A thought I had...

What if, somehow, we were forced to abandon
all except for only one word
for every letter of the alphabet?
Meaning that we'd lose all ability to communicate
through language, save for twenty-six words.
We'd step back two hundred thousand years
in terms of the sophistication and eloquence of our speech,
our most highly evolved means of communication.

Without question, the first word
that should be saved from annihilation should be "Love."

It's fear that nudges you to make that decision.
Imagine a world where love has been neglected
for some Lounge or Liberation,
and you'll feel the emptiness of a bad dream
press down on your chest.

Love must always be communicated without confusion
or chance of mistake. It's the one thing
that can overrule any Laborious Lot
or acrid station in Life.

I wouldn't fear the Limiting of our Language
nearly as much as the Loss of Love.

Lingual Hoops

I have the pleasant fortune to be surrounded by myriad languages, African and otherwise. Sometimes we have to go through a number of degrees of translation to get a point across to a particular parson. It's kinda fun.

This is a picture I took of the National Staff's morning devotions. The guy standing up on the left, Edward, it teaching in English. the guy standing up on the right, John, is translating from English to Juba Arabic. Then between them sitting down are two guys engaged in another translation. The guy in the yellow shirt, Jimmy, is translating from Juba Arabic into Swahili for the guy in the black shirt, Yaya, leaning his head toward Jimmy. These guys know so many languages, it's amazing! Edward speaks English, a tribal Ugandan language I can't remember the name of and Juba Arabic. John speaks English, Juba Arabic and Cockwa (a tribal Sudanese language). Jimmy speaks English, Juba Arabic and Swahili, and Yaya speaks Swahili and French only. I'm sure these guys probably know other languages that I'm not even aware of.

Who says Africa is a land without educated, intelligent people!?

Cold Toilet Seats

What do I remember most about Christmas in Switzerland? Not snowboarding in the shadow of "The North Face", not the Christmas Markets and gluwein, not meeting an international cast of characters you wouldn't believe, and especially not waking up with pneumonia on Christmas morning. What I can't get out of my head is the freezing, frigid, forbidding, frosty feeling toilet seats. I'm not kidding. Those things were like giant frozen doughnuts. There's no relaxing with a magazine when you're covered in goose bumps. But I guess that's just the price of admission, so to speak. Switzerland was amazing!

I went to visit my friend Jen from high school. She lives in a town called Basel, in northern Switzerland on the border with Germany and France. Actually, on my first day there we went shopping for groceries in Germany where it's cheaper, then went to France to have lunch at an Italian joint. That day was a whirlwind tour with stops in Kenya, Holland, Switzerland, Germany and France. You know me...bound to ramble.

The day after I arrived we took off with our snow gear and started a trip to Bern for sightseeing and then to the Interlaken area for snowboarding. Jen's friends Dina, Richard and Marcelo came along. We took a train to Bern, the capital, to see the city and a Christmas Market. I found out about gluwein at the Bern Christmas Market. I'm not sure what I did all my life without that stuff! It's a hot spiced wine with cloves and orange juice. Wow! Mom, Dad, you never told me about this stuff when I was a kid and we used to go to Christmas Markets in Germany.

A really cool hostel put us up that night, complete with internet for the bargain basement price of 15 min. for 2 Franc. The city was really nice, especially in contrast to almost every African city. It reminded me a lot of Germany from when I was a kid. There are cobblestone streets, and Christmas decorations, and there's even a bear pit. Yes, you read that correctly, there are bears right in the middle of the city. But they were sleeping when we were there so no pics. Imagine that, bears sleeping in the winter time. Bern was just like every other square inch of Switzerland in that it was immaculately clean. They tolerate graffiti a bit but don't look for a discarded ticket stub to wrap your gum up in. And don't even think about spitting it on the ground.

I saw an amazing thing in Bern. Someone had actually taken a genuine, authentic picture of Santa Clause. And he looked exactly how I always thought he would. Apparently he's a man after my own heart. A connoisseur of sorts. ;)
Anyway, after a nice rest we proceeded by train to Lauterbrunen where we checked in to the Valley Hostel. A fantastic cozy little place. Our home for the next two nights.
Lauterbrunen is a beautiful little town tucked into a valley in the Bernese Alps. There's a really tall and thin waterfall on one side of the valley and spectacular Alpine vistas all around. That's something there was definitely no shortage of up in the mountains. I've never seen a place so hopelessly beautiful.

