Mission: accomplished

It's been forever, I know and quite a few things happened.

First and most important one: I'm home. I was supposed to go back at the end of April but then one of those African things happened: a weird stomach virus and so paranoid Anna decided it was just better to go to Italy to carry out further tests. So now I'm fine. And I'm home. it was so sudden that I didn't even realise it and I'm still wondering what happened. I'm home and I'm not in a rush cause I don't have to go back. Such a weird sensation.

So I guess this is my last post from here. At least for now. So bear with me one last time, I have to do those proper goodbye things. I have already published my South Sudan movie on Facebook so I don't really need to say too much.

I need to thank a lot of people but I don't want to make a list so I'm just gonna say it: thank you!

Thank you to my local colleagues for teaching me what I could have never learnt on my own, thank you for sharing, thank you for being so welcoming and so very protective towards me. Thank you to my international colleagues for working with me, putting up with me and making me laugh a lot with all those absurd situations which would never occur anywhere else. Thank you to the friends who came and left and to those who are still in South Sudan. Thank you, thank you.

I still this experiment worked: we found civilisation even in Torit, even in the most isolated place in Africa. Apparently it doesn't take much. step, after step.

And finally thank you for following, hope it wasn't too boring, hope you laughed out loud or just smiled. It means the world to me.

Til the next adventure… See you soon!

Patrick, Kizito, Eliaz, Vinansio, Francis, Geoffrey and Amin (in front of our offices).

Last expat dinner..

what is a credit card?

Yesterday I uncovered the fabulous world of Amazon to my south sudanese colleagues..
And today I have a story about that, of course.

It all started yesterday, when one of them came to me with his laptop. He showed me the screen where I saw a picture of an e-reader. He told me: I want to read novels on that.
The working day was over, thank God, cause I knew we were gonna be there for a while.

So i started with the obvious differentiation between a laptop and a tablet. I said, well first you buy the tablet and then you create your account which you will then use to purchase e-books.
His reply: I don't get you (the most used expression here which simply means I don't understand a single word of what you have just said). Fair enough, I used very difficult concepts, it's like explaining to your grandma how facebook works (I remember when I did that some time ago. She was all like: who is writing on whose wall? why?... HILARIOUS).
Anyways I realized that the real problem was the explanation of how to purchase online.
I do it so many times and so automatically that it seems quite obvious to me. Apparently it's not so easy here.

First (and actually also the only) of his problems was: how do you buy books with these tablets?  Answer: well you create an account with an email and a password. Then you need to give an address... hold on. Huge problem: there are no addresses here and South Sudan is not even in the drop down list as country of residence. Ok so you can use Uganda or Kenya. (same goes for the phone number...). then they need a credit card number. Well needless to say that banks here are not so modern. one of them (which is Kenyan) issues cards which can be used at ATMs (yes there are some here) to withdraw money. half of the time these ATMS don't work because "the system is down" (standard excuse in the banks when things dont work) So it's a total disaster. my ultimate solution was use an address in Uganda and someone else's credit card but you can obviously see how this is not so very practical.

bottom line: after I gave him all these instructions he took his laptop and went back home, quite sad and hopeless. He knew he could have never done any of these things and he could not read his novels on the tablet.

I just started thinking how easy it is for us to get stuff shipped all over the places, use technology how we please, pay online and buy pretty much whatever and here the only address you can give is : under the mango tree, after the bridge, second hut on the left...

still a long way to go!!

SO, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Today I finally understood what is the biggest problem in a conversation: people cannot describe a situation/problem. It sounds like an obvious thing but I always thought there was something much deeper than that. Nope it is only this: a lack of clear descriptions. And that makes all the difference. The conversation is completely disconnected and I get lost every single time, no matter how many times this happened to me.

Here is my gem conversation from yesterday.
One of the watchman comes to me, crying. As soon as I see him I him I ask: "What's the problem? Talk to me!" He starts with the usual: "Hi, how are you?" (God this "how are you" conversation starter is really REALLY annoying..) I reply: "I am good, thanks" very quickly since I want to cut to the chase.
Then he looks at me, 10 seconds have passed. I repeat again: "What's the problem? Talk to me!" He goes (and I SWEAR I AM NOT KIDDING): "YES I am good" (starts sobbing) "And he is, you know me" (sobs again). "No, he says what and I did nothing wrong".
After this he is silent and he is looking at me. He is done and he is waiting for me to reply and do something.

