You are very welcome...

The title of today's post comes from the greeting that I receive almost without fail from all of the South Sudanese I meet in the course of my work.  Along with the absolutely required handshake when I enter a room it is usually accompanied by these words, "You are very welcome" or "You are most welcome" which are often repeated multiple times throughout the conversation at regular intervals.  The locals are always sad to hear I am not staying for longer, but assure me that South Sudan will become my new home in no time.

So there are some interesting things about life in South Sudan that even after many different experiences abroad leave me a little surprised.  This time around it's the fact that the hotel (and from what I hear all hotels) will not wash women's underwear.  Apparently men's underwear is no problem, and other women's clothing isn't problematic, but women's underwear is just too much.  It's a weird thing to run into, mostly because I considered places I lived in the Middle East to be much more conservative in terms of lifestyle, dress, etc. and never encountered this problem there.  Things in general are much less conservative here then in Egypt or Palestine, it is the norm for women walk around in skirts and tank tops and things I never would have considered in my previous locales.  It's a Christian country so drinking is widely considered acceptable and beer ads are everywhere.  It's an interesting contrast, but more realistically just a real life annoyance for me to have to wash underwear by hand and then try and find all sorts of creative ways to hang them around my air-conditioned room to dry since I don't think anyone would take kindly to me drying them outside in the sun/heat.

On the topic of the weather, I've discovered I'm actually here during what is considered the cooler part of the year since it is the rainy season.  While more humid it is significantly cooler then it is during the other parts of the year when as one of my friends put it "I couldn't even look at my jeans."  Jeans are a little warm now but they're fine for the most part and help avoid bug bites.  However, it hasn't rained much at all since my first week, which is a little unusual I'm told, although it could more then make up for it later in the summer.  Since there's not much agriculture in the area I'm told it doesn't really matter for the local economies whether it rains or not, although I'm not sure if that's true of all areas of the state, especially when it comes to cattle grazing.

Anyways, in other news, I finally got to the GBV sub-cluster meeting over at the UNDP offices on Tuesday, which was great, I was able to snag people after the meeting and get emails, schedule meetings, and generally start setting up some real work for later in the week.  The meeting itself was interesting, but more logistical then helpful in an overarching sense.  Afterwards I spent the day working on getting the surveys I'll be using into workable shape which ended up being a project that took a good chunk of the rest of the day between me and my boss as we traded versions and tried to strike the right balance of information gathering.

On Monday night I had the chance to have dinner with another Wellesley girl who works in Juba, which was excellent.  She's actually lived here for three years, since well before independence, working for MercyCore and Internews.  It was really impressive to hear about her work, which she somehow landed right out of undergrad. Unfortunately she continues the trend of people I meet who are leaving in just a few weeks, so hopefully I'll get to see a little more of her before I go but she's headed back to the states to start a PhD program soon.  Nonetheless dinner was lovely and it was good to make a Wellesley connection.

Dinner was at an Indian place down the road a bit, my British Council friends and I went along with another Brit here doing some PhD research.  It was a lovely dinner with our usual amount of American v. British English analysis.  They were simply shocked that I didn't know the phase "Mutton dressed up as lamb."  Now maybe my readership is more familiar with this saying, but I hadn't heard it before, apparently it's quiet common to specifically refer to a woman who is dressed up too young for her age.  I thought it was a fabulous phrase, and one I look forward to incorporating.

Today (Wednesday) I had my first meeting with a service provider and had the chance to run a still preliminary version of my survey through some beta testing.  It went well although my boss and I are still working out some kinks and testing the boundaries of what I consider relevant information versus what she would like to get out of the surveys.  She wants to include some donor information, I'm not sure of my comfort level with that since I'm not here to solicit money for GBV programs for IA or the Ministry.  We're working on a balance that won't make me uncomfortable, but I feel like it rides a fine line.  On the other hand when working for a client, even an NGO or a government agency, getting the information they want is important, so I don't feel like I can totally disregard what she's asking for, but I made her aware I don't want to directly be involved in collecting donor information since that was not laid out at any point in the Terms of Reference for the project. Not to mention we're already asking for a lot of information and the survey runs around 45 minutes right now, so I do want to keep the survey limited to relevant questions.  My boss has said she understands my concerns so I'm sure we'll find a way to work it out.

In other news the hotel seems to have acquired a chicken that is now roaming the grounds.  At least its not a rooster because those things are loud, the one from the IDP camp next door is enough noise around here in the pre-dawn hours.  However, I discovered early this morning that chickens do make noise! I know, not a revelation, but for someone who has never really interacted with chickens before I was surprised at just how loud one chicken can be when it woke me up early this morning with its clucking. I hope it doesn't make early morning vocalizations a regular thing.

Also, I managed to take a few pictures, they are mostly out of the windows of the car when I'm pretending to use my cell phone so they are askew and somewhat less then ideal, but they're all I've got at the moment.  The first one is just for amusement, down by AfEx where we go to eat on a regular basis there is this:

If you can't tell that is a whole fleet of brand new John Deere tractors that don't even have the seat covers taken off of them (or someone is very carefully putting them back on after use).  I have no idea what such an amazingly modern and lovely fleet of vehicles does here, and so far they haven't moved, but they make me feel a little more at home, although the first time I walked around the corner and saw them it took a second for me to figure out what was going on and where I was.

This little guy is Habibi (loved one in Arabic) is our traumatized office monkey. Some kids rescued him (I'm not sure from what) and he tends to hide out in the corners of the office or the yard.  But my boss now has him eating out of her hand and he stays in our office quiet a bit.  I don't work from the office that much (the allure of the AC in my room makes the hotel my main work space), but I like hearing the updates on him.  He's pretty cute, but I keep my distance since I didn't end up getting the rabies vaccine before I left.  He's a pretty well behaved monkey.

 Here's a shot of the area around the city out the front of a car.  Sorry, but it's the best I've got given the restrictions on photo taking.  Here's a couple more to give you a feel for the landscape around Juba, this is just outside the city, so it's not exactly where I am, but gives you a feel for the lay of the land.

The last one is actually taken from the base/side of the mountain you saw us approaching in the picture above it looking back on to the city.  I know it's not much, I'll try and be better when I can be about taking photos, I'm just not looking to have my camera taken away from me, or incite any of the locals to anger, which apparently cameras do pretty quickly.

It's Thursday night now, I think I started writing this post on Monday and the week has just flown by. This morning I had a meeting with the Minister for Gender and Social Policy for Central Equatoria, and she was awesome.  This is a lady who likes to get things done and makes no bones about it.  She was quiet a presence in just the 15 minute meeting we had, but it was nice to see a government official who was clearly involved, knew her staff, and was working on moving things forward.  The government is really into it's titles and such, and Ministers here are referred to as Your Excellency (a title I previously reserved for royalty and I think ambassadors?) but it always makes a meeting better when you get to refer to someone as Your Excellency in total seriousness.

Anyways, I suppose that's enough for one blog post.  I have a couple of meetings tomorrow and hopefully we'll get the surveys squared away tomorrow and over the weekend. I've got a bunch of meeting set up for next week so things really will get rolling then!

Camp Walks and Mexican Night

Time goes by both more quickly and more slowly in some ways here.  I feel like I have so much to report on, yet it's only been three days since my last post.  Later on Thursday I got my first walk through the neighboring IDP (internally displaced persons) camps.  There is St. Mary's, the Cemetery Camp, and the one by the slaughter house which is actually directly on the other side of the wall of the hotel that runs past my room.  I went expecting to get a tour from Cathy, the woman who runs the girl's shelter, but instead ended up going with two of the social workers.

I'll say up front that the whole experience made me extremely uncomfortable.  Basically I was there starring at people as we walked through these camps with the houses strung together from sheets of recovered metal, torn tarps, sticks woven into walls, and whatever other found objects might serve as walls, lashes, or roofs.   The flies and the mud are incessant, and they live in the mud when it rains (which it does nearly ever day here) since few of the shacks (I tried to use the word hut and the social worker told me that hut was too kind a word for any of the homes, she said shack was more appropriate) had any flooring.  I'm told their water comes from the puddles around the camp.  It felt somehow terrible to be walking around viewing it almost like a tourist.  I know that seeing the camps is informative and will hopefully help me better understand the conditions that some of the people I will be surveying live in, but I couldn't thinking how tired these people must be of white people coming to stare at them like some sort of exhibit.

I felt a little bit better when I got to engage with the people.  The social worker said hello to everyone we passed, and I tried to use my fledgling Arabic to be as friendly as possible.  Some people stopped us to talk and she would translate for me.  In the Cemetery Camp (named because the camp is located on a cemetery, they've been living there for about a year now), we sat down with the chief of the camp and I had the chance to ask some questions.  The camp is about 168 families, they stay in the camp to keep their children enrolled in school because there are programs here that will help pay the school fees, so they resist moving further out of the city where schools are scarcer, and I imagine aid for school fees is harder to find.  When meeting the South Sudanese a handshake is immediately required, even if you are in a large group or just exchanging greetings it seems almost a requirement to at least give a handshake if you make eye contact with someone.  Even the small children extend their hands for handshakes and a Salam Walekum.  

In the camp by the slaughter house the question of the nightly drumming was answered. I'd asked the social workers about the drumming but they didn't know, so they asked one of the women we talked to at the camp.  The woman had a pretty good laugh at my expense when she realized I thought they were beating on actual drums. It turns out once they've killed the goats or cows they stretch the hides as they pull them away and beat them to separate the skin from the meat.  From the sound they must hold the hides really tight as they do it, because it sounds exactly like a drum, but is actually just a part of the slaughtering process.  I was glad someone found some amusement in my ignorance, she was still laughing when we walked away.  I hope that if I return to the camps it can be with some particular purpose, and not merely as an observer.

After the camp tour it was back to the Bedouin (the hotel) for the evening and dinner with my boss and another friend.  Ordering at the Bedouin is kind of like menu roulette, despite what you order, you just never know what you're going to get.  It's definitely not good food, but its edible (and fairly sanitary, knock on wood) and fortunately there is enough ketchup or salt or peper to make things better.

I spent most of Friday in meetings.  First we met with the social worker team from the Ministry, along with the Minister for Gender.  We met under a large tree sitting in plastic chairs because their building doesn't have electricity yet and it's hotter inside then out in the shade.  I have the feeling a lot of my meetings will take place under trees, and it's actually not a bad option compared to an un-airconditioned room.  We laid out goals, decided on a geographical scope for the project, and generally got some basic understandings for how the project would run on paper.  I'll spend about a a week and a half at the end of July traveling around to the five other counties in Central Equatoria to conduct meetings with service providers in each of those areas so we have a more comprehensive picture of the whole state as opposed to just Juba.  While much of the project will focus on Juba, hopefully this week of travel with a day to two days in each county will fill out the picture for the rest of the state.  The travel will be the worst part, while the counties aren't actually far apart the roads are so bad during the rainy season that a 75 mile drive can take three to four hours.

For those concerned with my travel into the more rural areas my boss has assured me there are good places to stay in each of the towns that I travel to, and for the two towns too small to have proper lodging I'll probably only stay one day and travel back to a larger town at the end of the day.  Apparently Yei is quiet nice and so will probably serve as one of my bases while I'm outside of Juba.  I'll be traveling out to these areas with another Israeli who will be arriving in late July.  She is a therapist who has helped set up psycho-social support in the other counties and who will be checking up on her teams while I'm doing my interviews.  It sounds like a really interesting adventure, and I'm excited to get that part of the trip organized, although slightly worried about just how much I'll be able to get done with limited time in each place.

After that meeting it was off to the police station to meet with the woman who runs gender issues for the police.  My boss describes her as extremely capable, and so I had a quick introduction to her and promises were made to speak next week to get a better sense of what the police department has going on in relation to gender issues.  The final meeting was back at the Bedouin with some representatives of a Christian organization that runs outreach programs for youth. They're working with IA to develop a program for students on GBV, and I'll probably speak with them later to learn more about their programming.

