Like this:

Week one is down.  As planned I successfully arrived in Juba on Monday…healthy as a ripe banana.  It’s always fascinating to people-watch in airports.  You had the glamorous field photographer…just rugged enough to be going to the field, but looking good enough for the magazines he’ll publish in.  Each to their own.  You have the odd little man wearing leopard skin shoes with his suit and tie (which I’ve since found out is very common in Darfur).  Sadly, there are the kids that hang around the airport carpark ready to clean the dust off the car of any willing driver.  If you stop long enough to look them in the eye, you notice that a couple of them have untreated cataracts.  It’s a hard world here.

–
After briefings in Juba, I headed up country on Wednesday in an UNHAS (UN Humanitarian Air Service) plane to a lovely airport in Wau at which point I had to identify my bag which was flung onto the back of a pick up truck that careened off across the dusty red tarmac to load it on to a tiny 9 seater Cessna plane from WFP (World Food Programme) to fly me up to Malualkon-proper.  In Wau, the control tower with the giant ‘UN’ painted in black was a transportable control tower, clearly not designed to stay forever.

Behind ya...coming in to land at Malualkon on the WFP plane

–

Malualkon, the ‘sprawling metropolis’, is my new home.  The morning alarm clock are all the animals making noises.  My tent is five star with lights and even a plug, and well, the ‘ensuite bathroom’ is class.  Funnily enough this is what most people probably imagine when they think of life as an aid worker.  And I must say I quite like it (“Ha, she’s only on day four…” they all snigger).   The entertainment scene consists of a walk to the market before 7pm curfew or dropping by the other organizations in the town, of which there’s a handful.   There’s a volleyball net and a tyre swing from the tree at the neighbours, Mercy Corps, which can be reached by going through the hole in the flax fence.

The view from my tent...other tents & tukuls on the base

The showers and latrines...shower under the stars anyone?

–

The contrasts with the Congo are massive.   While Congo was ‘once-glorious-in-a-time-gone-by’ and thus seems to live in the shell or skeleton of this supposed (tyrannical, colonial) glory with their love of formality, heavy bureaucracy and filing for the sake of filing…southern Sudan, especially as it appears to be on the brink of independence, is a ‘fresh’ place in a sense – not to dismiss of course the rich ethnic (and colonial) history of this vast expanse.  While in Congo you’ll have laws dating from many decades, and many of them, and people like to quote them until it makes you turn blue…the laws of southern Sudan have only existed for a few years and in all honesty, at this rural and remote level, what counts more is having the authorities on your side and just doing what works.

–
From my tent at night I can hear the kids chanting and playing in the mud huts next door.  I have to admit, this is pretty close to the stereotype people think of when they think of working in the elusive ‘Africa’.  As I said, though, it’s a refreshing (hot) change.  The heat is dry…so the sweat is less forthcoming than in Kisangani though I’ve been warned, this lovely balmy mid-30s celcius is not ‘hot’.

–
Yesterday (Saturday) I went out with our water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH) guys and the WASH coordinator for Sudan for all organizations doing WASH activities.  It was a chance to visit some of the returnees, southerners who have made their way back from northern sudan to restart life in what looks to be a new Southern Sudan in a few months time.  Literally families hanging out under the trees, hiding from the blazing sun, with their belongings…suitcases, beds dismantled, mattresses, wardrobes and other wares…waiting to be settled on land nearby.  This is one of the major issues…getting the land surveying done quickly enough to then allocate to the returnees a plot which they can call their own.  There’s plenty of land, but there’s hoards of households and local authorities have to decide who gets what and how.  A delay in the land surveying means the ‘transitory’ phase is prolonged and thus the ‘emergency’ response as well…never an ideal situation.

–
However, in the more established transit points, it’s a great example of how society thrives as a little economy jumpstarts almost overnight…human nature drives us towards working and earning and finding a way to create something for the future.  I heard from a colleague of a returnee who had brought his television and dvds with him and had set up a little ‘cinema’ in the camp, demarcating the ‘paid’ viewing area.  Among the returnees there are lawyers, health professionals, teachers, carpenters…you name it.  A lot of skills flooding into the area.

–

After the visits we went to Samaritan’s Purse, another relief agency involved in WASH activities in the area to meet with all the WASH representatives from the major NGOs operating in the area.  Yesterday restored my faith in what is called the ‘cluster’ system, where NGOs doing the same work (like WASH) in similar areas (like the state of Northern Bahr el Ghazal where we are) literally ‘cluster’ together their work, share information, resources, time etc.   While there have been the critics of the cluster system worldwide, it’s clear that when it’s done well it really works.

–

On our way home, about 50 metres from the base, we slowed the vehicle down to avoid running over a stray goat.  The vehicle stalled and, as it has had a reputation to, would not re-start.  Well, time to push…so out we get. However, it’s myself and a colleague from IRC pushing…and 30 other enthusiastic kids bouncing around.  Eventually the driver says “We have to get rid of the kids…I’m going to run one over by mistake…”   So like the Pied Piper I call them over to a clearing on the side of the road and start teaching them ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’…well, the car got started within half a minute and the kids didn’t even notice it was gone.  I walked home with kids trailing behind me and a pink sky before me.  It’s about noticing the simple, little, silly beauties of life…

Sunset ride home...