for the cleaner who is already here by 7:30, and the other to open the "store" where we keep the foodstuffs, so that the cooks can prepare breakfast. That storage room is also where the batteries for the solar lamps are kept... that early in the morning all blinking lights are red. We'll have to wait until at least past 8 to get a flashing green light on one of the indicators. Back to my room to grab my toothbrush and head towards the latrine/shower area where we have a jerry can filled with water, which serves as our faucet. A shower in the morning is optional. I mean, if it's kinda chilly I prefer not to pour kinda chilly water all over my head. We finally got a carpenter to come and fix the door to the shower and latrine, the latter of which you previously had to hold onto to keep closed. A "short call" is what we say around here when we want to say "nature calls", and since toilet paper is no longer sold in the Kauda market (who needs toilet paper when you have soda) the alternative is either to use soda bottles filled with water, or as I taught Lasu, to use old paper, Kyrgyz-style. So now, anytime he is off to the latrine he just grabs a piece of paper from somewhere, raises it up in the air as a sign of victory and all he says is "Kyrgyzstan!" It makes me laugh every time... It's still not 8 am yet... At this point I change into my "day clothes", grab my laptop, my book, and my camera, and proceed to the office. Everyone is supposed to show up by 8, but of course 8:30 is usually when you see the last person come in, and by then the first people who arrived are already heading out to grab their "morning tea". "Morning tea" for a Sudanese means taking a small mug and filling it with 3 giant heaps-of-a-teaspoon of powdered milk and 3 giant heaps-of-a-teaspoon of sugar and then filling the remaining space with hot water. I prefer 2 barely-teaspoons of sugar, 2 decent-sized teaspoons of powdered milk, and 1 decent-sized teaspoon of Cadbury's chocolate powder. If we're lucky enough we have eggs, but we have to make sure to have them sent from Kenya. There are no eggs to be found in the market here, not because there aren't chickens who lay them, but because, as David told me, "who would buy them?"
So by 9 or 9:30 everyone is back in office for work. By now we are lucky to have had some sunlight and might have enough power for internet. Some days we have trainings, so people come to us and we spend the day with them training them in finance, leadership, organizational development, gender & vulnerability, or whatever the flavor of the month is. Some days we go to visit partners, to see how they are doing on their projects, to pass info to them, or to discuss a certain issue. Sometimes they come to us for the same reasons. The best part about the job is the interaction with the partners and seeing their progress. But now that our vehicle is grounded (I think I forgot to mention that during our "full war" the vehicle's reverse gear got messed up as we tried getting the Land Cruiser out of the mud), we are borrowing NDI's vehicle and their deaf driver that comes with it. Yes, deaf. We need to empower vulnerable groups I guess... at least he's not blind. He's generally ok, except for the times when he drops us off, we close the doors, and we yell after him to stop because we forgot something in the vehicle... but he just keeps going.
Work is over by 5, the power is also gone by then, so then what? Sometimes we walk to the airstrip with radio in hand, listening to music, or more frequently, the news in either French, English, German, Russian, or Arabic. On a couple occasions we headed over in the opposite direction to watch some wrestling. Usually, though, we go to town to play volleyball or dominos, walk around the market, or just sit around and watch people, and OF COURSE, ALWAYS, drink soda. At this time in the afternoon among the passer-byers you see military guys with a flashlight in one hand and a nice black stick in the other, meant for hitting dogs or any other creature they might encounter as they walk at night. Lasu and I are the only 2 people on the compound nowadays, so after the deaf driver has driven us to town, I drive us back. One of these days I personally started a new "road", which has now become the "main road". I guess that's as good as the World Bank building roads...gotta find a place for that on my resume.
Back home usually by dark (7:30) and time to take out the solar lamp. Sometimes we are lucky, like tonight, and still have a little power left so we can conserve the solar lamp. When we have "a little power" that means the light blinks every 10 seconds or so. Try it now; blink every 10 seconds; you'll see what it's like. See, after a while you don't even realize you're blinking. Dinner by blinking-light usually includes bread or Ethiopian-like bread (called kisra) or if we're lucky chapati. Rice is almost always included, and sometimes beans, peas, or lentils. Finally there is some kind of meat, either the chicken we were running after this morning to kill, or goat or cow meat, usually in a stew-like form so that we have some "sauce" for the rice. Silverware is not included, but water to wash your hands is always available, along with soap, which is replaced by detergent at the food joints at the market.
At this time over the Eastern hills a battle breaks out... or at least I thought it was a battle the first nights I was here. The lightning does not look like lightning, but like blasts of light, like a bomb going off, while the thunder only confirms one's suspicion. (Don't ask me where I learned about war-zone light effects). A wind starts blowing and it's time for me and Lasu to run to our rooms and hide... A quick shower with a flashlight lighting the shower room, and I'm back in my room tucking in my mosquito net under the mattress. Before going to take my shower I usually spray the room with DOOM, to kill any bugs that might be around, but the name of the product doesn't scare them all off. An ant colony has established its base in a hole in the floor of my room, so I usually have to make an ant cemetery out of them before going to bed. I usually try to read between 9 and 11 using the screen of my laptop for lighting, since the solar lamp is too bright and attracts lots of mini-bugs that can fit through the mosquito net. At this point just waiting for malaria symptoms since they're sure to come before any shipment of insect repellent.
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