We’ve been in South Sudan for almost 2 years now. Our life here has become normal, which makes it harder to identify daily happenings that might be noteworthy for those of you following back in North America. To keep you up to date on some of what our normal life looks like here is the first in what might become a series of daily activity summaries.
Monday/Tuesday, August 15th/16th:
7:12 – Wake up! Breakfast consists of a mixture of bran flakes and muesli (cereal is our biggest import by weight from Nairobi) with yogurt on top. We (almost exclusively Kaitlyn) are making yogurt daily. Originally started from a package of bacteria, now we just mix a little bit of leftover yogurt with warm water and milk powder in a thermos and let it sit. Over night it magically transforms into delicious (and usually creamy) yogurt over and over. We also recently had a yogurt miracle where we opened it in the morning and had only a watery mess. Not wanting to waste, I drank a bit of it and saved the rest to add a little zip to my lunch meal. Some scoffed at this action though I don’t want to openly name my wife. When I opened it at lunch (4 hrs later) it had turned into some of the best yogurt to date.
7:58 – Set up under the mango tree for an email download session. My Canar internet system is not working right now so I borrow the flash drive modem that Kaitlyn has which works on the cellphone network. It is really slow under the mango tree and doesn’t work inside our house. Once I’ve downloaded my email that is it for internet connection until Kaitlyn returns from work in the evenings.
8:32 – Arrive slightly late for devotion, which is fine because I’m still one of the first. We’re doing a series of devotions right now that are being written by our Across head office. I’m in charge for our location which means if the person on the schedule can’t share I’m the one. This was one of those days. Devotion is half an hour and starts with a couple of songs in English and one in Dinka followed by the sharing I was just discussing.
9:15 – Leave for Afex. Because my internet is down I was having trouble keeping up with the emails coming in through Friday and over the weekend. Friday was an especially bad day because it was the deadline for external consultants to submit proposals for end of project evaluation of our Health and Education programs. My inbox had over 10MB of mail backed up translating into somewhere in the range of 70 emails. Spent a couple of hours responding to the rest of the email and scanning the news which I also hadn’t seen for a few days.
11:18 – Started to organize the proposals received from consultants. 16 different proposals arrived, ranging from 5 pages to 86 pages in length. I would guess about 500 pages in all. We’re hoping to have a consulting team here for Sept 1st so timeline is pretty tight. Scanned them all, summarized very briefly the experience, cost and any other relevant details for each proposal into a chart.
12:41 – Break for make your own sandwich lunch. This sandwich deal at Afex used to cost 4SDG. We knew that was too good to be true and were there as often as possible while it lasted. Then it went to 6SDG. Still too good to be true. We were still there as often as possible. Then it went to 10SDG. A more reasonable price. The urgency to attend was gone, but still a nice break from regular lunch which for me is a white bun with peanut butter, an apple, a handful of cashews and a square of dark chocolate (last two items imported from Nairobi) Then a couple of weeks ago it went to 20SDG per sandwich. Now too expensive to go on a regular basis but if I need to be there for email I still partake. At 20SDG I have to make sure I’m getting full value so I pile on the meat and other toppings as high as possible. OK, I have done that ever since they were 4SDG. Probably I’m the reason why they’re up to 20SDG.
3:12 – The rest of the MCC gang is also at Afex doing work and other email (side note, it is now Thursday, I’m just getting back to this now so my notes for the rest of the day might be a bit more prone to inaccuracies), and they’re ready to go so I wrap up my review of proposal number 13 and save the other three for a little treat later in the afternoon.
4:45 – I’ve completed my review and sent out an email with my top 6 recommendations for feedback from the heads of each of the programmes involved. After some logistics work I’ve also managed to put the actual proposals on to a flash drive and handed them to one of our staff travelling back to Adol, where these programme heads reside. Sending them by email would have been almost impossible both from the sending and the receiving side. To get the flash drive on to the departing vehicle I actually broke into a jog for a few steps. Outside of Frisbee this is a highly noteworthy event.
5:20 – Wrap up replies to various other emails, then head off to Frisbee, a twice a week event which helps maintain my sanity. This is an example of inaccuracies. Frisbee didn’t actually happen on Tuesday because it was pouring rain, but it sounds more interesting than what we actually did. I think it was watching some TV shows. Probably 30 Rock and a new one that Joel just introduced called The Misfits. It’s British and recommended by a British friend so it’s OK that you haven’t heard of it. Also might have watched Joel play the skateboarding game that he has found on his new Mac. I see this activity as sort of consulting role.
7:25 – My chronology is a bit off because the TV shows probably happened post dinner, but let’s not get caught up in details. For dinner I’m sharing our Wednesday night meal which was a bachelor affair since the ladies left us to visit one of the parishes. Joel made biscuits, cooked in a frying pan. These were topped with bbq sauce, mustard, honey, and Marmite (only Joel, I struggle to avoid nausea when in the presence of Marmite/Vegemite, all toppings imported) I made a salad with cabbage, tomato, green pepper and fresh garlic. It was topped with a dill dressing also containing olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and some homemade hot oil. Only the salt and the hot oil are local supplies. Major errors on my part: I didn’t add either onion or fresh basil which is growing quite well outside our front door.
9:38 – Bucket bath finished, teeth brushed and flossed (I’ve been flossing almost every evening for the last month!) and Kaitlyn and I have retired to our mosquito net sanctuary. I’m in the middle of The Count Of Monte Cristo. My first year with MCC I read War and Peace, I’m 350 pages from finishing The Count for year 2, and I’m open for suggestions on what epic, ridiculously long piece of literature I should tackle in year three.
