Deep Down Under the Sea

We could hardly be further from the sea than in landlocked South Sudan.

However, "Under the Sea" is the theme that Esther chose to celebrate her first decade! We set to work to transform our lounge into a deep-sea environment, so that her Juba friends could come and celebrate Esther's 10th birthday with us.

With a distinct lack of any ocean-based props here in Juba, Esther, Ben and Joel enthusiastically set to work to create sea-creatures for Friday afternoon's party. Much to the amusement of our South Sudanese house-lady, who has never set eyes on the sea, the children spent happy hours decorating our house, ready for Esther's Under The Sea party. Grace found all this decorating highly entertaining- so much so that she asked me to take her photo next to Esther's deep-sea frieze and under the suspended octopus (a creature Grace had never heard of):

Welcome to Esther's fishy birthday celebration!

Enter through the sea-weed doorway...

 ...deep into the ocean....

We began with craft, making fish to whizz around, hanging from our ceiling fans (Esther's idea!):

There was time for a bit of fishing, starting with the Birthday Girl:

In the background, the projector displayed the BBC's wonderful "Ocean Deep" footage from the "Planet Earth" DVD series onto our wall (with the volume on 'mute'). This meant that the entire party had a live aquarium effect, with real fish swimming along the wall, like a giant fish-tank: a fun back-drop for fishing-time!

Then it was time to avoid the shark, drawn by Ben, while running round the lounge in time to music. If the music stopped while you trod on the shark, you were out! Oops!

We fitted in a short swim session in the small MAF compound pool:

This worked up an appetite for a fishy birthday cake...

Esther had worked on the menu to make some Under The Sea treats:

They seemed to be enjoyed by all the guests...

 

Happy 10th Birthday to Esther!

Second Christmas

Our Christmas post has only just made it through to Juba!
After 3 weeks without any flights from Kenya and therefore no post, the MAF flight from Nairobi flew up again last Friday.

This is what it brought for us:




We had great fun enjoying a "Second Christmas" as we opened our Christmas cards and parcels over the weekend! :-)

And into 2016...

We welcomed this new year in at the fabulous "Renew" Brackenhurst conference, in Kenya.

As we set off on December 28th, from Juba to Kenya, our children climbed aboard a plane for their 10th international flight (and 14th actual flight) of 2015. MAF kids in Juba end up being very familiar with aeroplane travel!

We all enjoyed the conference- especially the children!











Beautiful Brackenhurst: our Kenyan conference venue:



Getting back to Juba on January 1st was a bump back into reality when we were woken at 02:30 by the sound of shooting. It was a rude awakening in the darkness of the very first night of 2016!

Two nights later, I was again woken, this time in the hour before dawn, by the sound of two shots being fired, then a couple of shots returned. Heart pounding, I waited. Thankfully, no more shots were fired- but no more sleep came to me either!

On Tuesday this week I took the children for our first swim of 2016 at a local hotel.
On the walk back home with my children, I got distracted watching a convoy zip past in their dark green jeeps. As I was watching the armed vehicles, an English lady overtook me, walking on my right, on the side of the traffic. I smiled at her- and she greeted me. She asked if I worked in Juba with Samaritan's Purse, so I told her we were in South Sudan with MAF. Her smile broadened and she replied that she greatly admired MAF and had flown with MAF in South Sudan last year.

At once, I realised who this lady was- it was Baroness Cox! She had flown with Andrew earlier in 2015 (see blog post last year!).  I told her that Andrew had enjoyed meeting her when he flew her and that we greatly respected her work with HART.
She shook hands with me and then each of the children, Then I had to turn off the street towards the MAF compound, as she continued walking down the road. What a pleasant and unexpected meeting on the streets of Juba, to launch us into 2016!

A Jolly Juba Christmas

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to you all! 

We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas. 

Here in Juba, our streets have no special lights, there are no Christmas trees on street corners, no decorations, no Carols or Christmas music blaring out of speakers in the small shops... Despite the lack of these outward signs of Christmas, we have had plenty going on to make Christmas special this year!

Our tinsel wreath is on the door, our trusty Christmas tree purchased in Dodoma is surviving another year of children festooning it with home-made decorations and I have over-played our CD of Carols until we can recite all the words by heart!
Yesterday, we sat down to cold, roast chicken and pasta salad for our Christmas lunch and enjoyed our Juba-style ice-cream for dessert. Santa even found his way to South Sudan and filled the children's stockings :-) It was a jolly Juba Christmas celebration!

Our celebrations for Christmas started on December 9th, when Joel's school had their Nativity Play. Joel featured as Joseph, while Esther and Ben were invited to be the narrators.

On December 11th, there was the MAF staff Christmas party, for both local and international staff, There were Carols and speeches and a delicious buffet lunch at a local hotel.

Time for Carols with our informal MAF choir:

That evening, we went to Carols by the Nile, organised by our church. Esther did a reading, then joined Ben and the other children to sing, "Away in a Manger".

I sang as part of the choir:

Once again, it was a most special setting! As the sun set over the river, the fairy lights lit up the African night and the Carols rang out across the dark riverside. 

On Christmas Eve, we joined our Dutch friends, the same as we did last year. They organise the wonderful distribution of food parcels in the slum areas of Juba every Christmas. People in Holland help to send funds to purchase all that is needed for 450 food parcels.

We helped to pack these food parcels on December 23rd. Each packet contains enough for a family to make a decent meal:

- charcoal (essential when you have to cook outside on a fire: no kitchens or ovens in the slums)

-a 500ml water bottle, filled with cooking oil

- a bag of sugar (3 cups measured into the bag)

-a bag of beans

- a bag of flour

-some biscuits

- 2 packets of milk powder

-10 packets of loose-leaf tea

-a small bag of salt

- a bar of laundry soap for washing clothes

Imagine that this bag contained what would be your Christmas dinner.

Could you imagine having to queue up, along with over 300 others, in the blistering heat of South Sudan's sun, to collect your Christmas dinner? 

This is what I was thinking as I joined the distribution team down at the cemetery, where hundreds of families live in make-shift tents. This place, where the sight that assaults my eyes is squalour and deep poverty. I wanted to cry as I stepped through the small entrance and into this world of poverty and need. 

The actual entrance to the cemetery has been blocked up in an official endeavor to discourage people from living there. But when people have nowhere to go, blocking up the wall won't stop them from moving into this large, open area. In the cemetery there is enough space to set up many make-shift houses. Blocking the entrance doesn't solve the problem- desperate people fleeing conflict elsewhere in the country need somewhere to go. The numbers of people living in the cemetery has actually increased this year. 

Since there is no way in, people have simply pulled a few bricks out of the wall, where we could "stoop" our way in. I had to bend right over to climb through this low space.

As news spread that the food parcels were ready to be distributed, the line of people waiting began to form, weaving around make-shift shelters which are home for so many:

Each recipient has to show a card that they were given earlier in the week and this allows them to collect a parcel. It is well planned and organised. The people came forward one by one and presented their cards and in exchange, received their parcel:

Meanwhile, Andrew and the children had gone to another area where there is a sort of "shanty-town". It is not as crowded there and not as intimidating for our young children, who are not used to being in this environment of extreme poverty. They joined in with a team of local teenage girls to collect the cards and distribute the yellow food parcel bags.

Esther ticks the card of this friendly Granny and hands the parcel to her:

Below. Esther and two of the girls from our team hand out food parcels to the families living in these shelters. The charcoal will be used as fuel for the cooking pot outside. The large yellow container is the water supply for these homes: families either purchase water from local water-sellers, who ride with these containers on their bikes, or they may send the children down to the river Nile to fetch water:

Joel helps Dad with the giving of this parcel:

I don't believe that Christmas is much of a jolly occasion for people living without means and where daily life is a struggle for food and safety. However, we hope that the parcels given out bring more than food, as they show people that they are remembered and that others care. 

(Photo credit: Sonja and Judith- with thanks!)

Flying with Andrew

On Friday, I was able to join Andrew!

I flew with Andrew in the MAF plane and saw his work first-hand. I also got to meet some of the inspiring people that he flies within South Sudan. Thanks to kind friends on the MAF compound who took Esther, Ben and Joel for the day, I was able to leave my usual compound life and take to the skies of South Sudan!

Here is an account of  "My Day with a MAF Pilot"

At a bright and cool-ish 7am, I joined Andrew and the dispatch team to climb aboard the MAF mini-bus for the drive to the airport.

Once on the tarmac, I watched while Andre pre-flighted the plane and the dispatch team loaded the freight. There were very thorough discussions to do with weight and balance and where exactly the 18kg of eggs should be stored for the flight!
Andrew spent time going over check-lists and checking a multitude of screens in the cockpit. Clearly, these mean nothing to my nontechnical mind, but are of obvious importance to my pilot husband!

My attention was drawn to the other aircraft around us and to the general atmosphere of early morning busy-ness at the airport. It was fascinating. There is nowhere like Juba airport.

We were surrounded by aid-agency planes and vehicles. Huge helicopters marked "WFP" (World Food Program) stood side by side with Red Cross planes. MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) vehicles zipped past, carrying their staff to their own aircraft. An IGAD helicopter rolled past us down the taxi-way, its noisy engines drowning out any other sound. Its rotors were only slowly turning, but it would soon reach the runway and its rotor blades would swing into life and lift the heavy frame of the helicopter into the air.

Across from where I was standing, a large UN cargo plane with powerful engines sprang into life, filling the air with mighty roaring. Clouds of red dust billowed out of the back of the plane. It slowly began to lumber in our direction, preparing to taxi towards the runway. Its vast white body had few windows, accentuating the 12 small windows of the cockpit, making them appear like dark eyes set against the white of the plane. Its pointed nose below the cockpit and the appearance of these "eyes" made the plane seem like a huge beast, intent on its mission as it forcefully took up its place on the taxi-way.

The noise and bustle of the planes, helicopters and vehicles on the apron was in sharp contrast to the natural beauty behind the MAF plane. The rear of our plane was parked with its tail over a wide patch of long grass, between the runway and apron. This grass was taller than I am! As the MAF team prepared the plane, the early morning sun still sat low in the sky, a red ball suspended in the East. The light it threw out made the grass glow golden- a lovely reminder of nature in this harsh, man-made environment of metal, engine noise and tarmac!

By 08:30, the plane was prepared, the fuel truck had driven over and refuelled, the freight was safely stowed, the passengers were seated and belted in: we were ready to depart!

There was a bit of an aircraft traffic jam! We joined the queue 9th in line, taking our place behind this great helicopter:

By 9:15am, we were airborne! I had a great view, sitting next to the pilot ;-) !!

The passengers included Bishop Taban, in the back right seat (seated in front of  the 18kg of eggs!!):

Beautiful South Sudan:

I took a photo of our plane's shadow as it crossed the amazingly green, swampy ground beneath us:

We flew to KURON: this is the airstrip Andrew landed on:

At KURON, the  freight was unloaded and the Bishop and his team alighted. The bishop invited me to join them for a photo by the MAF plane:

The Bishop was greeted by a group of locals, one of whom gave a wonderful "welcome dance"- the lady in the orange blanket:

Her beads, jewelry and tribal marking were fascinating. She was happy to pose for a photo, which she enjoyed looking at from the screen on my digital camera:

Lots of very cute children came running over to greet the bishop and meet the plane. They were enthusiastic and friendly, but took posing for a photo very seriously indeed:

 These delightful children also enjoyed seeing photos of themselves on the digital camera screen, but when I showed them photos of my (white) children, they screamed with amusement! They burst into excited chatter, pointing and staring in fascination at white-haired, pale-faced children of a similar size to themselves! 

Sadly, I could not communicate much with them, as I have no Toposa language and they have no English. However, I think we established that I liked their beads and that they liked my ear-rings and would quite like to keep my silver-plated necklace (which didn't happen!).

KURON is where the Bishop and his team will spend Christmas, at the inspiring "Holy Trinity Peace Village" which he has established out here in the bush of South Sudan. The bishop has a highly commendable vision: to continue developing this peace village as a practical centre of health care, education, vocational skills training and spiritual care for the people of his area. 

