Friday, July 6, 2012

The Next Leg of the Trip

The situation in South Sudan is very interesting, very difficult, very confusing, and basically overwhelming.  I will try to go into some of those aspects of things in the future.
For right now, I want to tell about my limited travels.  I have been in Juba for several days as we get organized for the projects.  There are several projects going on, and two new emergency projects just getting started, as you can imagine, the place is crazy busy at MSF.  Today was the day that I was to leave Juba for Gogrial, my ultimate destination.  There are four of us traveling, but I am the only one going to Gogrial.  The others are going to projects in the near vicinity of Gogrial.
We boarded a UN plane at the now famous Juba International FUBAR Airport.  The plane is operated by the World Food Project through the UN.  We landed after a several hour trip in Rumbek, South Sudan.  The schedule was arranged so that we would catch a UN helicopter to get into Gogrial.  However, the weather in Alek, the town where the helicopter would land, was not friendly, and they cancelled the flight.  That left us with several strange options.  The UN flight coordinator thought that we may be able to get back to Juba, however, because of the upcoming Independence Day (for South Sudan), the next flight out would be late next week.  Or we could stay here in Rumbek, which didn't really sound very nice either.  So we called the Field Coordinator, and after a few minutes of discussion, told us to stay in Rumbek, and they would send a car (land rover.)  The trip by car is about 9 hours.  That meant that the driver would need to rest, and we needed to find a hotel.  So here I am now in Rumbek.  I have a tent to myself, a cot-like bed, a fan, and a shower.  The pleasant surprise is that I have a toilet that actually flushes.  Now to many of you that may sound like a strange thing to celebrate, but toilets in this part of the world are about as common as Bentleys are in Decorah.  How's that for a mixed metaphor.  The other nice thing about my tent, is that there is wireless internet, hence the update.  I have never heard of Rumbek, but a toilet and internet -- wow!!!  A cold beer and I will have the whole trifecta!

1 comment:

  1. We miss you here in Wisco at the clinic!
    We're thinking about you!

    ReplyDelete