Happy Birthday!

Today's topic is birthdays: those very special days which define you, make you special and unique just because you were born on that day.

Isn't it funny when you meet someone who was born on your same day? Like my friends Tiffy and Djules who both celebrated their birthday yesterday... happy birthday ladies! :*

Such a coincidence makes you think about odds and probabilities and all those statistics..

Which leads me to the next point: an event like a birthday is not a coincidence here because, guess what? Everyone is born on the same day, the easiest and most obvious you can think of:

I am aware of the fact that this happens everywhere in the world so that does not come as a surprise. I have always been surprised though by this choice. Why the 1st of January? And why is everyone assigned to that date? Can't they just pick days randomly? I mean here almost 85% of the population is born on the 1st of January and that just creates confusion (especially when they also have the same name which yes happens quite often, too). Besides what is this hurry of choosing the 1st of January? That makes you basically one year older cause you would be born right at the beginning of the year!

Anyways, I can just let you imagine all the conversations I had with some locals at the beginning when I was asking birthday related questions: what is your sign, what is your element and stuff like that. I could see black holes in their eyes; astronomy is definitely a non existing science here.

Plus birthdays are not that important; they are all born on the same day, no big deal. You cannot have a big celebration for the whole population of the village, definitely cannot bake cakes and/or blow candles on them. Think of all the things that happen to you on your birthday: 90% of those are not likely to happen here. No presents, no cards, no flowers, no wishes. 

So a birthday is just another day.

But I am a huge fan of birthday, its the day on which you were born, that gotta count for something right? Celebrate it properly, it only happens once a year.

This is why today I also want to say happy birthday to my friend Gaga!!

Even if civilization is a bit far away, it's hard to forget days like this!

Easy driving

Last night I was in a hurry, I had to go out for dinner and I was late. So I took the car and decided to do my usual "sporty driving" just to get to destination faster.

Ahh wish I could actually do that. After getting out of the gate I realised it was Mission Impossible 7. The road in front of our compound looks like it has been bombarded with grenades (well it probably has): so full of (like my friend Charlie would say) "lunar craters" that it would just be easier to walk. And this is not even the worst. 

When it rains, because there is no tarmac everything becomes mud. It's a nice mix of black mud, brown mud and whatever else is on the road plus puddles which are never small or shallow. 

I could tell you of a million situations I found myself into but probably a picture will suffice.

Try to change a flat tyre when you're stuck in the mud and another car has to pull you out:

and that one wasn't even that bad: it took us one hour to fix everything and hit the road again.

When driving around though you really have to watch out for two crazy elements on the road (and if an Italian person is saying this, it must be really bad):

Number one: people on motorbikes. Because the road is so bad people on motorbikes jump around when hitting holes on the road. Most of the times they fall, laugh about it and jump back on the bike. Seeing people falling on their bikes happened to me twice: the first time there were two guys on the bike who fell and just stayed there on the ground. The second time the guys were four, all of them drunk: they fell and they were just laughing and laughing.. almost contagious!

Number two: drunk people walking along the road at night. So picture the scene: midnight, driving on the worst road you have ever seen, no lights, lampposts.. anything and at the very last minute you see a guy zigzagging his way back home. That's when you have to show your driving skill and prove yourself that, yes, if you can avoid the guy you're pretty much awesome.

Well all I can say is that you get used to all of this quite easily. I am the proud owner of a South Sudanese driving licence and I am currently learning with my drivers how to drive through deep puddles of mud and rivers (yes we have to do that too).

I think I may deserve some sort of award for that...??  

Best degree of civilization? PIZZA

Ah it's coming.. My favorite night of the week.. pizza night!!

I love it just because it's my favorite degree of civilization of all: expat night, the foreigners'dinner.

All the kawaja (it means white person in the local language) reunite at our compound, which let's admit it,  is the best to eat pizza!!

Our cook Timothy actually makes great pizza so it's not a bad experience.. not at all! Plus I love it cause expats night means story sharing night which means tomorrow I'll probably have something funny to tell.

Pizza night is a nice break from the crazy working days, the going around, the dust, the heat, the impossible situations we find ourselves into every single day. We just sit and eat and laugh cause honestly laughing about situations here makes it all so much more fun.

So it's me (italian/half irish haha), giacomo (VERY italian), paola (italian as well), debbie (the most hilarious british person I've ever met), fiona (a great scottish lady), camille (very french guy) and hayelom (an ethiopian guy who works in our compound). It's a lot of fun cause we are all so different but pizza night, CIVILIZATION night, brings us all together.

i'll sound very Italian here but it's true... food can do miracles!!

Sorry for the sentimental post but these nights are part of this crazy life too!!

Enjoy your meal, we will certainly do!!!!

Just say "I do"

Let's talk about obsessions here, again.

More than one month ago, I took a few days off to fly to Italy for a couple of friends' wedding. The thing that shocked the most when I was explaining this to the people was their reply:
YOUR WEDDING?

Ehm, no people. If I were going home for my wedding I wouldn't take just 5 days off; I mean I've never been married but I'm positive that a wedding takes a big amount of time, preparation, effort, coordination. Definitely not 5 days.

But then again I was forgetting who I was talking to. Marrying someone is NOT  a big deal here.
I received two proposals yesterday, just like that.
" Anna did you see the rain last night? Rainy season has begun (yes the rainmakers are safe.. for now)! Anna, why don't you marry me?"
yep, just like that.

