proving to be more extreme! We found these caterpillars yesterday, making their way across the MAF car-park as I walked with Joel to his preschool:

For scale, Esther reached out her fingers close to Mr Caterpillar:

 Joel tells me that they now have a box of these caterpillars in his preschool classroom. They are feeding them leaves in the hopes that the children will be able to look after them until the caterpillars transform into the amazing African Emperor Moth.

I am not so sure that I want spiky, horned creatures like this in our downstairs classroom, even though Esther begged me to allow her to keep one in a plastic bottle, one she had collected and named "Spiky"! But I am not convinced that they would lend themselves to a good night's sleep. I know I would worry about them escaping and making their way upstairs to scare me in the dead of night! So the caterpillars, including Spiky, have been relegated to outdoor living.
However, one should make the most of every opportunity, so our "extreme" caterpillar became Ben's computer and literacy lesson today. We looked them up online and Ben documented our find. I have never seen him enjoy a writing task as much as he enjoyed this one!
Living in Africa definitely has extremely good advantages to take hold of... ;-)

Help!

Since being in South Sudan, I feel as if my life has changed; like I walked through an invisible door into a different world. Being a home-school mum is a whole new experience for me. It is bizarre not needing to go out anywhere, not dropping my older children off at school, or going to meet other mums at the school gate. No more being spoilt with morning coffee dates with friends, or involvement in any ladies groups or Swahili (or Arabic!) lessons or Bible Study groups. Suddenly, I have 2 jobs which are both contained within the 4 walls of our house!

 If I am honest. this new season is a challenge that can feel like a struggle. The task can feel overwhelming. Now I am the only one responsible for the education of  2 of our children, as well as our family-life: the meals, the clean washing and ensuring that our home is almost decent and not a complete mess of toys, muddy boots, wet clothes, biscuit crumbs and anything else which having small children ultimately brings to a home!

As time goes by, we are starting to get into more of a pattern. The enormity of the task at hand diminishes as I get more used to the school curriculum and more used to what family life looks like for us in Juba. The sense of drowning in this huge responsibility is starting to wear off. This feeling of relief is due in part to some HELP which has come my way- for which I am very grateful! :-)

First, there is Grace, seen here with Esther and Ben during one of Esther's Science experiments:

 

Grace is a South Sudanese lady who is coming 2 or 3 mornings a week to help me with washing up, hanging out the washing, ironing clothes, cleaning the bathroom, dusting the Juba dust off the furniture and mopping the floors. What a massive help that is to me! I honestly don't know how I'd be coping here if Grace was not able to come and work for us.

  Then there is Ronnie, a Ugandan man who sells fresh produce at the large market in Juba and delivers fresh fruit and vegetables to our compound, for a small fee. I can text him a shopping list in the morning and he will bring the produce later that afternoon:

 With the market being on the other side of town and with me not having easy access to transport, getting to the market would be a time-consuming and arduous task. Having someone willing to bring these healthy goods right to our door is another big help which saves me alot of time and effort!

I am also incredibly grateful for our new bread-maker- a gift from the Tanzanian MAF team when we left Dodoma. I had never used a bread-maker before and I have to say, it has won me over! I just pop in the ingredients and a couple of hours later, we have fresh bread!

 It is such a brilliant machine! The bread is delicious. There is one thing I would change though; I would love to have a bread-maker as efficient as Jane, the lady who baked our bread in Dodoma, making 4 loaves AND a tray of bread rolls in the same morning! However, in the sad absence of Jane, a bread-maker is a big bonus for us in Juba!

And finally, it is the little things which can make a difference, like these packet-mix sauces from England which came either in my suitcase or via parcels from my Mum. They make meal preparation that little bit easier when most of the meals must be prepared from scratch, but time is short. I am glad I discovered what a help they can be, given how easy it is to pack them into a suitcase and transport them across the world! 

Help comes in different guises, but it all makes a positive difference. As I look to the tasks ahead, it makes them seem smaller and less intimidating. It makes settling in to South Sudan much easier all round.

Peace?

Each day, I can open my email inbox and find a daily security update, warning us of recent fighting and trouble spots or incidents which may have occurred across the country. If I read every update, every day, I think I would feel weighed down with despair and maybe fear, so I pick and choose my days to read these updates in detail. It is good to be informed; but it is not good to be overwhelmed. I try to have a balanced approach to how much information I need to know.
Despite the reality of trouble. there are strong visual reminders nearby to show me that peace is the goal of many. I don't need to go far to see this poster, at the end of our short, dusty street:

The slogan may be simple but the message it emits is powerful. It speaks more than a thousand words:

On the back of the poster, another hard-hitting message, to ensure that it is received by pedestrians or motorists coming from either direction:

When I am out and about at the shops here, I am struck by the military presence. This was not something I was used to in Dodoma, so it is all the more noticeable to me as a new-comer. I try not to stare. I expect I will get used to it one day. Maybe I will accept it as a normal part of life here, rather than seeing it with the eyes of a Juba novice, peeping timidly out of the corner of my eye! It is unsettling. I feel vulnerable as I head down the street to the shops. The shops are not far, but I am still getting used to this new environment. I can definitely say that I am out of my comfort zone!

For Andrew, seeing and meeting military personnel is all part of a day's work. The reminder that this is a country with a volatile security situation is a very present reality:

However, we have been struck by the work of the South Sudanese pastor at the local church we attend. He is the Secretary General of a specially created organisation, headed by the Anglican Archbishop: The Committee for National Healing, Peace and Reconciliation. This is their symbol:

You may have remarked that they are the group responsible for the street posters featured above. This October, they have a month-long conference in Yei to train peace mobilisers, who will then go out to train people in their local communities in peace and reconciliation skills. So much rests in the balance for a conference like this. There could be so much hope. Many want peace. We pray for it too.  

We admire people like Rev. Bernard Oliya Suwa and those who travelled to be part of this key conference. Andrew was part of a team of MAF pilots who were ferrying the delegates to the conference:

It is good to know that there are so many behind the goal for peace, aiming for hope for this next generation, offering an alternative to fighting: