3rd post from Juba

Stardate 3.21.11

As the voyage in South Sudan continues, the Pheagle (the US chartered plane) headed towards Akobo on the border with the neighboring country of Ethiopia. The natives were interestingly dressed and spoke a strange language…ok I can’t really keep that up. But the US Dept of State plane here is really called the Pheagle (combo of phoenix and eagle) and I did really take it for a two day trip to Akobo and Pibor.

We left for Akobo at around 8:30 and for the rest of the day it was a hot, humid and sweaty whirlwind. First we went to see a clinic in a nearby village of Deng Jok which was about 20-30 minutes away by car which included driving through a small river. No worries on the way there but on the way back one of the cars got stuck and we had to do some maneuvering to get it out. At the clinic we saw the regular clinic which includes a male midwife with one eye! To be a midwife here you go to school for about 3 years. And there were some other staff and community health management committee members handy for questions. The clinic also has a nutrition component for treating severe acute malnutrition. I must say that the difference between what a malnourished child in Ethiopia and Sudan looks like is amazing. The kids here look much healthier. I’m not quite sure why. My favorite was one little kid—maybe around 12 months—who was wearing a crocheted pantsuit outfit. Of course, I’m in a lightweight t-shirt sweating to death but these kids are all covered up and looking cool as cucumbers!

On the way back we stopped at another partners’ Farmer Training Site where they do demonstrations on the benefit of planting in rows, weeding, etc. Of course, it’s totally the wrong time of year for visiting an agriculture program (like visiting a farm in MD in January), but they appreciate the visit nonetheless.

We also visited a third partner’s borehole drilling project which is well on its way to completion.

By the time I got back to our “hotel” and I use that word loosely, I was knackered and very dehydrated. My water during the day heated up to the temperature of tea. Blech.

Our hotel was a bunch of local houses called tukuls which are basically one circular room with a locally made bed (iron and rope webbing). It was so hot in the tukul I asked them to pull my bed outside (and then the others in my group did the same) and I slept under a sheet and my bug bivvy which is like a sleeping bag shape but made of mosquito net and has a little plastic flexible rod that helps keep the netting off of your face/torso.

The following day we took of for the 2 hour drive to Pibor. We had a late start and the road was slow going because of the terrain. This is hard black cotton soil. Apparently it has two stages—muddy and impossible to drive through or dry as concrete and painful to drive through. So I guess the benefit of this trip was we had the later. But the roads were bad enough that one of the three cars lost a wheel. Not a tire. A wheel. The whole this was bent at an angle that looks like something from a Herbie the Love Bug movie. So after moving things into our car, shifting around people, making copious calls to make sure someone would come out for the two remaining people with the broken car, we continued bumping our way along the road. We eventually made it to a resting point where we had planned to spend 1 ½ hours, but it had taken us so long to get there that we only had a few minutes in the market and then had to press on. The town is inhabited by the Murle tribe which have some really good tribal markings and beads. Definitely look at the pictures! We tried to communicate but it was pretty pathetic. One guy gave a little kid a tennis ball and that was a hit. And once they figured out they could see their picture in the digital camera they were on board with photos!!

We finished the drive to Pibor and instead of having 4 hours there we had 2. So I visited a women’s group that had been provided jerry cans for water and hygiene and sanitation training and then the County Agriculture Office. The women were definitely the more interesting and I spent about 1 hour there talking with them about their understanding of hygiene, why they’ve decided to come back to Pibor after years of living in other places, etc. They have a lot of ideas and I’m hoping the local and international NGO can provide further training and support.

So here it is, Monday, and I’m not sure I’m fully hydrated yet. But it was a good trip and I’m glad I got to see the Murle women!

More soon,
Jane

Link to pictures:

Akobo/Pibor South Sudan

Slideshow:

2nd post from Juba!

Hi,

So since the last time I posted I’ve spent most of my time either working or asleep. Things are, as you can imagine, pretty busy here.

I’ve been on two trips so for now I’ll focus on that because the other day to day stuff is pretty boring.

The first trip was to visit a partner working with the communities in and around Lobonok in Central Equatoria State. Most of the people here fled to Uganda during the war but have been back for many months. And they were mostly able to stay together during their time in Uganda which is, frankly, amazing.

