Returning Home with a New Appreciation

I have now spent 8 weeks of my life living in Africa.  I have been totally blown away by the experience.  It is a place I never thought I would visit in my lifetime!  I witnessed the birth of a country, saw the vast deserts of the Sahara, the Alps, Mediterranean Sea, Mount Kilimanjaro out of the aircraft window, but the most important was to be able to experience the people and culture of South Sudan.  It has been a extremely rewarding experience to be a minority for the first time in my life.  I receive stares, discrimination, and was even confronted a number of times.  I saw first hand, the effects of  malnourished and impoverished people.  In a small way, I felt like by doing my job, I was able help aid some of these people.  

African society is extremely different than western society.  Many countries in Africa are still trying to find their path to success.  I hope for the people of these countries, they find peace, stop corruption and most important take care of the underprivileged. 

As I witnessed the lead up to South Sudan’s independence, I saw a country that was building, cleaning up garbage, and generally improving its way of life for its citizens.  A month and a half later, I see a country who is still building, but the garbage is starting to pile up again, people are getting lazy, and the country is under a major fuel shortage.  This will hamper further development. 

So as I write this, I am sitting in Nairobi, Kenya with only 22 hours till I am seeing my wife and daughter at the gate of Toronto Airport.  I defiantly am returning home a different person and have a new appreciation for what we have in western society.  But I am still looking forward to returning in 2 months to that continent they call Africa.  

24 Hours to go!!!!!!

Only 24 hours remain until I board the airplane to depart back to western society!!  I am looking forward to many things, but the main one is to see my girls!  Two months from now, I start this all over again!

End is getting near.

I am trying not to get my hopes up to high, but I have been told that most likely I will be coming home this week.  That means in 4 days, I will be boarding an aircraft to return to Canada.  I am extremely excited to go home but have valued this experience. In 2 months it all starts over!  I will most likely be back to Juba.

Canada is larger than Newfoundland!

As I continue my tour around the school with “Pimp Daddy Principal”, I see a number of other classes.  He shows me a P6 class who welcomes me with the now familiar “GOOD MORNING MY GUEST, WELCOME TO MRS. JONES P6 CLASS.  YOU ARE WELCOME MY GUEST”.  The teacher recognizes that I’m not from around Juba, and asks me to tell the class where I am from.  She is in the middle of teaching geography.  I tell her I am from Canada, so she pulls down a roll up map that is on the wall.  The roll up map is torn and only shows Newfoundland, and a tiny part of eastern United States.  I end up drawing a crude representation of Canada on the board for them.  The map is so old, it still has the eastern block countries as USSR, and many African countries are named incorrectly with improper boarder locations.  The children do not have atlas or text books in the class but madly take notes.  I talk for a few minutes to the class about Canada, and the children ask a few questions.  They did understand it is cold there, but thought I snowed year around.  There big concern was what kids in Canada did when there was snow on the ground.  No child in this class has ever seen snow and only some have seen pictures of it.

I continue my tour, as I go by the window of a class room of P2 children (Grade 2), I see a kid stand up and peek out the window.  One kid says a term I have come very familiar with “Kawaja” (name for the white man).  Three other kids rush over to see the “Kawaja”.  The teacher quickly comes over and gives the instigator a swat on the back of the head.  Everyone quickly returns to their seats. 

Back to school

A couple of days ago I managed with some help from a local contact I have to get into school.  I wanted for the benefit of my wife’s class see how the children are educated in South Sudan.  The school I went to was a middle class school that taught 230 children from primary grade 1-8.

I never was a big fan of school, but here I go back!  I walked through a metal gate into the school yard.  The classrooms form a U shape around the courtyard which is their playground.  I sit down with the principal who is dressed like a pimp.  He is sporting a silk pink suit, with a white shirt and white shoes, a hat and a cain.  

Each student pays 600 SDP ($200 USD) per semester, they get a month to 5 weeks off between semesters and there are 3 semesters per year.   School is South Sudan is not government funded or regulated.  It is a privilege to go to school and many children do not get the chance.  At the moment there is no standard curriculum but the Ministry of Education Southern Sudan is working on it and will be implemented shortly.  

The walls of the school are made out of mud and branches.  This is a process that is used on many local buildings.  The branches act as rebar would in cement and a mixture of mud is used as cement.  There are no glass windows and no door but just an open hole in the wall.

