Movin' on up (or over... or North)...

So, its time for an update on what is happening with me in South Sudan. That is, besides taking photos and getting sick..

I came back from leave in the middle of May, and had finally gotten a handle on this job/ life. I like my colleagues, had made some good friends here in Yambio, and my veggie garden was finally coming along.

Plus, the work is really interesting, I did some fun (and occasionally heartbreaking) assessments with IDPs, learned about constructing slaughter slabs for goats, and how to stay awake during a 6 hour ceremony where "His Excellency, the Commissioner of xxx County" spoke at length about... something...   (I said I could stay awake… not that I could focus)

I've been helping to write lots of proposals, and have discovered that in the past few years, I've learned a thing or two about what makes a good indicator and what qualifies as relevant, efficient, effective and sustainable programming. Most days, I feel competent. All in all, I'd say that I learn new and interesting things every day, have grown a ton, seem reasonably competent and feel like I really found my niche. And, even though I still don't think of myself as a "grown-up"; I feel like a professional. Basically, I’ve comfortably settled into this life and just started feeling like I knew what I was doing.

So, last Sunday, when I got a phone call telling me that I was being relocated, I was a little stunned. Apparently we are having (another) re-organization. As part of this I am getting what is being called a promotion, but I think it’s actually just a new title on the business cards and a harder job.

Instead of being a "Program Quality Officer" in the "External Engagement, Program Quality and Resource Acquisition Department" I am a "Quality Assurance Officer" in the "Quality Assurance Department". (if this sounds a little Orwellian to you… you’re not alone)  I am also being moved from the state I currently live in, Western Equatoria, to a state called Warrap. This new position is supposed to be something like a we’ll-send-you-to-the-mess-and-ask-you-to-trouble-shoot, fix things-and-make-sure-they-stay-functional kind of a job. There will be lots of travel and I won't have a "base" I'll be mobile all the time-- moving within Warrap, to Juba and to the other regions if needed.

The mandate does actually sound like a lot of fun. That being said...

Western Equatoria is a tropical paradise, we have mangoes everyday and great weather. The projects were just starting to function, and we were starting 4 new ones that I was really excited to work on from proposal to close-out. Plus, we just got a new cook and I've stopped eating goat every day.

Warrap has 3 times the number of projects (i.e. 3 times the amount of work) and is easily twice as big (i.e. 2 times more bone-jarring rides in Land Cruisers)
Also, I hear that you can't find a vegetable in the whole state, there are snakes and scorpions all over and that the weather is absolutely miserable.

I'm 8 parts excited for this new job, 1 part sad to be leaving the one I love so much, and 1 part absolutely terrified that the new position is WAY too big of a job.

I will keep you updated and let you know how it goes. The good thing is that I'll have some breaks coming up. In August, I'm going to Honduras for a HEAT security training (totally awesome) and then my family is coming and we're going to spend a week each on Egypt and Tanzania.

History in miniature

Wanna know a secret? 

It’s not just me in here.

If the history of Africa in the last 200 years has been one of colonization, war, independence and rebuilding, then that history has been playing itself out in miniature inside of my body these past few weeks.

Not only have I been colonized, the colonial powerhouses are warring with each other over territory.

Playing the roles of exploitative interlopers: Giardia lamblia* and Taenia saginata. (Better known as a nasty parasite and a tapeworm.)

And, cast as Nelson Mandela, Kwame Nkrumah, and Leopold Senghor: Flagyl, Albendazole and Tinidazole (Independence movement leaders in South Africa, Ghana and Senegal, and some strong drugs, respectively).

The fight is on. As with many independence struggles, things are getting worse before they get better. To (almost) quote Colonel Nasser, a leader in the Egyptian struggle for independence, “The liberation movement should get rid of (the tapeworm) as quickly as possible in order to deal with what is more important- namely the need to purge the country of the corruption that (the parasite) will leave behind him. We must pave the way towards a new ear in which the people will enjoy their sovereign rights and live in dignity. Justice is one of our objectives.” 

My sovereignty has been violated; my dignity is not intact. Fortunately, unlike many freedom fighters in the past, I have technology on my side. Biomedicine and strong pharmaceuticals are the AK-47s and anti-aircraft guns of this war. I will triumph, I will emerge stronger, I will expel these aberrations from my body and begin the work of rebuilding.

*Note: for those of you who have been following not only my adventures of the last several years... but the adventures of my intestines... you'll recall that Giardia is what made me so sick in Mongolia. Luckily, this time I recognized the signs and knew what to look for...

Photo essay 2: Crayola bombs

Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon.  A happiness weapon.  A beauty bomb.  And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one.  It would explode high in the air - explode softly - and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air.  Floating down to earth - boxes of Crayolas.  And we wouldn't go cheap, either - not little boxes of eight.  Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in.  With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest.  And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.  ~Robert Fulghum



The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?” -Henry David Thoreau

One of the virtues of being very young is that you don't let the facts get in the way of your imagination.  ~Sam Levenson



Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.  ~Seneca





I don't think it's possible to skip with a frown on your face.... I'd like to see the world's governing and terrorist leaders on a skipping tour through the Middle East and across the subcontinent and China to Korea.  ~Sue Irwin, as posted on iskip.com



He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.  ~Albert Einstein

Photo essay 1: IDPs of a certain age



"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art....
It has no survival value;
rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." 
~C.S. Lewis

"Travelers who put their homesickness behind them, who explore a place thoroughly, may find upon returning home that they experience a new kind of homesickness, a benign kind, that which comes only to those who travel well: homesickness for a place once visited, even if only briefly -- the sense that only in the western Highlands of Scotland, the beaches of the Lesser Antilles, the markets of Marrakesh, did some deep and very real part of their soul feel completely and exhilaratingly at home." W. D. Wetherell
A friend of mine recently posted this quote on her blog, and I think that it perfectly sums up something the Germans call, "fernweh". That is the oppowite of homesickess, its yearning for the far away. I suspect that when I'm an old lady, I will sometimes look up from what I'm doing and see these people again in my mind. I will have a longing to be at home with them once more. The following blog posts include photos taken at a seed fair for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) who have had to flee their homes, land and livelihoods to get away from the LRA.   

A single conversation with a wise man
is better than ten years of study. 
~Chinese Proverb

 

Adopt the pace of nature: 
her secret is patience. 
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 


It takes a long time to become young.  ~Pablo Picasso

 

  



Some people, no matter how old they get, never lose their beauty
- they merely move it from their faces into their hearts. 
~Martin Buxbaum

  

"The age of a woman doesn't mean anything.
The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson



In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber.  So long as it receives a message of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage - so long are you young.  When the wires are all down and our heart is covered with the snow of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old.  ~Douglas MacArthur