Since I'm not much of a photographer, let alone a videographer, it's been tough to share with you the sights and sounds of life in Kapoeta. Today, I turned up this short video from Voice of America that at least starts to capture some of the more festive scenes from our town. The first 30 seconds and the last 15 seconds or so were filmed here during the power plant inauguration. The rest (wherever you see green trees!) is not here--some of it is Juba and the rest is mostly filmed along the main highway running from Uganda to Juba.
In the video, keep an eye out for:
1) in the openning dance scene, the ladies to the right (not dancing) with leaf-green outfits are wearing goat skins covered with beads.
2) a white guy in a tan hat in the scene in the power station; Francis' 2 seconds of web-video fame
3) the ostrich feathers and leopard skins on the heads and backs, respectively, of the Toposa male dancers at the end -- I totally forgot to mention that before. I can't believe that big cats once roamed Toposaland!
In other news, I'm keeping busy doing some consulting jobs for my last two employers while I wait on an answer from the state about starting the town survey/mapping project. This last week has seen us post new record highs and lows on the weather station: daytime high of 107.6 and nighttime low of 63. I love the cold and the fact that it made us put a blanket on the bed for the first time EVER in Sudan! Our friends have graciously arranged for getting us cereal, cheese, and chocolate--the essentials which are, sadly, unavailable in Kapoeta. Our last grocery shopping trip was in early December and we won't be back in the land of supermarkets until late March--yikes!
Alright, I think that's it for now. Back to the grind I go...
Very cool! Thak you for sharing the video... now if somehow we could learn to transport smells... :)
ReplyDeletei love this video and shared it on my facebook page. love the updates - take good care sarah dear and give joey a big hug from us as well. plyglra aunt faith and uncle john
ReplyDeleteGood morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from South Sudan? I understand perfectly that you think that your e-mail is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in South Sudan in order to complete my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely