I have so much to write that Im gonna first off start by saying Im going to split it into two entries, I know the last entry was scary big so this time I promise to make it shorter by splitting it into two :).
Dates: April 26th - May 16th
So as I wrote in my last blog about this boy Peter I thought I would give an update. Nothing happened. I tried to call him and got some answer in Arabic then when Manny and \I tried to call again it said the phone number didnt exist or something like that, we tried several times to no avail and have not heard from him or seen him. However since this boy is from Manny's tribe he is going to try to find out for me in the next week or so.
Manny left the following day (27th of April) to pick up his wife and daughter from Juba and on Saturday mum left for Midigo (if that's how you spell it) with the principal of the Yei Teacher Training College shes working for. As it is his home town and he wanted to show it to mum. That left me pretty much alone for the weekend including for the preaching I did in Manny's church which I thought went quite well despite some inadequate translation skills at times and required help from the congregation and visitors to get it right. They both arrived back safely that evening.
The following day (Monday) is also noteworthy as I splashed out and bought a blender. The mangoes here were so plentiful at the time and a lot of fruit so cheap that it made sense to me at least to use them for juice (I was sick of eating them by then). The instruction booklet was clearly confused as it told me to not use the machine for more than 4 minutes, but then on the next line down said, if you need to use it for more than 4 minutes then do so please. And yes it did even say please.
On wednesday that week we had a power outage which lasted about 48 hours after a tree fell onto the single power cable that brings power from the power pole into the Across compound. This meant most of the contents in my fridge were beyond saving by the time it came back on.
The next day was the beginning of training a new bunch of kids. You see since there are so many football teams in Yei, and so few grounds to train on, it's impossible to be exclusive and train only your team (especially when the Across field is out of action for almost the rest of the year while it's being graded). So unfortunately I am no longer able to train my team only. Since I came to Africa to use sport to help the kids, etc. It was definitely time to start coaching again. The first day drew 70 kids, mostly internally displaced kids from the area of Bentiu which has been attacked by the North (as it's on the border between Sudan and South Sudan). Training them was pretty difficult but Ruman and I managed, along with the help of a local guy. We did our second training on the following Monday with fewer participants fortunately, this time with more like 40 or so. I ran them hard and made them do a ton of pushups, etc. because they quite frankly suck at them. Another thing that surprised me was how poor their juggling skills were, many of them would be outshined even by my mum at the skill. Scary stuff.
Before I explain the title of this blog there is about one more thing worth mentioning and that is our umpteenth application for funding. However this time I feel more hopeful about its success as we did one jointly with YTTC to a donor called Comic Relief who give away a TON of money each year to organisations like us. South Sudan is high on their priority list as well and seeing as Across has been in South Sudan for 40 years and employs mainly South Sudanese, we feel we have a great chance of at least making the short list (which is drawn in about one or 2 weeks). YTTC have some massive development plans for the community and a lot of the goals, etc. fit perfectly with Fly Sport's.
Ok, so now to explain the title. Firstly its about the time of the year (the wet season) where you get snakes. South Sudan has many very friendly snakes such as Black Mambas and Cobras who really have that desire to get to know you, up close and personal. One such snake took such a liking to one of the workers here that it visited her twice, in the long drop. You see this lady who lives near me in the Across compound had been visiting the loo in the morning and opened the door to have a snake drop on her head. She wasn't sure whether it was a Mamba but she managed to avoid getting bitten. Only a few days later in the early morning (when there is little light) did she notice the snake yet again this time with his head raised ready to strike. Fortunately again she managed to avoid getting bitten and managed to get away without harm. Thanks be to God. So every time I visit the loo its a 20 second search up, down and around for another friendly fellow. Remember that the next time you visit the loo.
Now warheads. Around Across there has been a lot of construction and maintenance going on, a new classroom block 3 storeys high (the Yei equlivalent of the empire state building), the re-levelling of the football grounds and also the construction of a new dorm for the female students at the college. It was from the latter of these that an explosive present was found. I got a phone call from mum telling me to come have a look at the RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade) they had dug up during construction of the dorms. It looked like a large metal corn cob and was live ammunition. Not sure how it was disposed of but the guy who found it just casually picked it up and walked off with it after we were down looking at it and taking photos, some of which I will upload to my blog next time I have use of our laptop.
Lastly..... Between the beginning date mentioned in this blog and now we have had a couple of public holidays meaning days off work. The first of which was great and the second of which was nuts. This is where the secret service comes in. The second holiday, and last day featured in this blog was SPLM day, celebrating the liberation of Yei in the years past from the Khartoum government (Sudan). Everyone goes dressed in their best and the college band perform in Freedom square, where the celebrations are, dressed in their bright regalia. I had gone for a 7 mile run (just to slip that in there :P) in the morning and couldn't be bothered going into town, I was very happy to just sit on the computer for the day. Mum had planned to go into town with a workmate/neighbour/friend to see the festivities but had forgotten she had a planned skype session. So they agreed she would meet up with her there. So after finishing the skype session mum went into town to watch the happenings and goings-on. It was all in Arabic and fortunately a lady was kind and translated for her, a lady who, as it turned out, was the sister of the cook for YTTC whom mum is friendly with. Before long mum receievd a tap on the shoulder, the sort of thing you learn to ignore as its usually someone wanting money. The hand tapped again. Mum turned around and asked what he wanted. He motioned for her to go over to him as he was standing out in the sun. Mum politely replied by asking whether they could just talked in the shade. The man looked irritated and started making a call on his phone. The lady who had been translating for mum and Mr. "X" started having a heated conversation and she started to looked very distressed as she began to hurry away. A few people in the crowd talked to her and she came back looking upset. Mum asked what the matter was and she replied that the man was going to arrest them (turns out he was secret service). Moments later some guys in army/police uniform came and told them to come with them. They were taken to a holding cell at one end of freedom square and were basically interrogated, being asked who they were, what they were doing here, who they were working for, etc. etc. During their arrest mum had managed to call someone from YTTC and tell them they were being arrested. Mum explained that she was working for YTTC at Across, during this point the expression on the guy who accosted mum changed as he realised he'd made a huge screw up. Meanwhile mum's phone had rung 4 times and they wouldn't answer it, despite mum explaining that it would be someone from YTTC calling. They eventually turned it off. Anyway, the reason mum was arrested was that apparently she was suspicious. And get this, they claimed she was calling England with information. As if even communicating PUBLIC information was ever a crime. And to England??? What interest would England have in the celebration of a comparatively miniscule town in South Sudan (and as if it was worth explaining we are from NZ which is literally the other side of the world from Enlgand). They told her she should have been seated in the guests area. Which mum explained she had not be invited to and as if she was going to push through a huge crowd saying, "Make way for the more important white person!", when she arrived late. They even later changed the story to say that she had been inside the guest area and gotten out to take photos, none of which happened as her phone is so basic it doesn't even have a camera. Fortunately the band leader arrived and sorted out the mess, but hilariously they arrested him also and accused him of being a spy despite having just led the YTTC band moments earlier! It truly was ludicrous and mum was shaken a bit by the whole thing. The other lady who had been translating for her was very shaken and if mum had not stuck up for her who knows what would have happened. It's unlikely the poor woman will ever want to help a Westerner again, and I wouldn't blame her. Apparently this sort of thing had been going on all day and people had been arrested for doing nothing really. One lady had urinated in the corner out of fright and another guy was made to go home naked after they took his clothes of him. It really is sick that they will do this to their own people. It just shows how high the tention is from the conflict with the north.
In Juba a week or so earlier a female teacher had been shot dead by a soldier as she got out of her car. The reason being? She had moved while the South Sudanese flag was being raised. It's desperately sad that customs cn take precedence over a human life. Some things have just REALLY got to change.
That's all for this blog entry, the next one which I will enter in a moment will be mainly about our time in Uganda.
Peace be with you and God Bless,
Joel
Monday, May 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
A Long Time Ago
Oh buddy. My posts are getting less and less regular. Dont worry a bomb hasn't landed on me although I can't say the same for township of Bentiu sadly. We had a short instruction this morning about the best way to avoid a bomb dropped from a plane. Although I don't think it will ever come to that and boy are we praying the war doesn\t flare up again. It's the last thing any citizen in South Sudan wants, but the North is desperate as oil makes up 98% of their Income and because 75% of it is now in South Sudanese land it means big problems for the North. Ok so flashback now to the 21st of March onwards.
Waaay back in some time a long time ago (21st March 2012)Manny arrived back from Mundri with Grace and Naomi safe and sound. Naomi had managed to get malaria again while in Mundri and Grace contracted in not long after her. Its absolutely horrible, Im thankful for the availability of malarial preventatives in Africa although they are not as cheap as they are in NZ. Thursday and Friday saw the measurement of height and weight for the kids of the 32 schools in Yei River County for the inter-primary athletics competition. We split them into 4 groups of 8 (Two groups to each Measurement station, one each day). As I was recording the weights and heights it meant I wrote around 720 kids' names and measurements down. Some that didn't qualify as they were either too tall or too heavy (over 50kg) even broke into tears. Something very unusual as kids don't cry here unless they are very young. One guy also told me he was 20 years old (as we had to record their ages) so we decided to agree he was 16 (provided they qualify with the measurement age is only a formality). This was a huge source of amusement for myself and the other guy I was working with as this 20 year old was probably one of the only honest "kids" we measured. And yes this was for a primary school competition. The war meant many kids did not get education and it is not uncommon to find young adults of around 16-18 in primary school. That Sunday I was supposed to preach and Emmanuel's church, but there was a mix up meaning it would have to wait (until this Sunday as a matter of fact). So that means I have not preached in a single church since I have been here. Maybe you might want to start redefining your view of what a missionary is and does?
Week beginning March 26thATHLETICS.
Monday and day one of the inter-primary athletics, thousands of kids crowded into the small Across football pitch and surrounding ground which has been turned into a very temporary athletics track and field. We didn't get started until around 11am as the other officials were slack with time. The event began with some speaking and speeches and ending with the National Anthem of South Sudan. I must say it was quite amazing hearing about 4000+ African kids (and a few adults) sing the national anthem. The events began with the always entertaining 100m heats, which could have been more or less than 100m depending how long the football pitch is. You see they used the edge of the lengths of the football pitch were the lengths of the "400m" running track, this was ok for the 100m but anything else became longer than it was actually supposed to be. Google how to measure a running track and you will see what I mean. The straights are only supposed to be about 84m long while ours were 100m+ most likely. The week was full of complaints and arguing, we had to redo a couple of races on different days because of the runners' placings decending into chaos. You see the way they did it was that you would have an certain number of receivers who receive a certain placer, i.e one takes first, another second, etc. When it came to long distance races when they ran about 120 or so boys or girls at once it decended into chaos at the finishing line. I mean you would have thought picking first was easy enough especially when the winner won by a mile, but no, you get all sorts of allegations and accusations flying everywhere and even directed at me and the poor lady working with me who were just the mere results recorders. The problem really stemmed from the fact that the officials were volunteers from the different schools and they were accused of picking their own runners ahead of the real place getters, etc. This happened so many times it got quite frustrating. One race on the final day (the 4x400m girls relay) was just outright cancelled because I was fed up with all the arguing, and even some of the placers claiming they were one position higher than they really were. In spite of the problems there were some real highlights. Firstly the fact we managed to complete it all in 4 days was a miracle. It was scheduled to be only 3 days long and I anticipated it would take about a week based on organisational skills here, although going until around 6:30pm every night did help. Albeit suck big time for the schools around 10 miles away who had to walk home in the quickly disappearing daylight. Also that we had a clear winner for the boys and also for girls, and that we could hand out those trophies and give recognition for the winners of each event. As for amusing or comedic highlights there were two that stoud out. First the high jump technique. Now if you have seen the olympics and if you are reading this then you most likely have you will note the technique and athleticism of high jumpers doing either the "Fosbury Flop" or the well known "scissor-kick". Well that wasn't happening here, partly because they haven't been taught it and also because they were landing on a 2 or 3 cm thick pile of sawdust, not a nice comfy crash pad. So their technique? Literally jump over the bar. I must say the results given the techn ique were impressive a few managed to jump 1.4 metres without an officially recognised technique. Girls included. There is definitely a lot of potential. The second amusing highlight comes from the one and only three-time-attempted-cheating school Yankonye, who had some super fast growing students, probably world record breakers. An official had brought these three kids to me to check they were registered and legit. I asked each of them their names with their sports teacher or head teacher anxiously following the process. The first one gave me a name that was on the list as registered, however with one slight difference. The registered kid under this name was only 145cm tall and the one in front of me was clearly tall. Out came the measuring tape to find little Emmanuel had grown a whopping 21cm in one week. His parents must have been feeding him well. The second one failed to recall the right name getting the second name wrong from what was on the list, nice try buddy and the last one must have also had some encouraging parents as he had grown 16cm in one week. A good laugh and a stern telling off for Yankonye, nice try sports master, especially when he tried to convince me they had in fact grown that much in one week.
Thursday evening after athletics we found out that our transport to Juba had been canned for Friday, which was also the day of our flight. Queue a desperate search for transport resulting in a ludicriously expensive ride to Juba with a hired car. Fortunately we made it to the airport in time to unfortunately find that the staff member of Across in Nairobi had forgotten to ticket our flight despite 3 emails from mum reminding her to do so. Queue more expenses as we have to take a taxi from the airport to the Across compound in Juba to spend the night there (also more expenses as we had to pay for accommodation). By this stage mum and I were pretty fed up and just wanted to be in the much cooler Nairobi. That night was anything but cool as it was 36-37 degrees almost the entire night with no fan from midnight onwards. Fortunately a flight was booked for us for saturday and we arrived in Nairobi that day.
Time in Nairobi beginning Sunday April 1st
Luxury.
No other word to describe how Nairobi felt compared to Yei, it was brilliant. Much larger variety of food, supermarkets that actually deserve to be called supermarkets and plenty of cheap pirated movies to browse....not that we bought any..... However for much of that first week mum was quite unwell and restricted a bed hugging zombie-like status for hours on end. A combination of the stress of her last week in Yei and also the travel debacle. However being april fools day I thought it might be amusing to play an april fools joke. Mum and I discussed it and in the end we decided to hide the TV and laptops and say to Stu and Maree when they got back from church (yes we were slack and didn't go) that someone had nicked them when we were out for a walk. They totally bought to my surprise (I'm normally not good at keeping a straight face), even saying about how they didn't really know the guard as he was new and could have let someone in. When we told them it was an April Fools' joke they were both relieved and a bit annoyed I think. Mum and I felt a bit bad since they have actually had theft problems with a previous housekeeper and apologised, however you have to give us credit Stu and Maree if you are reading this that we sold you on it. And we were and are sorry it was a bit insensative. Also if you are my friend on Facebook and saw my post about spending the night in prison that was an April Fools joke as well, I did write on that same post it was but I'm not sure if everyone saw it.
Mum's bday was the next day and unfortunately zombie-mum couldn't do more than sleep for it, however Maree and I did get her some flowers which were super cheap I might add. About $6 NZ (5ish $US) for 3 dozen roses, yes you did read that correct, and I know any females reading this will be very jealous. On Wednesday Maree and I visited the veg and fruit market which is a lot cheaper than Yei and NZ I might add where it poured with rain, in fact being the bearers of blessing the rain arrived when we arrived in Nairobi. Upon arriving home to Stu and Maree's we found a whole bunch of Vervet monkeys having a good snack time on the flying termites plucking them out of the air like berries off a bush. On the Thursday the hibernating bear exited her slumber and we went to Tokyo resaturant for a nice sushi meal for her belated birthday.
Friday we arrived at lake Naivasha, a very nice area 2 hours north of Nairobi with a lot of wildlife. More specifically we stayed about 200m from the shore of a little sub lake called Lake Onoidien, with literally thousands of flamingos on its shores, an incredible sight to see in real life. Also with its fair share of Vervets one of which made into into our cottage and took a swipe at the bread, we had been napping at the time and mum was out for a walk. I heard a noise in the kitchen and walked in to see a Vervet sitting on the table looking at me, he/she scampered out with the small victory. In our time around Naivasha we went to a couple of game parks/national parks and also went for a boat ride on Lake Naivasha spotting many hippos. It was an awesome easter trip filled with a canyon walk, views of giraffes, buffalo, warthogs, impala, gazelles, antelopes, eland, and some rock climbing even. We left on the Monday back to Nairobi and spent the rest of a fairly uneventful week there bar an evasive rodent visitor and a big shop at Nakumatt (a big general store like Walmart in the States) where we bought a whole bunch of things to take back to South Sudan (we had planned for this by taking very few clothes from South Sudan on our holiday).
Saturday we arrive back in Yei after an early morning start to catch our flight.
Week beginning April 16th
Manny along with his wife and daughter and also Ruman travelled to Juba on the monday to sort out some passports (Grace and Naomi are still there now in fact). While they were gone I decided to do something proactive meaning I created for myself a little garden which I was and am very proud of, despite the fact the recent heavy rains have flooded it a bit meaning its likely I will need to replant. While creating this garden I had many visitors through the fence asking what I was doing and how I was, etc. but one kid stuck out to me. He began by asking how I was as is the norm and where I was from, etc. Then asking how long I was here for and when I was going back to my country. When I told him he asked if he could come with me, I didn't really think about it at the time about how desperately sad that was, his life must be pretty tough to want to leave his country so badly that he would go on his own to another with a complete stranger. I just said something about how expensive it was and that I could not afford to do that (I can't its really quite expensive) not really taking him seriously. I mean how many of us could understand growing up in a war situation where it is a battle to survive. When we complain about having slow internet speeds or a power cut lasting only a few hours or having to make do with minimum wage job as a student at college or university that earns us about 5 times as much in an hour as many people around here earn in a day. I guess seeing the real world, as this is what Africa is, truly opens your eyes. You can't begin to understand until you start to see it and live around and in it. I also did a bit of reorganising my very messy house, which is an event worth writing about because that sort of inspiration and energy doesn't come along often. Manny and Ruman both arrived back that evening, while Grace and Naomi are staying with Grace's parents. I went out the next day with Manny into town and got some posters for my dull room, one of which is an "End of Ghadaffi" posters, quite brutal but with some hilarious sub-titles I have yet to post on Facebook. That day was also my first game in the adult football league. I didn't feel like it went well. I was quite sore in my muscles for some reason and the team didn't really gel with me well. Manny left the next day again to go to Mundri to sort out some urgent problems with Fly Sports there and didn't arrive back until Friday evening. Thursday we had training which again didn't go too well and left me feeling a bit discouraged. Saturday we had our usual Pioneers staff meet-up at the ever-growing Perry family home on the outskirts of Yei. They have now adopted a pair of South Sudanese twins as the mother died in child birth and the father decided they would look after them better. Both are boys, so the only other boy in the family is quite happy at the prospect of finally having a brother (or two) despite being about 8 years older. On sunday we bought a frozen chicken which is news worth sharing about, considering how rarely you have chicken here, due to its price.
Week beginning 23rd April up to the 25th (today)On monday we visited the YWAM base to see if there are any other Western missionaries I hang with in Yei, YWAM being the best bet as the "Y" stands for Youth. But unfortunately there isn't even a single Westerner there at the moment and looks set to continue this way until around June/July/August. Yesterday was my second game of adult football in Yei and it was one to remember. Rain. Rain. Rain. It started out pretty light at first but usually that means it is only going to get heavier. The pitch was pretty muddy being entirely dirt with not even a microscopic trace of grass at the beginning of the game, the temperature was as low as the mid 20s and I felt right at home in the wet, "cold" and windy conditions, being thankful we could play. The game went ahead for 70 minutes until it got ridiculous and we had to call it off. What few spectators had stayed to watch had pretty much left by that stage and we were all sopping wet and muddy. Because the game could not be completed it means when have to play the entire thing again, fortunately. Considering we were somehow losing 3-1 to a team with one less player than us due to the fact he was set off for a legitimate tackle on me (the ref couldn't really see anything other than me flying through the mud after his tackle). We scored the resulting penalty which I wasn't going to risk taking (anyone see Messi's miss last night?) and took the lead along with a freshly grazed knee for the umpteenth time. The poor guy whow as sent off was in fact the coach of the Pro-Inter kids team who my team beat in the Semi-Final of the kids tournament I organised. Joel 2, John the alledged ex-Ugandan Premier League player (according to himself) 0. The rain lasted about 8-9 hours flooding everything including my poor garden yet again. Going out onto the roads this morning though and it looks like there was only a little shower last night, stuff dries fast here. Today we had a meeting with the inter-primary school sports committee about forming some sort of constitution and memorandum of understanding. I didn't really have a clue what they were talking about and I don't think half of them did either. One of them asked me to clarify what a memorandum of understanding was as I sat there fiddling with my watch exceedingly bored out of my mind. I mean yeah I am from the West but that doesn't mean I know what the heck that is... Im 18. How many other 18 year olds could explain what a MoU is? Did they make the term up??? Fortunately I ditched that meeting after the lunch break and went back to the Across compound after a brief shop to do this blog. At the gate I met Emmanuel with an older lady and younger kid who turns out to be 16. They had come to Emmanuel looking to find out about the Fly Sports kids team and also to try to securing some funding in order for the kid to be able to go to school. The cost of an entire year's schooling? About $25 NZ. They had just been about to leave as I was out. Talk about God timing. We talked briefly and the kid seemed quite shy, probably with this obviously big and imposing white figure in front of him....not. I guess being a Westerner and not someone he can understand easily made it awkward for him? Doesn't seem to in any way affect the ton of kids that everyday stare at me and ask "khawaja how are you?" (it never ends). So tomorrow we are going to go to his school and Im going to pay for a year's schooling for him, I mean after all the job of a missionary is to benefit and serve those they are sent to help right? I've also invited him to join our football team and hopefully he can mix in well with the other kids in the team who seem to have formed friendships or at least now acknowledge each other at school and outside of school with a degree of friendliness. I'm hoping I can maybe benefit this kid, I get the feeling he hasn't had an easy life especially when the older woman he came with was clearly too old to be his mum. Hopefully in my next blog there will be some update on that.
OK up to date finally, just to show you all I am still alive and breathing in this different world I'm in. I'd be lying if I said I missed home or that this was easy. I do and it's not. I guess just be thankful for how much, much, much more you have than most of the world.
God Bless and until next time (which will hopefully be sooner than a month away),
Joel
Waaay back in some time a long time ago (21st March 2012)Manny arrived back from Mundri with Grace and Naomi safe and sound. Naomi had managed to get malaria again while in Mundri and Grace contracted in not long after her. Its absolutely horrible, Im thankful for the availability of malarial preventatives in Africa although they are not as cheap as they are in NZ. Thursday and Friday saw the measurement of height and weight for the kids of the 32 schools in Yei River County for the inter-primary athletics competition. We split them into 4 groups of 8 (Two groups to each Measurement station, one each day). As I was recording the weights and heights it meant I wrote around 720 kids' names and measurements down. Some that didn't qualify as they were either too tall or too heavy (over 50kg) even broke into tears. Something very unusual as kids don't cry here unless they are very young. One guy also told me he was 20 years old (as we had to record their ages) so we decided to agree he was 16 (provided they qualify with the measurement age is only a formality). This was a huge source of amusement for myself and the other guy I was working with as this 20 year old was probably one of the only honest "kids" we measured. And yes this was for a primary school competition. The war meant many kids did not get education and it is not uncommon to find young adults of around 16-18 in primary school. That Sunday I was supposed to preach and Emmanuel's church, but there was a mix up meaning it would have to wait (until this Sunday as a matter of fact). So that means I have not preached in a single church since I have been here. Maybe you might want to start redefining your view of what a missionary is and does?
Week beginning March 26thATHLETICS.
Monday and day one of the inter-primary athletics, thousands of kids crowded into the small Across football pitch and surrounding ground which has been turned into a very temporary athletics track and field. We didn't get started until around 11am as the other officials were slack with time. The event began with some speaking and speeches and ending with the National Anthem of South Sudan. I must say it was quite amazing hearing about 4000+ African kids (and a few adults) sing the national anthem. The events began with the always entertaining 100m heats, which could have been more or less than 100m depending how long the football pitch is. You see they used the edge of the lengths of the football pitch were the lengths of the "400m" running track, this was ok for the 100m but anything else became longer than it was actually supposed to be. Google how to measure a running track and you will see what I mean. The straights are only supposed to be about 84m long while ours were 100m+ most likely. The week was full of complaints and arguing, we had to redo a couple of races on different days because of the runners' placings decending into chaos. You see the way they did it was that you would have an certain number of receivers who receive a certain placer, i.e one takes first, another second, etc. When it came to long distance races when they ran about 120 or so boys or girls at once it decended into chaos at the finishing line. I mean you would have thought picking first was easy enough especially when the winner won by a mile, but no, you get all sorts of allegations and accusations flying everywhere and even directed at me and the poor lady working with me who were just the mere results recorders. The problem really stemmed from the fact that the officials were volunteers from the different schools and they were accused of picking their own runners ahead of the real place getters, etc. This happened so many times it got quite frustrating. One race on the final day (the 4x400m girls relay) was just outright cancelled because I was fed up with all the arguing, and even some of the placers claiming they were one position higher than they really were. In spite of the problems there were some real highlights. Firstly the fact we managed to complete it all in 4 days was a miracle. It was scheduled to be only 3 days long and I anticipated it would take about a week based on organisational skills here, although going until around 6:30pm every night did help. Albeit suck big time for the schools around 10 miles away who had to walk home in the quickly disappearing daylight. Also that we had a clear winner for the boys and also for girls, and that we could hand out those trophies and give recognition for the winners of each event. As for amusing or comedic highlights there were two that stoud out. First the high jump technique. Now if you have seen the olympics and if you are reading this then you most likely have you will note the technique and athleticism of high jumpers doing either the "Fosbury Flop" or the well known "scissor-kick". Well that wasn't happening here, partly because they haven't been taught it and also because they were landing on a 2 or 3 cm thick pile of sawdust, not a nice comfy crash pad. So their technique? Literally jump over the bar. I must say the results given the techn ique were impressive a few managed to jump 1.4 metres without an officially recognised technique. Girls included. There is definitely a lot of potential. The second amusing highlight comes from the one and only three-time-attempted-cheating school Yankonye, who had some super fast growing students, probably world record breakers. An official had brought these three kids to me to check they were registered and legit. I asked each of them their names with their sports teacher or head teacher anxiously following the process. The first one gave me a name that was on the list as registered, however with one slight difference. The registered kid under this name was only 145cm tall and the one in front of me was clearly tall. Out came the measuring tape to find little Emmanuel had grown a whopping 21cm in one week. His parents must have been feeding him well. The second one failed to recall the right name getting the second name wrong from what was on the list, nice try buddy and the last one must have also had some encouraging parents as he had grown 16cm in one week. A good laugh and a stern telling off for Yankonye, nice try sports master, especially when he tried to convince me they had in fact grown that much in one week.
Thursday evening after athletics we found out that our transport to Juba had been canned for Friday, which was also the day of our flight. Queue a desperate search for transport resulting in a ludicriously expensive ride to Juba with a hired car. Fortunately we made it to the airport in time to unfortunately find that the staff member of Across in Nairobi had forgotten to ticket our flight despite 3 emails from mum reminding her to do so. Queue more expenses as we have to take a taxi from the airport to the Across compound in Juba to spend the night there (also more expenses as we had to pay for accommodation). By this stage mum and I were pretty fed up and just wanted to be in the much cooler Nairobi. That night was anything but cool as it was 36-37 degrees almost the entire night with no fan from midnight onwards. Fortunately a flight was booked for us for saturday and we arrived in Nairobi that day.
