BoppWeBlog

We made it back from Sudan last night and are now back at the Mayfield Guest House in Nairobi. I intend to write in detail about the trip but in this post will just give an overview. We flew in increasing smaller planes till we reached the village of Werkok, Sudan. Before going into Sudan we stopped at Loki, Kenya. This is where almost all flights for relief to Sudan are staged. There is also a UN compound there.

Upon arriving in Werkok, we were greeted by everyone from the local village area. We got off the plane, and had people all around us, shaking hands, etc. The kids were dressed in rags, very dirty, and had as many flies as phisically possible landing and crawling on them. Something I would get used to very quickly.

Things were as primative as they could be. We had a couple of tukels (pronounced tookle, and is what they call their mud hut homes), and a few tents. The team there at the hospital has started to construct cement tukles which were just made of concrete instead of mud. Toilets were ‘long-drops’ or ‘short-drops’. Simply a hole, that is either a few feet where flies and maggots are all around you, or the luxourious long-drop where seperates the fecal matter from you by maybe 10 meters. All water needs to be pumped by hand. And it is very very difficult. Showers are just using maybe a gallon of water, and a dipper. You use water very carefully when it takes a while to get in blazing heat.

We constantly drank water. But never went to the bathroom, I imagine it all came out via perspiration. The water was always warm, sometimes hot, even after pulling out of the well from several hundred feet below the ground.

The ground is made up of this black clay. The people call it black cotton. As far as we could tell, it was good for absolutely nothing. It was EXTREMELY hard to dig in. It was like concrete. Yet when it crumbled it was like powder. Maybe if you put water on it, then it would soften, but as I mentioned water is a rare commodity.

Meals were primarily lentils and rice. If I see them again it will be too soon. Though when we got there, I was thinking this stuff is pretty good. We did have some variety in what we ate. Some things very good.

We got to know the people well. And upon leaving I missed them already.

There is a ton more to share, so hopefully I will write more details about this part of the trip.

We made it, it was long, long flight. From the plane we saw the sun go down, up, and back down again. And tomorrow I’m getting on two more planes for a total of 3-4 hours. But these planes will be small and we will hopefully be able to see stuff on the ground. We will be flying to Sudan bright and early. We are calculating things down to the pound (or Kg), because we are at the weight limit of the plane.

The was a great mix if people on the flights over. Many Indian, Muslim, and European people. I thought that was fun. The food was decent on the plane, but it after the 5th meal it got a little old.

We were in Amsterdam for a couple of hours. And it was pretty boring. I was surprised. I was hoping to at least get a glimpse of what the Netherlands is like. But it was as though I had just stepped off the plane into O’Hare or something. Everything was just as it would be in America. All signs were in English (often they didn’t even have translations, in dutch or anything). It was like a mall with tons of stores, but I felt ‘mall stoned’ not long after arriving there, so mostly I just sat and waited.

When we finally arrived in Nairobi, customs went very smooth. We paid more than double what we thought we would need to, and were not able to get them down. In any case, we got our Visas for Kenya, and our Sudan visas came today as well. Some dudes took our luggage, so we would tip them. We chased them yelling for them to let us do it. The men guarding the airport ( and all policemen for that matter) where carrying assault rifles. Interesting to see. I guess this is Africa.

The city is in a very pretty setting. The weather is just right. Maybe around 80, and usually a quick shower every day, but mostly sunny. We are sleeping under mosquito nets. The accommodations are actually quite nice. Certainly better than I thought. There is a lot of security everywhere in this city. I was told that 1/3 of the people protect or provide security for another 1/3 of the population. And the other third are in poverty. There actually seems to be a decent population of ‘middle-class’ people here. It is quite westernized. You can walk into certain buildings and feel like your back in the US. There are people wearing trendy cloths and talking on cell phones all over. We stopped at a flea market today, and I must say, these people were the most aggressive I’ve ever seen, one by one they would follow me/us (the only white people) as we walked by there stands. And after about 15 minutes there were like 30 ‘vendors’ getting in my face, shaking my hand, and working to get me to buy something. I bought nothing. And joked around with them quite a bit. I asked one man if he would be my friend if I didn’t buy anything. He said yes, I said really, then he said no. I then told him to go. To turn around and leave and that I was offended .

So tomorrow, any glimpse of civilization will be gone. I’m actually looking forward to it. Sleeping under the stars with tribal drums in the background. I won’t post anything most likely till next wed.

Here are a few boring pictures. It’s really really hard to take pictures around here. People all over make a stink about it for some reason. They want to be paid for just being in the vicinity, and think that I’m stealing from them. Weird.

The Mayfield were we are staying, and Aaron and I composing this blog entry.