moments like these..

...make my day.

on mosquitoes

remember what a friend of mine said about malaria? i'm beginning to suspect that it's true. i was in thailand over the holidays with my whole family (which involves 4 continents and 3 colours) none of whom obviously have been working in south sudan. throughout the 3 week holiday, everyone, including the part of the family that actually lives in thailand, complained of mosquito bites on a daily basis. i, however, received perhaps all of 5 bites in 3 weeks. i think perhaps the mosquitoes in thailand were afraid of my blood. yay to me and the mosquitoes in south sudan, who, unfortunately for me, are apparently made of sterner stuff. hmm, maybe it's time to move, move, move, move?

music (?)

one fine day in the office, i was playing benny benasi's 'satisfaction' rather loudly on my laptop. one of our drivers comes into the office, hears the music, and starts looking around for the source of the 'noise'. he comes near my desk, but is looking up at the fan (which my desk happened to be very nearly under) with a frown on his face and asks me, 'why is the fan making such a funny noise??' (although it was in broken arabic (for my benefit) so a direct translation would be have been more like, 'what's that?' with wild gestures at the fan.) he was turning to call the acting compound manager to figure out together what to do about the misbehaving fan when he looked down at me and realised the 'noise' was coming from my laptop. he starts laughing and says, 'is that really music?', and strolls out the door still laughing.

the secret life of bags

i just found a dime in a bag that has never been to america with me (and as far as i know, i've never seen or had a dime since i left america), i wonder where else the bag has gone without me?

you never know with leather bags. they look like they're always out for adventure.

one headlamp

on a 10-hour drive from where i'm based to where i was supposed to go for a training, we left our base around 10 am (even though we were told in no uncertain terms by the operations manager that we were to leave at 8 am - and in the end it was because of him (and his team) that we left at 10!). so we drive along and eventually it gets dark (apparently this is a daily thing - but somehow always seem to catch us by surprise no matter what the situation). so it gets dark and we turn the headlights on - and well, they don't quite work and eventually sputter out. at this point, it's about 8 pm and it's pitch black (as in piiiitch blaaaaack holy shit am i blind??). so being the creative problem solvers that we NGO workers are - we took my headlamp, gave it to the person sitting in the front seat, who then hung out of the car window shining the light on the road in front of us which gave us just enough light to move on (albeit very very slowly).

so there we were, in the middle of the bush in the pitch black, one little headlamp shining in the dark and one co-worker hanging out the window. this is how we arrived at our destination (a big town no less, unlike the small village we came from). on the way, we almost drove into a swamp and also laughed our asses off when we confused the bejesus out of one motorbiker who couldn't decide what the hell we were (he thought we were a very tall person with a torch) and eventually rolled to an abrupt stop on the side of the road where we heard him say the arabic equivalent of 'what the fuck?' as we passed.

and on our way back to our small village, we started out from the big town at 8 am sharp and somehow still managed to arrive at our small village at 8 pm. i have decided that there's definitely a conspiracy against us ever arriving anywhere before dark (this is true - in my old base, no matter what time we would leave our base, we always arrived either just as the sun was setting or long after).

i did have a good laugh though because the person driving (the operations manager, or 'acting driver', as he likes to joke) turned the headlights on long before it got dark. i matter of factly pointed out to him that there was currently no need for headlights, but he just grinned at me. i figured that he was just showing off the fact that he had headlights again and was being over enthusiastic about using them (which i also pointed out to him and at which point he grinned at me even wider).

thrills?

i just pulled a car out of the mud. seriously, what  a thrill! either that, or my life is very very sad.

--

text sent to friend on 14/09/11

in control

so this is our driver while we were 'hovercrafting' in our car. i think he deserves a 'driver of the year' award.

it's a hovercraft!

travelling on a rainy afternoon, it's not so much a road as a...(i don't even know what to compare it to! feel free to complete!)

conversations in the field

one evening i found myself having a conversation with a grasshopper that was climbing up the side of the cooker while i was cooking (er, if you can call making ramen noodles cooking, i guess). it went a little something like this-

me: (pointing a damning finger at the darn g'hopper) you! go away.

g'hopper: ....

me: i mean it, go away!

g'hopper: (still slowly but surely climbing up the side of the cooker) ....

me: come on now!

g'hopper: ....

me: fine!! don't go away but don't jump in my food!!

i did think i was going a little bit crazy until later that evening i heard my friend talking to a frog.

friend: you, frog! don't go in there!

frog: plop plop plop

friend: no, no, no! get out of there right now! go go go!

i later witnessed the same friend talking to a cat: you idiot monkey, get out of here! 

there's actually sanity in there somewhere.

one of life's more difficult dilemmas

i'm still trying to decide whether this was an insult or a compliment: 

one day, our driver was trying to open the plastic packaging of a torch that he had just bought. so i took it from him, whipped out my leatherman (which sounds vaguely dirty i know), and knifed it open. 

so he turns, and says to the finance assistant who was sitting under the tree with us (life is hard, isn't it?), 'i just need 10 women like her'. i was like, 'err...' because i couldn't decide then and i still can't decide now whether it was a compliment or an insult!

a spot more trouble

got in a  car accident in somalia once, when a truck carrying goats literally ran us over after hitting 3 cars before the car i was in. despite the totaling of 3 cars and 1 kiosk, nobody was hurt.