And me, silly me, trying to explain that you know, marrying someone is a big deal, you do it for love and when you do it you want to be sure he's the one and you will love each other forever blablabla..
First reply was: well I love all my wives!! (mm ok..)
Second one was a simple: nahhhh

The worst part is they keep insisting, they can be very persuasive. obviously I cannot give up so I just keep saying no. then one of them who unfortunately knows I have a sister goes:
sell me your sister! 30 cows? she comes to live in South Sudan, she happy and she cooks for me!
I've been quite mean to her but I just cannot do this to her. so I said no.
So the guy proposed again to me.
It's a vicious circle.

The rain maker

It's hot here.. so hot that all I can think of is THE RAIN!!!

so..meet the rainmaker!

(not anyone in particular, just the figure of the rainmaker)

Rainmakers are.. well people who are supposed to bring the rain!

oh yes, here when the rain comes..its thanks to the rainmaker! at least that's what people believe.

now you're laughing cause you're definitely picturing one of those crazy fellows who dances around (ted mosby style) so that the rain can come!

BUT HERE IT'S A DAMN SERIOUS BUSINESS

First of all being a rainmaker is a full time job: they get paid (not sure about  who pays them), they go around counties and they even get a car!!

what they do all day is still a mystery to me but i's a job. So far so good, you might think. it's an awesome job so why aren't they all rainmakers?

Ready for the shocking news????

WELL BECAUSE IF THE RAIN DOESN'T COME YOU'RE DEAD. AND I MEAN IT LITERALLY.

yes yes yes, apparently if the season is dry there are no gods to blame up in the sky but only rainmakers on earth.

if it doesn't rain, you're not doing your job right.

so they burn you. alive. like the witches back in the days... 

(and you cannot escape; villagers are gonna find you eventually)

quite ironic uh? no rain but plenty of fire.

So this is why not everyone is a rainmaker; people want to live as long as possible

Today is may 29th; the rainy season was supposed to start couple of weeks ago.. no rain yet.

I'm praying people, I'm praying.

Early birds

You know, one of the good things about living in a small South Sudanese village is that there are no cars. I mean of course there are some, mostly NGOs and government ones but they are not that many. The best a villager can get is a donkey (and yes when crossing the road you have to watch out for those, a real traffic jam!).
So you would think nights and early mornings are quiet; you only hear birds chirping and the silence of nature. It's six o'clock in the morning and you think you have at least one extra hour of sleep...
...WRONG.. SO WRONG!
It's six in the morning, they have 24 hours during the day and they choose that one... to cut the grass!! Obviously there is no such thing as a lawnmower (no power here) which is why they use the favorite tool of all African gardeners: THE SLASH (thats how they call it).

The tool itself is not so bad, it's just how they use it. In order to get rid of the grass/weeds they just basically swing it from one side to the other, beating the ground.

You would think it is not an annoying sound (I have been told I am very sensitive), it's very muffled but you have no idea how bad it is; when they hit a stone or just some pebbles it's even worse. and the worst of all is that it's constant. they just start slashing around and they go on for a good hour. It's like when your sink faucet is dripping.. you go crazy one drop after the other.

So yes, I lost one hour of sleep because I mean they really have to cut grass from 6 am to 7 am. Oh yeah, after that they stop and they do not do it again during the day (apparently it is too hot).


A nice variation of this natural alarm clock is when they use the pickaxe instead of the slash and stones instead of grass; headache coming straight up!!

but then again..

AT LEAST THEY DON'T HAVE CARS HERE!

Normal people/life questions

This post is dedicated to my friend Debbie, who lives here in South Sudan with us and whose birthday was on Tuesday the 14th.
Since I couldn't buy her anything (you know, here it's hard to find even a bottle of decent wine), this is my gift.

ok, I bet that you have never uttered any of these sentences in your daily life:

1) Will I be able to shower with the frog this morning? (first thought of the day)
2) Did you hear the mine blowing up this morning? yeah, they're de mining again along the main road! (conversation on the phone)
3) Today I was in the car with the commissioner going to a school and suddenly we stopped because he wanted to shoot some birds (dinner conversations)
4) "What's your job?" "Oh, I'm a store manager" "Very nice, which store?" "Ah, we don't have one yet"....."Right!" (normal conversations with locals)



Was I right?
Well, if I wasn't it means some of you live in South Sudan SO COME AND VISIT ME! or maybe that your neighborhood is a bit dodgy (you might wanna consider moving out).

the point is, to us, these are normal people/life questions. When i wake up, i never know what I'm going to find in the shower. and I don't know whether it's actually raining outside or if they're blowing up mines.. again!

It is very funny though to think that these were not even real problems before coming here; but now we gotta deal with them.

best solution? just go with it!
like for example we are naming all these lovely creatures who are so nicely populating our every day life.

this is Jackie Senior, a lovely gecko who shares the office with me (Jackie Junior was a huge spider that I accidentally killed while cleaning my room):

And that's Laura, the praying mantis that I found on the bathroom door while peeing the other morning (I stood up so fast that I almost felt dizzy):

Well, there you go.. meet my friends (the six degrees of separation can even work with animals, as you can see).

AND FOR THE RECORD, NO, I cannot shower with a frog.