Goats Are The New Map

We are settling in. I.e. less interesting things are happening on a day to day basis. Which is fine, I'm all about routines.
Ed typically wakes us up at seven-i'm the only one that ever actually wakes up-George and Neesha still claim to be catching up on sleep. I go to breakfast (hard boiled eggs, biscuits, coffee, tea, powedered milk (which i'm begining to enjoy), bread. By the time I'm done with breakfast, most people still arent up. I research. George and Neesha wake up (Neesha before George) and munch on stuff, we plan for the day and ultimately we sit around waiting for the intermittant shuddering whurrs to echo from outside and let us know the generator is on (we dash to our computers, turn them on, feverishly sign on to gmail and pray pray pray that it will last long enough to read our emails.)

Anyway the point is, this typically leaves some lazy hours before and after lunch where the heat is heavy and the flies are everywhere cool, and the only recourse besides the board room (which gets sooo old) is to lie under your net on your bed and do your research there. Its nice, but it makes me feel a bit sluggish and lazy.

Today, George, Neesha and I attempted to go have meetings on our own for the first time. We were going to go to MOH, SSRRC, and EPI.
So we get dropped off at SSRRC and have a very rapid meeting there (its always rapid, because it is so organized). So we decide to walk across the street (ok wrong. to walk across the football field filled with crackling flies) to get to the ministry run hospital and the ministry of health. We got there and had a narrow pass with some goats (George was afraid they would bite him-he apparently has some goat trauma issues)-who by the way, have the ugliest backsides i have ever seen-and got into the ministry offices. We called the minister we wanted to meet with, while waiting outside his office, only to discover that he was out of town. So we decided to walk into town and buy notebooks.
This was all well and good until we got lost. Or, rather, we had bad communication. We were suppose to meet Lucy and the driver at MOH but we decided to meet them in the market instead. After buying our notebooks, we called Lucy, and she told us she would meet us at the courthouse. I thought we were by the courthouse. We were by a big brick building, surrounded by the bus depot and some goats. She said that was the place. Misunderstanding Number One.

She calls us a couple minutes later and goes "Im at the courthouse waiting for you!" and i tell her she isnt and she asks where we are, and i start shouting "BY THE GOATS. BY ALL THE GOATS!" There are some problems with using goats as a navigational marker in Southern Sudan. There is, for example, the problem of the sheer number of goats wandering around Torit. Using cars and buildings is apparently also problematic. There are lots of those around too.
Next we tell her to meet us at the SPLM headquarters, which somehow got translated into, meet us at the ministry of health, so after ten minutes of waiting around, in the MOST conspicuous place i could find so that Lucy would be sure to see us, and after almost sitting on a rock (twice!) that some little boys peed on minutes before, we called her back. She said she was at the ministry and demanded to know where we were. SO we wearily started walking back to the hospital.

It was at this point that some men on the street started gesturing and pointing. We didnt know what they wanted, until one of them translated-pointing a thick finger right at Neesha he goes "My friend, he wants to take the little one!"

Direct quote.

Neesha is alarmed. George quotes a price: 400 cattle. The men smile and nod, and we hustle away. Neesha is still alarmed. What i really enjoyed was that it wasnt "My friend wants to propose to the little one" or "My friend wants to buy the little one." which are alarming in and of themselves. No, he wanted to take her. Snatch her. We dont give up members of our team that easily. We walked on either side of her until Lucy and the driver rumbled up, going "Where were you!!" and we explained that perhaps I should not be relied upon for accurate descriptions of surroundings, and that next time we should base our location on more than our proximity to goats.

Although I have to say, this is situational. If I was in Maplewood, navigating by goats would be perfectly acceptable.