That was it for the week in terms of work.  Friday night was Mexican night down at AfEx (African Expeditions, the fancy hotel down the street) so we went for giant burritos that weren't half bad.  After that it was back to the Bedouin, which had outside of it a sea of UN/MSF/INGO cars parked outside of it.  Apparently it is the place to be some weekend nights and attracts a huge INGO crowd.  The bar was packed, and the music wasn't bad, although eventually we ended up on my friends terrace to escape the crowds.

Saturday was pretty lazy, I'm still not sleeping the whole night through so it was a late start on the day, but my fridge arrived yesterday which was pretty exciting.  Last night my teacher friends (many of the people I've met here are teachers for the British Council teaching the army English) and I went to a Greek place for dinner.  The food was really good, somehow despite being a Greek restaurant they have a whole Indian menu, but the tandoori I ordered was pretty great, so no complaints here.

Today is looking to involve some time at the pool and dinner out somewhere, so pretty relaxed day.  I am slowly adopting the ways of the Brits I hang around (okay, some Brits, and then a lot of people from former British colonies who are absolutely not British but all have some variation on a British accent, ie: Australian, Zimbabwean, etc), and had beans and toast for breakfast this morning.  Fortunately it taste a lot better here then I remember it tasting in England. I think the weekend has been good for me in terms of just relaxation and getting over the last of the jetlag, but I've mapped out my plans for next week and I'm hoping to start meeting with INGOs in the coming days.  We'll see how that actually pans out, but I'm hoping to start getting some data and setting up meetings.

Most importantly the GBV sub-cluster meets on Tuesday, so that will be a great opportunity to meet people face to face and hopefully set up some times to meet with service providers.  The GBV sub-cluster is a part of the Protection Cluster run by the UN, the cluster system is how things are organized on the ground in an attempt to coordinate between different service providers in different areas.  Some people find them helpful and others seem to think of them as a giant waste of time, but I'm excited to see it in person nonetheless after learning and hearing about about the cluster/sub-cluster system for some time.

That's all for now.  Hope everyone has a great start to their week!

Rain and jetlag

So, in exciting news I finally got some sleep last night.  Until tonight I'd only managed a couple hours of sleep late in the mornings, but in an attempt to be functional and get some work done I forced myself up early yesterday and as a result finally managed almost a full nights sleep last night.  I'm hopeful the worst of the jetlag has passed.  Although, being awake did have the advantage of familiarizing me with the sounds of the slaughterhouse next door, which apparently requires some sort of drumming ceremony as a part of the process.  I'm totally unclear on how the drumming plays in, but about 4 a.m. the drumming starts, sometimes accompanied by singing, and a rooster that doesn't seem to have any sense of timing, and doesn't stop until the sun is up.  The smell when they do the slaughtering is somewhat unpleasant, but not totally unlike Iowa in the spring.

In other news, I got my first tour of Juba yesterday.  I got to cross the Blue Nile (unlike the White Nile which runs through Cairo) on a fairly rickety metal bridge, but the view was spectacular.  The area is very green and lush down the river and there are some mountains in the distance.  I've heard they can be hiked but that the mines from the war make hiking somewhat risky.  Some of the friends I've made here have done it and say if you stick to paths and rocky areas it's not a problem, but I'm not sure how adventurous I feel like being with my limbs.  There are apparently huge numbers of mine-clearing teams in the area working on the issue.

The tour included driving by a number of ministry buildings where it is illegal to stop on the road, so I only got a quick look.  We drove past a large number of hotels in the area, my guide seemed to think they were quiet important, although I'm not exactly sure why, but there are a good number of hotels, especially along the river.  I saw the super market (not exciting sounding, but I'm pretty stoked to go there one I get the fridge in my room and load up on cheaper food), and got a general sense of the town.  There are a number of IDP (internally displaced persons) camps around town, including one right across the road from the hotel I'm at that has around 500 people staying there, as far as I can tell the one across the road isn't an official camp (as in run and operated by an agency like the UN).