The first day in Lauterbrunen Jen, Richard, Dina and I went hiking way up on one of the ridges lining the valley to a high town called Mürren.
Along the way we stopped at an unexpectedly cool little mountain tavern-type place for a beer. We were always stopping for a beer...on a hike, at 6 pubs along a city walk, in the middle of a ski run. Seriously. Oh the joys of a European Christmas. But at this place on the top of a mountain there was a trampoline. And wouldn't you know it, Jen and Dina had to jump on it. Kids.

The next morning it was off to Kleine Scheidig for a day of snowboarding. I really doubt if you could find a place to put a ski lodge with more stunning scenery. It was enough to take my breath away as I snowboarded down trails that took 25 minutes to finish. The scenery and the cold both worked to leave me breathless several times. And, of course, we stopped at all kinds of taverns along the way down to grab a beer, which I hear is the best remedy to bring back one's lost breath.

An example of the awe inspiring snowscape I found up there was the view of the world famous Eiger Mountain. The Eiger's north wall is the inspiration for the name of the outdoor equipment & clothing company, The North Face. That's it right behind me. I snowboarded in its shadow for two days. Just incredible.


So we made it through two days of winter wonderland fun with only Jen suffering a semi-serious injury. Silly Jen. Then the sun set on our ski weekend and we took the train back to Basel, satisfied.
On Christmas Eve Jen cooked a phenomenal seafood alfredo dinner and hosted a party with a bunch of her friends. I felt like I was in a United Nations conference discussing what the world needs to do to about something. There were 2 Americans, 2 Australians, a Swiss guy, an Uzbek, a Tartar Russian, a Moldovian and a Chinese chic. It was incredible, like everything else about my Christmas this year.
I think the one thing that everyone needs to remember, besides the fact that your cheeks will freeze in Switzerland, both sets, is this...be sure about it before you invite me to come visit. Because I'll do it.

Sunrise Sudani

I just wanted to put up this photo since I've been instructed to put up more by some of you. Enjoy. More will follow from Switzerland in about a month.


This is sunrise on a crisp morning in the Nuba Mountains, South Sudan. It was an amazing morning...the kind of morning that radiates warmth, and hope for this beautiful broken country.

Nacho's First Bath

Today Nacho got his first bath. He loved it! Well, I can't know that. Actually, if I had to guess by his body language I would say he hated it. But that doesn't make any sense does it? So he loved it. I loved it! It was freak-hing hilarious.





A well deserved hunk of goat for a real tough guy.



I wish I had a picture of our Sudanese cook laughing at me washing Nacho. He said it was the first time he'd ever seen someone wash a dog. :o)

What can I say?

What can I say? There's a resemblance.

Back For More Lazy Days in Zanzibar

So I've been asked to put more pictures of me on my blog. I've been reluctant to do so for a while now and I couldn't figure it out. But it finally hit me. It's because I'm embarrassed. I'm embarrassed of how many pictures catch me asleep. I mean it. I bet half of the pictures from my latest R&R find me asleep. Jeremy came with me to Zanzibar this time so he kept catching me unconscious. But you know what I've realized? Whatever. That's who I am, it's what I do.

This first one mercifully gets me awake and actually moving. This is in Stonetown, the major city of the island. In the background is Mercury's Restaurant, named after Zanzibar's most famous native, Freddy Mercury of the band Queen. Strangely, I've probably been in that restaurant 10 times and I've never once heard Queen on the sound system. They play everything else from Enya to electronic dance music. Anyway, in the extreme background is the harbor and the fish market.

I love my new knit hat. I picked it up in Stonetown from this Rasta guy named Zacharia who was carving figures from ebony and rosewood. Freaking sweet guy! But now when I ignore the solicitations of the street vendors who push their products harder than my mom did on a certain October day in 1980 I get, "what kind of a Rasta are you, you don't look out for your Rasta brothers?!" Whatever. I like my hat anyway. It keeps my hair off my neck so I stay cooler. I know what you're thinking...how could I get any cooler? I know, I know.

Well, there I am, at rest in what is apparently my natural state. I'm asleep in the lobby of our Stonetown hotel waiting for the taxi to take us up north to the Promised Land, Nungwi. It's a land flowing with milk and honey, beer and seafood, beaches and girls. See, understand why I was asleep? I had to save my strength.

The other person asleep is Nancy, a lady from Colorado we met who is backpacking around Africa for a few months. She tagged along with us for a few days then went her own way.

