As the newness of Sudan wears off and initially startling sights begin to become commonplace, it gets harder and harder to think of things that are noteworthy enough to write about. At the same time, though, I realize that the life I now lead is anything but ordinary. Francis and regularly reflect upon how our life here resembles that of pioneers: I bake bread and tend the garden, while he tries to construct and maintain our “homestead” with the most basic of tools. I like to think of myself as the modern-day Laura Ingals Wilder while Francis channels Speke or Livingstone, some of the early African explorers.
In coming up with fodder for this post, I realize I have neglected to mention that there has been some upheaval in the Mills’ pet situation. A couple weeks ago, we were driving through town when a dumptruck driver who has hauled topsoil for me flagged us down to tell us he had dropped off a tortoise at our house. Thinking that he expected payment, we gave him some non-committal answer, but he clarified that it “was a gift for madam.” After searching for a couple days (this new addition is MUCH quicker) we found our gift roaming around the powerstation grounds just outside our residential compound fence. Since we’d given up on using visual indicators to determine tortoise gender, we christened him Clare, either short for Clarence (an excellent name for a tortoise, don’t you think?!) or a nice female name. Well, two weeks passed and we found the old tortoise Morty laying more eggs, thus firmly establishing that “she” is a she. While I thought that Morty would still be ok (short for Morticia…), Francis insisted that we swap the pet names. So now the old Morty, the egg-layer with the cracked shell, goes by Clare and the new guy who is much less shy (he’s taken a liking to hanging out on the front porch) is the new Morty. It’s almost like a soap opera, huh?!
The addition of the second tortoise provided further impetus to construct a pond for the tortoises. Though they are accustomed to desert living and spend most of the day hiding in a shady spot, online sources say that leopard tortoises do like to have a shallow place to wade in and have a nice long drink. I had Peter do some excavation, and hired a mason to pour a shallow pond, and then Francis and I pushed some large, pretty stones in the surface of the wet concrete Cambridge-style. I then took LOTS of extra stones and put them around the concrete to create ramps for the tortoises to enter and exit. So far, the birds have gotten much more use out of it than Morty or Clare (in fact, I don’t think Morty likes water much at all), though Clare spent a good hour in the pond the other day. I have plans to plant bushes on one side to provide additional hiding spots and grass all around so they have something to eat, all in due time.
In other news, while I was out in the yard arranging the stones around the pond, I noticed a 10 or 12 year old Toposa girl outside our fence. Now, there are young Toposa girls passing by the compound all the time, but this one caught my eye because rather than staring in the compound at me, she was looking up at one of the trees just outside our fence. While I watched her, she picked up a rock and hurled it up into the tree canopy. An instant later, a crow-sized bird fell from the tree, which she promptly picked up and went on her way. Now, I know that for eons humans have been killing birds with stones, but I thought that it was mostly done with the aid of a slingshot. This wasn’t just a random happening—this girl was tracking her prey, aiming, and got it in one try! I was impressed. These people are tough.
In other news, we’ve now been officially moved into our house for about a week. On one of the first nights in the house, an American friend who we met in November at the safari camp was in town again, and so we invited him over for dinner, making him our first dinner guest. The meal, if I must say so myself (and evidenced by no leftovers) was quite lovely, but it was even lovelier sitting around on the couch after dinner, sipping tea (me) and port (Francis). It felt so civilized after months of living out of a suitcase.
