Sudan Day??

As the days have flown by all of us are finding ourselves more & more tired. I think it is due to a number of things. We are all up early to get to work, our diets are consisting mostly of breads w/ a more “normal”/nutritious meal at dinner, we find ourselves working late into the night & then our energy is further sapped by the heat. But it is easy to push on as we know our stay is finite. I often find myself wondering if I could live in this environment forever & how lucky am I that I get the option to fly away! The things that we find tiresome or dirty (all sizes of bugs & flies, dust & dirt everywhere, drop latrines & cement enclosed showers, the list can go on and on) are things that are common place for the Sudanese and we are not really experiencing their true hardships like carrying loads of water, wood, goods to sell, materials to construct a home (the list is endless) on our heads, we are not cooking over an open fire, we are not washing our laundry by hand, we are not spending all day in the market hoping to earn a few pounds…on and on and on…I can only imagine their level of tiredness when their day comes to a close but so often instead of complete quietness at the end of the day we hear the pounding of drums, singing, lots of social carrying on until all hours of the night.
This is a very small view of the life of a Sudanese. But can you imagine that daily life constantly being interrupted by the death of a family member or friend? Death is a constant reality here. And I am not trying at all to be dramatic w/ this post, just trying to give you a sense of the reality. Let me tell you about the deaths I have learned of that have taken place in my short time here. The day I went to the University (my first full day in-country) I was told some medical students would not be able to come meet me as their friend (a student at the college of education) had been hit by a car the night before and died. A young, bright life quickly erased. Then we come to Torit. There are 11 participants in the training and just in the last 5 days 3 of them have lost a relative. One man’s sister delivered a stillborn baby, one woman’s cousin’s 12 yr old son drowned & just today another woman came to tell us she could not stay as her brother-in-law died yesterday in a car accident. He left 6 children. Death is always present here. And just because it is happening more often does not mean they have become desensitized to it, tears still flow, death is always painful. And I get to fly away on Friday…how lucky are we??!! Please know that I write not to proselytize but just to continue to give you an idea of my experience here.
Last night our tiredness was buoyed. We had a completely magical night. I am not one to use fruffy words like magical but I cannot find another word that would better describe it. Our evening plan has always been to eat & work either at the hotel or nearby at a “restaurant” near where we stay, but yesterday we wanted to celebrate a birthday of one of project lead. Executing a surprise party in S. Sudan proved to be challenging & very humorous. We had heard of a great spot to watch the sunset so two of us ran around for an hour in the afternoon gathering dinner (chicken w/ tomatoes in a bag & beans in a bag), drinks, a little cake (picture a 1/8-sized banana bread loaf that doesn’t taste like anything but cooked dark flour), a taxi ride to get to the location. It was all falling into place as we rushed around. I left to get the chicken, my counterpart finishing a shower was to find the car & we would go. The one restaurant we eat at said they were out of chicken…uh oh…but they then said that across the street I could find chicken, “the same” I asked, “yes, the same” they laughed. Run across the road, whew, they did in fact have chicken and beans. My partner finds me and we head back to the taxi only to find him w/ his hood up & a dead battery….of course it is dead!! Taxis are hard to come by here but we are told we can go by motorcycle....not an option w/ all we have in tow but also not allowed by the project. So we get out to help little boys who have gathered to push start the car, we are back in business. As we head down the road we come upon a herd of cattle heading home, our driver decides to detour around instead of wait for an opening. We went at least 5 minutes out of our way for cows. We finally arrive to a Catholic Mission, our spot for the sunset but the sun in buried behind a thick blanket of clouds. My counterpart is worried that the surprise is going to be a bust because we have no sun to watch. I figure that regardless of the sun the extent we had gone through would be surprise enough and I’m sure much appreciated by the birthday girl. We walk about a ½ mile across the mission grounds to find an old church that has been bombed out. It was beautiful. We hang the one tacky red streamer we found at the shop and wait. Just as the birthday girl and our other colleagues approach the red sun emerges from the clouds. She is so surprised by the setting and the party. We sit amongst the ruins and watch the sun go down. I have walked around ruins that were centuries old, it was hard to believe that these had been bombed less than 30 yrs ago. A sad reminder to the post-war country we are in and the pain and anguish all the citizens have lived through.
We could not bring ourselves to leave. We sat under the stars, listening to music from a computer. I would wander off to another part of the building to sit away from the conversation, look up at the stars, the building & trees silhouetted by the blue sky & listen to the drumming and signing coming from the village nearby. It was 9pm here and I thought about what my husband and boys would be doing at home, still just 10 in the morning. I pictured both Oscar & Cooper in their respective classes, my husband hopefully getting a few hours of R&R (I have forgotten to mention he has been Super Dad while I am away, the tree is up and decorated, gingerbread houses made, lots of great things the boys have gotten to do all because of him) and here I sat under the stars, on the ledge of ruins in Southern Sudan. It was quite a moment. That is all I can say.
It was so much fun to relax, laugh & enjoy an incredible experience with new friends. We were renewed this morning to finish strong and well. The workshop closes today and we will depart for Juba in the morning. It is hard to believe I have just 2 days left here but it is also hard to believe that I get to be home w/ my family in just 3.5 days!! I can’t wait!