The rough with the smooth

I am writing this post hurriedly as I am making use of someone else’s computer and have little chance to edit.  Sorry if it falls below your exacting standards!  The reason is explained below.

I have now been living with Pascalina’s family for two and a half months and think it is high time to let people know how things are working out.  Living with a South Sudanese family has taken a bit of getting used to.  Relationships are a bit of a puzzle because culturally they are very wide compared to western cultural norms.  For example Pascalina tells me she is mother to several young people who I now know are simply treating her as a mother.  Some are nieces or nephews, others are not.  Equally she describes various elderly women as her mother or aunt.  Because both her father and husband were polygamous the family ramifications keep getting more and more bewildering.

The meals are a lot more interesting than those at Cornerstone.  We rarely have meat as it is very expensive, but do sometimes have fish, both fresh and dried.  Most of the time we have dishes made with vegetables or various types of beans.  On the whole it is a bland diet, served with posho (the local dumpling-like staple) but there are occasional highlights.  Now it is the rainy season, I have been initiated into white ant dishes.  This was a great deal more palatable than expected.  Two days ago we had a lovely dish of goat’s head and lower legs.  These were leftovers from a local expensive restaurant following the slaughter of a goat, sold off very cheaply.

On the downside, I was robbed a few days ago and lost phone, computer and all my cash.  The thieves broke the lock on my door while I slept.  If I had woken up, I might well have been killed; I come to that conclusion because I found a large stone on my bed.  Thank God.

Nimule continues to get poorer, and people continue to leave for the various camps due to lack of food, including quite a few of the children from our school.  Looting is becoming very commonplace as a result, hence my experience last week.

Living here, I have to take the rough with the smooth.  The school goes smoothly (at least teaching-wise).  I have many friends.  Even complete strangers are very friendly and sympathetic over the robbery, stopping me in the street to say sorry for my experience.  I have no regrets about coming here.