Pimp Daddy Principal toured me into some of the older grades first.  P6-P8 (grade 6-8).  There are not as many students in these grades due to the country being at war during this time.  They are learning about science and living things.  The teacher is drawing on a wall that is painted as a black board and the students are madly writing notes.

I go into P5 class and the roar almost frightens me!  “GOOD MORNING MY GUEST.  WELCOME TO MR. SMITHS P5 CLASS.  YOUR ARE WELCOME MY GUEST!” they chant in unison.  These children are disciplined similar to military children.  Children at schools wear uniforms.  This helps diminish the classes and one can not easily tell who is rich and poor.  The teacher is just teaching the children how to count money using real life props from his pocket.  They count by 5‘s, 10’s, 25’s, and 50’s.  There are probably 45 kids in this class with one teacher.  The desks are wood tables with cheap plastic lawn furniture for chairs.

To be continued tomorrow!

I'll be back!

Sorry I have not written much the last week.  Work some times gets in the way of blogging.  I still don't have a date that I am due home, and am only getting busier by the day.  When I get a chance, I'll sit down and write some of my experiences about my last week.

Rainy Season

Rainy season is defiantly just getting going.  Every day this week it has rained, there are many days the sky is grey.  The mango trees are starting to bloom and the drainage ditches are overflowing every morning.  Locals here in Juba say this has been a very dry rainy season, usually there is torrential downpours and the Nile swells up past its banks, but the weather has changed.

Every time it rains here the water just runs off the soil and to lower ground.  The soil here is very sandy and doesn’t tend to absorb the water easily.  So to keep the vegetation green you need frequent rain, not heavy rains.  I am only a country to the west of where a great famine is occurring and I am sure they are wishing for even some of the light constant rains we have received.  Lets hope mother nature will allow some rain to start falling in Somalia and Eastern Kenya to help these regions to grow their food and start to rehabilitate the lands.

The adaptability of the human mind

I have now been in Africa for 6 weeks.  When I first arrived I felt totally overwhelmed.  Society here is very different, the roads are crazy, the odors attack the nose, and the noise is constant.  I had no idea how anyone could live in these conditions.  As I am approaching the end of my tour in the next few weeks, I am amazed how adaptable the human brain is.  What was totally abnormal when I first arrived, no longer is odd. I still walk around with a heightened sense of my surroundings at all times, but I do not notice or pay attention to the things I did when I first arrived.  

Dare I say it, life in Juba almost seems normal.  Don’t get me wrong, I can hardly wait to step foot on Canadian soil, be apart of a clean and orderly society again.  I dearly miss my family and feel like I missed out on a great summer even though it has been in the mid to high 30’c range since I arrived.  I departed the day my daughter got out of school and I will return home hopefully a week before she returns to class.  While growing up, the best part of the year to me was summer vacation.  I truly hope we can cram a summers worth of memories into our heads in one week of holidays.  

Even though I feel like I have adapted to Juba life, let me tell you I need a vacation!  I work 7 days a week and extremely long days.  I can hardly wait to cut the grass, wash the car, work on the boat, maybe build a shed and other assorted house projects.  I might even visit the bank on my spare time so I can stand for only 5 minutes to withdrawal money, drive on the roads without being scared for my life and stop bribing security officials to get things done!

When I have a confirmed return date to Canada I will guarantee I will be letting everyone know!

Pepsi, cigarettes, and cookies will get you anywhere in South Sudan!

Yesterday my job involved getting a delivery into a very secure and guarded area.  My company had some shelves made to store parts.  I had no paperwork for my delivery and no idea how to go about getting these shelves across that magical secure line.  First as anything in Africa, I ended up waiting for 2 hours for the truck to arrive.  It was promised to be there at 12 sharp.  I ended up sitting in the local cafe until 2pm with the owner and on a very smooth move on his part got stuck with the bill for 4 drinks!  I did later get him back though!

The truck finally pulls up, and we attempt to pull up to the first level of security.  A bunch of guys sitting with AK47’s at a grass hut.  They turn us away and say I have to get a vehicle pass.  I go into the office, I get passed around to 3 different offices until a man name George will speak to me.  George said I had a problem, and it was going to cost money for a pass.  I let George know, as long as I had an official receipt on the company computer, I had no problem paying him.  He said, “Impossible!”.  I let him know I knew he was going to pocket the money himself and I needed to talk to his superior.  Suddenly the vehicle pass book comes flying out of his desk and the price drops in half!  He quickly writes out a vehicle pass and I am on my way.