My organization has been here for two years now in Juba, longer then almost any other organization because most other agencies were focused on conflict areas like Jonglei State in the north where both internal and external conflict occurs.  IA (as I will abbriviate the organization) according to my boss was one of the first organizations to come into Juba hoping to develop services in the capital area, which was seeing huge number of IDPers.  Oddly enough Israel commands a fair amount of respect here because they have been here in an unofficial capacity since the 1950s, when South Sudan was identified as a strategic place for Israel to support.  Israel has been (again unofficially) helping out South Sudan's rebellion since the 1950s, as there are important shipping considerations given Sudan's port,  oil issues, etc.  Israel apparently carries huge support here according to my boss, and saying you're associated with the organization (or state) can help open doors that might otherwise be closed.  It's odd for me to consider using that to my advantage in my work, but it's something to consider.

My work here will definitely be guided by the mission of IA and its approach towards setting up locally sustainable programs.  My boss has been critical of organizations that come in and bring in external resources to build programs, import pre-designed modules, utilize external actors, etc.  She's not alone.  A lot of criticism of INGOs (international non-governmental organizations) comes from their one fit all solutions, as well as lack of local knowledge, and inability to integrate their programs and training into local communities so that it can be sustained when the INGOs leave.  IA's theory is to use only local actors, in fact my boss is the only non-local on staff in country, and very rarely are people brought from out of country to conduct trainings, etc.  Programming is all developed here by local actors to ensure "local ownership" (key buzz phrase there) of the programs, and ensure their long term sustainability locally if external actors leave.

As a result my project here is being locally managed, and the scope of the project will be determined by the Ministry of Social Development (which the Minister for Gender sits under) and the team I work with there.  I will meet with them tomorrow because the Minister for Gender has been sick with malaria and I can't meet the team until I meet her because of protocol which is very important here.  Everything must be done according to the hierarchy and very set protocol.  (More on what I've learned about malaria below).  I'll get a tour of the slums and brothels today with the woman who runs the girls' center, and hopefully meet with the police.  My boss says they have a great relationship with the police through the social workers who have worked very hard at working with the police over the last two years on gender-based violence (GBV) issues.  They apparently are very coordinated and conduct trainings together and for each other, so I'm excited to see what it looks like in practice.

I'm sure I will continue to discuss the benefits and downsides to local ownership/lack of external actors throughout the summer as part of my reflective practice through the in internship.  It's important to question the underlying assumptions that we utilize when practicing development/conflict resolution work as my professor constantly taught us during the semester.  While obviously there are obvious advantages to local ownership such as sustainability, programs that are locally initiated tend to do better overall and survive more then one generation, not to mention providing jobs and skills for local actors, there are also downsides.  In watching my boss attempt to train and execute plans with local actors it becomes clear why sometimes (or often) INGOs chose to bring in external employees.

Hiring local workers often means (although not always) putting a huge amount of work upfront into training those workers, giving them skills and resources to be able to carry out the jobs they are hired for.  That and it often means working against local customs/notions of time, accountability, responsibility, etc.  For a Westerner trying to adjust to a different sense of the importance of time and how and when things are to be accomplished this can be incredibly frustrating, even though it is the Westerner who is imposing their idea of how a workplace should run onto the local community.  This tension can be difficult, and I constantly watch my boss check herself to recognize it's her expectations that are the problem often, not necessarily how people are responding to them.  It's difficult, and she's trying to walk a careful balance of getting things done and not leaving people behind in attempting to do so.  While I believe she's right in the importance of local ownership I see the difficulties that causes, although the progress she's made in the last two years speaks to the importance of not just involving locals, but putting them at the forefront of these projects. (More on that later hopefully).

Malaria is as normal a part of life as the common cold around here during the rainy season, so I've already been warned I will lose time with my team because at some point everyone will come down with it.  It's just a part of life, and the only real thing to be done is catch it early, get medication early, and eat and rest well.  My understanding is that basically everyone has some exposure measured in terms of parts per million found in the blood.  Below 3/4 is no big deal and apparently that's pretty normal for around here, above 3/4-10 is when people get sick with malaria symptoms and need medical treatment. Above 10 means severe sickness, and people are usually evacuated out then, 20 ppm is death.  Or so I've been told by my local malaria experts (ie: other expats who have been here a while).  The main thing is to keep yourself healthy enough that your body can fight it off, and my experts say that people usually fall sick when they aren't eating right or getting enough sleep.  So I'm working on sticking to regular meals, and getting a regular sleep schedule as quick as possible.

