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The Southern Sudan Drivers License Application Process
This is a public service posting--not so much to inform friends and family about the drivers license application scavenger hunt which I have just navigated, as much as to inform other kawajas new to...
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A No-Good, Very Bad Day
In Sudan more than anyplace, some days are good, some days are bad, and some days are just plain ugly. I sure hope that there aren’t any days uglier than the 10th of November.In all of the discussing...
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Observations from Week 1
It’s now been a week since I first arrived in Kapoeta, and I am certainly beginning to see it through rosier-colored (sun)glasses. Don’t get me wrong; it’s not exactly paradise. It is, however, quite...
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Meeting the Toposa Aggregate Sellers
(if you click on the picture, you should be able to make out the roof tops on the horizon)Today was my first real solo encounter with the Toposa on their own turf. To be honest, I wasn’t actually...
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Week 2 Round-up
Playing Avon Lady: Yes, this week I made door-to-door calls to the NGOs in Kapoeta. The purpose was twofold, both to introduce myself to make friends as well as to suss-out the job opportunities. I now...
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Thanksgiving in Sudan
I’ll be honest, I woke up Thanksgiving morning in a not-so-great mood. I’ve always had a hard time coping with being away from family on a holiday, but this time I felt particularly isolated since both...
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A Heroic Journey from Kapoeta to Kathmandu
I have received more than a couple concerned emails wondering about the lack of posts for the past two weeks. As I mentioned in my Thanksgiving post, for the week of Thanksgiving, we had little to no...
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A Nepali Wedding
I’ve been looking forward to this trip to Nepal for a long time. Our friends (Francis’ Nepali co-worker and her American fiancé) got engaged around the same time we did, and when they told us they...
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Going Full Circle after 2 Months
The return trip to Kapoeta from Nepal brought us full circle, both literally and figuratively. Unexpected events (namely, the bank in Juba having no money to dispense) meant that rather than doing our...
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News from Kapoeta
There hasn't been much of note going on recently, and so I thought I'd report some of my observations of the mundane, Garrison-Keilor-style. Here goes ...It's been a quiet week in Kapoeta, my (new)...
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Our First (Kapoeta) Christmas
When it’s consistently 90 degrees outside and you live in a place where people can’t afford even the cheapest holiday decorations (and you have no house in which to unpack your decorations), Christmas...
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Green Beans and Girl Friends
Living in Sudan is all about seeing life in its rawest form: naked (literally), unrefined, un-cushioned. Rather than fighting against nature, the Sudanese, whether out of necessity or immense wisdom,...
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Flat-pack queen and garden goddess
It has been a week now since the truck with our furniture and appliances arrived from Uganda, and since then we’ve been spending no less than 12 hours a day (some time 14 or 15) trying to get things in...
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News from the frontier
As the newness of Sudan wears off and initially startling sights begin to become commonplace, it gets harder and harder to think of things that are noteworthy enough to write about. At the same time,...
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A Q&A with Shana, our first visitor from the US
Q: What was your first impression of Kapoeta?A: It is hot and in the middle of nowhere. Man, this is not like Yei.Q: How hot is it?A: Approximately 135 degrees Fahrenheit, regardless of the time of...
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The times, they are a-changing
Where to begin? Shana’s visit really ushered in a whole new “normal” here.Change #1: We are now a one-tortoise family. We arrived from picking up Shana at the airport in Kenya to find Clare, the first...
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Change you (might not) Believe
Holy cow! Has it really been over a month since the last time I posted a blog?! Woah, I’m seriously slacking. Well, not really. I’ve actually been really busy—it’s amazing how quickly time goes by when...
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Goodbye Negative Nancy
So, this blog has often recounted some of the more frustrating things about living in Sudan. It’s true; life here is hard, and sometimes scary (I found 2 more scorpions in the house this week), and...
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Catching up - Spring 2010
Things here are moving along. Though there have been a series of steps backward (that, really, is the MO of working in Sudan), I think I'm close to being able to do my first food distribution. The...
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The food is out!!!
(My apologies for just copying the email I sent to my bosses. After a rather sleepless night worrying about this day, and then an early wake-up, I'm pretty tired right now, but wanted to share the...
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Tales from the first week of distribution
[composed from my make-shift desk of sorghum bags on Thursday]There are some times in Sudan when I ask myself—is this real?! The food distribution has, for the most part, gone very peacefully and...
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Gorillas in the Mud
After a long hiatus, I’m back. Well, sorta. I’m still working on grad school applications, volunteering for Francis’ project, and trying to make this second Kapoeta Christmas nice (e.g. I’ve bought...
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The Times, They are a Changin’
The last couple of weeks not only have seen the first days of a new decade. They have also brought with them lots of changes our lives here in Kapoeta. Francis and I threw a New Years party, complete...
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As Mother B likes to say, it's hotter than blazes...
Things continue to move along here. This past weekend was a milestone as the power plant was officially inaugurated (google "Kapoeta" and "electricity" for news reports--there's a bunch). We had the US...
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Article 0
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...
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