WOW. NO CLUE HERE. I am very creative but honestly there is no way I can understand the story this guy was trying to tell me.
So again, for the third time I ask: "Ehm, what is the problem? Explain!"
He tries again: "Yes, why does he attack me? I was on the gate. I am good" (another sob).
Well, ok this was a bit better. At least now I know at a certain point there has been an attack of some sort. But I am obviously still clueless. The only option I have now is guessing what he is trying to tell me. I have to take control of the situation or else this conversation might go on for a very long time. So I summarize: "Let me get it right. You were somewhere and you were attacked by someone?" He stares at me and then shouts" YES!" as in Duh, that's what I've been telling you. Good, I got that right so I go on: "So what can I do for you?" Answer: "Yes, I don't know. I was on the gate. They threw me off and now what?"
Mmm, my mistake I asked him a question; I should have gone on guessing his part of the conversation. So I tell him: "Where is this person who attacked you? Send them to me so we can talk about it ok?" Again, he looks at me and shouts again: "YES!" and then he leaves.  Apparently the conversation (or whatever that exchange of words was) for him is over.

One word: SURREAL.

I am no expert in communication but something went wrong here. I have been thinking a lot about the way situations and problems are presented and  I believe that the easiest way to understand them is to visualize them.
Here is a model of a conversation:

The biggest circle represents the general situation and the smaller circles represent details in the situation.
The more you describe, the deeper you get into the situation til you get to the core.

So when I have to describe a situation I usually do it like this:

I start with the general description until I get to the details and to the core of the problem.


On the other hand, I believe THIS is their model:

Just start from wherever, say something irrelevant, go deep and then be general again!

So if you keep this model in mind I guess that everything  is clear??

Who are you?

I'm always so annoyed when I'm walking around with my dad and people stop him and start talking to him. At the end of the conversation, when they leave I ask him: who was that? And the answer is: I have no idea!

I mean everybody has pulled it off, it happened to all of us I KNOW. But still, eventually you figure it out, you realise where you have seen that person and the doubt that's been bugging you goes away..

Well I'm writing all of this because this typical thing happens on a daily basis Here and I think I cracked the code.

I went to the UN this afternoon and I was walking across the HUGE compound to reach an office when I saw a guy sitting under a tree. He looked like a gardener or a watchman, I really don't know. As usual, I smiled politely and I was expecting to hear the "hello, how are you" thing which yes, happened. After that, though the man added Anna! Anna! Hi Anna! It was like he really wanted me to acknowledge the fact that he knew me.

I obviously had NO idea. I mean seriously,  a random guy in the UN compound sitting under the tree... 

I didn't have time to stop so I just shouted back "good. How are you? Bye!" But then I started thinking.

It's SO much easier for them. I'm white, I'm easier to spot and to remember so he probably knew me from somewhere, seen the enthusiasm when he greeted me.

Plus I never remember names and faces when I'm introduced to people so that def was a hopeless case.

On the way back I tried to spot the guy who was gone.

And it is not the first time that something like this happened. In this village this happens every day, in the most random places like at the market or when you re walking down a street..

I mean I know I didn't crack the code but I think I had an epiphany. 

There are so many people who think they know you but they actually don't.

I'm convinced the guy had a lucky guess: Anna is a common name among white people so the odds were in his favour.

Cause seriously I keep thinking of this random gardener sitting under the tree...

Who are you?

I guess this six degrees of separation thing is starting to work uh??

Back in South Sudan

Yes, typing from Torit: we are back here as incredible as it sounds.
After all though it is not so incredible: Torit has been quiet in the last month and nothing has happened.
The situation seems to be calm here and people are around (definitely a good sign ha).

The best part of coming back was the trip TO Torit. Since we were in Kampala we had to move by car, cross the border and get here. And of course the travelling part was the fun one.
First of all we were in the car for a total of 12 hours. We left Kampala around 8 in the morning (VERY BAD CHOICE, THE AFRICAN TRAFFIC MIGHT KILL YOU AT THAT TIME). Then we proceeded to Gulu in northern Uganda where we had lunch around 3 o'clock (living in Africa in a way is like living in Spain with all its delayed timetables).
Finally we reached Kitgum (closest town to the border with SS) at 5 pm.
And that was only the first day.
And we were still in Uganda.

The next morning we decided to leave early, around 8 am so we could reach the border in one hour and go. Of course, we did not consider the fact that we are in Africa. It's 9 am and our car is still nowhere to be seen. We finally manage to leave around 10:30 am  (DUH!) and we reach the border at 12. I cannot even begin to describe how hot it was, we were obviously heading back to South Sudan. The cars which were supposed to pick us up at the border were NOT THERE. We waited for a couple of hours, standard time here and eventually after clearing the passports and the visas we crossed the border. I thought the hardest part was gone.
HA HA HA.

Once we reached the South Sudanese side of the border the police there decided they wanted to check our luggage. We were 9 people, the amount of stuff we had with us was absurd. So one after the other they made us open all our luggage.

Let me describe you this funny scene which I simply found hilarious.

We are in the middle of nowhere. it's hot, it's dusty, it's windy.
The police officer next to me tells me to open my HUGE luggage,.. ON THE GROUND.
I'm Italian so what do you think I had inside my luggage??

I spent 10 minutes explaining to them that yes that thing is a HAM, and yeah that's pasta! that's tuna fish in a can, that's a salami. those are my underwear PLEASE DONT TOUCH MY UNDERWEAR (too late..those dirty, dusty hands on my underwear...sigh) and yeah that's my toothbrush, careful, don't let it fall on the ground (too late for that too..). I mean a disaster. Now multiply that times 9. FUN TIMES.

So after that, we re on the road again. 3 hours from Torit and all I can think of is a cold cold shower. The closer we get to home, the more I long for this shower. I can almost feel the water on my skin, I'm dying!!
Nope, that would have been too easy.

Cherry on the cake?
We reached our compound, we finally open the door of the house and BAM!! There is dust everywhere.
And I don't mean just a little bit of dust, I mean dust like no one has been in the house for 3 or 4 years.. it's everywhere, the smell is so strong you cannot breathe. Normally a house would not accumulate that much dust but hello this is Africa, it's so dusty and windy and no one has been inside of the house for almost a month... this was a great reminder for future references: keep the house clean even if no one is inside!!

So we are all sweating like crazy and at 6 pm after 2 days of travelling we need to start cleaning the house.
KEEP IN MIND WE HAVE NO VACUUM CLEANER OR ANY LUXURIES LIKE THAT.

Long story short, I managed to have my shower around 9 pm, right before the generator goes off and after having cleaned, polished, and washed every single bit of our big, dusty house.

I still don't know how I managed to shower since every single bone of my body was aching.. oh well!

See that's what happens when you travel on Friday the 17th. I know the rest of the world thinks Friday the 13th is bad luck but for the Italians it's always been Friday the 17th.

I'm definitely not superstitious or anything but I mean...

How can i argue with ALL OF THIS??

happy new year!

I've been MIA for a while but there is a perfectly good reason for that, actually two: evacuation and Christmas.

But now I'm in Cairo, waiting to fly back to East Africa and I thought I could explain what happened.

Well as some of you might have heard/read South Sudan is not in a really good place right now.  what happened is that 5 days before we were all supposed to fly back for Xmas holidays soldiers started shooting at each other in Juba, the capital, the place where THE AIRPORT IS LOCATED (really Murphy? Couldn't you have just waited for one more week?).

Anyways we all thought it was gonna calm down soon, it always does. But again Murphy decided we just needed to live it up. so there we were, locked in our compounds, waiting for updates and news from Juba.

I was frenetically going to the UN security meetings secretly hoping they were gonna say: You re good to go anna, things are great in South Sudan. Yes, I'm a dreamer and that's so not what happened. fightings went on, situation got tense and bad episodes happened (wish I could tell more about SS political situation but I somehow feel this is enough).