Breakfast in Nungwi














I have to admit this one might as well be a sleep shot. I fell asleep on the bow of this wooden boat on the way back from a snorkeling trip. The sail kept hitting me in the face, otherwise this would be just another picture of me dozing through my vacation. If you look closely you can almost see the angst in my countenance over being rustled from my slumber. On the snorkeling trip we met Lital from Israel. She works as an event planner there and was just on vacation like us. We hung out for a few days in Nungwi and hated to say goodbye when we left. She definitely measured up to the reputation of Israeli women for having fiery personalities. Super cool and fun to be around!














In this one I'm over a quarter of a mile out on the water. A storm came through the night before and low tide was REALLY LOW afterward. There were all kinds of starfish and little fish trapped in puddles. Fun stuff.

This is the morning I got sick. I caught some type of flu-like mess and was down for the next three days. I think I do look kinda green. So I slept all day for several days. I know, completely out of character right?

Ahhhh, vacation. Gimme a break. I was probably still sick in this one. Sick people should rest you know.




It was nice to have my little buddy keeping me company under the chair.



OK, there's no excuse for me.

Sweet Corn!

We had sweet corn for lunch today! After 14 months of roasted dry deer corn, today we had corn that tasted like it came out of a North Carolina field. I didn't even realize I was missing sweet corn. It was amazing!

Kinda makes me wonder what else I don’t realize I miss about home. I think I prevent myself from craving lots of things by avoiding them mentally. I probably did it actively when I first got here and now do it subconsciously through repetition. Maybe it’s a coping mechanism or something. I guess I just know that I don’t live in America anymore and I can’t afford to think about the things that I could really miss.

You know, it’s weird. I don’t have access to any of the comforts of the Western world and the food here leaves something to be significantly desired, but for the first time in my life I am satisfied. Really. That’s not to say I don’t desire things for my life, things like a family and…well, I think a family is all I really want. But I mean I don’t constantly ponder what I don’t have and what I think I need. Maybe it’s robust American advertising that creates in us the false insecurity that insists it can be sated by consumption. Maybe contentment with little is a natural characteristic of our psyche and being in a place where “little” is all that’s available has brought me back to that natural state. Maybe it’s the fact that I live in a place where you can see first hand that we as Americans really are more wealthy than 99% of the world’s population. Maybe it’s easy to appreciate the advantages that I’ve had when so many people around me don’t have, will never have, anything similar. Or maybe I’m just growing up (but I doubt it ☺). Whatever the reason, it’s a fantastic feeling to be SATISFIED.

At the risk of triggering a deluge of cravings, I wonder what else I am missing about home and don’t realize. I guess I miss driving on asphalt and covering 45 miles in like 30 minutes. Then again, I bet if I was back in the US I’d miss driving a four wheeler to the Eritrean restaurant in town for njera and tibs or spaghetti. Grass is greener kind of thing I guess. And really, what’s the reason to get so far so fast? What’s 45 miles away from me that I need so badly to get to? If NC had dirt roads with pot holes (I wish…more like mud pits) instead of pavement maybe we would live closer to each other, in tighter community where we don’t only see our favorite people for a couple hours in the evening after work. I guess my mind has wandered into the front yard of the popular discussion that sounds something like, “Are we really better off being ‘better off’?” That’s not really where I want to go. Though I have thoughts on the subject that I would NEVER have entertained a year and a half ago, that’s not my point. Honestly, I don’t know what my point is. I’m only sort of meandering through the saplings of a newly planted forest of consciousness. It’s just that I’m curious to figure out what else I’ve sealed off from the forefront of my mind like schizophrenia.

Yesterday I thought I noticed the faint scent of decaying leaves and I realized how much I miss wandering through NC mountain trails. I guess I miss a lot of things about my home but I’m content not to dwell on them right now. Can you believe that? I almost can’t. But I’m confident I’ll appreciate those things all the more when next they’re reality and not merely reminiscence. Until then I’ll be satisfied with stripping sweet corn cobs. Oh this incredible sweet corn!

Grab a Stool at the Zanzibar

Well, I've been back from my latest R&R for about a week now...trying to get used to the hectic pace of my normal life again. It's funny about our pace of life and work how you can take Americans out of America but you can't take America out of Americans. Life here is slower, but we push ourselves pretty hard so it can still be hectic. Anyway, for this R&R I went to a tropical island off the coast of Tanzania called Zanzibar. The island was formerly one of the largest ports in Africa for the slave trade to the Middle East. So there's a lot of history there.

