Showered today?

One of the joys of Juba -- I woke up this morning to find no water. This usually doesn't happen, but sometimes there is an oversight in the process and the team doesn't shower (at least we are all in this together!). We get our water delivered from the Nile or if we are lucky, get it piped in (I'm assuming also from the Nile) by the government. Then we treat it in tanks. We had water in the tanks, it just hadn't been chlorinated and therefore pumped to the tank accessed for our water use.

I'm writing this just to remind myself and all of us to appreciate the little things in life. I sometimes complain about cold showers, and I realised when I had no water, a cold shower would have been nice. This is the one day I was happy with myself for sleeping through my "exercise" alarm clock. I didn't get up to work out today which ended up being a a very strategic move. What can I say, even my laziness is strategic - imagine sitting in the office after a good work-out sweat. Nice.

At least the situation should be fixed now - and I look forward to my cold shower this evening.

The death of my laughter?

For my last night in Nairobi last night, I had to take advantage of the food and drink which is not so easy to come by in Juba, where I arrived today. I went for dinner with a friend who was introduced to me by a work colleague and friend based in Nairobi. One of the things I love about being in Africa is the interesting, fun and inspiring people you come across and the fact that you let your guard down because somehow you feel this closeness or connection because you both have the similar interest of Africa. It’s not even a big connection, but it’s opened the door to many of the friends I’ve made here and I’m thankful for that.

So of course in my typical fashion, I talked a lot over dinner attempting to be a story teller (I’m in no way as gifted at it as lots of my friends). In my story-telling, I reminisced over some funny times and experiences. I guess I laughed quite a bit throughout the night because my friend commented on my laugh and the fact that it was uplifting, maybe even contagious.

I got to thinking - Do I laugh much / enough in Juba? I honestly don’t think so. Actually, I don’t. So since last night, I tried to analyse why this is the case. I wonder if subconsciously, the fact that I’m in Africa has made me more serious, more cynical and not enabled me to laugh at myself as I used to. The reality of Africa is a hard one to stomach. Don’t get me wrong though – I, as an expatriate living in my nice compound, don’t experience any of the injustices that Sudanese all around me have faced their entire lives. I am helped by cooks and cleaners. I have electricity. I have clean drinking water. I have access to a vehicle and most importantly, if things go horribly wrong and this place becomes insecure or unbearable, I can choose to get on a plane almost immediately and get out of here. This is why I bring up the “subconsiousness” of the situation. I think there is truth to the fact that my proximity to extreme suffering and injustice has changed me. This may also be coupled with the fact that I work really hard and sometimes it’s just intense and serious here.

In coming to this conclusion, I’m disappointed with myself. What has always amazed me in my trips to the field sites is the smiling faces that I’ve encountered - the joy and warmth that sometimes no amount of suffering can overtake - A mother holding her extremely malnourished child who is receiving scheduled feedings but with a genuine smile on her face. I know a smile is part of the universal language, but I don’t know I think it’s more than that. I ask myself -how can I let a situation which I don’t even have to live take away my smile and laughter when someone living it can be at peace and even experience joy? I think coming from the modern West, we’ve determined that we can only be happy, experience joy and thus laugh if things are comfortable – if things are how WE want them to be, if things go our way so the component of selfishness within our happiness is huge.

Unfortunately, suffering is part of life. I still haven’t reconciled why some people suffer more than others – why suffering is disproportionate among people / continents. I’m not counting on figuring this one out on my own. This question will accompany my long list of questions (both significant and insignificant) that I will ask our Creator one day. The only way I can process it here and now is to simply recognise it as an opportunity for God’s glory to be revealed, an opportunity to share Jesus. The smiling mother reveals just that to me – God’s glory and the confirmation of the bigger picture. I cannot use suffering in the world as an excuse for my lack of laughter, for the suppression of my God-given personality. Romans 5:2-5 states “..And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”

In conclusion, I’m going to start laughing again. I’m going to rejoice, not because of the immediate day-to-day things that impact me, but because of my hope in the glory of God. I’m going to do my best to see the joy in all situations – if not selfishly for my own sanity, but for those around me – because that’s just it – laughter is contagious- it sometimes has more of an effect on others than on the one actually laughing (I’m grateful to my friend for reminding me of this). Laughter is evidence of God’s love in our hearts. Contagious and uplifting laughter is a gift and what kind of person would I be if I neglected to use one of the gifts I had been given? Not the one I’m striving to be everyday.

