Where else??

Where else do you take your child shopping in a car with a "No Arms On Board" sign emblazoned on the window above your child's head??


For safety reasons, to deter arms thieves, many vehicles here carry the symbol you see on the window by Joel's head. However, it seemed a little incongruous to see that sign next to my young child as we innocently set out to go food-shopping across town!

Ice-cream? In Juba???

You could be forgiven for thinking this is just a vicious rumour, but in actual fact, it is reality: we have discovered ice-cream in Juba!!

Until now, we have accepted that ice-cream is simply not a Juba option. We knew that sometimes it appears in the expensive ex-pat supermarkets, but with unreliable electricity for shop freezers and a long truck drive to get it here in soaring temperatures, I have never wanted to risk buying it. Just in case it has been melted and refrozen enough times to make us sick.

However. we had a double revelation this week as far as ice-cream goes.

Firstly, Andrew discovered a long-life chocolate milkshake, sold in 1 litre cartons. On the back of the carton, we read that this chocolate liquid could be whipped up and then frozen to make ice-cream. We thought it was worth a try, so duly whipped it and froze it.
Look at the results:


Real chocolate ice-cream!!
We dished up bowl-fulls! We had a visitor from northern South Sudan staying with us on Wednesday night, as we revealed our ice-cream. She has been staying in a place without a fridge, never mind a freezer, so she was even more excited than us at our first attempt at Juba ice-cream!




The second revelation was when we went out on Friday night to eat at the home of friends who live across town. After dinner, they told us we were having ice-cream for dessert! Since they do not have a freezer, they would be popping out to a local ice-cream parlour, where ice-cream is freshly made! So we had a second yummy helping of ice-cream- what a lot of dessert-inspired excitement in one week!

About Shoes

In the photo below, you can see Ben wearing his shoes:

This was in Kenya, on holiday and these are the sturdy, hard-wearing shoes I bought for him in England last July.

Generally, my children do not like wearing shoes. In Africa, it is often more comfortable to be bare-footed; to have your feet free and cool, to better cope with the heat.
Unfortunately, this is not always practical- the hot ground burns unsuspecting soles, vicious ants bite unprotected skin, thorns, spiky caterpillars and even snakes can be a threat. We found a snake in our garden on Tuesday- a good reminder to us all to wear our shoes out and about!

I find that my children wear their shoes as they start the day, but it is not long before the shoes are kicked off outside somewhere. More often than not, the children come home bare-footed and unsure of where they might have left their shoes.
At the trampoline in the compound, perhaps?
At a friend's house? (we always take our shoes off to go into people's houses)
Maybe by the climbing frame, where bare feet are much more efficient for climbing UP the slide?

Last week, Ben returned home from his afternoon compound-wanderings. His feet, which had left our house clothed in the shoes you see above, returned bare and shoe-less.

On Tuesday morning, we realised that his lovely English sandals were not on the shoe-rack. Did Ben know where his shoes were? No. He did not. He was sent outdoors to go and find them, He could not find them anywhere, he said. So Esther went to look. Then I went, with Joel, as I dropped Joel off at school. Then we had to start lessons and go through the school day and Ben still could not find his shoes.

Over the next week, we all searched everywhere. Andrew looked after work. The South Sudanese worker who maintains our compound looked as he worked and even dug up the garden where our neighbour's dog has been known to bury shoes (!!). I sent an email to ask all the compound residents to look out for them. All to no avail.

It is over a week later and Ben has no sandals to wear. He has had to endure the sweaty ordeal of squeezing his baking feet into his trainers, which are normally only worn in Nairobi or England, as they are simply too hot to wear here.

I cannot get boy's sandals in Juba. It is very frustrating that Ben has lost his sandals!! Have they been stolen if he left them outside all night? Or have they just ended up somewhere random and will turn up again unexpectedly in 5 years??

Children's shoes are one of the items top of our shopping list in England. It is so difficult to find good shoes once we leave England. The shoes the children need must be hardy enough to last in the heat and dust of Africa, strong enough to cope with the sweat and inevitable washing. We also need to make sure the shoes are small enough to fit well but big enough to grow into, as they are supposed to last until our next trip to England. When Ben lost his fantastic pair of Clark's shoes last week, it proved MOST  inconvenient!

However, on this occasion I found a solution: friends from Juba are visiting England and return here next week: and "Amazon.co.uk" delivers products to UK addresses.... so thanks to online shopping and to a well-timed trip to England on the part of our Juba neighbours, Ben should receive a new pair of sandals next week!

They will not be expensive. They will not be Clark's. But they will be sandals- and here's hoping that:
1) They fit him
2) They do not get lost!

Bloodcurdling

"Bloodcurdling". This is not a word we often use.
Yet the word itself brilliantly expresses its own meaning. On Wednesday evening this week, bloodcurdling is exactly the word I needed to describe what I was hearing.

About 10pm, I was downstairs in our office room, trying to catch up with a few emails. Suddenly, a terrible screaming noise started. At first, I thought it was stray dogs howling- a frequent night-sound in Africa. As the noise persisted, I listened more intently and then noticed that I could hear dogs barking separately to the screaming. This meant that it was not dogs I could hear.

The noise worsened in volume and pitch. It became a desperate, howling scream. I realised with horror that it was a woman screaming somewhere nearby. I opened the window to try and gauge where the awful sound was coming from, In the black of a Juba night, it was hard to tell exactly where the lady was; but it was easy to tell that she was in great distress.

I felt afraid for her but did not know what to do. In Juba, I can't rush outside to help- it simply would not be wise. I can't call 999.