Time in Nairobi beginning Sunday April 1st
Luxury.
No other word to describe how Nairobi felt compared to Yei, it was brilliant. Much larger variety of food, supermarkets that actually deserve to be called supermarkets and plenty of cheap pirated movies to browse....not that we bought any..... However for much of that first week mum was quite unwell and restricted a bed hugging zombie-like status for hours on end. A combination of the stress of her last week in Yei and also the travel debacle. However being april fools day I thought it might be amusing to play an april fools joke. Mum and I discussed it and in the end we decided to hide the TV and laptops and say to Stu and Maree when they got back from church (yes we were slack and didn't go) that someone had nicked them when we were out for a walk. They totally bought to my surprise (I'm normally not good at keeping a straight face), even saying about how they didn't really know the guard as he was new and could have let someone in. When we told them it was an April Fools' joke they were both relieved and a bit annoyed I think. Mum and I felt a bit bad since they have actually had theft problems with a previous housekeeper and apologised, however you have to give us credit Stu and Maree if you are reading this that we sold you on it. And we were and are sorry it was a bit insensative. Also if you are my friend on Facebook and saw my post about spending the night in prison that was an April Fools joke as well, I did write on that same post it was but I'm not sure if everyone saw it.
Mum's bday was the next day and unfortunately zombie-mum couldn't do more than sleep for it, however Maree and I did get her some flowers which were super cheap I might add. About $6 NZ (5ish $US) for 3 dozen roses, yes you did read that correct, and I know any females reading this will be very jealous. On Wednesday Maree and I visited the veg and fruit market which is a lot cheaper than Yei and NZ I might add where it poured with rain, in fact being the bearers of blessing the rain arrived when we arrived in Nairobi. Upon arriving home to Stu and Maree's we found a whole bunch of Vervet monkeys having a good snack time on the flying termites plucking them out of the air like berries off a bush. On the Thursday the hibernating bear exited her slumber and we went to Tokyo resaturant for a nice sushi meal for her belated birthday.
Friday we arrived at lake Naivasha, a very nice area 2 hours north of Nairobi with a lot of wildlife. More specifically we stayed about 200m from the shore of a little sub lake called Lake Onoidien, with literally thousands of flamingos on its shores, an incredible sight to see in real life. Also with its fair share of Vervets one of which made into into our cottage and took a swipe at the bread, we had been napping at the time and mum was out for a walk. I heard a noise in the kitchen and walked in to see a Vervet sitting on the table looking at me, he/she scampered out with the small victory. In our time around Naivasha we went to a couple of game parks/national parks and also went for a boat ride on Lake Naivasha spotting many hippos. It was an awesome easter trip filled with a canyon walk, views of giraffes, buffalo, warthogs, impala, gazelles, antelopes, eland, and some rock climbing even. We left on the Monday back to Nairobi and spent the rest of a fairly uneventful week there bar an evasive rodent visitor and a big shop at Nakumatt (a big general store like Walmart in the States) where we bought a whole bunch of things to take back to South Sudan (we had planned for this by taking very few clothes from South Sudan on our holiday).
Saturday we arrive back in Yei after an early morning start to catch our flight.
Week beginning April 16th
Manny along with his wife and daughter and also Ruman travelled to Juba on the monday to sort out some passports (Grace and Naomi are still there now in fact). While they were gone I decided to do something proactive meaning I created for myself a little garden which I was and am very proud of, despite the fact the recent heavy rains have flooded it a bit meaning its likely I will need to replant. While creating this garden I had many visitors through the fence asking what I was doing and how I was, etc. but one kid stuck out to me. He began by asking how I was as is the norm and where I was from, etc. Then asking how long I was here for and when I was going back to my country. When I told him he asked if he could come with me, I didn't really think about it at the time about how desperately sad that was, his life must be pretty tough to want to leave his country so badly that he would go on his own to another with a complete stranger. I just said something about how expensive it was and that I could not afford to do that (I can't its really quite expensive) not really taking him seriously. I mean how many of us could understand growing up in a war situation where it is a battle to survive. When we complain about having slow internet speeds or a power cut lasting only a few hours or having to make do with minimum wage job as a student at college or university that earns us about 5 times as much in an hour as many people around here earn in a day. I guess seeing the real world, as this is what Africa is, truly opens your eyes. You can't begin to understand until you start to see it and live around and in it. I also did a bit of reorganising my very messy house, which is an event worth writing about because that sort of inspiration and energy doesn't come along often. Manny and Ruman both arrived back that evening, while Grace and Naomi are staying with Grace's parents. I went out the next day with Manny into town and got some posters for my dull room, one of which is an "End of Ghadaffi" posters, quite brutal but with some hilarious sub-titles I have yet to post on Facebook. That day was also my first game in the adult football league. I didn't feel like it went well. I was quite sore in my muscles for some reason and the team didn't really gel with me well. Manny left the next day again to go to Mundri to sort out some urgent problems with Fly Sports there and didn't arrive back until Friday evening. Thursday we had training which again didn't go too well and left me feeling a bit discouraged. Saturday we had our usual Pioneers staff meet-up at the ever-growing Perry family home on the outskirts of Yei. They have now adopted a pair of South Sudanese twins as the mother died in child birth and the father decided they would look after them better. Both are boys, so the only other boy in the family is quite happy at the prospect of finally having a brother (or two) despite being about 8 years older. On sunday we bought a frozen chicken which is news worth sharing about, considering how rarely you have chicken here, due to its price.
Week beginning 23rd April up to the 25th (today)On monday we visited the YWAM base to see if there are any other Western missionaries I hang with in Yei, YWAM being the best bet as the "Y" stands for Youth. But unfortunately there isn't even a single Westerner there at the moment and looks set to continue this way until around June/July/August. Yesterday was my second game of adult football in Yei and it was one to remember. Rain. Rain. Rain. It started out pretty light at first but usually that means it is only going to get heavier. The pitch was pretty muddy being entirely dirt with not even a microscopic trace of grass at the beginning of the game, the temperature was as low as the mid 20s and I felt right at home in the wet, "cold" and windy conditions, being thankful we could play. The game went ahead for 70 minutes until it got ridiculous and we had to call it off. What few spectators had stayed to watch had pretty much left by that stage and we were all sopping wet and muddy. Because the game could not be completed it means when have to play the entire thing again, fortunately. Considering we were somehow losing 3-1 to a team with one less player than us due to the fact he was set off for a legitimate tackle on me (the ref couldn't really see anything other than me flying through the mud after his tackle). We scored the resulting penalty which I wasn't going to risk taking (anyone see Messi's miss last night?) and took the lead along with a freshly grazed knee for the umpteenth time. The poor guy whow as sent off was in fact the coach of the Pro-Inter kids team who my team beat in the Semi-Final of the kids tournament I organised. Joel 2, John the alledged ex-Ugandan Premier League player (according to himself) 0. The rain lasted about 8-9 hours flooding everything including my poor garden yet again. Going out onto the roads this morning though and it looks like there was only a little shower last night, stuff dries fast here. Today we had a meeting with the inter-primary school sports committee about forming some sort of constitution and memorandum of understanding. I didn't really have a clue what they were talking about and I don't think half of them did either. One of them asked me to clarify what a memorandum of understanding was as I sat there fiddling with my watch exceedingly bored out of my mind. I mean yeah I am from the West but that doesn't mean I know what the heck that is... Im 18. How many other 18 year olds could explain what a MoU is? Did they make the term up??? Fortunately I ditched that meeting after the lunch break and went back to the Across compound after a brief shop to do this blog. At the gate I met Emmanuel with an older lady and younger kid who turns out to be 16. They had come to Emmanuel looking to find out about the Fly Sports kids team and also to try to securing some funding in order for the kid to be able to go to school. The cost of an entire year's schooling? About $25 NZ. They had just been about to leave as I was out. Talk about God timing. We talked briefly and the kid seemed quite shy, probably with this obviously big and imposing white figure in front of him....not. I guess being a Westerner and not someone he can understand easily made it awkward for him? Doesn't seem to in any way affect the ton of kids that everyday stare at me and ask "khawaja how are you?" (it never ends). So tomorrow we are going to go to his school and Im going to pay for a year's schooling for him, I mean after all the job of a missionary is to benefit and serve those they are sent to help right? I've also invited him to join our football team and hopefully he can mix in well with the other kids in the team who seem to have formed friendships or at least now acknowledge each other at school and outside of school with a degree of friendliness. I'm hoping I can maybe benefit this kid, I get the feeling he hasn't had an easy life especially when the older woman he came with was clearly too old to be his mum. Hopefully in my next blog there will be some update on that.
OK up to date finally, just to show you all I am still alive and breathing in this different world I'm in. I'd be lying if I said I missed home or that this was easy. I do and it's not. I guess just be thankful for how much, much, much more you have than most of the world.
God Bless and until next time (which will hopefully be sooner than a month away),
Joel
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Where are the rains?
Hello there again, here goes another hour or two of writing pain. Im sorry it's been longer than I planned since my last update so theres a ton to report on. In fact it has been almost 3 weeks, anyway here is the run down from the last few weeks, melting pot style just as last time, daily rundowns are just too organised for me.
Week beginning Monday 27th, well as I wrote in the last post, our team made it through to the finals. The final was played on the Saturday with many issues which I will get to in a second. Training coming up to the final had been a bit disrupted with some locals purposely trying to be a nuisance or interrupt it for whatever reason. Friday the 2nd of March was the losers match (3rd and 4th place) the winner of which won a football which they tried to tell me was not ok. I was quite fed up with the ungrateful sods because we had told them we had no funding and could only offer paltry prizes, especially since it was only a pre-season tournament. I also visited the Yei Football Association with Emmanuel who were finally in their office after trying 3 or 4 times previous. Had an interesting discussion about the leagues, etc. Turns out they even have a transfer market for buying and selling players. However the record transfer is 300 SSP (about $110 NZ) which made me laugh. I came back on Saturday and registered as a player with my two passport photos. Turns out I will be one of the youngest playing in the adult league. The registration form asked me to give "four names" I told him I only had three but thought afterwards I should have added a funny one that they wouldnt have understood for a laugh. Just about everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong for the final. The nets had been stolen in the morning for whatever reason which is only a shot in the foot of the community, there were also two adult teams trying to say they had permission to use the field at the same time, when they clearly didn't much to my frustration and their amusement as I was not only trying to organise my team with 30 mins to go until playing but also find someone in Across who could sort out the mess. Fortunately it got sorted and they moved off to another field. However that wasn't the end of it as the referee called in that he was at a funeral and couldn't referee so I got Emmanuel to referee. This could have caused real problems had we won with claims of bias however ludicrous would inevitably be heard. The final itself wasn't as much of an occassion as I thought it would be, my team went down 3-0 to the only team in the league to win every game. The score didn't really tell the story of the game as it was 0-0 at half time and they got the better of the luck to open the scoring. From there my team was pushing to score an equaliser and as a result conceded at the other end. By then the game should have been over and my team were demoralised finally conceding the third late into stoppage time, which didn't need to be played really. The other benefit of losing is that my team is now more determined to win the normal season after the heartbreak of losing a final.
The departure of the pre-season league saw the arrival of the Pioneers cross-cultural training just nearby in Yei (I'm working with Across, sent by Pioneers). There were many people from all over Africa, all of them Westerners like us. Over the course of the week we got to hear their stories about how they made it to Africa and decided upon what they are now doing just like mum and I (us). The training lasted from 8:30 until 5pm or later everyday from Sunday through until Friday so it was a busy week. We would have several breaks throughout the day the fortunately including the likes of liver for lunch, yuck. Although to make up for it we got the ever-rare chicken another day! It's amazing what becomes a talking point and luxury after a while. Speaking of time, as I am writing this I have realised it is 2 months exactly today since we arrived in Yei. Back to the training, we learned many things which explained some things we had noticed. One poinient example is where one of my players calmly told me he hadn't been at practise since his mother had died. I was quite shocked and didnt expect him to be at training the day after his mother had died even! Turns out kids will often call even the most distantly related aunty their mother. Tuesday the 6th of March I also had my first haircut, this was something that had been worrying me for a while as locals can't cut khawaja hair (khawaja means white person in Arabic and is not offensive) as they don't know how and it is so different in thickness to theirs. Thankfully an American family who are living and running a hospital in Yei (with 8 kids of their own) know how to cut/shave our hair. First I opted for going for just a trim with the scissors, but after turning out looking like a monk I decided to shave it. Not only would it mean less time until I needed to bother to have a haircut again but I gambled it would look better. Thankfully it turned out well, and when I say shaved it was using the longest attachment meaning it wasn't terribly short. Since I got the haircut many people have said they didn't recognise me and many have said I look younger, despite the fact the average age I'm guessed to be is around 25 hahahahaha. The next day after the training we went into town with the other Pioneers cross-cultural trainees. The locals must have thought it was either armageddon or more likely their lucky day with the 14 or so whities looking around. The problem is Yei isn't a very touristy place and its quite diffcult to get anything close to a souvenir, in fact the closest is probably to get some clothing made with some of the awesomely colourful fabric you can get here. Thursday arrived as the second to last day of training with Rhys and Rhonda (workers who have been at Across for 26 years!) sharing about the radio programme at Across and language learning respectively. Rhonda especially is more of a local than the locals themselves. That evening we all went to the Perrys' for dinner, fortunately they have a few large dining tables and a larger house (needed when you regularly have vistors and also have 8 kids of your own). The kids were all very cute and all wanting me to read them bedtime stories on the couch, about 4 or 5 of them crowded around me, I'll try and get a copy of the photos to put on here or FB. Friday was the end of training and the although it had been good I was glad kit was done, we also showed the others around the Across compound.