Pet peeve of the day

Surprisingly, I've been a lot better at keeping these things to myself, but this is just irritating. I've noticed on Facebook (the networking mechanism of the hour) that there are so many politically-related groups such as "Stop Obama (1,000,000 strong against Barack Obama)" and during the primary season there were several anti-Hillary groups as well and I'm sure there are anti-John McCain groups out there, too. This is one reason I am proud to be an American, the fact that we have the right to freedom of speech, that we can say what we feel or what we think.

When I click on these groups, though, I'm very disappointed in what's there - a lot of nothing - and this makes me realise how many uneducated people are roaming about. What's intrigued me about the 2008 elections to date is the huge interest it's brought about in so many Americans and people all over the world for that matter - the excitement, the participation that seemed to have been lacking during the last 8 years. For this, I'm encouraged. But when I see these facebook groups, I'm again disappointed for the following reasons (Note: I'm a complete moderate - I vote in a state where you don't have to affiliate with a party so I'm writing this from a neutral perspective):

• Why have a group entitled "Stop "so-and-so""? - Why not put a positive spin on it so that you are promoting the support of your candidate and not promoting the non-support of another candidate?
• If you do want to support the non-support of a candidate, be engaged, be familiar - don't just throw a picture up of a candidate not placing his hand on his heart as your reason for disliking him. Be educated, be informed. Talk about policy or the lack thereof.
• Conduct IQ tests before you let people join (I'm sure this could be a facebook application). I'm slightly joking on this one.

Having lived overseas on two different continents for the last 3 years, one of the things that inspires me about America is that despite the fact that we have 2 main political parties, we don't have to play party politics. We can claim to be moderate or undecided and actually choose a candidate based on policy, decisions, voting records and not just because they are a Republican or Democrat. In talking to British friends, this is one of the problems that has often times plagued the British election process - many people have always voted the party their parents have voted and not engaged in the process any more than that. In parts of Africa, people engage in extreme violence if their party doesn't win despite the fact that they may know nothing of what their candidate believes in or will act on.

When I see our "anti-candidate" mentality and that it looks often times to be based on nothing besides party politics, I get frustrated. We are doing a disservice to ourselves and our nation. We, as Americans, are arguably the most privilieged people in the world. We have access, and convenience to anything / everything we need. We have the opportunity for education that so many others would sacrifice so much to have - and yet, honestly the rest of the world thinks of us, on the whole, as getting dumb and dumber. We owe it to ourselves to be informed, talk, debate with our friends and look at the real issues which face our nation now and in the November elections. I truly believe there is more value in that than creating facebook groups.

TIA

I was reminded of this phrase when I was watching Blood Diamond last night for the second time (excellent movie, btw - I recommend). Leonardo DiCaprio's character is at a Freetown bar and is explaining things of Africa to Jennifer Connelly's character, when he says TIA (This is Africa). In my months here, I have had many TIA experiences. One happened just recently with the arrival of some new cereal in Juba. I had ordered some Kellogg's Honey Smacks which I thought would be an exciting change up to breakfast from my usual Wheatabix (I know, it's the little pleasures in life). As usual, some generic came. I was gone from Juba for a while and no one had tried it so I decided to crack open the first box. The cereal is called "Poppies" and comes in a purple box with three characters (sort of like chipmunks) surrounding a bowl of cereal (you know the drill, just like all those kiddy cereals at home). Because this was German, the little animals were saying something in German which I can only assume to be something like "snap, crackel, pop". Anyways, the cereal was fine and I appreciated the change-up. Later that day, the smoke alarm in our kitchen went off and our Logs Manager ran up to the house to see the problem. Mandy, our Sudanese cook, clearly was cooking (or rather burning) somthing in a frying pan on the stove. Tito, our Logs manager, asked what she was cooking and she informed him that she was making us fresh coffee beans (sidenote: In the Juba markets, you can buy uncooked coffee beans - you then fry these and have coffee beans - I actually did this for a few Christmas gifts). Clearly, Tito could tell with the rate that these were burning, these weren't the coffee beans. He finally got to the bottom of it, and realised, she was frying up the Poppies (Honey Smacks). She thought they were coffee beans! I would think the little cartoon characters on the box would make me question no matter what culture I was from, but I could see where she was coming from - they do resemble.