the truck that ran us over

the car it was trying to pass

the first car it ran over

the second car it ran over - our security car

our car, which was hit,
then dragged for about 5 feet, which hit...

this kiosk

a spot of trouble

so we had a spot of trouble one morning. 

funny story - while we were waiting for the tractor to come from town to pull us out, a bus came by. the driver of that bus came out and asked our driver, 'why are you parked there?' our driver said, 'well, we thought it would be a great place to park and wash the car.' hahahaha. i love this man, truly. :)

this is what we were trying to cross

oops

yep, well and truly stuck

tried to use the winch,
but tree was too far away

you might wonder why the car looks so clean

it's because our industrious driver decided
it was as good a time as any to wash the car

and because we're good employees

while waiting for the tractor to arrive

we used our 'on the clock' time wisely

and took pictures

after all, i AM M&E, i document

i suppose it does kinda look parked

if you close one eye, squint the other and
cock your head to the left

tractor finally arrived

we DID manage to get out

but we were so stuck it took a good
20 minutes, about 10 different tries and 3
different kinds of winches

less than a week, seriously?

my brother-in-law, before i left los angeles, told me that it was amazing that i would travel so short a time and yet be so far away in so many different ways. i didn't understand, not really - the reality of a 16 hour flight + 1 night in dubai for a 15 hour layover + another 5 hour flight was looming too large for me to consider his words, especially since they began with 'travel so short a time'. 

i didn't understand, really, until a full 6 days after i left los angeles and i spoke to my sister online and discovered, to my absolute shock and awe, that i had left less than a week ago. i had come so far, from los angeles to malakal, in culture, in way of life, in daily realities, in so many other insignificant (yet significant) ways, that it seemed impossible to me that less than a week ago, only a 16 hour flight + 1 night in dubai for a 15 hour layover + another 5 hour flight away, i was sitting in los angeles, chowing down on pho and tofu rolls and now i was in malakal, struggling to make spaghetti sauce.

life defined

in 2006, as i was unpacking from a trip to thailand trip and packing for somalia, it occurred to me that i spent much of my life packing and unpacking. back then, at 26, i had no home, no bank account, no serious possessions (everything i owned fit into a suitcase & 2 boxes), and nothing to hold me anywhere. at 26, it was the most amazing feeling - holding down a first job in a country of my choice, and yet not really having any ties, truly feeling like the world is my oyster and i could pick up and go anywhere.

in 2010, now 30, as i was unpacking from a trip to los angeles and packing for sudan, it occurred to me that despite the fact that i now have a home, a bank account and despite the fact that my possessions no longer fit into a suitcase and 2 boxes (i proudly count amongst these possessions an antique desk that i adore, which obviously does not fit into either a suitcase or a box), i still spend much of my life packing and unpacking, i still live in one country and work in another, i still feel like the world is my oyster and that i could pick up and go anywhere (even though it'll probably take longer than an hour to pack now :)).

i guess this then defines my life - from one suitcase to another. 

(note: another epiphany to follow in 2014, after cheering ghana on in brazil. :))

programme expenses?

one day, in somalia (this was in 2006), we had a guesthouse meeting, and we were having a serious discussion about whether DSTV (cable) could be filed under programme expenses, and thus charged to the donor.

the joys of development work...
--
an e-mail sent to friends on 09.03.06

:)

i just saw giraffes and zebras crossing the street in nairobi on my way to the airport on sunday. they were babies - well, let's say teenagers. they looked like they were on their way home from a night out.

very sweet. made my travel to somalia, always hard, somehow easier.
--
posted on 09.05.09

not alone anymore

i heard a while back that somali pirates had pirated yet another ship. but this one was different. this one contained 13 burmese workers. my first thought? 'hey!! i'm no longer the only burmese in town!!'

i wonder- did these pirates see the hand written passports and think, 'oh fuck...' because you know, somalia, with it's fragmented state of being and having no central government, actually has digital passports. you know, the ones with holograms. and little arrows that allow the immigration people to scan stuff. and is typewritten. and shiny. 

imagine that!!

--

posted on 26.03.09

security men, AKs and internet cafes

this blogger is amused by the fact that wanting to go to the internet cafe warranted 3 security men jumping into the car with her with their AKs, and even more amused by the fact that they are now waiting outside the door, AKs in tow of course, just waiting for her to finish. this blogger is also aware of the fact that talking in the third person is a bit strange...damn you facebook updates!!

--

posted on 29.06.08, after this blogger was evacuated from the town she was living and working in, to another town.

a sad world

well, you know you live in a sad world when your project manager tells you they have a gift for you, and the first thought that pops into your head is, 'we got toilet paper!!!'
--
an e-mail sent to friends on 26.09.06

are you sure this is the right address?

at one point, my work address was:

next to the nigerian high commission which is next to the italian restaurant next to casablanca (a club).

i got so used to these kinds of specific instructions in kenya that when i went to visit the states and was given just an address, i was a little bit confused and wondered whether i was in the right place even though the street, the house/building number, and the apartment number matched. when my friend finally arrived, i asked her why she didn't just tell me that her apartment was above a cuban restaurant because she could have saved me the trouble of being laughed at when i asked the taxi driver, more than once, whether he was sure it was the right place (at which point she promptly laughed at me too).