I show the guards at the gate the pass.  The agree to allow the truck through, until they realize the drivers don’t have personal passes.  They tell me it is impossible to get the vehicle through.  I explain to them I have just spent the past 6 weeks in the secured area without a personal pass and have never been questioned.  He tells me because I am white.  I ask him to show me his pass.  He can not produce one and I ask how he is qualified to guard a secure area without a pass!  After much arguing, hand shaking and back slapping, he agrees to let me though if I buy him a Pepsi.  I was prepared for this and have a bag of 6 soda pops in the van.  I pull one out and the truck gets waved though!  

Further into the secured area, another guard stops us for a check on our passes and credentials.  I don’t even waist time on arguing with him, instead I just pull out another can of Pepsi and tell him he looks hot.  He puts his gun down and opens the can, we drive off.  

About 1/2 km into the facility, a truck of SPLA soldiers stops us.  There are 6 of them all with weapons and a 50 cal gun mounted in the back of the truck.  They surround the truck wanting to see our credentials.  I start to do mental calculations on how many Pepsi’s I have left and come up way short.  I need something else to get out of this jamb!  Wait!  I have a box of cookies, and carton of cigarettes (for a coworker) I bought at the local super market this morning!  I offer up the bounty of cookies and Pepsi, but only if they escort us to our destination as wink, wink I am lost and need assistance.  In reality, I was out of bribes and as long as these guys stayed with me I wouldn’t be bothered by anyone else!!  They agreed and with lots of hand shaking and back slapping they escort us and even help us off load the truck!

On our way out each of the guards that stopped us earlier gives us a big smile and wave some toasting us with the cans of Pepsi.  We are all happy!  In Africa, if you need to get things done, a case of soda pop, cigarettes and sugary treats can get you into and out of almost any situation!  

This should be an interesting expense form submission!  I bet the accountant in Canada  is going to question on this one!!

Driving mayhem!

My company forbids any employee from driving a vehicle on the roads of South Sudan.  Upon arriving here I could understand why.  Roads are chaos!  So to get around town, we have a car service, two vehicles and three drivers.  Because of my position, I spend the most time with the drivers.  They have a lots of responsibility and make the approximately $100/month.  I don’t pay them, the car service does and I have been trying to convince the owner to give them more money.  This week was a hard week with the drivers.  I lost 2 of 3 of them.  One got a job driving long haul trucks around South Sudan for 4x the money.  He has a wife and children to support.  I told him the reason I am sitting in Juba is to support my family and I totally understood.  The other I could not trust and I basically fired him due to lack of consistency and not showing up to work.

My replacement drivers came today.  One is OK, I guess but I haven’t driven with him yet.  The other (Ohmar) is awful!  He has no clue where the basics in Juba are, and can not drive a vehicle!!  In fact I grabbed the steering wheel twice today to avoid hitting other cars and pedestrians!!  The fastest we went was 25 kph, and I could tell he thought he was breaking the sound barrier!!  If he shifted out of 2nd gear he might hit 35!  Ohmar uses all the road available to him.  This means on a four lane road he utilizes all four lanes wether there is on coming traffic or not.  I do not feel Juba is unsafe.  In fact I think many cities in the USA are more dangerous to walk in, but after my ride with Ohmar today, I felt like I had a near death experience multiple times!!

Many drivers in Juba are awful!  They do not require driving tests and if they can sign their names they can get a license.  Also most vehicles are right hand drive while they drive on the right side of the road.  This creates a situation when ever the merge they are looking across the vehicle and can’t see.  This causes a constant stream of vehicles to cut you off on each trip.  Also, if there are lines painted on the road, they are ignored.   People feel they can drive anywhere wether it is paved, an on coming lane or a side walk.  

Bottom line, I almost broke a company rule today.  I was extremely close to telling the driver to get out and driving the van home myself!

The countdown begins

Tomorrow morning, I have two weeks left in Juba.  On the 18 August I will begin my journey home.  I really enjoy working over here, but am looking forward to seeing my family, be in peaceful surroundings, have 30'C as a daytime high instead of 40'C and having a swim in a nice clean lake!  Up till the last few days, I have not really been looking at the calendar, but I am finding I have been obsessed with my home date now.  The plan is I'll be home for two months to come back to Africa, maybe Juba, maybe some other location.  That is half the fun of this job is the variety!