The programs focus on diversifying assets so people don’t rely entirely on farming for food security. Some of the groups have opened small shops to sell things like soap, sugar, soda, etc to others in the town. Other groups focus on tailoring/sewing or soap making. The groups have chosen these activities as something they’re interested in and that they feel there’s a market in. Many of these people also take part in adult literacy and numeracy classes. The motivation to be involved and find other opportunities is very apparent. What’s less apparent is how these groups will really function once the agency moves on. The skill level among community members is quite low, transportation is very difficult and supplies are sometimes hard or expensive to come by. All of which bring sustainability into question. But everyone hopes for positive things in South Sudan and improvements are being seen. So we’ll cross our fingers.

After that trip I spent a considerable amount of time focusing on the bureaucracy of allocating money to groups to do these projects. But I did manage to plan a trip to Agok. Now depending on who you ask, and which map you look at, Agok is either just south of Abyei in Warrap state or is in the very must southern area of Abyei. Under the CPA, Abyei is a special administrative area and one that the North and South are still talking about and trying to come to agreement on. It’s also a huge flashpoint and one that we all expect will deteriorate before it improves. Temperatures were in the high 40s (Celsius) which is REALLY hot! Even though I’ve adjusted to the heat, I can hardly be in that bright sun. In the shade it’s about 38C.

I visited a partner who is one of two NGOs provided almost all of the health services in the area. The Ministry of Health here is very weak and doesn’t have the funding or capacity to provide these services. Our original plan was to visit Abyei town and then stop to see where some of the people who’ve come from Khartoum are settled while awaiting an allocation of land for permanent settlement from the Abyei administration. However, due to insecurity in the area about 3 days before we left Juba, we changed our plan to not go to the town and just to visit the returnee areas which are quite a bit south and therefor much safer. When we got to Agok we learned that there had been additional fighting resulting in many people moving temporarily from Abyei town southwards where they feel safer. All of the NGOs in Abyei relocated their staff and the UN agencies went into a more contained mode.

To get to Abyei and the settlement locations from Agok you have to cross a river. There is only one bridge. So if anything happens to that bridge you’re stuck. Given the lack of options, we decided it was safest to not cross the bridge. That way, if there was any need to return to base quickly, we would be able to do so. So, we traveled north of Agok town towards the bridge where our partner has a health clinic instead.

On route to the clinic we saw many people on the move. We stopped to talk to a few and most were headed to Agok where they have family and where they will stay for a few weeks in case the fighting in Abyei gets worse. Most have left behind the father or uncle to watch the house and other assets. We also saw a lot of youngish men walking southwards with their guns and some supplies. But there was no hint of violence or tension. It was more that a lot of them had been told to make their way south and were walking/biking with their assets. But we’re not sure why or who they were.

At the clinic we talked to the main “doctor” who is actually a Community Health Worker. This is someone who’s received basic training but isn’t a doctor or a nurse. However, he’s responsible for running the clinic and identifying most problems and then referring those that are more complicated to the town where one NGO runs a large health clinic and hospital. Also on staff are Traditional Birth Attendants who do pre-natal visits and education, a vaccinator, a pharmacist (but not trained like one in the US), a growth monitoring person (mostly gives children under 5 their shots), and someone to look for malnutrition in children. Despite how scary that sounds in terms of not having a lot of qualified staff, this set up is actually quite good and this particular clinic has a lot more staff and training than others I’ve been to.

While I was there, one of the patients was a young boy—probably around 10—who had something like scabies on his legs. But because of the scratching it has turned into a bigger infection and there were open cuts. He was receiving a tetanus shot, treatment for the infection, and a thorough cleaning. His 23 year old brother has this as well but to a much lesser extent. One of the steps the doctor advised was for the family to wash their clothes and their bodies and whatever they were sleeping on as well. The germs, when people aren’t cleaning regularly, are quickly spread between family members and are much harder to eliminate. But, the good news is, with regular treatment, the boy will be fine. He will however have to have treatment every day for 5 days. All of which is provided free of charge by the clinic.

Since we left Agok, the situation in Abyei has gotten worse and things look like they will deteriorate and more fighting is likely. Hopefully with some intervention and diplomacy things will calm down, but as this situation hasn’t been resolved in the 5 years since the CPA was signed, I think it’s highly unlikely that it will be resolved before July. They also need to have their own referendum for determination (postponed from January 2011) which I’m sure will cause further upheaval.

