Alive and Well in South Sudan

Ben, Jen and myself at a local favorite restaurant, Keren

Last week I marked four months in South Sudan. I’m working for Nonviolent Peaceforce, an international NGO that works in protection of civilians. I’m based in the capital city of Juba and work on the Civic Engagement project. Our team works with Civil Society Organizations, or South Sudanese NGOs, that work on implementation of civil rights. It basically means I have a lot of meetings and coordinate resources for local projects. It may not sound like much but it is amazing to have a front row seat to the process of citizens standing up and trying to make a difference for their own country. The people I work with do not get paid much and work against dangerous opposing forces in order to pursue justice and accountability. It’s inspiring to be a part of it.

My first couple of months were challenging as I adapted to my new residence. Things got better after my first R&R. Maybe because I had time to process, maybe I knew what to expect coming back. But either way, I now feel somewhat at home here in Juba.

May was a very busy month for me. I have still been acclimating to my new position and there is a lot to learn. This month alone we had two visits from our partner org in Kampala. These visits included diplomatic meetings, work dinners, 4-day training sessions, and a digital security workshop just for my close colleagues. We also had consultants in to evaluate the project and they stayed for two weeks. In addition, we had our normal case-load and project targets to meet. One of the challenges is that I don’t know everything yet. With each new task, I have to learn it for the first time, which makes everything take longer. If anyone said mistakes are the stepping stones to success, I’ve got a huge amount of stepping stones.

A typical day involves waking up much later than my alarm goes off, throwing on clothes and my backpack and walking with a few friends to get Rolled Eggs or “Rollex”. It’s street food consisting of an omelet of sorts rolled up in a chapatti or type of flour tortilla. I tend to have one every morning if I can. Then we continue on our way to the office. We walk past a corner where mutatus or small busses for public transport pick up people. They holler out the area they are headed to like auctioneers or old timey newsies. For instance, the big market in Juba is called Konyo Konyo. SO the driver or assistant to the driver for that bus will stand next to it and shout “KONYOKONYOKONYOKONYO!”

Myself with one of our drivers, Christo. He wore a tux to work that day. 

Everything in Juba is dusty, even the paved roads. But only the main roads are paved. The rest are dirt roads that deteriorate during the rainy season into rivers of mud. Also people burn their trash in the middle of these dirt roads. Most of the structures people live in are highly flammable. Compound walls are made out of tall dried bamboo sticks.  So the safest place to burn trash is in the middle of the dirt road. Because of this, mornings and evenings have a particular smell.

In the office, our project shares a small room with our Deputy Country Director. It’s a surprisingly functional relationship. Our meetings tend to be confidential as do his, so a tacit agreement exists that no one talks about anything spoken inside the office. Fortunately, the DCD is a coffee fiend and always comes back from his breaks with elaborate and multiple packs of international coffees. Membership has its privileges.

The generator shuts down at 1pm for a lunch break and a group of us often go to what we’ve affectionately dubbed The Chicken Place. You get a roasted half chicken with a side of mashed eggplant, bread and if they have it, sliced tomatoes. All for 80 South Sudanese Pounds. The rate is always changing, but this week that means two US dollars. It’s REALLY good chicken.

The generator comes back on at 2:30pm. No matter the temperature I seem to sweat from walking to lunch and back so I’m always super grateful for the AC right about then. The afternoon goes by pretty fast, especially if we have a meeting. Information sharing is best done face-to-face. So if a national NGO contact has new information, we tend to rush out the door to go meet them rather than talk on the phone. We have a fleet of drivers who are great at their job and know Juba really well. But I’ve recently gotten my South Sudanese license, so the goal is that I can take the project’s car, a white Toyota Land Cruiser hardtop (the universal car for INGOs), and drive myself and my partner to the meetings. Driving in Juba is slightly more intimidating than driving in LA. But I’ll get used to it.

The workday ends at 5pm and the same crew walk back to the guesthouse. The dinner shuttle arrives at 6pm and depending on nothing more than whim, I decide if I’m going to go out for dinner or stay in and eat a can of Pringles for dinner. There are a handful of well-visited places to chose from. Many of them serve a combination of Ethiopian and Western food. You can get injira or a pizza. ZilZil tips or a cheeseburger. Curfew is at 9pm, so the evening shuttle begins pick-ups at 8:30pm.

By 9pm I’m usually safe within our compound walls and the AC in our rooms is now on. If I’m being good, I do a short workout in my room before showering and then go to bed. If I’m not, I’ll sit in the courtyard with friends, sweating and my ankles getting eaten by mosquitos while we drink and talk of the future and the job and laugh and argue and talk about nothing.

I’m inside my mosquito net by midnight, trying to fall asleep so I can wake-up tomorrow and do it all over again.