Voting Begins

Today I’m glad I’m not Sudanese, but wish I were. People started lining up just after dinner in some places…so they could be among the first to cast their cast their vote in the Referendum on Self-Determination. Many waited 12-16 hours, staying through the night and standing in the sun to vote. The projections are huge, with turnout anticipated to exceed 80% and some projecting the vote would be more than 95% in favor of secession. I was able to witness the drums talking and beating their enthusiasm for the joy of the people. The air was really electric. This is something the people had wanted for decades, and this day was anticipated since 2005. Things began peacefully, and the world watched as the people voted. I remember one old man, bent with age, but erect with pride, come out of the Referendum Center and staring at the indelible ink on his finger held up just a bit in front of him, marking his participation in the process. After a few slow steps, he raised his hand in the air and a smile erupted. His slow pace shifted into a quick jaunty step as he practically danced out of the Referendum Center. I went to Southern Sudan’s “Holy of Holies”, the memorial that has been prepared for their founding father, Dr. John Garang. He led them out of the bush and into legitimacy. I couldn’t help but think about the horrors the people had gone through, the 2 million killed in the bush during the years of civil war, more than 1 in 10 of the population. Everyone lost a family member, most of them close. I learned of the Lost Boys in the US, but thought it was a special group. Most of the youth were lost boys then, fleeing attacks on villages and walking for months to refuge. Some took years to find their families. A recent report noted that more than 1 in 3 women were gang raped. The broken generations here will not be healed by this vote, but it serves as a salve. The anticipation is drawing to a close and the joy is surfacing on faces that revert to solemn stares more than they should. I hope the people of Southern Sudan can hold this feeling close in the difficulties of the years to come.

Back in Sudan

What a series of flights. I got back tired, worn down, but ready to go to work. Alarm clocks and my body weren’t interested in supporting this notion and it took a couple of days to get back in the swing of things. The glories of the Quality Hotel hadn’t diminished during my time away. The team is drastically different now. I miss my friends from before. I think the engagement is really starting to move in a way that will keep similar interactions from happening. Good for Sudan, bad for quality time with neat people. On the positive side, my hope is that those returning to DC can work with those there to bring a bit more reality to their understanding and requests and make it easier on those of us “left behind”. I should be moving into the compound soon which will lead to a lot more time to work out and hopefully a bit more time to play as well.

The Holidays

It was great to be back stateside briefly. I got to see so many people…but never enough time with anyone. One of the unexpected excitements was the snow which met me in Washington DC and down in Kingsport. I think that just maybe, the anticipation of Christmas, and the avoidance of the 2 months of commercial lead-up to the day made it that much more special.

Black Snow

With no trash collection services in a moderate sized city, something must be done. There are piles of trash in some areas, some businesses have the trash trucked out of town and dumped in the bush, while most people burn their trash. Interestingly, there are no fires at night, just during the day. They want to keep a loose eye on the fires to make sure they don’t get out of control. Nevertheless, the fires burn, and they aren’t “natural” organic fires! The long strands of burned plastic polymers are constantly wafting in the wind. A strange form of elongated black snow that is constantly falling. The carcinogenic smoke burns the lungs from time to time and I just hope recycling is established outside of the brewery soon!

Olympics

Not quite at the level of Bear Den’s famed Olympics, but the S/CRS crew here had our own version of international sport for peace. We pitted the newbies versus the old folks based on how long folks had been in country. It was a lot of fun. Caitlin tore up her hands, elbows, and knees and rivaled the best playground wipeout in terms of injuries sustained during the sack race. Other than that, we escaped injury free. My team took the skipping relay, the ball throw, and the spoon and ball relay but lost the tug of war, the sack race, the three legged race, and the water balloon toss. It was nice just to have everyone out to play for a while.

Facebook and Sudan

Saw it was a friend’s birthday and went to send a short note-only to discover that he is living in Sudan! We studied together in 97 in Spain, and then worked together on some projects in 98 on non-proliferation. Since then, it has been the random email to keep up. I told him we had to meet up and reconnect and we were able to see each other twice within a week as he was in Southern Sudan from Khartoum. He has retired from the Indian Army and is now with the UNDP as the Director of their DDR Program. On top of that, I smiled to find an article about him courtesy of Google which was featuring the love story of him and his wife in Reader’s Digest!

Thanksgiving

Wow, a fun holiday! I missed the jack daniels mashed potatoes, the squash casserole, the green beans etc. but we had a great buffet. It isn’t every day you get really sweet fresh pineapple for Thanksgiving! I spent the evening with Shadrach, Rick, and Dave as part of a 7 hour card game, we danced for an hour with the last 15 or so people at the BBQ, and ended the night with roughly 4 empty bottles of bourbon left behind. It was interesting watching Ambassador Walkley dancing with his popped collar and pushing everyone out on the dance floor. As far as Thanksgivings away from home, this definitely ranks in the top three with Slovakia and the first South Africa one.

Basketball Update

I miss the Bangladeshis, but have found a better crew to play with-the Juba All-Stars! The height differential no longer exists and it is a good way for me to spend some time just hanging out with locals which is always a challenge for outsiders in my opinion. The play is pretty good, but the officiating is awful! They blow on everything and you can’t ever foul out. I’ve left pretty banged up a few times…and gotten at least 10 fouls a night called on me where I didn’t even touch anyone. The teams are picked after everyone warms up together and they all play one another over the course of the evening. So far, I’ve ended up on good teams with another guy my size named David and we’ve done well. Unfortunately, I’ve not played with Mosquito, but he is so fast that he is fun to try to defend. He reminds me of the warlord in Liberia with his name-but not his mannerisms.

Halloween

Sometimes when there aren’t a lot of options for entertainment, things are talked up a bit more than they should. I was concerned this might be the case for the Halloween party, but I sure was wrong! We arrived at Jebel Lodge and were greeted with the world premier of a Turkish pepper flavored vodka and went inside to find at least 250 members of the international community dressed in wide-range of costumes. I went in a grease monkey suit that was orange and looked a bit like I had escaped prison, but there were a lot of great costumes there that evening. Perhaps the most shocking was my friend who works as the Stabilization Advisor for the UK. He was in a silver sequined dress with a black curly wig and I stood within 5 feet of him for 5 minutes before he finally said something to me and I realized it was him! We were out til curfew and had a lot of fun dancing that night.

Hiking

I had a neat opportunity to head up “Jebel Mountain” which is obviously a poor attempt at description by outsiders since I’m told Jebel means mountain in Arabic. At the lower levels of the hike, a lot of folks were setting fires against the rocks, breaking them with sledge hammers and rolling them down the hill to be broken into gravel by the women at the bottom. This gravel would later be used at construction sites around the city. Shockingly, around the other side of the mountain was a quarry. I am impressed the people are able to undercut the price of the equipment and was pleased to know that the story of John Henry had its own version which is alive and well in Juba. There were no clear trails up to the top of the mountain, so a lot of bush-wacking was required. I went with a friend from Texas who would disappear in the 7 ft. tall grasses whenever he moved more than a few strides ahead of me. We were rewarded at the top with a great view. Hawks were flying all around the “summit” and it was neat to see the layout of the town from a different vantage point and to look out over the Nile. A nice orientation to a new home.

The Orphanage

One of my colleagues who has won the nick-name of the Garden Gnome has championed involvement in supporting an orphanage in Juba that can easily break your heart until you get closer to the kids. The scene is quite stark. Some of the kids are naked, several are sick, some injured, and games are played with bottle caps, rocks, etc. The coloring books are exciting enough to get at least 40 of them out to the tables to draw, trace, color, and even make paper airplanes and masks.