Anyway—it was a really interesting field trip for me, and I’ve got a few others coming up, so stay tuned!! In the meantime, it’s back to work.

Jane



Link to photos of Lobonok and Agok/Abathok:

Lobonok CES and Agok Abyei South Sudan March 2011

Slideshow of the same:

First post from South Sudan

Hi all,

It seems apropos that my 100th blog post will come from Juba in South Sudan since my very first post was in 2007 from Khartoum North Sudan.

I arrived here on Wednesday Feb 2 and have been trying to stay hydrated against the heat since I stepped off of the plane. It's probably not worse than Baltimore in the summer, but I think living in cool, temperate climates for a few years has made it a difficult transition. So you go from air con to air con with spurts of profuse sweating in between.

My first couple of days have been spent orienting myself to life here and our programs--which are new to me. We have a livelihoods and markets specialist in from WDC so we're spending time with partners or organizations engaged in those activities.

On Friday we took a visit to the Juba Port where barges of people and their things are arriving via the Nile where they will seek onward transport to their towns. We talked to a few famlies, women and children, groups of families traveling together. Some people have been away for decades, others have never been here before but identify it as their home and are returning. They bring with them everything they own--tables, chairs, beds, clothes, food, and more. Everything they could possible bring is now stacked up around them as a makeshift shelter while they await either more items, family or onward transport. IOM, the International Organization for Migration, has been giving funding from many countries to help move people. On the day we visited, people who'd be waiting at the port for about a week were starting to load up their belongings onto huge trucks for tranport to a town called Torit. They will be loaded into a bus, but people wont go without their belongings so IOM has had to organize more trucks and trips than expected. Also, the huge volume of items they've brought with them make transport difficult. Some times only three families' belonging will fit into the truck. There are hundreds waiting now and IOM knows that 600+ are on a barge that should be arriving at any time. At this makeshift camp, UNICEf has started providing clean water and latrines. But there are still signs of open defecation in many spots. Despite the difficult conditions, many families are happy to be in Juba and excited for their new nation.

Some of my other activities have been less exciting...including a three hour long meeting where we were introduced to the concept of the development planning process and for which I will have to attend many subsequent meetings. The problem here is that many of the people who own businesses are not from South Sudan and many of the people who have stayed here during the years of war and subsequent 5 years of peace don't have the skills or finances that are needed. For example, you have people in government positions who are in charge of developing a budget. Which they will do. But the western concept of using that budget as a tool to monitor, track and plan your expenditures just doesn't exist. Many feel that if there is a need, there should be money. They will develop a budget one day and then a week later spend money of something they feel is needed but which isn't anywhere in their budget. So it's starting from a very basic level of what a budget it and how and why you need to stick to it. To imagine that happening on a massive scale as the new government takes control is a bit frightening. I'm not sure the money and the skills are here. Though there are MANY agencies and governments doing their best to help make sure the Government of South Sudan (GoSS) succeeds. Or at least muddles through a difficult transition.

Another group we went to visit isn't one that we fund, but an example of a successful organization that has survived for years with very little external support and an example of what can be done even when skills may not be what we hope. The Nile Community Development Organization or NICODO is a group of farmers and cattle owners who formed a cooperative years ago. Today they are buying milk, boiling it and either selling it or turning in to yogurt for sale. In addition to milk, they assist farmers with vaccinations for herds and farming inputs. Farmers deliver their milk and the amount is recorded in the ledger. At the end of the month the profits are divided among those who brought milk for sale. And NICODO keeps a bit to pay for staff and overhead costs. I took lots of pictures as some milk was being delivered while we were there. Though I can be adventurous at times, I just couldn't down the yogurt...which is very runny and not at all like American-style yogurt. It was an interesting program and gave us some good ideas for opportunities in other locations.

Some pictures of the port visit and NICODO are in the below.

Enjoy,
Jane


Link to album:

South Sudan Feb 2011

Slideshow:

Long weekend in Lamu and Ukambani Kenya 1.11

So I had a feeling my Sudan visa would come through. I was at the top of the list of people and everyone was pushing hard to get some visas approved. That meant that within a few weeks I’d probably be heading to Juba for a couple of months. So I started planning to go to Lamu for the long weekend. I then found out I’d be doing a drought assessment in the coastal province and the neighboring areas the following week... so it all worked out like kismet.

