For Dad-What I Learned in Lafon

George and I actually DID work in Lafon (Thanks dad) although I hadn't realized that the cabbage and beer contributed to why we were so gassy (seriously, we kept blaming our farts on the goats).
We interviewed the director of the CRDF (a local NGO based in Lafon dealing with repatriation and development). He told us a lot about the statistics of Lafon, and the logistics of it. Malaria is a huge problem there. (Considering that the first child we met had malaria, I can believe it). Norwegian Church Aid built a school, but didn't do anything to staff it, so there is this skeleton of a building in the middle of a meadow with no teachers, and thus no students. Merlin built a Primary Health Care Center (PHCC) but it is sorely underfunded, understaffed and under supplied. It is also in an unfortunate location. (12 km away from most villages) People have to walk 2 hours (if they are health-carrying a sick person it is more) to get to the PHCC, and once they do, they typically don't actually get treated because there is no medicine. "Serious cases" (cases lasting longer than a month) get referred to Torit, but this creates its own set of problems since there is no transport to Torit except for one lorry that comes three times a week (ostensibly) and costs an arm and a leg.
Women who get pregnant have no one to help them. There is no antenatal clinics, and only sometimes are there traditional birth attendants. Women don't get nets, medicines or care before the baby. If the birth becomes complicated, there is no recourse. Women often die and so do their babies. There is no hospital for the state of Lafon/Lopa-which...for an entire state, that's just atrocious.
Distributions have been done there before, specifically of food and sorghum, because of bad sorghum crops in the past couple of years. (In fact, one woman who saw me seized my hands and started telling me (in Pari) that she knew i was back to reinstate the food program and she was so happy). The roads aren't easy-but they manage to have a lorry, and they certainly have beer deliveries so I don't think that (during the dry season) it should be difficult. In fact, Lafon is shaping up to be one of the easiest (rather than the hardest) places to distribute because the population is so concentrated, the bomas so cohesive (among tribal or clan lines) and the distribution process so solidified. The educated people are using nets (such as Rex's parents) which is such an encouraging sign-as was the fact that my bed in my hut had posts for hanging a net from.
People often use folk remedies (filling their houses with smoke, using Neem tree leaves) to help with malaria-the often have no other recourse because there are no ACT's at the center. In fact, the governments policy is completely a dream in Lafon-instead of one PHCC for every 50,000 people and one unit for every 18,000, there is one PHCC for about 100,000 and almost no working units at all. No organizations are based there really. Merlin is (slightly) and CRDF, but other than that there is nothing-no church presence, no BRAC, no big NGO's like NPA, NCA, UNICEF, UNIMIS, UN or anything. Lafon seems to be at the edge of the world, but thank god its clustered at the edge of the world, so at least finding people once you are there is possible.

As for the chain of what goes where (Dad-here's a shout out for you) I don't know. I'm going to talk to Ed about it because it is a very interesting concept and I haven't thought about.

As for what tukuls are like (This is for you Mary Liz) here is what I know:
Tukuls are either circular or square, but they tend to be a uniform size. The basis of their structure is bamboo poles that are set into a skeleton. Then, mud and cow dung are mixed together to make the walls-and let me tell you, its like cement. George and I were astonished to find out that it was dirt and poop. It was STRONG. The roofs are made of bamboo poles reaching up to a point (and tied together with palm leaf rope) and covered with thatched grass. Roofs that go low down to the ground (almost covering the entire house) were common in Keyala-these are for protection. Enemies often try to get inside, but they have to walk around to find the door-giving you time to hear them. They also try and stab through the roof at people, so if the roof is covering more space, they are more likely to miss. Shorter roofs like those in Lafon are less for protection and more for temperature control. Lizards live in the eaves of all tukuls and eat the bugs, small triangular windows are put into the walls to allow some air circulation, and doors are typically constructed of corrugated metal.
For storage, people construct a rounded raised edge all around the inside and outside of the tukul-on the outside this helps with rain water, and protects the foundation from rotting, on the inside it acts as a place to sit, or a higher up place to put jugs, jars and boxes on. Tied between the eaves are ropes that people hang their clothing off of, machetes and other implements are stuck into the straw of the roof, and bags and bottles for water are hung with ropes from the bamboo poles of the ceiling.

I think that's it.
and PS.-when I say cow's urine, I mean that they take a gourd and slosh it around with cows urine, and then throw the urine out, and pour the milk in. The urine is what curdles the milk.