The rains came late to Rumbek this year. But now they’ve come and they’re not messing around. Last Tuesday evening it began raining at around midnight and didn’t stop until about noon the next day. This led to a couple of issues.
The first was on Wednesday morning when I had to travel to Adol to attend a location meeting. It is a 36km trip one way and took about an hour and a half. During the trip, we passed over the temporary bridge that has been put in place at the river Bahr Naam (the old bridge got taken out when a truck carrying tanks last year underestimated the width of its load and slammed into the side of it) The temporary bridge has three main culverts and water was about 6 inches from the top of each of them. Another heavy rain and the new bridge might wash away leaving a whole range of new logistical difficulties.
The second was when I was supposed to travel to Juba on Thursday. The Rumbek airstrip is supposed to be all weather (meaning rain or shine, I don’t know what they’d do with an ice storm). Until Thursday, I had never heard of a plane choosing not to land. In fact on Wednesday planes landed and took off successfully, and on Thursday morning planes landed and took of successfully, but on Thursday afternoon the WFP plane approached the runway, saw some water, and just kept on going to Juba. A book we read prior to coming to South Sudan referred to WFP as standing for “Where’s the _____ Plane.” This might not be without merit. Suggestions for why the pilots chose not to land: They heard the Afex (hotel beside the airport) buffet was mediocre that day, one of them had a hot date in Juba and didn’t want to be late, or maybe they were just following the “better safe than sorry” strategy. I’m guessing this a probably an encouraged strategy for all pilots.
This unfortunate event delayed my arrival in Juba by a day and meant cramming two days of interviews (for two new Across positions in Rumbek/Adol) into one day. Thankfully we were able to recruit some Juba staff to sit on the interview panels so that nobody had to participate on both panels.
And another travel item of note. Last week we received a bag full of random canned food and other goodies gifted to us by a UN staff who was on her way out of Rumbek for a new position in Nairobi. This is a tradition we have noted among NGO staff, with those on the way out dividing up everything that they don’t want to take with them. A year from now we’ll probably do the same thing. Being here for three years though, we’re going to receive a lot more than we give. While these little gifts are always great, the most recent one is causing me a bit of a problem. The goodies arrived in a nice medium sized bag. It’s the size of bag we’ve been coveting for trips like this current 5 day trip to Juba where our big backpacks are excessive but our other backpacks seem a bit small (mostly for the return trip after shopping for other goodies). The only problem is that it’s a Canadian Forces bag and touting a message of peace while carrying a bag with “Forces” down one side is a bit inconsistent. Your comments are welcome, but you should know that I have it with me in Juba right now.
The first was on Wednesday morning when I had to travel to Adol to attend a location meeting. It is a 36km trip one way and took about an hour and a half. During the trip, we passed over the temporary bridge that has been put in place at the river Bahr Naam (the old bridge got taken out when a truck carrying tanks last year underestimated the width of its load and slammed into the side of it) The temporary bridge has three main culverts and water was about 6 inches from the top of each of them. Another heavy rain and the new bridge might wash away leaving a whole range of new logistical difficulties.
The second was when I was supposed to travel to Juba on Thursday. The Rumbek airstrip is supposed to be all weather (meaning rain or shine, I don’t know what they’d do with an ice storm). Until Thursday, I had never heard of a plane choosing not to land. In fact on Wednesday planes landed and took off successfully, and on Thursday morning planes landed and took of successfully, but on Thursday afternoon the WFP plane approached the runway, saw some water, and just kept on going to Juba. A book we read prior to coming to South Sudan referred to WFP as standing for “Where’s the _____ Plane.” This might not be without merit. Suggestions for why the pilots chose not to land: They heard the Afex (hotel beside the airport) buffet was mediocre that day, one of them had a hot date in Juba and didn’t want to be late, or maybe they were just following the “better safe than sorry” strategy. I’m guessing this a probably an encouraged strategy for all pilots.
This unfortunate event delayed my arrival in Juba by a day and meant cramming two days of interviews (for two new Across positions in Rumbek/Adol) into one day. Thankfully we were able to recruit some Juba staff to sit on the interview panels so that nobody had to participate on both panels.
And another travel item of note. Last week we received a bag full of random canned food and other goodies gifted to us by a UN staff who was on her way out of Rumbek for a new position in Nairobi. This is a tradition we have noted among NGO staff, with those on the way out dividing up everything that they don’t want to take with them. A year from now we’ll probably do the same thing. Being here for three years though, we’re going to receive a lot more than we give. While these little gifts are always great, the most recent one is causing me a bit of a problem. The goodies arrived in a nice medium sized bag. It’s the size of bag we’ve been coveting for trips like this current 5 day trip to Juba where our big backpacks are excessive but our other backpacks seem a bit small (mostly for the return trip after shopping for other goodies). The only problem is that it’s a Canadian Forces bag and touting a message of peace while carrying a bag with “Forces” down one side is a bit inconsistent. Your comments are welcome, but you should know that I have it with me in Juba right now.
You could perhaps ask your kindly neighbour if he could create a peace patch to put over FORCES. He might be into that kind of thing...
ReplyDeleteUse it inside out? Sew something funky over top? Turn the 'o' into an 'a'?
ReplyDeleteWhat would I do without my ever so creative friends?
ReplyDeleteI was gonna suggest you bedazzle it over the forces part...
ReplyDeleteSince I am late on the conversation, and there are several good options suggested so far, i will go ahead and put forth some alternative ideas:
ReplyDelete1. Wear the bag through your legs like a diaper. No one will question you about the patch.
2. Start carrying a gun and wearing camo. Perhaps even get a mtaching tatoo. It will give a consistent message.
3. Take up using Jedi powers.
4. Change your name to Forces (could be a pretty sweet middle name)
As one coming even more lately, and following Jamie's comments.....the idea of adopting "Forces" as a middle name has some appeal. Heck, given your nicknames, perhaps you ought to just drop all other names, and go by Forces. Or, "The Peacemaker previously known as Luke".
ReplyDelete