I departed my house on Friday afternoon and zipped through mercifully light (for Nairobi) traffic. I sped through check-in relatively quickly and had time for a coke light while I cleaned the dust out of all 4 of my camera filters (on 2 lenses). The flight was called and the waiting room emptied out. With minimal security, free seating and a small plane, boarding’s a snap!

A few hours later I landed in the small airstrip servicing the Lamu archipelago. It’s not actually on Lamu Island, but is just across the bay on a separate island. I was met by a representative (read helper) for Kizingo—the hotel where I’d be staying. I chose Kizingo based on the recommendation of the guy I sit next to at work. He’d described it as a quiet place where you could either be with other people, or by yourself, but that it was in a more secluded spot. Sounded perfect for my needs. Not being able to convince any of my friends to come for the weekend, I decided that some alone time with some books and the beach sounded just fine!

To get to Kizingo from Lamu’s airport you have to ride in a motorboat for about 30 minutes. It’s in a rather protected inlet/bay area and you ride between mangrove forests for 95% of the journey, passing other small inlets and a few small communities or rental homes. About 30 seconds after we started off on the trip I realized that a) it’s been ages since I’ve been to a beach and b) I love it. I love the salt-water smell. I love being in a boat. I love the animals that live in coastal environments. I love the beach. I just love it all. I felt all of the stress and worry melting away as we bounced and cruised through the small waves while we passed the mangroves by. For those that aren’t familiar with mangroves up close, they’re bizarre. When the tide is low, which is was, you can see the roots of the trees heading down through the water. It’s as though the tree has a mirror image, one with leaves and one without. They have bizarre twisty branches both heading down into the water and the up towards the sunshine…fighting with other trees to get the best spot, resulting in some strange shapes and leaning configurations. We passed a few other slowly moving boats, some local dhows full of fisherman coming and going, a small beach town and the local bus connection to the mainland where drivers park their cars or people off load before getting onto a boat to take them to the appropriate island location.

There were also birds, white cranes or herons of some sort, stalking the mangroves for fish. They would hold themselves totally still and then smack their beak down for a tasty bite. I saw a fish eagle perched in a tree—which looks very much like a bald eagle. There were a few dug out canoes left about –waiting for their owner to return. And some of the fishing dhows back from their morning run were listing to the side in low tide. There were few people swimming or fishing on the banks which just heightened the sense of calm and peacefulness on the river.

Eventually, my ride came to an end. I think the captain was trying to scare me as he zoomed up to another moored boat and then did the ship equivalent of slamming on the breaks leading us to a smooth landing on the beach. I jumped off to the warm sand and was handed by bag, which was promptly taken by a hotel staff person, and then led to the main lounge/bar area. I was looking at the photos and options of activities on the wall and was handed a welcome mango juice. In that five-minute period my bag had been whisked away to Banda 3…my home for the next three nights. After a mere signature I was taken to my banda which is built much like the traditional homes on Lamu, though thankfully bigger and with running water.

The banda had a front porch with a table and sofa as well as a hanging “bed” set up. It's bigger and more sturdy than a hammock, but still hanging by thick ropes and able to swing back and forth. Through an open doorway was the large main room with a small desk and chair to the left, a table and two chairs to the right and a large bed surrounded by a mosquito net smack in the middle. Instead of a headboard then had designed a bit of a ledge that had his/her lights and a small area for your book and clock. Behind that was the closet and bath area—accessed on either side of the bed. The shower and toilet were on opposite sides with a sink in the middle. There was no door or window to close and the open air plus the high thatched ceiling gave it the air of a serene tropical retreat. Exactly what it was. It took me about 1 minute to unpack my things and set myself up on the front hammock bed thingy with my book.

I fell into a routine for those days: an activity in the morning, and then some reading and an afternoon nap. The first day I was there I joined another group going out snorkeling and to look for dolphins, who, if in the mood, would frolic about while we flapped around in the water. We did see two dolphins who were slightly curious but not totally interested in swimming and playing with us. Fair enough. It’s their house, they can do as they please. But we did have about 20 minutes of snorkeling around and watching them zoom around and down. It made me feel about as quick and graceful as a seal heading down main street!

