Stuck in Juba - Part 1

Blog #1 - 26 June 2014

It's hard to believe that after 3 days of traveling I am only halfway through the journey to Nyinbuli, South Sudan. For now I am waiting in Juba for a flight to Aweil. We had planned to leave tomorrow (Friday, 27 June), but are now being told that there are no flights until Monday, 30 June. This is pretty frustrating, but we will try to make the best of our time here in this dirty, stinky city.

I'm traveling with three other women; Holly, Ginnie, and Jane. Holly is the friend who first invited me to accompany her to South Sudan in March of last year. She works for IAS as a midwife in the Nyinbuli clinic. Ginnie also works for IAS. She is a photographer and a recorder of stories. She is gathering pictures and testimonials to bring back to the US and to share with donors and other interested parties. Jane is a student from San Diego. She found IAS and Holly through a Google-search over a year ago and has been planning and preparing to come here since that time. We are a pretty interesting team.

Jane brought a whole suitcase full of clothing for children and babies and we are hoping that we can go to one of the orphanages here in town and gift them with these items. I'm not sure if this will actually happen, but it would pretty great.

In other news, it's rainy, hot, and humid here in South Sudan - just as predicted. We are squeezed into some rather tight quarters here at the IAS Juba office, but the facility is quite sufficient to our needs. My only major complaint is the lack of good internet. Actually, I think that's everyone's complaint. We all depend on the internet to communicate with our friends and families back home and it can be incredibly frustrating to have that life-line fail. But I think we came here knowing that this kind of thing would be an issue. Instantaneous communication is a luxury, not a guarantee. Coming to this part of the world involves letting go of many of the things we are accustomed to having near at hand.

I know I have mentioned this kind of self-denial in past posts, but I as I experience it again I feel the deprivation as if it were the first time. Oh how I miss air conditioning, internet, and indoor plumbing. I am so spoiled by these things that it feels like a part of my life is missing. How odd. I don't need A/C to survive, but I long for it as if it were a staple.

I also long for sanitation. Everything here is so dirty. The streets are dirty, the floors are dirty, I'm dirty. I'm not a clean freak by any means, but I would really like a bottle of bleach and good mop so I could do something about the toilet and shower stalls. Anyway, I've complained enough.... Thank you for your prayers and please know that even though some aspects of my life here are not so comfortable or pleasant I am grateful to be here in this place.

Garbage in road in Juba - Africa trip 2013