I have never been happier to get internet in my in my life ever.

Short Update: I'm in Sudan!!! Internet access has been spotty, and we keep having computer problems (my powercord, for example, is back in New York, and all of our computers were dead when we got here) but hopefully by tonight we will be able to access the internet (and post this).
Ed keeps cavorting about sucking up all the internet we manage to get. He has managed to check his email about four times this week, and he gleefully tells us this, and then by the time we get to a computer, he has eaten it all up and there is none left. Plus, he keeps sending us emails and acting shocked and indignent when we dont get them and are ignorent of everything he has been saying in them. We made a new rule wherein he is the last person to get internet access. Ever.

Long Update: (lets go by day)
Monday June 2
After about nine hours spent looking for TSA locks, we finally got to the airport, where (of course), Ed didnt successfully get through security. Why? Because he inadvertantly packed an entire tool kit and about 4 huge bottles of liquids in his carry-on. Security (understandably) thought he was a bomber and escorted him out. The first 30 minutes of the trip therefore, was spent with Ed in his socks running around JFK and George, Neesha and I standing around eating Toblerone. Then we almost missed our flight because Ed insisted that the best way to travel was to wait until the last possible second to board the plane. So even though we were at the gate, we almost missed the flight. (I wasnt too bothered by this because I was chatting with a darling boy from Austraila, but George was having a conniption fit). The flight itself was fine, because British Airways is the best airline EVER. They have lists of movies that you can access anytime you want and the stewards let us in to their secret back of the plane lounge and gave us piles of snacks and bottles of wine.
Tuesday June 3
We arrived at Heathrow at eight in the morning, where it was pouring rain and ridiculously humid. Once again, Ed didnt get through security, this time because the lining between the two laptops in his bag was impenetrable for the x-ray, so there was an entire section of his bag that couldnt be seen by the security people, who (understandably) assumed it was a bomb. I watched a movie called City of God on the flight (all about Brazillian street gangs and how they kill each other) and drank lots of wine to help me sleep, while meanwhile, the guy sitting next to George spent much of the flight lecturing him about how his ancestors colonized Kenya and he should be ashamed (George kept trying to insist he was Irish but I think to the man it was besides the point) We got to Nairobi at nine at night, and got through customs and everything without a hitch (except that Ed had missed the memo about filling in his entry visa so he almost got stuck without a visa). Then my bag pretended to be lost for 20 minutes until it finally showed up. Teody, the most wonderful woman in the world, met us at the airport. It was like coming home, so completely friendly and welcoming. The temperature in Nairobi was glorious-really cool and a little cloudy, so that we werent hot at all. She gave us a warm dinner when we got to the Diocese, and then we went to sleep.
Wednesday June 4
Africa is completely allowing me to indulge my love of carbs. They made this bread for us at every meal called oogali (or assita) made of cornstarch i think. In the morning, it felt like I met everyone in the world. There was Purity, who was young and beautiful and always smiling, and Joseph Gama, who smelled like warm pine wood, and Brother Emmanual and Mark who never stopped smiling, and Edith who was shy but very sweet. Everyone smelled good and everyone made a point to say hi or shake your hand or come up to you and introduce themselves. The atmosphere was completely relaxed and easy going, the air was cool and smelled like things burning (trash, firewood, cooking stoves). It reminded me of the sod in Ireland actually. People dress very nicely here. They are always coordinated and brightly colored and professional looking. We had a meeting with Joseph who is a health clinician working for the Diocese, and he told us all the basics about the health situation in Eastern Equatoria. As some background, the Diocese is normally based in Eastern Equatoria, but had to get a Nairobi office during the civil war since it wasnt safe to be in Sudan. Eastern Equatoria is one of the states in southern Sudan, and is about 1 million people. It is divided into three sections (at least for the purpose of medical divisions-Kapoeta East, Central and West) which have both primary heath centers and primary health units in them. Some areas ( like in Kapoeta East, are difficult to get to (to get to Kuran in the dry season takes five hours, in the wet season, two weeks). I was really impressed by the state of the medical centers in EE though. They arent optimal by any standards, but they are so much better and more numerous than I was expecting. After talking with Joseph we attempted to access the internet, which is when we discovered all of our computers were dead and we didnt have the correct connectors to plug them into the wall. Then there was lunch, and after lunch we went out to the hospital so that George could meet with a doctor there. Nairobi Hospital is really nice. There are balconies and flowers everywhere. Ed has been holding impromptu meetings everywhere we go, such as in the hospital hallways, on the plane, in the van coming from the airport, on our way up the stairs, etc, so he insisted on holding one while we were waiting for the doctor. On the way back from the hospital we stopped at the Fairview Hotel, which is like club med kenya. We had beers on the lawn (Tuskar) and all around us were waterfalls and foliage and patios and “rich mahogony”. It was gorgeous. And by the way, Obama is everywhere. We saw a bumper sticker on a car saying “Women for Obama” and he has been on every news channel and in every newspaper. Its ridiculous. Also on that vein, I saw a hyrbid Prius as we were driving to the hospital. Nairobi is its own world i swear. The traffic is insane (people have to use hand signals as well as car signals to make sure people see them, everyone almost runs into everyone else, and the fumes are so cloudy you almost cant breath).