10:17 – Night, Night.
Monday/Tuesday, August 15th/16th:
7:12 – Wake up! Breakfast consists of a mixture of bran flakes and muesli (cereal is our biggest import by weight from Nairobi) with yogurt on top. We (almost exclusively Kaitlyn) are making yogurt daily. Originally started from a package of bacteria, now we just mix a little bit of leftover yogurt with warm water and milk powder in a thermos and let it sit. Over night it magically transforms into delicious (and usually creamy) yogurt over and over. We also recently had a yogurt miracle where we opened it in the morning and had only a watery mess. Not wanting to waste, I drank a bit of it and saved the rest to add a little zip to my lunch meal. Some scoffed at this action though I don’t want to openly name my wife. When I opened it at lunch (4 hrs later) it had turned into some of the best yogurt to date.
7:58 – Set up under the mango tree for an email download session. My Canar internet system is not working right now so I borrow the flash drive modem that Kaitlyn has which works on the cellphone network. It is really slow under the mango tree and doesn’t work inside our house. Once I’ve downloaded my email that is it for internet connection until Kaitlyn returns from work in the evenings.
8:32 – Arrive slightly late for devotion, which is fine because I’m still one of the first. We’re doing a series of devotions right now that are being written by our Across head office. I’m in charge for our location which means if the person on the schedule can’t share I’m the one. This was one of those days. Devotion is half an hour and starts with a couple of songs in English and one in Dinka followed by the sharing I was just discussing.
9:15 – Leave for Afex. Because my internet is down I was having trouble keeping up with the emails coming in through Friday and over the weekend. Friday was an especially bad day because it was the deadline for external consultants to submit proposals for end of project evaluation of our Health and Education programs. My inbox had over 10MB of mail backed up translating into somewhere in the range of 70 emails. Spent a couple of hours responding to the rest of the email and scanning the news which I also hadn’t seen for a few days.
11:18 – Started to organize the proposals received from consultants. 16 different proposals arrived, ranging from 5 pages to 86 pages in length. I would guess about 500 pages in all. We’re hoping to have a consulting team here for Sept 1st so timeline is pretty tight. Scanned them all, summarized very briefly the experience, cost and any other relevant details for each proposal into a chart.
12:41 – Break for make your own sandwich lunch. This sandwich deal at Afex used to cost 4SDG. We knew that was too good to be true and were there as often as possible while it lasted. Then it went to 6SDG. Still too good to be true. We were still there as often as possible. Then it went to 10SDG. A more reasonable price. The urgency to attend was gone, but still a nice break from regular lunch which for me is a white bun with peanut butter, an apple, a handful of cashews and a square of dark chocolate (last two items imported from Nairobi) Then a couple of weeks ago it went to 20SDG per sandwich. Now too expensive to go on a regular basis but if I need to be there for email I still partake. At 20SDG I have to make sure I’m getting full value so I pile on the meat and other toppings as high as possible. OK, I have done that ever since they were 4SDG. Probably I’m the reason why they’re up to 20SDG.
3:12 – The rest of the MCC gang is also at Afex doing work and other email (side note, it is now Thursday, I’m just getting back to this now so my notes for the rest of the day might be a bit more prone to inaccuracies), and they’re ready to go so I wrap up my review of proposal number 13 and save the other three for a little treat later in the afternoon.
4:45 – I’ve completed my review and sent out an email with my top 6 recommendations for feedback from the heads of each of the programmes involved. After some logistics work I’ve also managed to put the actual proposals on to a flash drive and handed them to one of our staff travelling back to Adol, where these programme heads reside. Sending them by email would have been almost impossible both from the sending and the receiving side. To get the flash drive on to the departing vehicle I actually broke into a jog for a few steps. Outside of Frisbee this is a highly noteworthy event.
5:20 – Wrap up replies to various other emails, then head off to Frisbee, a twice a week event which helps maintain my sanity. This is an example of inaccuracies. Frisbee didn’t actually happen on Tuesday because it was pouring rain, but it sounds more interesting than what we actually did. I think it was watching some TV shows. Probably 30 Rock and a new one that Joel just introduced called The Misfits. It’s British and recommended by a British friend so it’s OK that you haven’t heard of it. Also might have watched Joel play the skateboarding game that he has found on his new Mac. I see this activity as sort of consulting role.
7:25 – My chronology is a bit off because the TV shows probably happened post dinner, but let’s not get caught up in details. For dinner I’m sharing our Wednesday night meal which was a bachelor affair since the ladies left us to visit one of the parishes. Joel made biscuits, cooked in a frying pan. These were topped with bbq sauce, mustard, honey, and Marmite (only Joel, I struggle to avoid nausea when in the presence of Marmite/Vegemite, all toppings imported) I made a salad with cabbage, tomato, green pepper and fresh garlic. It was topped with a dill dressing also containing olive oil, apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, and some homemade hot oil. Only the salt and the hot oil are local supplies. Major errors on my part: I didn’t add either onion or fresh basil which is growing quite well outside our front door.
9:38 – Bucket bath finished, teeth brushed and flossed (I’ve been flossing almost every evening for the last month!) and Kaitlyn and I have retired to our mosquito net sanctuary. I’m in the middle of The Count Of Monte Cristo. My first year with MCC I read War and Peace, I’m 350 pages from finishing The Count for year 2, and I’m open for suggestions on what epic, ridiculously long piece of literature I should tackle in year three.
10:17 – Night, Night.
Hey Luke I would propose infinite Jest as your year three reading. Very long, ridiculous. I miss you guys, nice to hear about your daily life. Lora
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