Saturday was a good day, for a couple of reasons. Firstly the ability to have a very lazy morning was welcome, but more importantly a thunderstorm, a great gift of thunder, lightning and much rain. In fact the temperature even dropped to the low 26 degrees celcius which forced me into wearing my polar fleece! I know you probably think I'm mad, but you acclimatise after a while! I also bought what I thought was called jackfruit, some oddly named fruit mum had eaten the day previous. However it turned out to be a custard apple which I managed to leave to ripen for too long and became rather foul. Sunday was a different church again which I wasn't too happy with, some of their foundational principles were beyond bizarre, for example the main one was "make heaven". I left feeling rather dizzy and sick. Fortunately the afternoon perked up and we had lunch with a couple of the remaining Pioneers. A buffet lunch to be more specific which was very satisfying.
This brings us to last week, heck its been a long blog and Im not nearly done, sorry! Monday the 12th of March Emmanuel left with his wife Grace and his daughter Naomi to go to Mundri for "the week", I was originally going to go with him but we will wait to do this later in the year probably around June. So for the week it was just Ruman and I. The first couple of days were filled with meetings and meetings that ended up being postponed. Wedenesday was the beginning of the inter-secondary school football competition wich kicked off at the pitch in town called "Freedom Square". It started about 2 to 2 and a half hours later than supposed, meaning it was played around the heat of the day. This meant I got pretty sun burned as the anti-malaria medication dries out your skin meaning you are more prone to sunburn. It left my forehead, nose and ears pretty burned while also the tops of my hands, with amusing tan-lines up to where my shirt sleevs reached and where my sunglasses had covered. I am only now recovered from the sunburn...and peeling.
Thursday was an unusual day from the outset. My alarm for the morning was not that of my little Torch-thermometer-clock but that of my next door neighbour. As I woke I was feeling quite irritated at my neighbour who was making some awful screechy sound. I thought it was some odd laugh (for whatever reason, I was tired) which I quickly realised was a loud piercing wail like an alarm. My next door neighbours went over to her room (there are four of us in this block of rooms side by side, with super thin walls) to see what the matter was. The poor lady had lost her sister either overnight or early in the morning to some serious heart problem, she was pretty devastated and many went to her house to comfort her. Not only that but my colleague Ruman didn't turn up and upon ringing him I found out his aunty had died. Terrible news for two that day. Death is an all too common criminal in missionary work I am starting to find out. So for Thursday and Friday I was left to my own devices and managed to skype dad finally and also organise the bible study for Saturday just passed.
The bible study went well and although it was only a small group they were thankful for my being there. I also finally saw this mythical jackfruit which turned out to be the biggest fruit I've seen in my life. It is about the size of a small barrel, literally, we didn't even bother asking how much it was it was too big to carry around Yei. Another large bonus arrived this past week in the form of a new community television and also DSTV. This means 11 sports channels (yeah better than NZ) of awesome. This gave me a massive boost after what had been a mediocre week and I joyously watched Liverpool's FA Cup Quarter-final triumph. Now we arrive at yesterday, a busy day with a 3 hour meeting but more importantly a visit to the Iris ministries base, this is where Michelle Perry works. Many of you reading this probably will know nothing about her, but in short she runs a large and loving orphanage in the outskirts of Yei with over 120 kids of mixed ages and gender. She was born with one leg and is from the States having arrived in Yei early 2006. I would encourage you to read her blog and book, both of which have names I have forgotten. So anyway after going up to the Iris-ministries base and playing football in the scorching heat with some of the kids I managed to meet Michelle Perry and we talked for about 40 or so minutes with many young kids clambering around us wanting attention and hugs. So today (20th March) I am going up there along with mum this time so she can meet Michelle and we can talk some more.
Done, finally, Khalas. Thats a long entry sorry, probably the longest yet, I always think detail is nice to read but heck it can be a pain to write out. Hope all is well in the world because at the moment I might as well be living in out of space, I'm so out of touch. Blessings to all who are reading this and to my awesome country of NZ. Next time I update the blog will be either in Nairobi when mum and I go for our first break or shortly after that. Anywho, until next time.
P.S We are supposed to have had the rains come by now, hence the blog entry title.
P.P.S Go the Phoenix and Canes!
Week beginning Monday 27th, well as I wrote in the last post, our team made it through to the finals. The final was played on the Saturday with many issues which I will get to in a second. Training coming up to the final had been a bit disrupted with some locals purposely trying to be a nuisance or interrupt it for whatever reason. Friday the 2nd of March was the losers match (3rd and 4th place) the winner of which won a football which they tried to tell me was not ok. I was quite fed up with the ungrateful sods because we had told them we had no funding and could only offer paltry prizes, especially since it was only a pre-season tournament. I also visited the Yei Football Association with Emmanuel who were finally in their office after trying 3 or 4 times previous. Had an interesting discussion about the leagues, etc. Turns out they even have a transfer market for buying and selling players. However the record transfer is 300 SSP (about $110 NZ) which made me laugh. I came back on Saturday and registered as a player with my two passport photos. Turns out I will be one of the youngest playing in the adult league. The registration form asked me to give "four names" I told him I only had three but thought afterwards I should have added a funny one that they wouldnt have understood for a laugh. Just about everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong for the final. The nets had been stolen in the morning for whatever reason which is only a shot in the foot of the community, there were also two adult teams trying to say they had permission to use the field at the same time, when they clearly didn't much to my frustration and their amusement as I was not only trying to organise my team with 30 mins to go until playing but also find someone in Across who could sort out the mess. Fortunately it got sorted and they moved off to another field. However that wasn't the end of it as the referee called in that he was at a funeral and couldn't referee so I got Emmanuel to referee. This could have caused real problems had we won with claims of bias however ludicrous would inevitably be heard. The final itself wasn't as much of an occassion as I thought it would be, my team went down 3-0 to the only team in the league to win every game. The score didn't really tell the story of the game as it was 0-0 at half time and they got the better of the luck to open the scoring. From there my team was pushing to score an equaliser and as a result conceded at the other end. By then the game should have been over and my team were demoralised finally conceding the third late into stoppage time, which didn't need to be played really. The other benefit of losing is that my team is now more determined to win the normal season after the heartbreak of losing a final.
The departure of the pre-season league saw the arrival of the Pioneers cross-cultural training just nearby in Yei (I'm working with Across, sent by Pioneers). There were many people from all over Africa, all of them Westerners like us. Over the course of the week we got to hear their stories about how they made it to Africa and decided upon what they are now doing just like mum and I (us). The training lasted from 8:30 until 5pm or later everyday from Sunday through until Friday so it was a busy week. We would have several breaks throughout the day the fortunately including the likes of liver for lunch, yuck. Although to make up for it we got the ever-rare chicken another day! It's amazing what becomes a talking point and luxury after a while. Speaking of time, as I am writing this I have realised it is 2 months exactly today since we arrived in Yei. Back to the training, we learned many things which explained some things we had noticed. One poinient example is where one of my players calmly told me he hadn't been at practise since his mother had died. I was quite shocked and didnt expect him to be at training the day after his mother had died even! Turns out kids will often call even the most distantly related aunty their mother. Tuesday the 6th of March I also had my first haircut, this was something that had been worrying me for a while as locals can't cut khawaja hair (khawaja means white person in Arabic and is not offensive) as they don't know how and it is so different in thickness to theirs. Thankfully an American family who are living and running a hospital in Yei (with 8 kids of their own) know how to cut/shave our hair. First I opted for going for just a trim with the scissors, but after turning out looking like a monk I decided to shave it. Not only would it mean less time until I needed to bother to have a haircut again but I gambled it would look better. Thankfully it turned out well, and when I say shaved it was using the longest attachment meaning it wasn't terribly short. Since I got the haircut many people have said they didn't recognise me and many have said I look younger, despite the fact the average age I'm guessed to be is around 25 hahahahaha. The next day after the training we went into town with the other Pioneers cross-cultural trainees. The locals must have thought it was either armageddon or more likely their lucky day with the 14 or so whities looking around. The problem is Yei isn't a very touristy place and its quite diffcult to get anything close to a souvenir, in fact the closest is probably to get some clothing made with some of the awesomely colourful fabric you can get here. Thursday arrived as the second to last day of training with Rhys and Rhonda (workers who have been at Across for 26 years!) sharing about the radio programme at Across and language learning respectively. Rhonda especially is more of a local than the locals themselves. That evening we all went to the Perrys' for dinner, fortunately they have a few large dining tables and a larger house (needed when you regularly have vistors and also have 8 kids of your own). The kids were all very cute and all wanting me to read them bedtime stories on the couch, about 4 or 5 of them crowded around me, I'll try and get a copy of the photos to put on here or FB. Friday was the end of training and the although it had been good I was glad kit was done, we also showed the others around the Across compound.
Saturday was a good day, for a couple of reasons. Firstly the ability to have a very lazy morning was welcome, but more importantly a thunderstorm, a great gift of thunder, lightning and much rain. In fact the temperature even dropped to the low 26 degrees celcius which forced me into wearing my polar fleece! I know you probably think I'm mad, but you acclimatise after a while! I also bought what I thought was called jackfruit, some oddly named fruit mum had eaten the day previous. However it turned out to be a custard apple which I managed to leave to ripen for too long and became rather foul. Sunday was a different church again which I wasn't too happy with, some of their foundational principles were beyond bizarre, for example the main one was "make heaven". I left feeling rather dizzy and sick. Fortunately the afternoon perked up and we had lunch with a couple of the remaining Pioneers. A buffet lunch to be more specific which was very satisfying.
This brings us to last week, heck its been a long blog and Im not nearly done, sorry! Monday the 12th of March Emmanuel left with his wife Grace and his daughter Naomi to go to Mundri for "the week", I was originally going to go with him but we will wait to do this later in the year probably around June. So for the week it was just Ruman and I. The first couple of days were filled with meetings and meetings that ended up being postponed. Wedenesday was the beginning of the inter-secondary school football competition wich kicked off at the pitch in town called "Freedom Square". It started about 2 to 2 and a half hours later than supposed, meaning it was played around the heat of the day. This meant I got pretty sun burned as the anti-malaria medication dries out your skin meaning you are more prone to sunburn. It left my forehead, nose and ears pretty burned while also the tops of my hands, with amusing tan-lines up to where my shirt sleevs reached and where my sunglasses had covered. I am only now recovered from the sunburn...and peeling.
Thursday was an unusual day from the outset. My alarm for the morning was not that of my little Torch-thermometer-clock but that of my next door neighbour. As I woke I was feeling quite irritated at my neighbour who was making some awful screechy sound. I thought it was some odd laugh (for whatever reason, I was tired) which I quickly realised was a loud piercing wail like an alarm. My next door neighbours went over to her room (there are four of us in this block of rooms side by side, with super thin walls) to see what the matter was. The poor lady had lost her sister either overnight or early in the morning to some serious heart problem, she was pretty devastated and many went to her house to comfort her. Not only that but my colleague Ruman didn't turn up and upon ringing him I found out his aunty had died. Terrible news for two that day. Death is an all too common criminal in missionary work I am starting to find out. So for Thursday and Friday I was left to my own devices and managed to skype dad finally and also organise the bible study for Saturday just passed.
The bible study went well and although it was only a small group they were thankful for my being there. I also finally saw this mythical jackfruit which turned out to be the biggest fruit I've seen in my life. It is about the size of a small barrel, literally, we didn't even bother asking how much it was it was too big to carry around Yei. Another large bonus arrived this past week in the form of a new community television and also DSTV. This means 11 sports channels (yeah better than NZ) of awesome. This gave me a massive boost after what had been a mediocre week and I joyously watched Liverpool's FA Cup Quarter-final triumph. Now we arrive at yesterday, a busy day with a 3 hour meeting but more importantly a visit to the Iris ministries base, this is where Michelle Perry works. Many of you reading this probably will know nothing about her, but in short she runs a large and loving orphanage in the outskirts of Yei with over 120 kids of mixed ages and gender. She was born with one leg and is from the States having arrived in Yei early 2006. I would encourage you to read her blog and book, both of which have names I have forgotten. So anyway after going up to the Iris-ministries base and playing football in the scorching heat with some of the kids I managed to meet Michelle Perry and we talked for about 40 or so minutes with many young kids clambering around us wanting attention and hugs. So today (20th March) I am going up there along with mum this time so she can meet Michelle and we can talk some more.
Done, finally, Khalas. Thats a long entry sorry, probably the longest yet, I always think detail is nice to read but heck it can be a pain to write out. Hope all is well in the world because at the moment I might as well be living in out of space, I'm so out of touch. Blessings to all who are reading this and to my awesome country of NZ. Next time I update the blog will be either in Nairobi when mum and I go for our first break or shortly after that. Anywho, until next time.
P.S We are supposed to have had the rains come by now, hence the blog entry title.
P.P.S Go the Phoenix and Canes!
Monday, February 27, 2012
The Wonderful World of Yei
So its been a while since I've posted. I just don't have the time or motivation to update this blog more than once a fortnight. I wonder sometimes how life is going back home, we have become so out of touch with the news that when I get home it will be like a caveman arriving in the 21st century. Anyway the round up of my last 2 weeks begins below continuing from Monday the 13th of Feb.