As well as being a popular tourist destination for Europeans and Middle Easterners, Zanzibar is now well known as a "spice island", exporting a good number of different spices. Stuff like cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and ginger gets shipped off to the rest of us. I took a tour of a spice farm one day for the experience, I guess. It was mostly walking through the woods with a guide who would cut this leaf off and crush it in his hands, or scrape that bark onto his knife, or squeeze another flower between his fingers for us to smell or taste. It was funny that as we walked through this forest it seemed like any other forest in Africa or back home that I've ever been in. But almost everything we passed was edible and useful for producing spices. I don't have any pictures of the spice tour because the light was't good that day for good pictures, and because I've become a bit of a picture snob. I should have taken some shots just for the heck it, to have something to post. I did that a couple times on this trip so you'll just have to use your imagination for some of the stuff I talk about on this one.

The people who live on the island are mostly Muslim. They live very peaceably with the portion of the population that is not Muslim, with mutual tolerance for each other's beliefs. So it's a really relaxing, calm place to be with relatively low levels of crime. The main city on the island is called Stone Town, I think because of the way they built stone fortresses and other buildings with the natural stone there in the past. Nowadays the history of some of the old architecture is interesting to some degree but Stone Town's still a typical relatively-prosperous African town. There are very nice areas and very rundown areas. You can stay in really clean and upscale hotels or you can stay in cheaper, more basic accommodation. There are safe areas and, at night, there are places that aren't so safe.

So I spent most of my time in Zanzibar on the northern portion of the island in an area called Nungwi. Nungwi is much less developed than Stone Town and has a much more relaxed feel. There are several bungalow-type places to stay and, on the recommendation of a friend, I chose one called Jambo Brothers (or Union Beach, depending on who you ask). From my front door you can throw a rock into the surf. There was a restaurant at Jambo Brothers where I ate several times and the food was outstanding every time. I ate seafood for almost every meal in Zanzi and it was never out of the ocean for more than 24 hours before it landed on my plate. I've never had seafood that fresh.

It was just under two weeks of ultimate relaxation and rest. I went alone and hoped to meet up with a couple of my friends who happened to be going too. However, I spent most of my time there on my own, reading "Catch 22" (an old classic that I HIGHLY recommend) and hanging out with various people I met along the way. The one day I did spend with the people I already knew from Sudan was only by coincidence. I had heard about this fantastic snorkeling reef near an island off the northwest coast of Zanzibar called Mnemba Atol. Almost every day you could go snorkeling there for about $20, which included lunch of fruit, bread and seafood. I went to Mnemba once and decided to go back the next day because it was so cool. So when I climbed out of the water onto the boat that second day, all my friends were already on it! They'd been picked up at another bungalow-type resort just south of Nungwi because they'd heard about Mnemba too. We all went snorkeling that day and had a great time. I ate the freshest seafood I've ever had on one of those snorkeling trips. One of the small crew of this rickety little wooden boat trailed a fishing line behind us the whole way back from the island and happened to catch a Snapper. So he quickly lit the rickety charcoal grill they had stuffed under one of the rickety bench seats, cleaned the fish over the rickety side of the boat, wrapped in tin foil with some spices and we were eating Snapper 30 minutes after this guy pulled it from the water. Is that as fresh as it gets? Yeah, I guess so.

After returning from Nungwi to Stone Town the day before my flight to Nairobi, I took a trip to the most well-known slave cave. After slavery was officially abolished somehow by the British in the late 1800's, it continued underground, literally and figuratively. The slave smugglers would gather slaves in remote caves and hidden places, to be picked up by ships in secrecy bound for the Middle East. So to descend into this abandoned cave was to be surrounded by the most tangible kind of reminder of the wrongs that have taken place throughout history. It's unfortunate that equally appalling things still happen all over the world. Check out www.justiceandjubilee.org to learn about some stuff a few friends of mine back home are involved in to battle modern day slavery. So to be in a slave cave was...well...it was what it was. Definitely a "must" on a trip to Zanzibar.
The only real problem I ran in to while on my trip to Zanzibar is that there was no electricity whatsoever. Accommodation was cheap, food was cheap, travel was cheap and easy, but there was no electricity. There normally is. But for some reason, it was all down and if you had lights or a fan at night it was because the place you stayed had a generator. In Nungwi I got my room for real cheap so, predictably, they didn't run a generator. But coming out of Sudan, Zanzibar really wasn't too bad without the live wires. I'll go back again some time in the not-too-distant future but I'll make sure they have hot outlets before I do. You can get SCUBA certified there in four days for about 350 bucks so I'll probably do that next time I make it out that way.

