Sitting out on the patio with a glass of wine and the last of the braai meat for dinner. In the distance there are the faint sounds of music, but for the most its crickets and frogs.

Still no jogging, but my nose is feeling much easier, if still icky. The lemon and honey thing seems to make a difference.

Saturday in Juba Town with the office noisy as they try and fix the door with an angle grinder! Not sure if I should have an ambulance on standby?

A ‘Lost in Translation’ moment with a very serious looking delegation of National staff in my office. They wanted permission to use the conference room after work, as they are concerned that being in Juba they were not making progress, in what I heard, (assumed?) was Arabic.

I didn’t see any problem and wanting to see what additional assistance they needed, asked if they needed an instructor. As we provide coaching for our Japanese staff with their English, this seemed a reasonable suggestion. No, they were happy to use downloaded instructions. They suggested that I might like to join them, and I explained that my Arabic was very poor. Before they left, they suggested that the classes be expanded to other sports such as Volleyball on Fridays, which we used to do. At which point I realized they had been talking about Aerobics!

Such are wars started!

Cottage Garden

Painting of the spring garden at the cottage in Stellies. Vibrant colours of the pincushion protea, a sunset above a sea of grey-green artichokes. Breaking wave tops, purple spires of lavender and wild sage. Pink gazanias, breaking foam.

Going through my list from the UN Leadership Course, was a note about how underprepared we are for the countries in which we work. With the National Archive project, I have a brilliant women, Elke, on our team who provided a basic reading list, some of which are available on Kindle. It does mean I have a start, not only for South Sudan, but as something I should be doing everywhere.

Reading List
– Sudan Handbook, by John Ryle, Jok Madut Jok, ea – This one covers many topics, from history and culture to environment and social system.
– Emma’s war, by Deborah Scroggins – It reads like a novel, but covers the most recent war and actually gives a good insight on how things work here.
– Something is Going to Fall Like Rain by Ros Wynne-Jones (2009) – “An authentic, well-written and deeply-felt portrait of the tragedy that is South Sudan” – John Le Carre

The ultimate history book is:
– Root causes of Sudan’s conflict, by Douglas Johnson
A more readable history:
– South Sudan: From revolution to independence, by Matthew Arnold and Matthew Leriche.
– Sudan: Race, Religion and Violence, by Jok Madut Jok.