5

Look who just turned five years old!

When Joel requested a "bumble bee" party for his fifth birthday. I have to admit, I was a little surprised!
It seems, however, that bumble bee parties are all the rage, judging by my "google" search for bumble bee cake ideas! I found a nice, simple cake idea and Joel seemed to like it :-)

We planned an early party, starting at 09:30 on Saturday morning, so that it would be finished before the blasting heat of a pre-rain South Sudanese midday!

Here are some pictures from the special Bumble Bee Birthday event- we are just sorry that you could not bee there with us ;-)

Disconcerting

No sign of rain yet- and the weather continues to be rather warm!

The cooler 29'C was great for our 06:50 jog, but the 40'C afternoon felt every degree hotter than the early morning!

It is disconcerting in this season that we have a warm toilet seat when we visit the bathroom...!! It is also disconcerting that the water inside the toilet is warm! It makes me cringe to know that this heat is the perfect hotbed for all kinds of potentially nasty germs brewing in our bathroom!!

(just in case you were wondering, the brown marks in our loo are nothing sinister- these are stains caused by the limescale in our bore-hole water!)

It was also disconcerting this morning when I popped out to a local shop with our 3 children, only to be greeted by the screams of a South Sudanese toddler inside the shop. Terrified, she pointed to us as we stepped into the shop, shouting, "Khawja!" This is a term used to describe white-skinned people. The poor child was petrified by the sight of us!

Pointing repeatedly, crying and screeching, she captured the attention of all the customers and shop-keepers. Her tall, regal-looking mother swiftly lifted her, placed her high on the counter further from us and laughed at her child's obvious discomfort around us, the foreigners.

As a person who likes children, it was disconcerting that the mere sight of me is enough to terrify and upset a small toddler!

These small, disconcerting incidences are just little reminders that we are foreigners here- in a land which is different: where the heat affects our life in unexpected ways (!!)  and where we stand out by the colour of our skin. 

Snippets of Life in Juba

Coffee, anyone?

Who would like to join Andrew for a cup of coffee?

On Monday, Andrew was looking forward to a cup of coffee after a long day of flying. 

He prepared his brew, but wondered, "Why does there appear to be a black lump floating on top?" as he poured out the drink he was so looking forward to. 

It turned out to be a drowned cockroach! The cheeky creature had made its way into the coffee pot... yuk!
We are still learning to live with the seemingly indestructible Juba cockroaches, who are thriving in this hottest of seasons!

Christmas in March

It may be March, but our Christmas post is still arriving! :-) 

On Tuesday 1st March, we were very happy to receive a parcel posted to us in November! 

According to our very happy children, the chocolate coins were delicious and not even melted!

Last week, we also happily welcomed a birthday parcel for Ben (for his birthday on December 9th!)...

...and an Amazon parcel that had been posted in October!

Lumpy Milk

The heat continues, so out of curiosity, we put the thermometer onto our schoolroom doorstep on Tuesday afternoon:

The heat seems to be affecting the Longlife milk in the local shops. The milk we have bought has been lumpy and on its way to being yoghurt! 

"Waste not, want not", my Grandmother taught me... so true to her motto, we used the lumpy milk to make scones. Here are the delicious scones that Joel made on Wednesday:

And the tasty rice pudding Andrew made:

Andrew popped out after work yesterday to buy enough  milk powder for approximately 17 litres of milk: From now on, it's this milk powder we will be using, until the rains arrive and temperatures start to go down a little! 

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!