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!