Though we received clearance to move in, there were still a couple things around the house that the construction contractor needed to finish. As per Murphy’s Law, they showed up three days after this move-in. Even worse, it was the night before my birthday, and their top priority for the following day was to seal the grout throughout the house. So, I awoke on my 28th b-day on the wrong side of the bed, and watched as a team of people removed from the house EVERYTHING that I had just put in place. I was mad. I needed to get away, and it just so happened that Peter also had finally lined up a source for manure for the garden, and so I had a crappy (pun intended) rest of the morning collecting poop to feed my plants. The day improved a bit when I got a call that an NGO doing emergency food distribution out in the bush around Kapoeta (there was a drought last year and its effects are really starting to show now) wanted to interview me for a position coordinating distribution—more details later if it actually happens. The next step in the right direction was realizing that my sweetcorn was ready (actually, beyond ready) for picking! I’d hoped for corn-on-the-cob for a birthday meal, but didn’t really think it would be possible. Oh, what a harvest! Against all odds, I managed to reap about 4 dozen ears (only from those plants that I didn’t transplant—lesson for the future), a dozen of which Francis and I consumed off the cob and the rest which I cooked, cut off the cob, and have stored in the freeze for future enjoyment. The next day, I had Peter plant more (I’m thinking we’ll plant every two or three weeks, now that we know it works!).
Anyway, back to the birthday story. So, things improved with the sweetcorn, as well as with the mudslide that I had for dessert. To top the day off, I went online to find an overwhelming number of emails and facebook messages from family and friends, leading me to wonder who died and made me so popular?! I also opened physical birthday cards (sent earlier with Francis’ colleagues) from Mama & Papa Mills (Thank you!) and my parents (who would have thought that your voices would be heard in Africa?!). It turned out to be a lovely day.
Later in the week, the contractors finished up on the house, and Francis and I made our way to Juba where I’m writing this post. He has a work meeting and needs to do some shopping for the project, and I had my interview (went well, I think) and need to pick up some groceries. We also met up with the 5 American linemen who have been contracted to do most of the actual construction of power lines, and we’ll all be traveling back “home” in a couple days.
I expect lots of excitement in the coming weeks, not the least of which is a visit from Shana (Francis’ sister). We’re due to get the heck out of Sudan in the next couple weeks (actually, Juba was a welcome change of scenery, even if it is a dump), though I’m not sure that a trip to Nairobi or Kampala will be possible if I get this job—there is LOTS to be done in a short time. Anyway, stay posted for the latest news and don’t worry if I don’t post; just means that I’m back to being a boring pioneer...
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 15, 2010
Flat-pack queen and garden goddess
It has been a week now since the truck with our furniture and appliances arrived from Uganda, and since then we’ve been spending no less than 12 hours a day (some time 14 or 15) trying to get things in order to move in. The bulk of my time (and the bane of my existence) has been putting together loads of flat-pack furniture—you know, Ikea/Target-style press board dressers, etc. Back in the States, I wasn’t too keen on this stuff because there is inevitably at least one piece where the holes are drilled incorrectly and, let’s be honest, I certainly don’t have the wrist strength to drive in a gazillion little screws to make the thing all fit together. It’s even harder here in Africa when the diagrams for assembly are incomprehensible (even to a reasonably intelligent engineer). After a week, I have 3 of 4 wardrobes completed (the first took 2 days to assemble!) and 4 of 8 desks put together. I also expected to put together bed frames, but we quickly realized that the store had shipped us queen-sized bed frames and California-king-sized mattresses. Since it’s not like we can go down the street to do an exchange—shipping them back to Uganda would cost more than they are worth—we’ve just been sleeping on the mattress on the floor. But since it’s the first time we’ve had a spring mattress to sleep on in 3 months, I’m not complaining!
With the truck of goodies also came everything to make a functional kitchen. I spent an entire day on Thursday washing dishes and trying to find a home for the pots, pans, and small appliances, no small task considering that I have approximately 6 square feet of countertop space and about half enough cupboards. With everything in place, I then set out to make a birthday dinner for Francis—though his bday is the 4th, since I had no means to bake a cake or good meal, we opted to observe his birthday 10 days later. It was so nice to be back in a kitchen with a handmixer, measuring cups, and frying pan!!! I’d planned on making frosted brownies and was lucky to find fresh eggs in the market. I also made a tomato and pesto lasagna, with basil from my own garden. The food was almost as good as the enjoyment of making it!
Speaking of the garden, everything is “going gangbusters” as my padre likes to say. We have enough green beans for a meal about every three days, the first batch of peas should be ready to pick any day, and there are four cucumbers that should also be ready soon. We have a few marble-sized tomatoes and some golf ball-sized watermelons. I’m expecting the beets also to be ready
soon, but I think the carrots and onions need some more time. The eggplant and peppers look healthy, but still no signs of fruit—it seems, though, that it’s a late bloomer ( and I’ve only planted it 2 months ago). I’m not sure what to make of my sweetcorn—it all looks healthy, but I’m afraid that it tassled too early. The tallest stalks are about 5’ tall, and even some of the 3-footers have full tassles. I have been warned that the 12-hour days (as opposed to the Midwest’s 16-18 hours of summer sun) may not be enough to produce full ears, but the thought of crispy, sweet corn-on-the-cob is worth the effort of trying. The only real disappointment (outside of my strawberries which never germinated) is my zucchini; the plants look healthy and they get huge yellow blossoms, but so far absolutely no fruit! Now that we’ve begun to see what grows well, the gardener and I are working this week on expanding the garden by about 50% so that we can get the next batch of crops in. Now that we’ve had crunchy, fresh veggies, we want to ensure that we will always have some!
[Above: Peter the gardener with our 3rd batch of beans]
Not too much else to report here. Furniture assembly has delayed my job hunt a bit, though I did have a pretty promising talk with an NGO the other day. I’m hoping that by the end of the month the house will be in good enough shape to throw a party for all of the kawajas in town …and not let anyone leave until someone agrees to hire me.
With the truck of goodies also came everything to make a functional kitchen. I spent an entire day on Thursday washing dishes and trying to find a home for the pots, pans, and small appliances, no small task considering that I have approximately 6 square feet of countertop space and about half enough cupboards. With everything in place, I then set out to make a birthday dinner for Francis—though his bday is the 4th, since I had no means to bake a cake or good meal, we opted to observe his birthday 10 days later. It was so nice to be back in a kitchen with a handmixer, measuring cups, and frying pan!!! I’d planned on making frosted brownies and was lucky to find fresh eggs in the market. I also made a tomato and pesto lasagna, with basil from my own garden. The food was almost as good as the enjoyment of making it!
Speaking of the garden, everything is “going gangbusters” as my padre likes to say. We have enough green beans for a meal about every three days, the first batch of peas should be ready to pick any day, and there are four cucumbers that should also be ready soon. We have a few marble-sized tomatoes and some golf ball-sized watermelons. I’m expecting the beets also to be ready
soon, but I think the carrots and onions need some more time. The eggplant and peppers look healthy, but still no signs of fruit—it seems, though, that it’s a late bloomer ( and I’ve only planted it 2 months ago). I’m not sure what to make of my sweetcorn—it all looks healthy, but I’m afraid that it tassled too early. The tallest stalks are about 5’ tall, and even some of the 3-footers have full tassles. I have been warned that the 12-hour days (as opposed to the Midwest’s 16-18 hours of summer sun) may not be enough to produce full ears, but the thought of crispy, sweet corn-on-the-cob is worth the effort of trying. The only real disappointment (outside of my strawberries which never germinated) is my zucchini; the plants look healthy and they get huge yellow blossoms, but so far absolutely no fruit! Now that we’ve begun to see what grows well, the gardener and I are working this week on expanding the garden by about 50% so that we can get the next batch of crops in. Now that we’ve had crunchy, fresh veggies, we want to ensure that we will always have some![Above: Peter the gardener with our 3rd batch of beans]
Not too much else to report here. Furniture assembly has delayed my job hunt a bit, though I did have a pretty promising talk with an NGO the other day. I’m hoping that by the end of the month the house will be in good enough shape to throw a party for all of the kawajas in town …and not let anyone leave until someone agrees to hire me.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Green Beans and Girl Friends
Living in Sudan is all about seeing life in its rawest form: naked (literally), unrefined, un-cushioned. Rather than fighting against nature, the Sudanese, whether out of necessity or immense wisdom, have learned to not fight against the harshness of the world, but rather to live with it. There is no such concept as a “well-sealed” house. This is an indoor-outdoor living culture with usually only sleeping done under the protection of a roof. Kids aren’t coddled but rather are expected to work for their keep. Even the smallest toddlers wander around lugging jerry cans. By the time they are 5 or 6, girls are expected to care for weaned infants, carrying a baby half their size around on their backs. Animals are valued solely for the meat that they can provide or the dowry they can buy. Goats are pulled around by their horns or hind legs, while chickens tend to by carried around upside down by their feet or (not too uncommonly) by just one wing. (Boy, do I have stories for PETA). It’s a place filled with acacia trees and their accompanying slightly-toxic thorns.