I could not settle to work again and I could not sit down, because I was aware of some terrible event happening. It was a a fear-filled scream. My mind slipped into question mode:
Was she being raped?
Was someone attacking her by the compound wall?
Was someone trying to kill her?
Was someone going to attack her and then come to attack us inside the MAF compound?

Disturbed, I said a prayer for the woman. I paced the room- but when the dreadful banging noises and the shout of men's voices reached me, I bolted upstairs to wake my sleeping (worn-out-pilot) husband. Then I burst into tears. My palms were sweaty, my legs were shaking. Some dreadful, horrible thing was happening to a lady and I could do nothing to help.
Despite me waking him so abruptly, Andrew was tranquil and sensible, calming me down. But it was a horrible situation. I also felt fearful. Was the banging sound just a preliminary noise before another shooting incident?

The screaming stopped after maybe 10 minutes. After 15 minutes or so, the frightening banging noises stopped. The sound of voices began to fade.

I did not sleep well that night. I kept waking up, worried about the woman and upset for her.

The next day, our MAF neighbour took a translator with him and went round to the houses behind MAF to ask people what had happened. It transpired that one of our neighbours had a violent husband. In a fit of rage, this husband had tried to kill his wife, attempting to break her neck. When that did not work, he resorted to savagely beating her. That is what we at MAF had heard, along with her desperate screams for survival.

Thankfully, other local neighbours intervened, They removed the man by force and beat him in turn!
He is now in prison.
The woman is in hospital,
Her young son, who must have been there for the incident in their tiny hut-home, is being looked after by relatives.

 I hope we can visit this lady at her house when she comes out of hospital, to show our support for her in this horrible situation.

Domestic violence, sadly, happens all over the world. But Juba is the first place in my life that I have ever heard such a horrifying sound of someone screaming for their life. A truly bloodcurdling sound.

New Aeroplane

Last Saturday, we had a special celebration to mark the arrival of a new aeroplane in the South Sudan fleet.

This smaller plane is the "182" (for technical details, you will have to contact Andrew, since my knowledge of aeroplanes is still sketchy, even after 6 years with MAF!).

As far as I understand, it has 4 seats and is therefore more cost-efficient for any partners who may not need the larger 14-seater caravan plane, which is the plane Andrew normally flies. 

As a team, many of us went to Juba airport, to dedicate this plane:  

Our Programme Manager, Bastiaan, started by saying a few words, highlighting the significance of this new plane for the work we do in South Sudan. It was only 10:30 in the morning, but it was already very hot, so  you can see us here sheltering under the shadow of the larger MAF caravan! There was a caravan parked either side of the smaller 182.

Next, we gathered for a short time of prayer to dedicate this plane- to pray that it will be well used to bring hope and blessing to the people of this country:

Monitoring the Situation

We have recently been graced with visits from this handsome chap:

This is a Nile Monitor Lizard.
He is impressive, with his circular markings. He is about 75cm long. We get lots of lizards and geckos in Africa, but I had never seen a monitor lizard before coming to South Sudan.

Unfortunately. our South Sudanese neighbours who live on the other side of the wall keep trying to kill him. As soon as he appears on our wall, I feel my stress levels rise. I dread the moment when our neighbours realise he is there and start poking him and then trying to beat him with long sticks that they brandish wildly above the wall level.

Earlier today, there were two monitor lizards on our wall, but suddenly, the sticks appeared from the other side. One of the lizards was knocked down into the neighbour's compound. I imagine that was the last we will ever see of him :-(
I ran outside, shouting, "STOP!" but it was too late.

It can be uncomfortable for me, living next door to a culture which can seem so cruel to animals. I asked Grace why the neighbours are so intent on hurting the monitor lizards. She replied that locals eat them ("they are like chicken", she said) or they sell them to foreigners, who apparently buy them to make them into medicine or for their skin.

Still, it is sad to witness cruelty to these fascinating creatures...

Magic Time!

We have had a little excitement at breakfast times in our Juba home this week...

I found a new kind of cereal in town!

It was on special offer: just 20 South Sudanese pounds a box = around 80 pence. What a bargain for Juba!!! This is truly an unheard-of price for cereal here!

Normally, we just eat Weetabix for breakfast, because it is the only cereal with a decent price in Juba, at around £5 a box. Most of the other cereals are priced around £8 a box. I find it very difficult to pay £8 for a box of cereal which lasts about 3 days!

However, these "Magic Time" bargains were not to be ignored! I happily stored 5 boxes of this "magic" cereal in our larder. The expiry date is for December - hence the special price!! They already feel a little less crunchy than they maybe ought to, but we don't care.
I have never heard of "Magic Time" Cereal before, but once again, we don't care. The vital thing is that this cereal is NOT Weetabix!!
I am happy to report that the children love them...

However, I am not one to go for sugary cereals myself, so with the money saved from the boxes of  "Magic Time", I went a bit wild and treated myself to this:

The price seemed rather eye-watering, at 153 South Sudanese Pounds:

I tried not to work out this cost in English money. I preferred to be in denial about the amount of money I was spending on a single box of cereal! Anyway, last week's exchange rate was 16 South Sudanese Pounds to 1 American dollar and then I still needed to convert that to English pounds. All that arithmetic was a little challenging for my mental maths whilst I was out and about on a shopping trip!

Impulsively, I grabbed the Rice Crispies, paid for them along with the Magic cereal and took it all home. I have been enjoying a bit of Snap, Crackle and Pop every morning this week- what a nice change from Weetabix! It was a little on the expensive side, but with fluctuating exchange rates, I am still rather hazy as to the exact price!

Still. at least we got a bargain for the children's breakfasts, with our nearly-finished Apple Rings, our (not-so) Crunchy Way and our Choco-Wows!!