Torit: THe Begining

I had most of this post written, but then my internet cut out and I lost it. So here is a slightly abbreviated version of it.
We realized, once we had set up our rooms, that we needed bamboo poles to hang our mosquito nets from. And we wanted cold beer. This meant a trip to the market.
George, Neesha, Ed and I piled in the car with Ido (a dutchman who has lived here since '84) and Lucy (the wonderful office manager who also handles guests and is fantastic). Lucy got in with a crate filled with empty beer bottles (they refill them) and the four of us were crammed in the trunk (it had seats. no seatbelts. sorry dad. but its the cars the UN use so it should be safe right?) while Ed and Ido rode up front. We stopped to get beer, and Ed saw some guys walking with bamboo on their shoulders so he lept out of the car and accosted them. They werent keen on talking to him since they were carrying about 30 poles each, but they poined him in the right direction and he ran off. Lucy came back, Ed did not. We drove around looking for him for like twenty minutes. We even went to the Bishop's house, thinking that if he was realy lost he would have come there. This, in my mind, was illogical, because Ed's sense of direction is so abysmal that you would really want to check on the other side of town from the Bishop's house if you thought he was going there-but it didnt matter because they hadnt seen him). Just as we were about to give up, Neesha spotted him. Now, if George or Neesha or I had gotten lost in the market for a half an hour, we probably would have freaked out, gotten malaria, fallen in sewage and died. Ed, on the other hand, was just dandy. He had found bamboo poles, rope, a discotheque for us to visit some time, a saw, and some new friends. To quote George, "While the three of us would have freaked out, he was fine. It was like he came back to the car with bamboo, saying "Hey guys! I found a place we can get an airconditioner that runs on happiness!"-which is pretty accurate.
We put the poles in the back of the car, with George, Neesha and Lucy in the back, perched on a spare time, holding the poles so they wouldnt fly out the open back door. We drove very slowly home, which probably doesnt lessen the safety risk, but Ido was a very good driver and hey, its Sudan. Ed claimed that he got the poles cut to as high as his hand could reach. This was such a lie. These freaking poles were nine feet tall. The ceilings in our rooms were not. Lucy, being wonderful, found a machete and cut about sixteen of the poles down to size, and we went about lashing them to the bed posts with "rope" (strips of palm leaves). This required a lot of manuevering under and around the beds, and arguing with crickets and be-winged insects about who got the better position next to the bed posts. (The insects usually won, though George spent about five minutes trying to whip one particularly hardy giant flying stingy thing with a strip of palm leaf-he failed miserably-before finally just mashing it with the leaf and letting it fall to the ground. He was triumphant so i didnt point out that this was cheating). By the time we got the poles tied and the nets hung and tucked about our mattresses (it took about an hour) we were all really tired and panting and out of breath. Was Lucy, who had just been chopping bamboo with a machete for an hour? No! But we are poor, lowly khawajas. We were exhausted.
Luckily it was dinner time. There is a main dorm (where we sleep) and then across from it in a grove of trees is a campsite with a bunch of safari tents, a place to wash clothing, a kitchen, a stove and a bathroom. We mostly eat in the office however, which is the main building. Its pretty snazzy having dinner in a board room.
Anyway we were eating outside that night. It was roasted goat and chapati (my new favorite food) and rice. Goat tastes like a combination of lamb and beef (mostly lamb) and its hard to eat because its difficult to tell where the meat actually is in relation to the bone and fat. What was interesting was that earlier that day, Neesha and I had heard a sound like a car revving, and had looked outside to see this goat trussed up on the ground next to a pick up. And then for dinner-goat! That goat. George was having a rough time of it because he has to be especially careful of goat (its tougher and hard to digest) and Neesha only eats chicken and seafood, but the whole thing was exotic-sitting out under the stars (and clouds) drinking cold Ugandan beer and eating fresh roasted goat.
After dinner, I took a shower. Our shower is pretty uneconomical. It has no place to rest soap or shampoo or anything and it splashed water all over the floor but cold showers at night are so refreshing-they completely de-stickify you and you go get into bed feeling cool and clean. Being under the mosquito net is pretty cool too. Its like being in a canopy bed. I would feel like a princess except that several mosquitos and a piece of wood (that i was convinced was a large stinging insect until i inspected it at three am with a flashlight) infiltrated my lovely canopy and attempted to eat my thigh like it was an all you can eat buffet.
Anyway at six something in the morning I suddenly woke up because i heard shouting. I looked out my window blearily and saw Ed, standing there in nothing but his boxers, silloutted by the rising sun, shouting to someone "Yes! My eyes! They are irritated!" I briefly considered pitching something out the window at him, decided it was too much effort, and hoped fervently that he would shut up and go away.
Heres the thing about Ed. When he lived with the Dinka he was given the name Mokinyal. (spelled completely wrong) which means a black and white ox born to a white cow. This is a pretty flattering name. There is a joke going around however, that what it really translates to is "Man who talks until saliva runs out" which is so incredibly accurate. The man doesnt shut up. This helps him make friends (and influence people. ha.) but at six something in the morning, you kind of just want to kill him. In addition, here are the things he has shunned: sunscreen. hats. bug spray. malaria pills. treated/untreated nets. In fact, while all three of us slept very nicely under our nets, Ed cleverly slept with his face smushed up against the net itself. Thus the irritated eyes. And the bellowing.
My hopes that he would leave and be quiet proved to be wrong. He disapeared for as long as it took to get dressed, and then he was at my window (and thus, at my pillow) hollering "Emma! Neesha! Wake up! Its Seven! Its breakfast! I need my team right now!" I tried to explain to him that Neesha was catching up on sleep because she kept waking up at five am. and that I had woken up at five thirty the previous morning and gone to bed at midnight, and that George probably hadnt been able to fall asleep until two am because of Ed's snoring and his radio (true) but he was unconcerned and brushed these things away as unimportant. He trotted off to dinner shouting over his shoulder "Come on team! Get up!"
Needless to say we ignored him. Wouldnt you?
When we finally got up it was nine thirty. I went and had a meeting with Ed and Father Voney while Neesha and George got dressed and then it was off to meetings. We went to SSRRC and (Southern Sudan Relief and Rehabilitation Comission) and met with the deputy administrator, who told us, in effect, that he would get the director to call us back. We went also to the Ministry of Health and met with the Minister of Finance (and acting minister because the real minister is still in Juba at the conference, where we met her) and went with him to the cold chain of Juba in hopes of getting some EPI stats so that we would know what villages vaccines were given to and thus where we should go to distribute nets-at least as a jumping off point. THen we came back for lunch, only to have the director of SSRRC call us-so we went back over for another meeting. I dont have time right now, but next time i post i'll completely fill you in on what we are doing because its so fantastic and interesting and promising and HUGE. Right now, suffice it to say, he was fantastic. His name was Rex, and he had the maps we have been trying to get for months hanging on his wall. He said he would call and see if he could get some from us. He was Nimairi's body guard, and an ex boxer and is part of the SPLM (and was in SPLA-might still be, i forget) but he approached his job like it was military, and thus was incredibly effective and organized. I was really impressed with him. Later when I fill you in, i'll talk more about this meeting. He also invited us to Iloli (Iyala) which is an area where there was a tribal split, and then a shoot out with the SPLA. The SPLA burned the village to the ground at four in the morning. So now, a whole bunch of relief orgs (as well as SSRRC and some churches) are going this weekend to distribute packages of non-food items-plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, pots and pans, sidings, etc. Things you need to survive. And we get to go! Ed isnt happy about it. We are also heading down to Isoke to see a primary health care center next week.
So. After our meeting with the director, we went to the Bishop's house and chatted with him for a while. Bishop Akio has the best face. It was made for smiling. We gave him a computer and then Ed talked to him about batteries before running off to find something broken to fix, and while he was gone, Bishop Akio, Father Ben (who is sitting here on the computers with all of us in this tiny room in the office-its quite cozy), and the three of us chatted about hippos and alligators eating things. Quite intellectual.
When we got back, we had free time for the first time all day. Ed told us to bring our laundry and that Lucy and Florence (the Ugandan lady who cooks our food and is very sweet-a woman named Abigail helps her and shes wonderful too though i havent seen as much of her) would do our laundry for us. Neesha and I brought ours, and then I found myself at a loss of what to do. I took some pictures of the mission compound, and then, being bored and wanting to make friends, i went to go help Lucy and FLorence with the laundry. It was really fun. I know that any Sudanese woman wouldnt ever call washing laundry by hand fun, but chatting with Lucy and Florence and scrubbing at clothing (my clothing! all four of our clothing) with soap was so nice. I got to visit with them and find out all about them (Lucy is from Kenya in the Rift Valley and has four brothers and sisters, and a boy kept calling her while she did the laundry and she wouldnt answer because he was being a pesk, and shes going to take me to the market to buy a pretty and cool (temperature wise) dress and a flag and some other souviners and some fresh fruit and I"m going to help her get some capri pants because she really wants some.) We got all of our clothing washed and Lucy and Florence laughed at me because I was complaining that I wasnt getting tan at all (my sunblock is too good! I havent gotten any color! whats going on! I'm as white as the day i got here and that is NOT FAIR) and Lucy teased me that I wouldnt be able to carry the water (I did, but barely) and they both kept laughing because I was getting tired. I told them I would be here for two months though, and i want to help them with other things. It feels weird having people do things for me. Imperialistic. I dont like it. Besides, if i help with chores, I wont feel like a burden and I'll get stronger. Its a win win situation.
When we were done we went back and had dinner (pasta, and goat stew, and baked beans but different) and now i'm done with this post! Horrah!
I'll post again soon about what we are actually doing.