I read this quote from the bishop: "I have been dreaming of a community where people with different ethnicity and different religious backgrounds can live side by side with confidence in harmony and fellowship."

To read more on this work, you can look at these links: 

www.combonisouthsudan.org ›

www.kuronvillage.net/

It was good to see a little of the impact this dream is having, as it becomes reality in this war-torn land.

It was good to to see how the MAF plane can assist in this work, bringing the bishop and team safely and quickly to KURON from Juba and carrying their necessary freight.

We were invited up to the actual village for lunch, but sadly had to decline. The dirt roads were so bad after recent rain, meaning that it could take us up to 45 minutes to drive to the lunch place and 45 minutes back to the plane. This would delay our flight time back to Juba. So we prepared to climb back aboard and to leave KURON.

We were soon back in the air again. A passenger took this rare shot of me with Andrew in his work-place:

There was enough flight time to make a cup of tea... Since there are no flight attendants on board MAF, I had brought my flask along!

(I didn't dare try to balance a full cuppa on my knee mid-flight, while using a camera, hence a photo of the dry cup!)

One hour and 20 minutes later, Andrew was beginning his descent over the Nile and preparing to land at Juba airport:

Back to earth at Juba again! What a great insight into a day's work for a MAF pilot. A wonderful privilege.

It's Alive!

This time, the snake we found in our garden was alive!

It was spotted by Wani, a South Sudanese MAF staff member, who keeps the compound in good shape for us all. He wanted me to take his photo next to the papaya tree and show you the fruit it has produced recently:

 At the foot of the tree, you can just see the edge of the drain cover. Wani had removed the drain cover by our house and was sweeping the dead leaves out of the drain underneath when he came across the snake. Grace was nearby, sweeping up the dust and dirt by our front step:

 Hearing Wani shout out in alarm, Grace rushed round the corner and spotted the snake too. She began shouting in her own language, adding to the general din, so I looked out of the window to see what was so exciting outside!

"A snake!!" yelled Grace in English, for my benefit.
"Here! In the drain!"

I put my shoes on (!! very important to wear shoes near to snakes!) and popped out to see the snake. It was curled up defensively in the drain area:

 I called the children and Andrew, who were all nearby and we watched in fascination as the snake uncurled its scaly body and then tried to climb up the concrete wall out of the drain:

 It's amazing to see how strong their bodies are and how it could push itself up so far without any legs! However, it was unable to climb out of the depth of  this wall and we looked down on it, armed with the Snake Identification book that Andrew had sensibly grabbed on his way out of the house.

We then called Ruan over from the office, a staff member from South Africa, He prodded and probed the snake and it showed only fear and a desire to escape, rather than any aggression. So we decided it was probably a harmless house-snake. Ruan asked me for a dish we could put it in, to get a closer look.
This is the first time I have had a live snake in my casserole dish!

Agreeing that it did not seem to be a threat and was unlikely to bite us, we decided to let it go further down the garden, by the fence and into the grassy area.

This decision was unpopular with Wani and Grace! As far as they are concerned, any snake is a dangerous snake: all snakes should be killed on sight. Grace in particular is of this opinion, having been bitten by a similar-coloured snake a few years ago. It took 4 months for her leg to heal (but partly because the treatment she received was to slash her leg in several places to 'let out the poison'. Her legs still bear the scars of all that cutting of her flesh.)

Our snake slithered away, no doubt relieved to be free, although relief was not what Wani, nor Grace, were feeling!

With all the excitement over, we got back to our respective tasks. I'm still not sure if the snake survived the rest of that day, though- Wani seemed quite determined to follow it and Ben said he spotted him with a sharp-bladed spade, looking carefully through the grass later...! However, it was an interesting interlude in our morning and a great living biology lesson for the children!

Watch out for Pirates!

Some pirates invaded the MAF compound yesterday...

Fortunately, we were prepared! We fed them...

 And we made the naughty ones walk the plank:

They turned out to be very good at fishing, without using their hands, for marshmallows on strings:

They had all come to help Ben celebrate turning 8 and they all said they had had a great time, especially the birthday boy!