Monday. This was the last time I updated my blog, however I updated it early in the day meaning you have not read about the football tournament I was apart of. You see Across and the students at the Yei Teacher Training College (YTTC) have a football tournament which consists of 4 teams and 6 games every year I think although I imagine the number of games and teams change from year to year. Anyway they wanted me to play in the first game against the In-service students team whom we beat rather soundly 5-2. I had the fortune to score the goal that pulled us back into the lead and also the one after, ending as the top scorer for the game. Our second game in this tournament was a disappointing 3-3 draw in which I did not score and we all felt the referee was biased and made some very poor calls. Our third and final game was a final of sorts with the winner taking the trophy and goat, yes a goat, as the prize for winning. We were beaten 3-0. I hope the goat tasted nice, the students earned it. The day after this first game saw my team play their first proper game (Fly Sports kids). We went down gut-wrenchingly 3-2 to a team who didn't deserve to win and felt the referee (who works for FS) was biased against us so that the other team wouldn't complain about the referee. The kids looked like someone in their family had died they were so quiet and almost in tears (kids don't cry here unless they are still babies). Our final group stage game was Friday which was essentially a must win in order to be guaranteed qualification. We drew. A second game in a row my team had a 1-0 lead at half time and blew it away, ending 1-1. Fortunately for us other results went our way and we qualified second on goal difference, meaning a very tough quarter-final match against the highly fancied Yei Central who were viewed by many as one of the teams to take the competition. We beat them. A performance from my team worthy of a final. They worked extremely hard and exhausted themselves with all the running and hard work. For a third game straight we lead at halftime 1-0. For a third game straight the other team equalised, it was like a sucker punch late in the game. This meant extra-time which didn't provide any goals. Penalties followed. I know this kids league is not like the World Cup or anything but penalties are extremely nerve-racking for a coach. I sympathise for those that have been through it for World-cups, etc. At 3-3 after three penalties each I was fervently praying our goalkeeper would pull some magic out of the bag and make a save or that the opponent would fluff it. He fluffed it and hit the post. We knew this was our opportunity and with our fourth and their fifth player both scoring all that was required was for our fifth taker to slot it home, which he did calmly. Cue the massive celebrations from the team, hugging, shouting, joy. I was proud of the team because I knew we had passed a massive hurdle and technically recorded our first win. Not only that but had knocked out one of the favourites. Like Zambia beating Ghana in the AFCON Semi-finals I told my team. Yesterday (Monday 27th Feb) we played our semi-final match against Pro-Inter. A team run by an ex-player from the Ugandan Premier League as I later found out. A penalty and a goalkeeping howler were enough for my team to book a 2-0 win and place in the final this Saturday 3rd March to much jubilation. The other semi-final takes place tomorrow with a team who has won every game so far (the other favourite to take the tournament) playing a team who twice came from two goals down to win 7-6 on penalties, after full time and extra time saw the game finish 4-4. That's all from the football front for now.
Going back to the week beginning Monday 13th. This week Emmanuel and I visited Jigomoni primary school with the prospect of beginning the salt and light discipleship there. That day was also one of the hottest for a while and I felt quite dizzy and faint for most of the day despite drinking lots and keeping my salt and sugar levels up, apparently this means the rains are coming. Speaking of rains we had our first bit of rain in Yei on Saturday just passed and also on Sunday. Sunday not only had rain but much thunder and even lightning which arced horizontally across the sky. This made the temperature drop significantly and for the first time I even felt cold (it was probably in the high 20s-low 30s). Its funny how quick you adjust to the temperature here even though its so much hotter than NZ.On
On the 18th of Feb we had a get together of all Pioneers staff in Yei at the Perry's house at Harvesters not too far from where we are staying. They have 8 kids living with them (9 total I think) and the biggest dining room table you've ever seen. Not only this but they had running water and a flush toilet! This was so amazing it bordered on excitement for mum and I. How ludicrous does that seem to those of you living in the West? Maybe you should just be thankful for what you have. Even the "poor" in NZ are rich in comparison to many living here. We had an awesome lunch too, it was a pretty good day.
Week beginning Monday 20th. Monday began with an early visit to Kanjoro primary school with Emmanuel advertising our Salt and Light Discipleship programme to the assembly of kids. About 1300 or so of them. Now when you think of assembly you probably think of a big hall with seats in them or kids sitting on the floor with the principal standing on stage behind a lecturn. Wrong. They would all stand outside with the principal in the middle on a concrete block with steps. Pretty basic. I spoke and asked them to raise their hand if they knew where NZ was. Deadly silence and not a hand raised. Either they didn't understand me or just as likely none of them knew where it was. Most seem to think its in Europe somewhere. It seems funny that many people I talk to about my country seem to know where Australia is and never notice NZ sitting next to it. At least this makes it easy to explain where Im from. Another thing here that never ceases to amuse me is the locals' complete inability to accurately guess my age. I have had many guesses ranging from the youngest guess as 20 to the oldest guess being even 30! When I tell them I'm 18 they say that I'm lying and they don't believe me, its quite funny. I think its because we eat so well in the west that we grow a lot more than they do. Many nof them would only have 1 meal a day. Compared to our 3, or 5...
On Tuesday 21st mum and I had our first skype session with video even. I didn't think the internet would be quick enough to handle this but it managed. We skyped Joel Edwards and Janette McKevitt for the Sunday missions themed church service back home. It was really nice to talk to some familiar people and see some familiar faces. Also skyped Courteney and Jono that day/week. If my other mates are reading this get skype so we can chat! I feel so out of the loop with everything at the moment. Although this was a great encouragement and made my week, we (FS) found out we're on the chopping block so the need for funding is urgent. In response to this we have made many applications and got one positive response back from Samaritan's Purse, which we are pursuing, and praying over.
I have been a bit unwell recently catching a bit of a cold. I know, the irony. So if you could pray for me in that regard and also for Fly Sports to receive funding so that we can continue our work in Yei and also hopefully expand to Boma that would be awesome. Hope all of you reading this are well and that the weather has fined up a bit in Wellington. If I could share some of the heat and sunshine from here then I definitely would :)
God Bless, Joel
Monday. This was the last time I updated my blog, however I updated it early in the day meaning you have not read about the football tournament I was apart of. You see Across and the students at the Yei Teacher Training College (YTTC) have a football tournament which consists of 4 teams and 6 games every year I think although I imagine the number of games and teams change from year to year. Anyway they wanted me to play in the first game against the In-service students team whom we beat rather soundly 5-2. I had the fortune to score the goal that pulled us back into the lead and also the one after, ending as the top scorer for the game. Our second game in this tournament was a disappointing 3-3 draw in which I did not score and we all felt the referee was biased and made some very poor calls. Our third and final game was a final of sorts with the winner taking the trophy and goat, yes a goat, as the prize for winning. We were beaten 3-0. I hope the goat tasted nice, the students earned it. The day after this first game saw my team play their first proper game (Fly Sports kids). We went down gut-wrenchingly 3-2 to a team who didn't deserve to win and felt the referee (who works for FS) was biased against us so that the other team wouldn't complain about the referee. The kids looked like someone in their family had died they were so quiet and almost in tears (kids don't cry here unless they are still babies). Our final group stage game was Friday which was essentially a must win in order to be guaranteed qualification. We drew. A second game in a row my team had a 1-0 lead at half time and blew it away, ending 1-1. Fortunately for us other results went our way and we qualified second on goal difference, meaning a very tough quarter-final match against the highly fancied Yei Central who were viewed by many as one of the teams to take the competition. We beat them. A performance from my team worthy of a final. They worked extremely hard and exhausted themselves with all the running and hard work. For a third game straight we lead at halftime 1-0. For a third game straight the other team equalised, it was like a sucker punch late in the game. This meant extra-time which didn't provide any goals. Penalties followed. I know this kids league is not like the World Cup or anything but penalties are extremely nerve-racking for a coach. I sympathise for those that have been through it for World-cups, etc. At 3-3 after three penalties each I was fervently praying our goalkeeper would pull some magic out of the bag and make a save or that the opponent would fluff it. He fluffed it and hit the post. We knew this was our opportunity and with our fourth and their fifth player both scoring all that was required was for our fifth taker to slot it home, which he did calmly. Cue the massive celebrations from the team, hugging, shouting, joy. I was proud of the team because I knew we had passed a massive hurdle and technically recorded our first win. Not only that but had knocked out one of the favourites. Like Zambia beating Ghana in the AFCON Semi-finals I told my team. Yesterday (Monday 27th Feb) we played our semi-final match against Pro-Inter. A team run by an ex-player from the Ugandan Premier League as I later found out. A penalty and a goalkeeping howler were enough for my team to book a 2-0 win and place in the final this Saturday 3rd March to much jubilation. The other semi-final takes place tomorrow with a team who has won every game so far (the other favourite to take the tournament) playing a team who twice came from two goals down to win 7-6 on penalties, after full time and extra time saw the game finish 4-4. That's all from the football front for now.
Going back to the week beginning Monday 13th. This week Emmanuel and I visited Jigomoni primary school with the prospect of beginning the salt and light discipleship there. That day was also one of the hottest for a while and I felt quite dizzy and faint for most of the day despite drinking lots and keeping my salt and sugar levels up, apparently this means the rains are coming. Speaking of rains we had our first bit of rain in Yei on Saturday just passed and also on Sunday. Sunday not only had rain but much thunder and even lightning which arced horizontally across the sky. This made the temperature drop significantly and for the first time I even felt cold (it was probably in the high 20s-low 30s). Its funny how quick you adjust to the temperature here even though its so much hotter than NZ.On
On the 18th of Feb we had a get together of all Pioneers staff in Yei at the Perry's house at Harvesters not too far from where we are staying. They have 8 kids living with them (9 total I think) and the biggest dining room table you've ever seen. Not only this but they had running water and a flush toilet! This was so amazing it bordered on excitement for mum and I. How ludicrous does that seem to those of you living in the West? Maybe you should just be thankful for what you have. Even the "poor" in NZ are rich in comparison to many living here. We had an awesome lunch too, it was a pretty good day.
Week beginning Monday 20th. Monday began with an early visit to Kanjoro primary school with Emmanuel advertising our Salt and Light Discipleship programme to the assembly of kids. About 1300 or so of them. Now when you think of assembly you probably think of a big hall with seats in them or kids sitting on the floor with the principal standing on stage behind a lecturn. Wrong. They would all stand outside with the principal in the middle on a concrete block with steps. Pretty basic. I spoke and asked them to raise their hand if they knew where NZ was. Deadly silence and not a hand raised. Either they didn't understand me or just as likely none of them knew where it was. Most seem to think its in Europe somewhere. It seems funny that many people I talk to about my country seem to know where Australia is and never notice NZ sitting next to it. At least this makes it easy to explain where Im from. Another thing here that never ceases to amuse me is the locals' complete inability to accurately guess my age. I have had many guesses ranging from the youngest guess as 20 to the oldest guess being even 30! When I tell them I'm 18 they say that I'm lying and they don't believe me, its quite funny. I think its because we eat so well in the west that we grow a lot more than they do. Many nof them would only have 1 meal a day. Compared to our 3, or 5...
On Tuesday 21st mum and I had our first skype session with video even. I didn't think the internet would be quick enough to handle this but it managed. We skyped Joel Edwards and Janette McKevitt for the Sunday missions themed church service back home. It was really nice to talk to some familiar people and see some familiar faces. Also skyped Courteney and Jono that day/week. If my other mates are reading this get skype so we can chat! I feel so out of the loop with everything at the moment. Although this was a great encouragement and made my week, we (FS) found out we're on the chopping block so the need for funding is urgent. In response to this we have made many applications and got one positive response back from Samaritan's Purse, which we are pursuing, and praying over.
I have been a bit unwell recently catching a bit of a cold. I know, the irony. So if you could pray for me in that regard and also for Fly Sports to receive funding so that we can continue our work in Yei and also hopefully expand to Boma that would be awesome. Hope all of you reading this are well and that the weather has fined up a bit in Wellington. If I could share some of the heat and sunshine from here then I definitely would :)
God Bless, Joel
Monday, February 13, 2012
Second South Sudan Entry
Time just seems to fly. Its been like 2 weeks now since I updated my blog. Crazy. Ok so here goes, last time it took me like 2 hours to write everything so I think its just gonna be a melting pot from here on out as doing a run down of every day is tedious.
Ok so wow back to the 1st of Feb until the 13th (today)
Around the first of Feb I had a bit of an issue with the Malaria preventative mum and I take called Doxycycline. I took it before bed without water and it got stuck in my throat. It basically burned into the wall of my throat and made eating and drinking a bit of a mission for the next few days after, that was not pleasant. Learnt my lesson and now Im always taking it with water, my throat is good now thankfully. The heat has been really high over the past couple of weeks, mum and I both reckon it has risen significantly since we first arrived. Every day it is at least 36 degrees celcius in the shade up to as high as 40, it is signficantly hotter in the sun. Overnight it is usually around 28-31 degrees so not too cool either. Sheets basically get relegated to the end of the bed or floor. Mangoes have also finally become available which is great because I love them and they are cheap. In the rainy season there are too many to eat apparently so I think I might make mango juice as you can buy blenders here. On the 2nd mum and I went to the Lasu refugee camp which is South of Yei and very close to the border with one of the Congos, I think the one that used to be Zaire. So the camp is full of refugees from the nearby Congo who have fled the brutal LRA (Lord's Resistance Army). There are a several thousand people living here with limited medical resources and two schools (at least). We visited both these schools and in one joined in on a mathematics lesson, fortunately I could remember a bit of french I learned when I was younger, as the schools teach in French. We were the subject of much interest among the kids. As we were waiting to leave it started bucketing down with rain and also hail, the ground became white very quickly, something I never expected to see in Africa. Some of you mayh have read about this in our newsletter if you get it but rain is seen as a blessing and because we were there it was taken as we are a blessing which is quite cool. After leaving Lasu about 10 minutes down the road the ground was dusty and dry as ever.
Something else that has started up since I last did a blog entry is the football tournament I set up for the local kids. So far we have had many games and goals with much talent on display. My team won their first game by default but lost a friendly they played as a replacement. The tournament is entering the second round of matches and is running in a champions league format with only 16 teams rather than 32 and is scheduled to finish on the 3rd of March. On the subject of football I am playing today for the Across staff who are playing against the students from the Yei Teacher Training College at the nearby pitch (by nearby I mean literally outside the compound). This pitch is technically the best in the whole county and the national team have even trained there. However just about any pitch in the Wellington region is better. So that may tell you something about the grounds here. Slide tackles are almost non-existant unless you want to leave your skin on the ground, as I found out haha. I selected my team not long before our first match and have been running trainings for them early in the mornings before it is too hot.