In the end we were told to evacuate the country on Wednesday the 18th, 7 days before the merry merry xmas. So basically all we had to do was grab documents and stuff, lock them up, close everything, talk to the staff… it was a very long wednesday, needless to say that. On thursday we left Torit at 7 am and drove to the border with Uganda. the roads were actually fine, they always have been in our area, so we had no problems in going to the other side and merrily riding in the car for another 8 hours to reach Kampala. We then booked new flights and flew home for the merry merry xmas.

As you might have understood, we were not exposed to any kind of troubles or problems: roads were fine, we reached Uganda without any problems and things were good. Nope, my worst was still to come.

At home they thought I was a soldier coming back from Afghanistan: I mean I understand everyone was scared and everything but I am wondering a lot about what the media said about the whole situation (I never really had time to sit down and read stuff). So the next three days were the welcoming of the hero from Africa: I was so not. that did not stop local journalists from calling me several times, asking me to give them interviews and tell them what happened. Again there was nothing to say and yet they made it sound like I was under the fire. It's fascinating really how journalists can transform words! 

But then again Cesena, is a small town in a rural region.. everyone loves whatever is different from the ordinary.

Now I'm waiting for my flight to Kampala (4 long hours of stop over) since we cannot immediately go back to South Sudan. We need to assess the situation and see whether things are actually ok now or if the turmoil is still around the corner. exciting life, I know :)

So sorry for the very long digression but Cairo airport is very boring and I thought it would be good to post my first 2014 creation now.

oh and for the record this is my merry merry xmas summary: FOOD (I didn't know it was possible to physically introduce so much food in one's body).

happy new year!

Trainings

Trainings are the most common activity in Africa. You can have a training on pretty much anything from code of conduct of teachers to agricultural practices to water related diseases. Name a topic and there you have it: a training.

Who can be trained? Anyone: teachers, students, communities, medical staff.. anyone.

How long does a training last? it depends: from one day up to five days, sometimes even longer but it gets too expensive... and now the most important question: do people like trainings?

Ahh hard to say; in order to answer this question a few things have to be considered.

First of all let's talk about SITTING ALLOWANCE, my favorite. Basically the sitting allowance is a small fee that people request from whoever organizes the training to be paid to them just for sitting. yep, no kidding. I love it when they start using the weirdest excuses like "you know I was supposed to work these days so I should get a sitting allowance..." What to say? I usually go with the easiest: "you know you're not supposed to be paid when learning. just be grateful that you are given this opportunity blablabla". The first times are hard but then you get used to that, it kinda becomes like an automatic response.

Second of all: food. I mean every respectable training needs to have good food, drinks and refreshment. Admit it! Who hasnt gone to a meeting or a conference just for the food? Here it's not different: the better the food, the higher the attendance. It's a classic.

Finally: certificates. A lot of people come to trainings because at the end they will be awarded with a certificate and certificates are good for your CV. I remember a few months back we had a training in a school about school management and code of conduct for teachers. All the teachers were male except for one lady who was pregnant. She looked like she was VERY pregnant but I did not pay too much attention since she did not say anything. Well, long story short we are in the middle of the training and she stands up, saying she has something to do. She goes to her hut, she comes back after an hour with the baby in her arms.  SHE GAVE BIRTH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE TRAINING. IN HER HOME.
I honestly did not know what to say, I was like ehm congrats, what the hell... speechless.
And she came back cause she wanted to get the certificate for the end of the training. So there you go, yes they care about certificates. A LOT.

What I particularly enjoy about trainings are the reports which come after that. i was reading one today that I had to share. In the "challenges" section this is what I read:

Challenges in the training

Ø Meals of the first day had scent of Fuel

    Ø Rain could interfere as the training hall had no ceiling board.

scent of fuel... I was dying! but then again if you come for the food, you need to give a lonely planet review! Every report will talk about food,, they have to!
I guess in a way training reports are the guide for the best NGOs in town.. or at least the ones that serve the best food.

and for the record our food had a scent of fuel only because we carried it in the same car as our fuel tanks.. we are Italians, we would never serve crappy food!