I'm happy to report that even though it's been raining for the last two days my room has no leaks, and even the little terrace between the rooms stays dry.  It makes for a good place to sit and do work, and the rain keeps things cooler then they would be otherwise.  The mud is a little crazy since there aren't many paved roads in my neighborhood, and sidewalks are non-existant in this part of town, fortunately I brought one pair of boots that will hopefully get me through.  My summer rain coat is already the best investment for this trip so far since otherwise walking to the bathroom or the bar for breakfast would leave me soaked.

This is my little pre-fab room, the area in front is what I'm generously calling the terrace, but it actually is nicer then it looks since the covered area look out into a little tree covered grassy spot beween the other rooms.  (Check out the shoulder of my awesome rain jacket on the right).

In really exciting news I discovered the hotel breakfast has peanut butter (sure sign of an expat hotel).  Normally peanut butter is ridiculously expensive outside the U.S. so the fact that I get to put some on my toast every morning makes for a pretty fantastic start to the day.  Also the Kenyan tea the hotel serves is pretty tasty.  It's really all about the little things.

Pictures will be sparse (I think I've mentioned) since they are viewed suspiciously or just outright illegal in many places.  Picture taking can get you into huge trouble here as I get told over and over again, so I'll probably be erring on the side of caution and just not taking many, but I promise to upload what I do take.

Alright, I suppose that's all for now. I've got to get ready for my afternoon tour and hopefully get some more reading done.  I have the feeling once I meet the ministry people tomorrow things will pick up, or so I hope.  Please feel free to leave any questions you have about my work, South Sudan, or anything in the comments (or send me an email if you don't want to put it in the comments). Just please sign any comments with your name so I know who is asking!  Hope all is well wherever this post finds you!

Arrival!

Hello!

This blog post coming to you from my new home at the Bedouin Hotel in Juba.  Getting here was somewhat of an adventure, I didn't get my day in Cario due to a flight that took off thirteen hours late, but I did get to have ful (fava beans) and excellent Egyptian tea for breakfast, which made things so much better.   I don't know why tea always taste better in Egypt, but it does.

Anyways, I arrived here to the airport into a ridiculous amount of chaos at the baggage claim/customs check/baggage check room, which all took place in one ridiculously small un-airconditioned space. After having my bags checked, which involved the guy poking the top of my clothes in a very uninterested way, I finally got out of the airport and was picked up by Moses the logistics guy for IsraAid.  I haven't seen a paved road yet, but I feel a lot safer driving in Juba then I ever did in Cairo because the unpaved roads keep speeds down.  Driving is not nearly as frightening here as a result since everyone has to drive a reasonable speed, so when you turn in front of a car it probably has a good chance of actually being able to slow down, or even kindly wave you through.  Each ride in an Egyptian cab felt like a bit of a gamble, but my drive from the airport here was very leisurely.

Once I arrived at the Bedouin I got to meet Ophelie, my boss and the head of IsraAid (IA) here in Juba.  She's a short French/Israeli who is constantly smoking Marlboro's and right away introduced me to a local beer called Tusker.  After that it was off to tour the office which is right next to the shelter for sexually abused girls that they work very closely with.  The girls are ridiculously adorable.  The office is lacking AC so I may work from my room more often then not, which thank goodness does have AC.

A little about my accommodations.  The Bedouin is not what you would describe as your standard American hotel.  Each of the rooms are actually plastic walled/metal roofed sheds/huts.  The beds have mosquito netting draped over four poles. I'm told I'll get a desk and refrigerator in the next couple of days.  The rooms hold the AC surprisingly well and are kept ridiculously clean by the staff.  The lizards occasionally find their way in, but they stick mostly to the walls, I imagine the rooms are a little too cold for them anyways.  The thing that really is getting me is the toads, which at night jump all over the pathways, they're totally harmless, but I have to remind myself when I go out not to scream when something moves on the path because it's just a toad disguising itself as a rock.  I'm sure at some point I'll end up waking people up because I scream because some toad jumps on my foot, I've made not doing this one of my goals for the summer.