Both this saturday just passed and the one previous to that I ran a bible study for the "youth" at the Moru church that Emmanuel goes to and preaches at. Turns out these youth are on average twice my age and one lady there on the saturday just passed was 62! I was encouraged by their response to what I taught as they were all older than me bar one. Teaching usually runs for 1-2 hours as what I speak is translated into Arabic....very slowly. Last week mum and I went to the early service at the local cathedral which started at about 7 am. Lots of singing etc. not too different from Anglican churches back home I believe. On Sundays mum and I also go to a bible study with a lot of other ex-pats which is really nice. I led the worship this weekend as I had some songsheets I brought with me from NZ which many of them knew.
The first game of the pre-season tournament started on the 7th and we had the kids from my team mark the field with ashes as paint does not last on the very dusty ground. However neither do ashes as they have almost completely gone by now. The FA was being a bit problematic about the tournament as they were wanting one of their refs to be paid to ref the tournament however we have no funds and eventually they agreed to simply open on the day after we wanted to begin. So because they wanted to delay the tournament two teams did not show up on the first day so that match has had to be rescheduled. However the 4:30 game went ahead which was good. Every day bar sunday we have had two games, except for this week where there is one game each day except for Wednesday with two because of the Across vs YTTC students tournament running in the early evening. The FLY Sports team which I coach has been improving vastly since their first game and Im hoping they can score several goals in their next game, should they do so though it is likely the opposing team will complain. This team we are scheduled to face played on Friday and lost 1-0. Upon losing their coach proceded to complain about the fact that Moses (my co-coach) and I referee and coach at the same time and that it is not fair, etc. so I told him that if he wants to pay the FA to referee the games then he is more than welcome to. It is frustrating that he can't just accept this tournament is for the kids and not for his pride. Another thing that really makes me angry is that fact that almost every single person in the area that watches the game laughs at one of the players in my team. He is very skinny and tall and not the most co-ordinated however he could be a very good player because of his character. His confidence has been shot to pieces for a very long time by everyone in the crowds' laughter and mocking. It really riles me because it doesn't matter how good you are, if you have that sort of treatment day in day out for who knows how long it gets to you. So I have been doing my best to encourage him and help him improve so that he can bury the ball in the net and shut up the people who have been laughing at him for so long. In fact I want it more than anything. If we lose I do not care so long as he scores a goal and gets a break from the tireless mocking. Some of my team were also laughing at him so I told them to quit it as they are betraying their team by doing so. I really admire his courage and determination to still keep playing despite the hardship. He has the character of a truly great individual. I have found that he is improving a lot and I think by the time I leave in December he will be able to have freedom.
Saturday just passed saw the arrival of a small fridge in my house (yippee!) which I bought locally, along with that I bought some milk and weetabix (yes they have a Kenyan made version of the Kiwi weetbix) which I was stoked about. I also set up my gas cooker along with the pipe, regulator and bottle so that I can now cook in my own house for the first time. Last night I cooked my first meal which turned out pretty good. Last night I also watched the Final of the African Cup of Nations between Zambia and Cote Divoire which Zambia emotionally won on penalties. The power here turns off at midnight so I only got to see until the 73rd minute of normal time, meaning I only found out the result this morning.
I think this leaves me pretty much up to date, it is nearly midday now lunch isnt until 1pm usually so I have some time to fill in. Some more general information...
Washing here builds up very fast because your clothes get very dusty plus I play football which means I go through about two sets of clothes everyday. I have to handwash this as well so its not like you just throw it in the washing machine.
Everything here takes time, walking to the long drop, collecting water from the borehole which is several hundred meters from my house for washing, getting drinking water from town, boiling water in the kettle to wash clothes and dishes, washing youself in a bathing room with a bucket and soap, etc. All this is pretty draining in itself plus adding the heat throughout the day and drastic change in food. Meat is not commonly eaten here as it is expensive and doesn't look particularly appetising to a Westerner at the very least in the state it is sold in with swarms of flies buzzing around the horse snouts, legs and who knows what else. I must say I miss chicken quite a lot here.
Thats all for now, if you want to ask questions about my day or about life here in Yei please do in the comments section or on Facebook :) Salaam.
Ok so wow back to the 1st of Feb until the 13th (today)
Around the first of Feb I had a bit of an issue with the Malaria preventative mum and I take called Doxycycline. I took it before bed without water and it got stuck in my throat. It basically burned into the wall of my throat and made eating and drinking a bit of a mission for the next few days after, that was not pleasant. Learnt my lesson and now Im always taking it with water, my throat is good now thankfully. The heat has been really high over the past couple of weeks, mum and I both reckon it has risen significantly since we first arrived. Every day it is at least 36 degrees celcius in the shade up to as high as 40, it is signficantly hotter in the sun. Overnight it is usually around 28-31 degrees so not too cool either. Sheets basically get relegated to the end of the bed or floor. Mangoes have also finally become available which is great because I love them and they are cheap. In the rainy season there are too many to eat apparently so I think I might make mango juice as you can buy blenders here. On the 2nd mum and I went to the Lasu refugee camp which is South of Yei and very close to the border with one of the Congos, I think the one that used to be Zaire. So the camp is full of refugees from the nearby Congo who have fled the brutal LRA (Lord's Resistance Army). There are a several thousand people living here with limited medical resources and two schools (at least). We visited both these schools and in one joined in on a mathematics lesson, fortunately I could remember a bit of french I learned when I was younger, as the schools teach in French. We were the subject of much interest among the kids. As we were waiting to leave it started bucketing down with rain and also hail, the ground became white very quickly, something I never expected to see in Africa. Some of you mayh have read about this in our newsletter if you get it but rain is seen as a blessing and because we were there it was taken as we are a blessing which is quite cool. After leaving Lasu about 10 minutes down the road the ground was dusty and dry as ever.
Something else that has started up since I last did a blog entry is the football tournament I set up for the local kids. So far we have had many games and goals with much talent on display. My team won their first game by default but lost a friendly they played as a replacement. The tournament is entering the second round of matches and is running in a champions league format with only 16 teams rather than 32 and is scheduled to finish on the 3rd of March. On the subject of football I am playing today for the Across staff who are playing against the students from the Yei Teacher Training College at the nearby pitch (by nearby I mean literally outside the compound). This pitch is technically the best in the whole county and the national team have even trained there. However just about any pitch in the Wellington region is better. So that may tell you something about the grounds here. Slide tackles are almost non-existant unless you want to leave your skin on the ground, as I found out haha. I selected my team not long before our first match and have been running trainings for them early in the mornings before it is too hot.
Both this saturday just passed and the one previous to that I ran a bible study for the "youth" at the Moru church that Emmanuel goes to and preaches at. Turns out these youth are on average twice my age and one lady there on the saturday just passed was 62! I was encouraged by their response to what I taught as they were all older than me bar one. Teaching usually runs for 1-2 hours as what I speak is translated into Arabic....very slowly. Last week mum and I went to the early service at the local cathedral which started at about 7 am. Lots of singing etc. not too different from Anglican churches back home I believe. On Sundays mum and I also go to a bible study with a lot of other ex-pats which is really nice. I led the worship this weekend as I had some songsheets I brought with me from NZ which many of them knew.
The first game of the pre-season tournament started on the 7th and we had the kids from my team mark the field with ashes as paint does not last on the very dusty ground. However neither do ashes as they have almost completely gone by now. The FA was being a bit problematic about the tournament as they were wanting one of their refs to be paid to ref the tournament however we have no funds and eventually they agreed to simply open on the day after we wanted to begin. So because they wanted to delay the tournament two teams did not show up on the first day so that match has had to be rescheduled. However the 4:30 game went ahead which was good. Every day bar sunday we have had two games, except for this week where there is one game each day except for Wednesday with two because of the Across vs YTTC students tournament running in the early evening. The FLY Sports team which I coach has been improving vastly since their first game and Im hoping they can score several goals in their next game, should they do so though it is likely the opposing team will complain. This team we are scheduled to face played on Friday and lost 1-0. Upon losing their coach proceded to complain about the fact that Moses (my co-coach) and I referee and coach at the same time and that it is not fair, etc. so I told him that if he wants to pay the FA to referee the games then he is more than welcome to. It is frustrating that he can't just accept this tournament is for the kids and not for his pride. Another thing that really makes me angry is that fact that almost every single person in the area that watches the game laughs at one of the players in my team. He is very skinny and tall and not the most co-ordinated however he could be a very good player because of his character. His confidence has been shot to pieces for a very long time by everyone in the crowds' laughter and mocking. It really riles me because it doesn't matter how good you are, if you have that sort of treatment day in day out for who knows how long it gets to you. So I have been doing my best to encourage him and help him improve so that he can bury the ball in the net and shut up the people who have been laughing at him for so long. In fact I want it more than anything. If we lose I do not care so long as he scores a goal and gets a break from the tireless mocking. Some of my team were also laughing at him so I told them to quit it as they are betraying their team by doing so. I really admire his courage and determination to still keep playing despite the hardship. He has the character of a truly great individual. I have found that he is improving a lot and I think by the time I leave in December he will be able to have freedom.
Saturday just passed saw the arrival of a small fridge in my house (yippee!) which I bought locally, along with that I bought some milk and weetabix (yes they have a Kenyan made version of the Kiwi weetbix) which I was stoked about. I also set up my gas cooker along with the pipe, regulator and bottle so that I can now cook in my own house for the first time. Last night I cooked my first meal which turned out pretty good. Last night I also watched the Final of the African Cup of Nations between Zambia and Cote Divoire which Zambia emotionally won on penalties. The power here turns off at midnight so I only got to see until the 73rd minute of normal time, meaning I only found out the result this morning.
I think this leaves me pretty much up to date, it is nearly midday now lunch isnt until 1pm usually so I have some time to fill in. Some more general information...
Washing here builds up very fast because your clothes get very dusty plus I play football which means I go through about two sets of clothes everyday. I have to handwash this as well so its not like you just throw it in the washing machine.
Everything here takes time, walking to the long drop, collecting water from the borehole which is several hundred meters from my house for washing, getting drinking water from town, boiling water in the kettle to wash clothes and dishes, washing youself in a bathing room with a bucket and soap, etc. All this is pretty draining in itself plus adding the heat throughout the day and drastic change in food. Meat is not commonly eaten here as it is expensive and doesn't look particularly appetising to a Westerner at the very least in the state it is sold in with swarms of flies buzzing around the horse snouts, legs and who knows what else. I must say I miss chicken quite a lot here.
Thats all for now, if you want to ask questions about my day or about life here in Yei please do in the comments section or on Facebook :) Salaam.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Life in Yei
Hey all I know it has been a long time since my last blog entry. Finding the time to get on the internet is hard, especially since how slow it can be in comparison to NZ and even Kenya. But anyway, here's the details on my last week and a half, have fun reading :)
Friday 20th Jan
I arrived in Juba after a fairly short flight from Nairobi with mum, fortunately our luggage weight wasn't an issue and we boarded the plane and passed through customs with ease. As soon as the plane door opened you could feel the heat. Juba is very hot and from first impressions very arid. It felt like I was stepping out into a slightly green middle east. We had to line up for visa stamping so we could go through and collect our bags, which were rummaged through in front of us to check we weren't bringing in something illegal to the country I guess. We were told by Marie that a man named Stanley would find us and drive us back to the Across base which is about 10 minutes from Juba Airport. Fortunately we didn't have to wait in the sun too long and we arrived at the Across compound by around 10:30am. Here we were met by the Across director Bernard (forgotten the last name) who kindly showed us around and introduced mum and I to some of the staff. After meeting all the staff and having lunch at 1 o clock mum and I had to wait in a hot room for the car to arrive which would take us to Yei. Fortunately it arrived around 3:30pm and we left along the bumpy road to Yei. It is about this point where I would include some photos but the internet is so slow it would take years for them to load, I will upload some to both the blog and Fb around March when mum and I will probably have our first holiday back in Nairobi. Anyway the journey. The road from Juba to Yei is a very interesting one. Full of potholes and large mounds, you have to be a skilled driver to navigate at speed without tipping the vehicle. Our driver was particularly skilled at such, we would reach up to about 100km/h on a pretty awful road. On the way you pass many small villages and locals including kids playing football, a couple of other notables were a burnt out tank on the roadside, a bus that looked like it had recently rolled and a goat tied to the top of a landcruiser, standing up, which was hilarious and I am pained to say I did not take a photo of. 3 hours after leaving Juba we were in Yei (around 6:30 pm). This evening we met many of the Across staff including Manny (who is the head of fly sports) and his wife Grace, and many others, which I do not have the time to go into detail about.
Saturday 21st Jan
Today I found a rat in my room and used the bathing room for the first time. If you think showering at Parachute is bad, try no shower at all, anywhere. The bathing room is a concrete room, quite small with a drainage hole in the corner at one end, the source of my rat problem which has since been resolved. That is literally all the room is, bare. In one corner you have a bucket of water and you use that plus whatever soap you buy to clean yourself. This may not sound very bad except for the fact that it becomes a bit of a mission day in day out when you are used to showering, not only that but the water is slightly dirty already, and when you are trying to clean your feet that look akin to what Jesus' disciples would have looked like then you can understand the inadequacy. You can never really be truly clean in Yei. My room as I found was lacking many things, all it had was two beds, one mosquito net, a chair and a large cupboard, plus some curtains. So in order to make life a bit easier I went out to the market with mum and Rhonda, a nice Dutch? lady who has been living in Yei with her Australian husband Rhys for a long long time. So long that she knows Yei better than many of the locals and can speak Arabic, English, Kakwa and a bit of Moru (The last two are major tribes in South Sudan). She taught mum and I some basic Arabic along the way as mum and I bought many things. We were the subject of much interest in the locals, especially myself, as I was wearing my Liverpool "Suarez" (Footballer) shirt. The kids would often call out "Suarez Suarez!". Football is VERY popular in Yei and almost everyone has a team they support. Life is very slow here which can be both a blessing and a curse to someone from a busy culture like NZ. It is really hot here and is generally in the mid to high 30s at the moment.