Another TIA moment I can remember happened when I visited a fieldsite - I was visiting a feeding center where pregnant and new mothers come for supplementary feeding. A mother there had been the previous week where it was identified her baby had an ear infection. She was given a liquid antibiotic (I think the pink amoxicillin that we had as kids). When she returned and brought the baby, the baby's ear was looking strange, actually crusty. Turns out, as her child had an ear infection, she was putting the antibiotic in his ear. After having a little laugh, I was thinking, you know that's sensible- the baby has an ear infection, why would he take an oral medicine? Fair enough.

I share these things not just to give you a laugh (although I hope you did chuckle when reading) but to analyse how many things which seem "normal" to us are actually learned or so embedded in our culture, they are obvious. It also makes me think that we (those from modern, developed places) are a bit crazy. There are lots of inventions (appliances/trinkets) that are slightly crazy especially if taken out of context in a place such as under-developed Africa. Another cook nearly had a heart attack when we introduced her to a toaster. No one warned her the bread would pop out, and she was quite startled!

Safari-ed out?

So, I am back from holiday! My Dad seems to frequently ask "How much vacation do you actually get?" as he feels he always hears of multiple trips. To answer - a lot, actually, but in this kind of work, it is absolutely crucial to my sanity. As I've been in Africa, I thought I should do "African" things and what better way to lure friends over from the US and UK then by planning safari / Indian ocean trips. Valerie came over from Atlanta for 2 weeks which was very exciting. Our first week we took a safari to Tsavo West, Amboseli and Masai Mara, all parks in Kenya and then headed to the coast to enjoy the Indian Ocean a bit south of Mombasa. A few things to note:

• While Amboseli appears to be only a few centimeters from Masai Mara on the map, it is actually a 10 hour drive on gravel/dirt roads. Tip of the day: Consider flying. Both parks have airstrips and flights leave from Nairobi daily.


• Despite the fact that you didn't remember someone sticking a sign on your forehead saying "I would love a beaded necklace or giraffe carving," everyone will think you do and believes you will change your mind after being asked 5+ times.


• Prices on everything (including pharmaceuticals) are negotiable. Growing up in the western world, I think we've encountered a disservice in the fact that our negotiation skills are non-existent. My one time experience at the Honda dealer was no match for the East Africans.
  
• As Kenya is a former English colony, clearly they've taken on English customs - including foods. Tip - "pancakes" are actually crepes! Avoid the disappointment. (PS, while I know crepes aren't English, maybe they have taken over some French customs afterall!)
  
• If you visit Kenya before November (and maybe even anytime during the year after), claim to be British, Australian or South African or you will be forever asked if you are voting for Obama.


• Honestly, there is no reason to wear khaki-colored clothing and a safari vest is completely unnecessary (I found a lot of humor in seeing all these mostly Americans in their North Face / REI pants with safari vests and safari hats.) I mean, seriously people, you are riding around in safari trucks not deer hunting in South Georgia. You don't need to be camaflouged and most animals are color blind anyways, so save yourself some money, and while you should dress comfortably, don't go overboard!
  

All in all, we had a great time. We stayed at some wonderful lodges in the park with excellent views, ammenties and food. I think the highlight of the trip was the 6:00 am hot air balloon ride over Masai Mara where we even spotted a cheetah with two cubs. The landing was a bit scary as the basket tips as it hits the ground, but we survived. Definitely a good life experience.

During the second week we stayed at a resort on Diani Beach south of Mombasa. The weather was terrific. I definitely got to relax, take in some sun and mark a few books off my reading list. One night we left the resort to eat at the famous Ali Barbour's restaurant which is inside of a cave - it is very cool and a must-do if you are in the area.

So after my two safari and beach trips, I think I will graduate to something else. I am forseeing an Ethiopia or South Africa trip next. All visitors welcome!