1 - Tell me 3 things about yourself aside
from the work you're currently doing.
- I
am an aunty to 8 nieces and nephews
-you
can always find wool and knitting needles in my suitcase/bag
-I obsessively identify the species of mosquitoes that I find in my room/house
2 –
Where are you living these days?
I live in Juba, which is the
capital of South Sudan.
3 – What has brought you there?
Work-I work for a
non-government organization (NGO) as a
humanitarian aid worker.
4 – How did friends and family respond to
your decision to move to South Sudan?
They are pretty
used to me moving around and this is the sort of job that I’ve been working
towards having, so I don’t think it was a surprise for anyone. South Sudan is the “newest” country in the
world and in the years leading up to its independence there was a lot of
conflict here, so safety was a concern for my family.
5 – What were your initial hopes and fears about
going?
I guess I hoped
that I would quickly adjust and fit into my new job. I worked for a small development organization
in Indonesia a few years ago, but in a much smaller role than my current
position. Having heard about how new
peace was to South Sudan, I have to admit I was a bit fearful about being involved
in conflict and also the restrictions that would place on movements and just
daily life.
6 – How long have you been there now?
I arrived in Juba
on July 10th, so I’ve been living here for just over 5 months. Somehow it feels like much longer than that
though!
7 – Can you describe your surroundings?
Juba is a small
city with under 400,000 people. It has
been rapidly changing in the year since independence. I see new buildings cropping up overnight; it
makes you wonder about the quality of construction! I suppose in some ways it is not that
different than other African cities that I‘ve visited, except the number of NGO
workers. There are an incredible number
of NGO and UN organizations based in Juba. When you drive through Juba I would
say every other vehicle has the UN logo or some other NGO logo on it. There are huge contrasts with some places
having tarmac roads, nice restaurants that serve western food and air
conditioning to slum areas where people live in shacks made of tin and scraps
of wood. You see super posh vehicles driving down the bumpy mud roads, this
past week I saw a stretched out Hummer!
I live and work in
a big 3 story cement house; we have a generator that runs all day to give us
power. We have running water (most of the time!) and flush toilets. It’s quite
comfortable living here.
8 – What are you learning about the culture
or cultures in South Sudan?
Uhmm, I feel like
there are so many cultures to learn about here.
There is the culture of the NGO that I work for, the general NGO culture
of meetings/coordination and then the South Sudanese culture, which varies
according to the tribe and area. Most of
my staff are South Sudanese, but because I interact with them at the office or
at work, I feel like I haven’t actually learnt that much about the “real”
culture here. From the short time that I’ve spend in
villages outside of Juba, it seems that the individual tribes are very proud of
their unique characteristics.
9 – Tell me about a typical day in your
life right now.
I feel like I
spend a lot of time rushing around: running from my desk to the printer that is
in another part of the office, running back to my desk because the document
didn’t print, going to health and nutrition meetings to discuss the current
humanitarian situation (areas where there are gaps in services or unmet needs),
arranging flights for all 15 of my staff
to travel to the 4 different field sites we are currently working in, receiving
way too many emails, writing just as many,
making sure all of my teams have enough food, drugs, supplies,
nutritional commodities to do their work, receiving and sending weekly reports,
signing purchase request forms and monitoring current outbreaks and epidemics
to see if we should respond to them. The
hot season has started so I spend a lot of time sweating. Somewhere in there I
eat, sleep and drink wine.
10 – You have travelled a lot. How does
South Sudan compare to other parts of the world you’ve been?
I think South
Sudan is the most unpredictable place that I’ve lived in. I feel like I am on the surface most of the
time and don’t know how any given situation is going to play out. You get the sense that there is a lot of
emotion simmering under the surface and it could come out at any time. It is probably the most expensive place I’ve
lived in, I paid almost $9 for a glass of juice yesterday! That’s even more expensive than northern
Canada.
11 – What has been difficult so far?
Living and
working in the same building has been challenging because you are never away
from your work! We have a fair number of restrictions on
where/what we can do as NGO workers (all of which are for our safety) but I am
not used to being so restricted.
12 – What has been surprising so far?
I love my job,
which I expected too, but I am so thankful for that! I have also been surprised at how quickly I
settled into life and work here.
13 – What are some of the major adversities
people are facing where you are in South Sudan right now?
This year there has been more
flooding than usual, so that means that the crops were really poor in some
areas ,which is especially critical when people are subsistence farmers. There are areas with ongoing intertribal
conflict, which has also impacted on crops and caused displacement of people,
not to mention the loss of lives and livelihoods. Refugees and returnees from Sudan continue to
cross into South Sudan and require shelter, food and health care services. South
Sudan seems to have almost every type of epidemic, so there is always the
potential for disease outbreaks.
14 – Can you speak to the resilience of
people in South Sudan?
People have been
through so much suffering and injustice here and yet to meet someone on the
street or work with them you would never know.
I have had a few small glimpses into some of my staffs’ lives and it is
unbelievable to think of what they have all been through and now they are
contributing to the growth and development of their country. If I had experienced even a fraction of what
many people here had I don’t know if I would be able to get up out of bed.
15 – What strengths inside of you have been
necessary to do what you are doing in Sudan?
Flexibility,
adaptability, my faith, knowing that this is not forever.
16 – What have you learned so far?
I
have a lot more to learn!
17 – What gets you through difficult
moments over there? Who is your support system?
This last week
was a tough one, lots going on at work and not enough sleep. I find a good cry is generally quite helpful,
as is getting exercise, talking to friends and family back home, listening to
music, praying, knitting and chocolate.
Skype is amazing; I honestly don’t know what I would do without it! My
co-workers understand the pressures of live here and they have been a huge
support as well.
18 – Tell me about a touching moment you’ve
witnessed or been a part of recently.
This isn’t so much touching as
tragic, but I think it is shows the reality of life here in South Sudan. Two weeks ago one of my staff members lost
his one year old baby girl to malaria. He was in a field site when he found out
that his daughter was ill and managed to get out on our twice weekly charter
flight the next day. He then travelled
by bus from Juba to his village and arrived in time to see his daughter, but it
was too late for her. My staff member is
a well-educated clinical officer (somewhere between a nurse and doctor) and
knows the signs of malaria and how to treat severe cases, but in a country where
access to quality health care is so limited, too many people die from treatable
illnesses.
19 – If you had a wish for the people of
South Sudan, what would it be?
20 – Are there ways that your time in South
Sudan has changed you at the core?
Re-emphasized
how fortunate and blessed my life has been and made me incredibly thankful.
I don’t think I’ve been here
long enough to fully realize how living here
has/will change me. 
Great post! Great interview!
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