Sunday 22nd Jan
Sunday means Church. Except church with a difference, especially compared to the West. We were treated a bit like royalty which is not always nice because you want to just feel a part of them. Mum and I went to Immanuel's church where he preached. The service is supposed to start at around 10:30 but because we run on Africa time it started at at least 11am and ran until about 2pm, so yeah a bit longer than in NZ. We were officially welcomed by the church and leaders and not only that but considered a part of the tribe, like family. The service consisted of much prayer and singing with the preaching in Moru, translated into both Arabic for the majority of the Moru church who cannot speak their own language (something Immanuel is passionate about) and also into English for mum and I. In the afternoon we had lunch in town and bought a couple more items including a doormat, how lovely.
Monday 23rd Jan
Today was my first official day with orientation as to what FLY sports has been doing, how it started, etc. there is massive potential but I was a bit downcast about the amount of work that was needed doing (a lot). Played football for the first time in South Sudan and did better than I did in Kenya. The locals here, rather than play a game as such, play what they call 18 yard. Which is essentially just a game of football without goals inside the 18 yd box (goal box) where the objective is to just keep possession of the ball within your team. The Arabic I have been learning has been very useful and I am picking it up fairly quick. Immanuels daughter Naomi who is about 19months old has started calling me Joonana haha rather than the previous Jool. Felt really low in the evening and quite unhappy.
Tuesday 24th Jan
Today I felt as though I was at rock bottom, with a splitting headache and overwhelmed at Fly Sports' situation. Was given the day off by Manny (who is the same person as Immanuel btw if you were wondering). Felt a lot better by midday, I had a good talk with Dane (say hi to Liz if you are reading this Dane ;) ) who was a dude from the States who decided to come to South Sudan to investigate the possibility of coffee growing in the Nuba Mountains? or some mountainous place nearby as coffee is best grown at high altitudes where the temperature never goes below zero all year round. Dane left around 3ish in a car back to Juba. Godwilling he was to end up back in the States Friday, hopefully he got back safe. Planned to go back to work tomorrow. Still missing friends and family quite a lot.
Wednesday 25th Jan
Went back to work today after the previous day of rest. Sorted out my job description today with Manny and Elly who is the top dog for Across in Yei, I think. People's titles get lost on me here, there are so many. People love having titles. Today I also planned for a youth pre-season football tournament that will run off of zero funds (quite literally). This is because Fly sports currently have no funding (part of the reason for the previous day's despair I guess you could call it). So I am in charge of this tournament which starts on Monday the 6th of Feb. Today I used the internet for the second time but did not have the time to do a blog entry which I am now doing. Joined in with the older youth football prac. again. Moses took the youth practice (Moses is a guy slightly older than me who is not only a Man United fan (boo) but has worked with Fly Sports (FS)). Also of note: Liverpool knocked Man City out of the Carling Cup, yay.
Thursday 26th Jan
Not much to do today so I visited a town with Ruman (who also works with FS) and Manny, it was really quite peacefuly with a large steep rock formation to one side, this was of cultural or spiritual significance to locals so no one has ever been up it from what I gathered. Took some photos as I was allowed to do so. They will be on FB when I can put them on without having to wait hours and hours. We got back by lunchtime. On the way back I noticed some amusing signs of both sops and on cars. Such as "Arsenal Fans Conner", which was a shop name, "Jealousness is bad" and "Hang on, God is great Spares supplier". Football again in evening, Manny turned up at the end and explained to everyone about how I am now coaching them. And most of them are around my age or older. Gulp.
Friday 27th Jan
Morning devotions as usual, these start at 8:30am with singing then someone brings a previously prepared devotional, day was fairly uneventful. Evening involved football which I was nervous about as I was coaching for the first time in South Sudan. Most didn't show up until 6- 6:15, quite a while after the usual starting time of around 5:30. Language was a bit of a barrier as although most speak English they generally don't understand me because of my accent. Having Moses there helping out was a great as he is a local (Kakwa) and speaks both Arabic and English well. Taught them a few drills, to which they were reasonably quick to learn, considering the language barrier. There is a possibility that there may be two FS teams in the pre-season tournament although I will need Manny to sort that out. There's a lot of work to do in training still.
Saturday 28th Jan
Did a lot of shopping again today. Throughout the week I have been making a list of things to buy, today I got many of them including an electric fan which = happiness. This was such a good buy and has been great so far. Spent much of the afternoon after shopping playing games on mum's laptop. Ex-pats dinner in the evening, where I met many different people from different countries including Canada, The states, The Netherlands, Germany, The Philipines, England and Poland. Had some Western food which was really really nice. I mean don't get me wrong the local food is nice and all but after a while you start to crave stuff from home,even if it has only been three weeks since we were in NZ. Also worthy of note is that Liverpool knocked Manure out of the FA Cup 2-1 =)
Sunday 29th Jan
Went to Simone from Switzerland's church this week (Who works for Across also) as mum and I believe its important to have a good look around. The worship at first made me laugh as they use this backing track that wouldn't be out of place in some sort of club from the 80s. They had pumped the speakers up really loud so loud that it hurt. There was a very large amount of White Noise (not by Mogwai Jono)
so not cool. My room is looking like a total mess, o and this church service went from 10am til around 12:45. Spent afternoon at mum's and the evening at Simone's where mum normally has dinner. I normally have dinner with Manny and his wife and daughter. Power was very patchy in the evening for the first time. Normally it is on until midnight but lasted only until 10:15pm. Someone was using a bit too much electricity.
Monday 30th Jan
Today I got Manny to share what he shared with me about FS with mum so that she can help with funding applications since she did it in NZ. Mum was very inspired as was I about the prospect of FS and what it can accomplish. We worked on the budget for FS until around lunchtime. Had nothing to do until coaching in evening so watched a bit of TV at Manny's. He has some sport channels which has been great and I am welcome to come any time which is a bonus. Football training in the evening where I saw Moses and obviously gave him a bit of grief about Liverpool's Triumph over United. There are a few players with a lot of talent that I am coaching. They just need to put in more effort in training. I badly want a mini fridge because things go off very quickly and nothing satisfies here quite like a cup of cold water.
Tuesday 31st Jan
Last day of Jan, 1 month down, 10 and a half to go. Still a long way to go yet. This morning after getting a photo with Manny and his family for our newsletter I went with him (Manny) to meet the Bishop of Yei. The Bishop is highly respected and somewhat a position of power, anyway this has taken me about 2 hours to type up and I'm late for the 1 o clock lunch.Today its really hot, blue skies outside and I badly need to get home and get a drink, drinking lots is essentially, anyway I hope life in NZ or wherever you are in the world is going good. Good luck for the following school/ Uni year guys and gals in NZ. Also feel free to ask some questions about Yei if you want. JoelNZ Out. ;)
Friday 20th Jan
I arrived in Juba after a fairly short flight from Nairobi with mum, fortunately our luggage weight wasn't an issue and we boarded the plane and passed through customs with ease. As soon as the plane door opened you could feel the heat. Juba is very hot and from first impressions very arid. It felt like I was stepping out into a slightly green middle east. We had to line up for visa stamping so we could go through and collect our bags, which were rummaged through in front of us to check we weren't bringing in something illegal to the country I guess. We were told by Marie that a man named Stanley would find us and drive us back to the Across base which is about 10 minutes from Juba Airport. Fortunately we didn't have to wait in the sun too long and we arrived at the Across compound by around 10:30am. Here we were met by the Across director Bernard (forgotten the last name) who kindly showed us around and introduced mum and I to some of the staff. After meeting all the staff and having lunch at 1 o clock mum and I had to wait in a hot room for the car to arrive which would take us to Yei. Fortunately it arrived around 3:30pm and we left along the bumpy road to Yei. It is about this point where I would include some photos but the internet is so slow it would take years for them to load, I will upload some to both the blog and Fb around March when mum and I will probably have our first holiday back in Nairobi. Anyway the journey. The road from Juba to Yei is a very interesting one. Full of potholes and large mounds, you have to be a skilled driver to navigate at speed without tipping the vehicle. Our driver was particularly skilled at such, we would reach up to about 100km/h on a pretty awful road. On the way you pass many small villages and locals including kids playing football, a couple of other notables were a burnt out tank on the roadside, a bus that looked like it had recently rolled and a goat tied to the top of a landcruiser, standing up, which was hilarious and I am pained to say I did not take a photo of. 3 hours after leaving Juba we were in Yei (around 6:30 pm). This evening we met many of the Across staff including Manny (who is the head of fly sports) and his wife Grace, and many others, which I do not have the time to go into detail about.
Saturday 21st Jan
Today I found a rat in my room and used the bathing room for the first time. If you think showering at Parachute is bad, try no shower at all, anywhere. The bathing room is a concrete room, quite small with a drainage hole in the corner at one end, the source of my rat problem which has since been resolved. That is literally all the room is, bare. In one corner you have a bucket of water and you use that plus whatever soap you buy to clean yourself. This may not sound very bad except for the fact that it becomes a bit of a mission day in day out when you are used to showering, not only that but the water is slightly dirty already, and when you are trying to clean your feet that look akin to what Jesus' disciples would have looked like then you can understand the inadequacy. You can never really be truly clean in Yei. My room as I found was lacking many things, all it had was two beds, one mosquito net, a chair and a large cupboard, plus some curtains. So in order to make life a bit easier I went out to the market with mum and Rhonda, a nice Dutch? lady who has been living in Yei with her Australian husband Rhys for a long long time. So long that she knows Yei better than many of the locals and can speak Arabic, English, Kakwa and a bit of Moru (The last two are major tribes in South Sudan). She taught mum and I some basic Arabic along the way as mum and I bought many things. We were the subject of much interest in the locals, especially myself, as I was wearing my Liverpool "Suarez" (Footballer) shirt. The kids would often call out "Suarez Suarez!". Football is VERY popular in Yei and almost everyone has a team they support. Life is very slow here which can be both a blessing and a curse to someone from a busy culture like NZ. It is really hot here and is generally in the mid to high 30s at the moment.
Sunday 22nd Jan
Sunday means Church. Except church with a difference, especially compared to the West. We were treated a bit like royalty which is not always nice because you want to just feel a part of them. Mum and I went to Immanuel's church where he preached. The service is supposed to start at around 10:30 but because we run on Africa time it started at at least 11am and ran until about 2pm, so yeah a bit longer than in NZ. We were officially welcomed by the church and leaders and not only that but considered a part of the tribe, like family. The service consisted of much prayer and singing with the preaching in Moru, translated into both Arabic for the majority of the Moru church who cannot speak their own language (something Immanuel is passionate about) and also into English for mum and I. In the afternoon we had lunch in town and bought a couple more items including a doormat, how lovely.
Monday 23rd Jan
Today was my first official day with orientation as to what FLY sports has been doing, how it started, etc. there is massive potential but I was a bit downcast about the amount of work that was needed doing (a lot). Played football for the first time in South Sudan and did better than I did in Kenya. The locals here, rather than play a game as such, play what they call 18 yard. Which is essentially just a game of football without goals inside the 18 yd box (goal box) where the objective is to just keep possession of the ball within your team. The Arabic I have been learning has been very useful and I am picking it up fairly quick. Immanuels daughter Naomi who is about 19months old has started calling me Joonana haha rather than the previous Jool. Felt really low in the evening and quite unhappy.
Tuesday 24th Jan
Today I felt as though I was at rock bottom, with a splitting headache and overwhelmed at Fly Sports' situation. Was given the day off by Manny (who is the same person as Immanuel btw if you were wondering). Felt a lot better by midday, I had a good talk with Dane (say hi to Liz if you are reading this Dane ;) ) who was a dude from the States who decided to come to South Sudan to investigate the possibility of coffee growing in the Nuba Mountains? or some mountainous place nearby as coffee is best grown at high altitudes where the temperature never goes below zero all year round. Dane left around 3ish in a car back to Juba. Godwilling he was to end up back in the States Friday, hopefully he got back safe. Planned to go back to work tomorrow. Still missing friends and family quite a lot.
Wednesday 25th Jan
Went back to work today after the previous day of rest. Sorted out my job description today with Manny and Elly who is the top dog for Across in Yei, I think. People's titles get lost on me here, there are so many. People love having titles. Today I also planned for a youth pre-season football tournament that will run off of zero funds (quite literally). This is because Fly sports currently have no funding (part of the reason for the previous day's despair I guess you could call it). So I am in charge of this tournament which starts on Monday the 6th of Feb. Today I used the internet for the second time but did not have the time to do a blog entry which I am now doing. Joined in with the older youth football prac. again. Moses took the youth practice (Moses is a guy slightly older than me who is not only a Man United fan (boo) but has worked with Fly Sports (FS)). Also of note: Liverpool knocked Man City out of the Carling Cup, yay.
Thursday 26th Jan
Not much to do today so I visited a town with Ruman (who also works with FS) and Manny, it was really quite peacefuly with a large steep rock formation to one side, this was of cultural or spiritual significance to locals so no one has ever been up it from what I gathered. Took some photos as I was allowed to do so. They will be on FB when I can put them on without having to wait hours and hours. We got back by lunchtime. On the way back I noticed some amusing signs of both sops and on cars. Such as "Arsenal Fans Conner", which was a shop name, "Jealousness is bad" and "Hang on, God is great Spares supplier". Football again in evening, Manny turned up at the end and explained to everyone about how I am now coaching them. And most of them are around my age or older. Gulp.
Friday 27th Jan
Morning devotions as usual, these start at 8:30am with singing then someone brings a previously prepared devotional, day was fairly uneventful. Evening involved football which I was nervous about as I was coaching for the first time in South Sudan. Most didn't show up until 6- 6:15, quite a while after the usual starting time of around 5:30. Language was a bit of a barrier as although most speak English they generally don't understand me because of my accent. Having Moses there helping out was a great as he is a local (Kakwa) and speaks both Arabic and English well. Taught them a few drills, to which they were reasonably quick to learn, considering the language barrier. There is a possibility that there may be two FS teams in the pre-season tournament although I will need Manny to sort that out. There's a lot of work to do in training still.