After a tour of the office Ophelie took me down the road for dinner to the hotel where all the UN people stay.  It's much fancier (read: horrifically expensive) and has the best food.  You can actually eat salad there and they have decently priced dinners that you can load up on and then take home when you don't finish.  I have the feeling I may frequent it a lot.   It's right by the Nile and we sat there until well after it was dark chatting with some other ex-pats.  It was really beautiful and the food was excellent.

I managed to stay awake until a reasonable time last night, only to discover I then couldn't sleep.  It wasn't until I finally gave up and put in earplugs around 4 am that I really got to sleep, but then I got a solid 6 hours, which I was pretty impressed with.  The jetlag hit hard today though so I need to try and get synched up as quick as possible so I can start being effective.  Fortunately Ophelie knew I would be a mess and had me take it easy today.  She says the best way to avoid malaria is to take care of yourself,  and wants to make sure I'm feeling alright before she starts me on full days.  I have the feeling most of this week will be a partial loss as I adjust to the time change.

I did manage to get things mostly unpacked today, enjoyed my leftovers from the hotel last night and was very happy to discover that everything I packed made it in one piece without any incident.  My lack of hangers means most of my clothes still need to be put away, but I'm told someone from the hotel is on it.  We'll see how long it actually takes, I might just try and improvise since I have yet to see a single store.  I'm not really sure where people buy things around here yet.  There is however massive construction everywhere, I'm told due to a lot of foreign investment.  It seems a lot of hotels are being built.

I had about a million things I planned to write about but this is all I've got right now.  I got to sit down with my boss and talk over some logistics today, which is great, so I've got some things to go over and it looks like I'll meet the Ministry people I'm working with on Friday.  Apparently they're having a ceremony to welcome me (they're big on ceremonies I'm told) so I need to break out my fancy dress work clothes for that.  Clothes are a big deal around here so dressing up is a must, not exactly my strong point, but I guess I'm going to have to get good at it fast.

I'll try and have some pictures to go with the next post but they are highly discouraged around here for a number of reasons, so I have to be very careful with any picture taking I do.

Alright, I hope all of that made sense, I think I'm more tired then I realize, but otherwise doing well and getting settled in.

Until next time.

A little background

Hi friends!

So as you probably already know (since you're reading this) I'm headed to Juba, South Sudan for the summer (June 17-August 25) for an internship that will be focused on conducting a survey of gender-based violence services in Central Equatoria State.  Centra Equatoria State (CES) is one of ten states within South Sudan, and contains the capital city of Juba where I'll be based.  I will be working with an NGO on the ground that is acting as my home base while I work with the CES Ministry of Gender and Social Policy to work on creating a comprehensive listing of all the service providers that survivors of gender-based violence access within CES.

I've been told I'll be working with two social workers from the Ministry and we'll be working throughout CES surveying service providers and local communities to see what services exist, what gaps there are, and also the level of effectiveness of services providers.  There are a wide variety of topics that the surveys I'm working on designing will encompass and I'm sure I'll explain them in depth later on as the project starts.

The internship is a part of a class I took last semester, which has as a part of it's curricula "reflective practice" which requires us to reflect on the underlying assumptions we are making as we work through our internships.  It hopefully keeps us focused, aware of our actions and their impacts, as well as making sure we don't fall into the trap of assuming the path we are on is necessarily correct. I'm hoping this blog will be a part of that practice, so don't be surprised to see some discussion of the process I'm using for my project here.

For now I just wanted to give everyone an idea of what I will be up to and provide a space for people to follow what I'm doing this summer.  I'll be arriving in country on June 17th and hopefully I'll have updates starting not too long after that, but internet can be somewhat unreliable so we'll see how things on the ground function before I make any promises about regular updates.

Thanks for reading!