Mirrors

Have come to the realisation that I haven't looked in a mirror in over 3 weeks. It's strangely liberating!

P

Please note, this post does not apply to both parties of our marriage!

At the market

While at the market today Sarah and I had a rather surreal moment, and I thought I'd share it with you.

We were sitting in an outdoor "coffee shop", me with my sweet gingery coffee, Sarah with her hibiscus tea. It could have been Glasgow, Hereford or Ballymena (apart from the 30C heat).

A chicken was tied up by 1 leg in the corner, and a piglet scurried under Sarah's chair. 2 Elderly men beside us were spitting on the ground while holding their bare feet.

3 dogs and 4 pigs were lying side by side just to our right, and a bedraggled sheep came and started to drink out of the washing up basin.

A Sudanese lady walked past with a dazzling head scarf contrasting her skin tone, while 2 male soldiers walked past in uniform holding hands. A ten year old girl struggles by carrying 40l of water from a yolk across her shoulders.

We then realise the chicken has gone quiet. During our coffee it has been killed, plucked, gutted and chopped in the corner in under 10mins.

It's a funny old place!

P.

Doro life thus far

Ekke Buornje from Doro this Tuesday afternoon! Once again there is not a cloud in the South Sudanese sky and it’s really quite hard for us to believe that Christmas is just around the corner.

It does feel that we are starting to adjust to our camping style life at this end. I am learning about flexibility and that ‘clean’ and ‘dirty’ are not mutually exclusive terms. Our utilization of the Jiko (charcoal stove), is working out well although it does take a bit more planning than meal making at home. I think that is probably the major difference in life here, things just take more time, truly back to basics. Each day brings many small victories - we rejoice in these a lot. today's included stomaching my lunch after witnessing the 'meat man' at the market, butchering (the word has never seemed more appropriate!) the cow's head with an axe. 3 hours later we sat down to lunch hungry after a morning lifting boxes and happily munched on the beef from said cow.

We have been excited to find some fresh treats in the market: Oranges, Lemons and Guavas. In the heat these make a welcome break from pasta, rice and Paul’s new nemesis - lentils! We are realizing how much we took for granted the access we have to wonderful varieties of fresh fruit and veg at home. 

Yesterday was our first ‘clinical day’ and we have been given the task of clearing and readying the maternity building for opening (planned for January), along with a few other bits and pieces in what remains of December.

I thought pictures could illustrate better than I can explain. Basically, the building is currently full of boxes (mainly medical supplies which were sent in on a 40ft container and are of varying usefulness) which need to be moved to another store building.

Here are some pictures…

This is what the clinic looks like as we approach, the building on the far left is the Maternity building, the middle building is the General Clinic and on the right is a storage building which is currently being built. There is also another storage building behind the General clinic (which is where we are moving the boxes to).

A glimpse inside the Maternity building first thing monday:

And of our progress after 2 days:

It’s a glamorous task we are undertaking, dust, dirt, and creepy crawlies galore – the perfect job for me! We have managed to stay in good spirits, it’s satisfying to be doing something measurable and practical and working together is fun. My spider stamping reaction time has also definitely improved.

Here’s a wee snap I took from the clinic so that you can see a bit more of what surrounds us.

People here are friendly as we greet them in our broken Mabaan, and we’re amazed by the generosity of those who have so little, often we are asked to sit down and share chai or coffee with. 

It’s a real privilege to be here on this adventure!

Do email us we’d love to hear from you with news of home!

*S*

Learning Mabaan

A few interesting facts about our last week:

- Today was 36C in the shade

- I killed plucked and gutted my first chicken

- Sarah spotted, and I killed our 1^st snake!

- I have a definite lentil tolerance level

- We’ve both squashed scorpions

We’ve been having our 2 week intensive language course with varying degrees of success. The main mode of learning is to go out into the village and greet people, hoping that they invite you sit down. It is hoped that by sitting with people, even though you can’t really say anything, you will start to recognize words and pick up phrases.

Surprisingly we’ve managed to pick up quite a few phrases. As greetings are so important here, that’s been the first thing to get memorized. It the morning you greet people with “Did you sleep well?, followed by “where are you coming from?” and “where are you going?”. My other Mabaan phrases include: “how many children do you have?”, “we will work at the clinic”, and “can I play football?”

I thought I was doing really well until I tried to invite an elderly man to sit down, and I called him a pig by mistake! The words “coocho” and “choocho” got me muddled. That’s the only mistake I’m aware of, but I’m sure in my enthusiasm I’ve made plenty more!

Am attempting to go play football with some of the local guys tomorrow, although they look pretty good. Not sure I’m ready for bare feet football yet! Will let you know how I get on.

Hope you are all well.

Paul