It’s understandable, then, why Sudan is a difficult place to love. What I’ve come to discover, though, is that such an atmosphere allows you to really appreciate simple joys.
…Like green beans. Fresh out of the garden, warm, crunchy, green beans. Today Francis and I enjoyed the first fruits of our garden. After two months of (kidney) beans, rice, and fried potatoes, the fresh, crisp flavor of the green beans was like candy. I had vowed to take a picture of my first harvest, but once I started eating the green beans, I couldn’t stop. Maybe you’ll get a picture of the second harvest.
…Like having a girlfriend. Someone you can sit across the coffeetable from with your feet curled under you, and chat about whatever is on your mind: recipes, frustrations of being stared at by Toposa women, which stores in town sell the best bread. Not that Francis’ company isn’t lovely (seriously, I would have already bought a ticket back to the US if I didn’t think so) but having someone to have girl-talk with is something that truly is a blessing.
…Like drink mixes. Tang, Kool-Aid, Crystal Lite. In such a climate, your body requires A LOT of liquid. But seriously, you can only drink so much room-temperature water. What a joy it is to tip back a glass and have sweet liquid tickle your tongue! Thank you NASA or whoever it was that came up with Tang and all of the other powdered drinks after it.
So, that’s what I’ve got right now. No huge news this week. Our stuff is still not here so we are splitting our time (and meals) between our empty house and the safari camp. With everyone returning from Christmas, I’m back to supervising crews doing excavations/leveling around the compound and plan to resume my job hunting. Wish me luck…
It’s understandable, then, why Sudan is a difficult place to love. What I’ve come to discover, though, is that such an atmosphere allows you to really appreciate simple joys.
…Like green beans. Fresh out of the garden, warm, crunchy, green beans. Today Francis and I enjoyed the first fruits of our garden. After two months of (kidney) beans, rice, and fried potatoes, the fresh, crisp flavor of the green beans was like candy. I had vowed to take a picture of my first harvest, but once I started eating the green beans, I couldn’t stop. Maybe you’ll get a picture of the second harvest.
…Like having a girlfriend. Someone you can sit across the coffeetable from with your feet curled under you, and chat about whatever is on your mind: recipes, frustrations of being stared at by Toposa women, which stores in town sell the best bread. Not that Francis’ company isn’t lovely (seriously, I would have already bought a ticket back to the US if I didn’t think so) but having someone to have girl-talk with is something that truly is a blessing.
…Like drink mixes. Tang, Kool-Aid, Crystal Lite. In such a climate, your body requires A LOT of liquid. But seriously, you can only drink so much room-temperature water. What a joy it is to tip back a glass and have sweet liquid tickle your tongue! Thank you NASA or whoever it was that came up with Tang and all of the other powdered drinks after it.
So, that’s what I’ve got right now. No huge news this week. Our stuff is still not here so we are splitting our time (and meals) between our empty house and the safari camp. With everyone returning from Christmas, I’m back to supervising crews doing excavations/leveling around the compound and plan to resume my job hunting. Wish me luck…
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