August 8: My Setting

Saturday’s highlights: I’ve included pictures of my accommodations at the SIL compound here in Juba. I spent many hours listening to the stories of some of my colleagues who work here in South Sudan. Read on for more details.

Everyone working with SIL in South Sudan lives in housing on the SIL compound in Juba, from what I understand. I assume the reason for that is the concern for personal safety.

I am staying in a room at the intersection of the two legs of this building. The long leg is a row of eight rooms, while the shorter leg houses the laundry, kitchen, and dining room for the compound. So far, I’ve only experienced Friday’s tea break in the dining room area, but I understand that noon meals will be served to all of our workshop participants, and I imagine that’s where they’ll be served.

Below are some pictures of my room. You can see that I use one of the beds for organizing my workshop folders.

I have my own sink for brushing teeth, shaving, and washing the sleepers out of my eyes in the morning. There is a wardrobe as well as shelves for smaller items like socks, handkerchiefs, vitamins, etc.

I estimate the room size at 17–20 feet in each direction (6 of my normal strides at the narrowest part), so it doesn’t feel claustrophobic at all.

Since I have arrived in Juba, there has been no electricity coming in from the city, and I have the impression that those working here do not expect that to change anytime soon. So all of our electrical power comes from a generator installed in the SIL compound. There are set hours that the generator runs each day, and the schedule varies on the weekend from what it is during the week. Today, for example, it was on for several hours in the morning, then again from 2:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon, and then again from 7:00 to 10:30 at night. So the smell of generator diesel fumes in my room and the periodic disappearance of electrical power are reminders that I’m not back in my comfortable “hobbit hole” in North Carolina, but am on an “adventure” away from home. This morning, however, I received an unexpected reminder that I am somewhere removed from my usual workplace and that not everything works here like it does there: As I was browsing the internet during the morning hours when the generator was supplying electricity, I received the following message.  :-(

The last six hours or so of my day (4pm onwards) were spent watching people play chess and talking with Wes and Jackie Marshall-Ringer and Christine Waag, some of my SIL colleagues who work here. I got to hear about how God has been at work in their lives, both back in their home countries and here in South Sudan. Our conversation lasted so long that I ended up getting invited to join Wes and Jackie for supper. I got back to my room just in time to Skype with my family for five minutes before the power went off and the connection was cut.