Saturday 28th Jan
Did a lot of shopping again today. Throughout the week I have been making a list of things to buy, today I got many of them including an electric fan which = happiness. This was such a good buy and has been great so far. Spent much of the afternoon after shopping playing games on mum's laptop. Ex-pats dinner in the evening, where I met many different people from different countries including Canada, The states, The Netherlands, Germany, The Philipines, England and Poland. Had some Western food which was really really nice. I mean don't get me wrong the local food is nice and all but after a while you start to crave stuff from home,even if it has only been three weeks since we were in NZ. Also worthy of note is that Liverpool knocked Manure out of the FA Cup 2-1 =)
Sunday 29th Jan
Went to Simone from Switzerland's church this week (Who works for Across also) as mum and I believe its important to have a good look around. The worship at first made me laugh as they use this backing track that wouldn't be out of place in some sort of club from the 80s. They had pumped the speakers up really loud so loud that it hurt. There was a very large amount of White Noise (not by Mogwai Jono)
so not cool. My room is looking like a total mess, o and this church service went from 10am til around 12:45. Spent afternoon at mum's and the evening at Simone's where mum normally has dinner. I normally have dinner with Manny and his wife and daughter. Power was very patchy in the evening for the first time. Normally it is on until midnight but lasted only until 10:15pm. Someone was using a bit too much electricity.
Monday 30th Jan
Today I got Manny to share what he shared with me about FS with mum so that she can help with funding applications since she did it in NZ. Mum was very inspired as was I about the prospect of FS and what it can accomplish. We worked on the budget for FS until around lunchtime. Had nothing to do until coaching in evening so watched a bit of TV at Manny's. He has some sport channels which has been great and I am welcome to come any time which is a bonus. Football training in the evening where I saw Moses and obviously gave him a bit of grief about Liverpool's Triumph over United. There are a few players with a lot of talent that I am coaching. They just need to put in more effort in training. I badly want a mini fridge because things go off very quickly and nothing satisfies here quite like a cup of cold water.
Tuesday 31st Jan
Last day of Jan, 1 month down, 10 and a half to go. Still a long way to go yet. This morning after getting a photo with Manny and his family for our newsletter I went with him (Manny) to meet the Bishop of Yei. The Bishop is highly respected and somewhat a position of power, anyway this has taken me about 2 hours to type up and I'm late for the 1 o clock lunch.Today its really hot, blue skies outside and I badly need to get home and get a drink, drinking lots is essentially, anyway I hope life in NZ or wherever you are in the world is going good. Good luck for the following school/ Uni year guys and gals in NZ. Also feel free to ask some questions about Yei if you want. JoelNZ Out. ;)
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Kenya days 5, 6, 7 and 8
Kenya Day 5 - Monday
Monday felt pretty uneventful. We had some training at Across to prepare mum and I for Yei. A mix up in communication meant mum and I were waiting at the Across compound for 2 hours for Christine for the training, so it felt like time wasted. However patience is often required in Africa as things can move quite slowly. This in itself was preparation I guess for Yei. Monday evening brought with it the chance to finally play football in Africa with some locals, it went pretty badly for me. By badly I mean I was terrible, this was for a number of reasons. Firstly I should have worn my football boots and instead wore some flat soled shoes as I thought the ground would be too hard. Well without the grip boots provide it was impossible to get any traction on the dusty, bumpy ground. Also since Nairobi is about 1 mile above sea level your blood becomes a lot thicker meaning the oxygen doesn't travel to your muscles as fast making you feel quite weak. So needless to say I was less than a helpful teammate to have. Also they play well into the dark, to the point where you can't see the ball and the only thing that is visible to anyone is me. Good to get some football in and start working on my fitness before I get to Yei where the temp is around the high 30s into the 40s. Apparently one of the pitches there has a drainage system running through the middle of it.
Day 6
Tuesday brought our initiation into Across which was mainly just training for what we will encounter in Yei, also some basic protocols, etc. Nothing really exciting other than the fact getting to South Sudan is not far away at all. We had the neighbors visit for dinner. An American family that have been living in Kenya for about 5 months so far. Had a good discussion with the dad about football and sport in general and with the son about Movies and music. It was tough trying to name a band he hadn't heard of. I must say he had a good taste in music, from Arcade Fire to Modest Mouse, etc. both very cool bands (check them out on Youtube). They also had a daughter about a year younger than me who was fairly quiet but seemed nice, who also had quite a good taste in music (muse, etc.). And finally a younger daughter who was around 11 (I'm guessing). Hopefully I can get some more music off the son (who was around 18/19) so as to fill up my iPod before I leave for SS as I'm not going to be able to get any music there for my iPod really.
Day 7 (yesterday)
Yesterday was a very busy and thoroughly enjoyable day. We were picked up around 1030 by Stu and Marie's taxi driver who took us into downtown Nairobi so that we could purchase a guitar (or two) to take into SS for my guitar teaching. It took a long time to try and find a park as traffic in downtown Nairobi is insane and people use the road for walking almost as much as cars do, for the driver its like an obstacle course. After eventually finding a carpark we went searching for the guitar store. It didn't take us long to find two however they wouldn't accept Visa so we had to go searching for a bank where we could draw Kenyan Shillings (KSH) out in order to pay for the guitar. The shop assistant came with us, as did the taxi driver with mum and myself lugging along the guitar in its case. The first two banks' ATMs declined to give us anything but an error print out. Finally at the third bank and much worry we managed to draw out enough cash to pay for the guitar and some extra for another guitar. After going back to the shop to sort out payment of the guitar I decided to not buy another as there was not another hard case readily available (needed for when the guitar is on the plane so it survives the journey) and I felt as though there would be another opportunity to get a second guitar in SS (South Sudan) whether with money or through borrowing it from someone. On the way back to the car John (the taxi driver) asked us whether we wanted to get any souvenirs. So mum and I went along with him as he found us an indoor market of sorts obviously targeted towards tourists. I was wanting to get an African/Kenyan style necklace and mum ended up getting some earrings both for herself and as presents for friends back in NZ. John found us a stall where the owners proceeded to treat us a royalty in the hope we would spend a lot, after having been accosted by almost every other stall owner in the marketplace in the hope we would spend our money at their stall. After deciding on what we wanted we reached the bartering phase, which I absolutely love. The store owner did his math and came up with the astronomical figure of over 17000KSH for the necklace and 4 pairs of earrings. This translates into about $250+ NZ. I told him that the guitar was cheaper, which it was and that we would pay him 1000KSH for the lot. This began much arguing until he was willing to sell for 3000KSH. I told him no more than 2500, so he went down to 2600 saying that he was hardly making a profit, which was complete rubbish. I continued to insist upon 2500 until he finally agreed. Even upon handing over the money he tried to get an extra 50 KSH out of us for a "soda". Something he could easily afford anyway with the fairly sizable profit he made from the sale. We then visited Christine Perkins at her home for lunch, which involved a few more last details about Yei that we might not have been already told before we went to Toi Market, a fairly large marketplace with lots of people trying to sell you their goods and rip off the "tourists" (who are basically just any mzungus that are interested in their products). Both mum and I bought a hat after much bartering and discussion for 150 KSH (myself) after the initial price being 400 KSH and mums for 280 KSH. The man selling the hat tried in vain to keep the 20 KSH change but I wouldn't have a bar of it. It was really quite enjoyable. We shook hands afterwards and he said to mum that I was a stubborn customer haha. By the time we got back home (our apricot house) I was pretty exhausted as a lot of arguing and bartering can have that effect. Despite my tiredness I walked to the local Christian college where the football games take place every weeknight (this time with my boots). I played a lot better, but I still find getting the hang of the bounce of the ball off the uneven ground tough.
Day 8 (Today)
Well tomorrow morning mum and I leave for Yei and say goodbye to Kenya until later in the year when we have the first of our few breaks. We have to get up around 4am as our flight is at 7:20am (about 5:20pm NZ time). Today has consisted so far of typing up this latest blog entry and having breakfast, not that exciting I know. Both mum and I have a lot of packing to do and some final reading of certain books in order to prepare ourselves best we can for Yei. It is yet again another nice day, the weather has been brilliant with only about 5 mins of sparse rain on Monday before the football. That's about all I have to say for now, I think I've covered everything hopefully without going into to much detail (I've gotta save some stories for NZ). Peace.
Monday felt pretty uneventful. We had some training at Across to prepare mum and I for Yei. A mix up in communication meant mum and I were waiting at the Across compound for 2 hours for Christine for the training, so it felt like time wasted. However patience is often required in Africa as things can move quite slowly. This in itself was preparation I guess for Yei. Monday evening brought with it the chance to finally play football in Africa with some locals, it went pretty badly for me. By badly I mean I was terrible, this was for a number of reasons. Firstly I should have worn my football boots and instead wore some flat soled shoes as I thought the ground would be too hard. Well without the grip boots provide it was impossible to get any traction on the dusty, bumpy ground. Also since Nairobi is about 1 mile above sea level your blood becomes a lot thicker meaning the oxygen doesn't travel to your muscles as fast making you feel quite weak. So needless to say I was less than a helpful teammate to have. Also they play well into the dark, to the point where you can't see the ball and the only thing that is visible to anyone is me. Good to get some football in and start working on my fitness before I get to Yei where the temp is around the high 30s into the 40s. Apparently one of the pitches there has a drainage system running through the middle of it.
Day 6
Tuesday brought our initiation into Across which was mainly just training for what we will encounter in Yei, also some basic protocols, etc. Nothing really exciting other than the fact getting to South Sudan is not far away at all. We had the neighbors visit for dinner. An American family that have been living in Kenya for about 5 months so far. Had a good discussion with the dad about football and sport in general and with the son about Movies and music. It was tough trying to name a band he hadn't heard of. I must say he had a good taste in music, from Arcade Fire to Modest Mouse, etc. both very cool bands (check them out on Youtube). They also had a daughter about a year younger than me who was fairly quiet but seemed nice, who also had quite a good taste in music (muse, etc.). And finally a younger daughter who was around 11 (I'm guessing). Hopefully I can get some more music off the son (who was around 18/19) so as to fill up my iPod before I leave for SS as I'm not going to be able to get any music there for my iPod really.
Day 7 (yesterday)
Yesterday was a very busy and thoroughly enjoyable day. We were picked up around 1030 by Stu and Marie's taxi driver who took us into downtown Nairobi so that we could purchase a guitar (or two) to take into SS for my guitar teaching. It took a long time to try and find a park as traffic in downtown Nairobi is insane and people use the road for walking almost as much as cars do, for the driver its like an obstacle course. After eventually finding a carpark we went searching for the guitar store. It didn't take us long to find two however they wouldn't accept Visa so we had to go searching for a bank where we could draw Kenyan Shillings (KSH) out in order to pay for the guitar. The shop assistant came with us, as did the taxi driver with mum and myself lugging along the guitar in its case. The first two banks' ATMs declined to give us anything but an error print out. Finally at the third bank and much worry we managed to draw out enough cash to pay for the guitar and some extra for another guitar. After going back to the shop to sort out payment of the guitar I decided to not buy another as there was not another hard case readily available (needed for when the guitar is on the plane so it survives the journey) and I felt as though there would be another opportunity to get a second guitar in SS (South Sudan) whether with money or through borrowing it from someone. On the way back to the car John (the taxi driver) asked us whether we wanted to get any souvenirs. So mum and I went along with him as he found us an indoor market of sorts obviously targeted towards tourists. I was wanting to get an African/Kenyan style necklace and mum ended up getting some earrings both for herself and as presents for friends back in NZ. John found us a stall where the owners proceeded to treat us a royalty in the hope we would spend a lot, after having been accosted by almost every other stall owner in the marketplace in the hope we would spend our money at their stall. After deciding on what we wanted we reached the bartering phase, which I absolutely love. The store owner did his math and came up with the astronomical figure of over 17000KSH for the necklace and 4 pairs of earrings. This translates into about $250+ NZ. I told him that the guitar was cheaper, which it was and that we would pay him 1000KSH for the lot. This began much arguing until he was willing to sell for 3000KSH. I told him no more than 2500, so he went down to 2600 saying that he was hardly making a profit, which was complete rubbish. I continued to insist upon 2500 until he finally agreed. Even upon handing over the money he tried to get an extra 50 KSH out of us for a "soda". Something he could easily afford anyway with the fairly sizable profit he made from the sale. We then visited Christine Perkins at her home for lunch, which involved a few more last details about Yei that we might not have been already told before we went to Toi Market, a fairly large marketplace with lots of people trying to sell you their goods and rip off the "tourists" (who are basically just any mzungus that are interested in their products). Both mum and I bought a hat after much bartering and discussion for 150 KSH (myself) after the initial price being 400 KSH and mums for 280 KSH. The man selling the hat tried in vain to keep the 20 KSH change but I wouldn't have a bar of it. It was really quite enjoyable. We shook hands afterwards and he said to mum that I was a stubborn customer haha. By the time we got back home (our apricot house) I was pretty exhausted as a lot of arguing and bartering can have that effect. Despite my tiredness I walked to the local Christian college where the football games take place every weeknight (this time with my boots). I played a lot better, but I still find getting the hang of the bounce of the ball off the uneven ground tough.
Day 8 (Today)
Well tomorrow morning mum and I leave for Yei and say goodbye to Kenya until later in the year when we have the first of our few breaks. We have to get up around 4am as our flight is at 7:20am (about 5:20pm NZ time). Today has consisted so far of typing up this latest blog entry and having breakfast, not that exciting I know. Both mum and I have a lot of packing to do and some final reading of certain books in order to prepare ourselves best we can for Yei. It is yet again another nice day, the weather has been brilliant with only about 5 mins of sparse rain on Monday before the football. That's about all I have to say for now, I think I've covered everything hopefully without going into to much detail (I've gotta save some stories for NZ). Peace.
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