OK, I love you guys and I miss all of you from home that happen to see this (I miss all the others too, but you especially). Here's a pic of me after getting back to Yei, since I failed to get any on the island.

Cuisine or Entomology?

Termite season has finally arrived in South Sudan again. Excitement! I'm tring to convince myself. Termite...White Ant...Insectus: Isoptera, whichever you like. And let me tell you, around here they like. Although they can be a terrible pest when trying to clean up in the open-top showers here, they are a local delicacy. And I, being a kawaja (whitey, basically), can't pass up the opportunity to pick up some street cred. So I eat.

So, as alluded to in the last post, and without further ado, I bring you the seasonal one-course African meal of Termite.
First, you have to remove the four wings from the bug before you eat it. If you didn't, well, that would just be gross. They're easily separated from one another. And I doubt it hurts them. Well, at least not as much as the next step in the process must.
After the separation of the inedible from the edible (I know, who thought there were both on an insect) you start digestion. A quick pinch between the front teeth will kill the prey, leaving the rest of the process quite humane, comparatively speaking.
A brief chew keeps the meal moving.
And finally, the swallow. All Gone!
At this point the meal is finished and the involuntary portion of the digestive process takes over.

However, on that note, if a more inactive approach with more involuntary aspects is desired, a person can certainly be accommodated. Some of the guys here who grew up in Africa are fond of simply pulling off the wings, placing it on the tongue and letting the termite walk itself down the throat. In this case the critter is a little more involved in determining its own destiny, inevitable as it may be.

Street cred or not, you'll not find that I've taken this approach, no matter what.

Sights of Sudan

Well, as it turns out, weekly posts are impossible for me. I just don't think enough exciting happens to me. And I certainly don't have enough to say to keep a weekly blog interesting. So WYSIWYG I guess...it looks like posts will be just one notch above "rarely".
This time I thought I'd put up some pictures I've taken that I think are interesting.

This one is a neat flower I found deep in the bush coming back from one of our build sites. I have no idea what it is. The next two are the seed pod of the same plant and a budding leaf on the stem. Kinda random images but I like 'em.
This handsome gentleman is Levi, our Chief Chef. He's from the South, specifically an area called Yambio which is a couple hundred miles to our west, but he has spent a lot of time in the north of Sudan, in Khartoum. He speaks Classical Arabic and only writes in Arabic script. It's really enchanting to see a page full of that elegant script written in someone's hand. Levi LOVES his title. When he was given his most recent employment contract to sign he was ecstatic! Not because of the raise he was given over his previous contract, he made clear. But because he had been bestowed with the title of "Chief Chef". Formalities, titles and the like, are very important to the Sudanese. I'm not quite sure why that is. Maybe it's because, for the most part, they don't have anything else to be proud of. Their country is in shambles and possessions usually consist of only the essentials to sustain life. Only a small percentage of the population in the relative "upper class" can afford such luxuries as the occasional soda or more than one outfit and one spare in their wardrobe. Facts of life in a developing nation I guess. But, nevertheless, worthy of our empathy and inspiring for our work. Anyway, Levi is a FANTASTIC guy with a jovial personality. And he really cares about us.

This little guy lives on the leaves of our pineapple bushes. There are a bunch of 'em around because we have a bunch of pineapple plants. But you can only find them at night. Don't know where they go during the day but wherever it is, I can't blame them. I wouldn't be laying around on pineapple leaves in the heat of the sun here either.

Introducing...Richard-Richard. He's a dik dik. Get it? Someone brought him to the compound a few months back and Heather, our nurse, bottle fed him milk for a while. Now he's big enough to eat grass, shrubs and fruit. He loves apples. Such a cute little guy.













How 'bout a termite mound that has completely engulfed the lower third of this tree. In the Zandi language, this is called a kpoyo tree. The termites in this type of mound are eaten by folks during a certain time of year when they proliferate. I'll have an exciting post to put up when that season arrives. ;o) OK, let me end this post with a disgusting little creature. This one is called the Goliath beetle. Maybe you've heard of it. It really is enormous. The picture doesn't have anything for scale so I'll just tell you it's about the size of a roll of nickels. We have all kinds of creepy things like this around. I guess no more than in The States but they're new to us whities.
I hope you've enjoyed this long overdue post. Hopefully I'll get the next one up pretty soon. Love you guys.