We drove back to the Diocese for dinner and then after dinner we went to bed. Thats when the trouble hit. Very very bad things started happening in my stomach. I spent the entire night having diahrreah and vomiting, sweating and being freezing cold, and being completely unable to sleep. We've decided it was a bad reaction to my doxycycline (which is really bad because its kind of the only thing between me and malaria).Regardless, it wasnt better the next morning, and there was no running water that night so i couldnt even wash out my mouth.
Thursday June 5
Somehow i managed to pack, and we drove to the airport (with me in the front seat stocked with plastic bags and gatorade). We got to the airport (Ed almost forgot my bag at security), and the flight to Juba (i'm told) was wonderful-I was asleep, but everyone else could look out the window and see the Nile. When we got to Juba it was HOT. Nairobi had been kind of cold (go figure) but Juba was really sunny and really humid. We went to the VIP room where I tried to sleep so I wouldnt think about throwing up and George kept me company (him and Neesha and Ed have been so wonderful at taking care of me). Ed and Father Voney (one of the priests that came with us to Juba) went to get our bags, and then we walked to the car. And this was the moment i (always one for good first impressions), chose to vomit spectacularly all over the ground, mere inches away from the place where the drivers for hire were hanging out under a tree. All these Sudanese boys were staring at me, and George and Neesha were looking concerned, and Ed didnt notice, and just shouted “Hop in the front seat ladies!” The driver looked seriously concerned that I was getting in his car.
More background: Juba is the capital city of Southern Sudan, but it is nothing like any city you have ever seen. In fact, if someone hadnt told me it was a city, I probably wouldnt have known. There are like.....5 paved roads, and all the rest are packed dirt or gravel. They are pretty good roads, but there are some serious potholes, and it takes definate skills to navigate them. There are lots of international aid agencies located in Juba, and lots of markets and resturants but from the road, they all look the same-contained in these braided wood fences, rusty tin roofs just visible over the top, and dusty. Back behind the road you can see these grass huts everywhere, with mud walls and tarps and fabrics thrown up around the windows or out over the side of the house. There are goats everywhere, and trucks with people literally hanging off every side, and girls in green and red school uniforms going to school. One boy was leading a cow down the side of the road while motercycles roared past. And talk about cars. These are SUVs, Land Cruisers, huge gaudy trucks with tinted windows. They have to be to survive the turrain (Toyota is doing roaring business here). But these trucks, they speed past inches away from women with huge baskets on their heads or men with bicycles-its a miracle they dont get hit.
We got to where we were staying (Camboni Brothers) which is a compound for missionaries. Father Hector was the first person i met-he comes off as very goofy but Ed says thats a defense mechanism. I'm hoping to get to talk to him later. Then there is this Italian sister who has taken care of me as I was sick, giving me water and turning on my fan and helping me hang up my mosquito net and bringing me a kitten to play with. The kitten is THE smallest cat you have ever seen, named Pussy. Pussy can climb trees and is very pointy looking. Anyway we got there and I instantly went to my room to lie down, while George, Neesha and Ed went out to lunch and then to two meetings (one at UNDP and one at PSI). I listened to Harry Potter audio books and slept. By dinner I was feeling a lot better. We went out to eat at this resturant and I had this warm broth, some chicken, and some rice and felt much better. When we got back I took the best shower of my life (it is literally a spiggot right next to the toilet in the bathroom, but the water was cool and I could dry off by the fan and climb into my mosquito protected bed. It was fantastic.
Friday June 6
I woke up feeling a lot better this morning, and got dressed. I dont really have an appetite so I didnt eat any breakfast, and we pretty much went right out to our meetings. Ed had promised us internet access, but then he broke it (seriously pissing off the German father Hans, who stalked in and out of the computer hut until it was fixed). We went to a meeting at Malaria Consortium, Ministry of Health, Mapping company and the Census bureau. We finally convinced Ed that 2 was probably a good time to go to lunch, but it took a LOT of wheedling. We ate at the same resturant we had dinner at (I had fried chicken) and we met this woman named Doctor Ann Ido who is the highest ranking woman in the SPLM party. She had lunch with Bishop Paride and we eavesdropped a little. Our friend Emmanual (not the same as Brother Emmanual) was driving down to Torit that day so we had to leave to go back to the Camboni Brothers. We finally got back, and he went off to Torit, and we changed, put on more bug spray (which is doing nothing, I am being eaten alive) and relaxed on the patio of the computer hut. It is so lush here, with mango and banana trees (and even guava trees!) everywhere. We can eat fresh fruit picked right from the tree (the guava was delicious, the mangos werent ripe but we ate them anyway). It started to rain right after we got back, pouring, thundering and causing the compound to become completely deserted while people ran inside, but we have been just sitting and relaxing on the porch, reading, figuring out google earth, killing spiders.
So that is the update. Its wonderful here. It has made me appriciate how little you need to get along. Things that in the US would seem like poverty are luxurious here. I find myself completely content with a bed, a net and a flush toilet (which is pampered, trust me). We havent even seen the towns and villages. This is city life. But things move slower, and people are friendly, and the kittens are adorable and eat the bugs for me.
Hopefully I can update more usually. Once we get settled in Torit we can update all the time, but this traveling is causing us to be pretty restricted in our access.
More soon!
xoxoxo