So, having had a bit of fun with the dolphins, who left us for some squid, we headed off to the little island of coral for a look at the tropical fishes. And they did not disappoint. There were lots of fishes I’d seen at the Baltimore Aquarium growing up and on other snorkeling excursions…but there were definitely some new ones I’d never seen. By far the weirdest experience was swimming through these huge groups of benign jellyfish. Each one was about the size of a tea bag but you would swim through hundreds of them. Even knowing that they wouldn’t sting didn’t allay the creeping feeling of getting through them. Ugh. I shudder just remembering. I imagine it’s a bit like swimming through jello cubes. We stopped briefly for a stretch on the coral where we saw lots of crabs and some strange fish that can hop around on the rocks. It looks like a fish but can be out of water as much as it’s in water. Very weird and slightly disturbing. Then, back to the boat for the return trip. Despite a sun shirt and layers of sunscreen I did miss a few spots and now have a patch of bright red skin on my right hip where I wasn’t totally covered by the canvas roof of the small motor boat. I am still, weeks later, recovering. This close to the equator it only takes minutes!

The second morning I headed into Lamu town. I took the boat over and was met by a guide. I was never really clear on his name. I was supposed to meet Abdul but he was apparently not answering his phone, so his brother showed me around. From the moment we landed on shore, my guide was off. He sped from one place to another. “These are construction materials that come from X, Y and Z for A, B and C”. “This is the donkey clinic where people can bring their donkeys for care” (As an aside, one of the donkey’s looked about 2 days from death and had to be brought in in a special donkey ambulance—one of four cars on the island.) The tour continued—“here’s where they teach carvers, he’s an example of the old style of building, and here’s a new one. It’s being rehabilitated by a foreigner.” And on it went through a maze of narrow pathways where I had to jump out of the way of donkeys carrying construction materials X, Y and Z through the pathways or shimmy past women returning from market. Despite being told that Lamu was Muslim and to dress conservatively, I found that many of the island's Swahili inhabitants had no qualms about wearing sleeveless shirts or short skirts and I was longing to not be in my heavier sleeved t-shirt and longer pants. After two hours of walking through the streets and sweating my brains out I downed almost an entire liter of water and had a coke. My guide dropped me at the Lamu museum for a quick tour around. I can’t say it was the best museum but it definitely wasn’t the worst.

I returned to Kizingo and banda 3 and had a dip in the warm, but not so warms as to not be refreshing, waters of the bay. I did walk along the beach but there just wasn’t that same stretch we get in the US where the sand is kind of firmly packed and easy and enjoyable to walk on. As a result, 2 minutes of walking anywhere led to profuse sweating and the need to bathe in ice water.

Everything in Kizingo was made locally and mostly by the British owners with some local help. All of the materials are local, and the hangers are made out of branches. The loo (aka toilet) uses only 1 liter of water per flush and the electricity is principally solar with a generator back up. Many of the veggies are grown on site and the owners also have a chicken farm and are starting a quail farm. The exciting news while I was there was that the male quails where making foam balls…a sign that they’re ready to mate and fertilize the much-coveted eggs! Basically, you could enjoy yourself, eat well, and not feel as though you have sold your soul to the devil for destroying pristine land and beach with your presence. Just the way to pass a long weekend.

Unfortunately for me, all too soon my weekend was up and I had to take a 20 minute flight from Lamu's airport to the coastal mainland town of Malinidi. I got in early enough to mosey around my hotel and look for a nice spot to finish my book (the third of the trip) while I had a late lunch. The ideal spot—in terms of food availability and temperature—turned out to be beachside where a constant breeze kept me cool from the coastal heat. This also afforded me an excellent perch for people watching. Make that Euro-watching. Almost everyone at this place was Italian…and let me tell you, not all Italians show taste in their swimwear choices. There were small Italians in relatively “normal” suits, and fat Italians in hardly any suit at all. There were all shades of tan and burn and not a sun-screened person in sight. The was a person in a speedo that I had a hard time identifying as a woman and an effeminate person with long hair who I had a hard time identifying as a man. After a mind-boggling hour, I headed back to my room and repacked for the next four days of a work field trip.

This year Kenya had poor rains during the October –December period. That’s resulted in limited water and pasture in areas where pastoralists live and a failed maize harvest in the areas I visited. The areas really can’t support maize even when there are maize but most Kenyans feel that if they don’t have maize, they haven’t eaten. But slowly, after several years of poor rains, people are starting to be convinced that other cash-generating options and crops that will produce even in years of poor rain, might be the better choice. All in all it was a good four days and I got a good understanding of what that part of the country looks like and can support in terms of our programming. Hopefully with some of the upcoming activities, families will be able to focus on goats, poultry or cash crops so that in times of water stress they have some livelihoods options.

Now I’m off to Juba, South Sudan for a few months and will take memories of my long weekend at the beach and the scary visuals of the Italians in Malindi to take with me. More soon from a burgeoning new country……

Hopefully some of these links will work....

Some pictures from Lamu and Kizingos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/jane.e.strachan/LamuLongWeekend?feat=directlink

Lamu Long weekend

Some pictures from Ukambani:

https://picasaweb.google.com/jane.e.strachan/UkambaniKenya111?authkey=Gv1sRgCMDj3cmtw9bq7gE&feat=directlink

Ukambani Kenya 1/11

Nairobi National Park

A couple of weeks ago my friends and I decided to take our new residency cards, and my new (to me) Rav4 to the Nairobi National Park to scope out the wild animal scene in what is essentially downtown Nairobi--a city of 3 million. It takes about 30 minutes from my house to get here. And boy is it worth it. Who's coming to visit???

The link:

NBO Natl Park 10.03.10

The slideshow:

First post from Nairobi

Hi everyone,

In August I moved from Addis Ababa to Nairobi Kenya. I do the same type of work I did in Ethiopia—providing funding to NGOs who are doing humanitarian response and recovery programs—but it’s a regional position and I’ve covering a number of countries. Right now things are calm, but if things get busy in the region, it will be hectic.

A few weeks after I arrived, all of my things arrived from Ethiopia. I spent two three-day weekends unpacking my numerous boxes!! One of the photos below shows the massive pile of boxes in my parking spot after the first long day. Ugh. But I’m mostly settled in now with only a few things not in a new spot. So about my house—on the first floor there’s a entry way closet, bathroom, living room, dining room and kitchen with pantry and laundry room. I also have a little front porch and backyard (not pictured). On the second floor there’s a master bedroom with closet and bath and two other rooms and a second bathroom. The good thing about this house is all of the closets!! I still managed to fill them up—though I might not be super efficient in my use of space. Being mostly done with the unpacking gives me time to do fun things…..

For my birthday (still accepting cards and gifts ☺ ) some of my friends took me out for Thai food. For desert, they brought me a big ice cream “sundae” of sorts with fried figs stuck around the sides. Don’t worry—I shared. Some pictures of dinner are included below.

Yesterday, since a few of us got our residency cards this week which gives us discount prices at parks and touristy things, we went to the famous Sheldrick elephant/rhino orphanage and the giraffe center. At the elephant orphanage, they allow visitors for only one hour. During that hour they bring in two separate groups—each for 30 minutes, where they get bottles of specially designed formula and can play in the water/mud. While they’re playing, some of the care-ers explain both how the elephants were found and why they’re at the center, what kind of care they get, the center’s goal, and the reintroduction program. The hour just flew by but we took a minute to say hi to one of the rhino orphan also in residence.

After the elephant orphanage, we made a quick stop at the giraffe center. I’ve been before but feeding giraffes pellets on their long slimy purple tongues never gets old. The giraffes have a lot of space to walk around so they can come and go as they please, but a few were really piggy and got frisky if you were near the edge and didn’t have pellets at the ready for them!

So that’s about it for now. I have plenty of guest space and both of my Saturday outings are a great trip for visitors to Nairobi—so come on over!!

Miss you! Love, Jane


Link to the album:

Kenya Aug/Sept 2010

Slideshow:

Vacation 2010

Hi all,

So after I packed out of my house in Addis Ababa (above) and said goodbye to my day guard, I headed home for three weeks. The first week was work, the second week I went to Rainbow Lake/Lake Placid in the Adirondacks with my family and the third week I was in Baltimore wrapping things up and boosting the economy. Since the only interesting part (photographically) was the Adirondaks, here are some of the better shots.

Enjoy!
Jane