A Month in Juba.. time for the field.

Field vs. Juba HQ- which is better? While the work load in either place is about the same, I enjoy moving around, and in Juba, that does not happen. An average day in Juba begins and ends in the compound, and mostly in the office. I begin with making my task list, getting distracted from that task list with other priorities, a meeting here, a training there, often a decent lunch and always apprehension about what will be for dinner. Your sanity definitely begins to wear away, but a co-worker and I have begun a running routine, and we've had a couple of good dance parties, which has definitely helped.

The field, on the other hand, for me, usually entails lots of travel, meetings, interviews with groups and individuals from the villages, and oh yeah, being dead tired by the end of a week. Granted, we usually stay at a particular field site for about a week, and since we have limited time, we usually try to cram in as much as possible and sprint for the whole week. Still, it is satisfying, and you get to see what is really happening behind the numbers of people trained, etc.

Which is better? I'm always one for balance, so I can't say I'd be perfectly content in either place all the time. The field gives you a reality check and brings you close to the people, while Juba allows you to take a step out of the day to day push to meet targets and complete activities. In Juba, I definitely have more access to information about current and upcoming strategies or activities, and I can better see the project as a whole-all three states together.

Still, cabin fever is setting in. Must get out!

I'm sure some of you are wondering what I actually did this month in Juba, so here's a quick overview. First, the elections came and went with little violence, but I don't know if many people would call it free or fair. There were issues with the ballots, people's registration numbers being mixed up with the wrong photos or information, people not getting to vote, and of course some intimidation and violence. As the election results were being tallied, the internet was not a source for straight facts, peace, or calm. I think everyone was a little nervous, prone to overreaction in some cases, and the rumors on the internet were not helping matters. In the end, I don't think there were too many candidates elected that were a shock. Bashir won in the north, Salva Kiir won in the south, but I will say you have to start somewhere. Next step, referendum.. let's hope the people and the world are ready for this one.

During the elections, we brought in all the field staff who weren't voting, and had an all staff meeting. For my part, I took the lead to coordinate and support the facilitators of the event, presented on the perception survey Kevin, Nona (the consultants for that project) and I worked on, and I was happy to contribute to shaping the theme and determining the activities for the third day of the event. Overall, after a few sleepless nights and a lot of preparation, it was a great success. We focused on integrating the program internally and externally. In practice, this means really getting the people working on each component to work with and collaborate with those working in other components. As an integrated team, there can be more joint planning and to the communities, BRIDGE can show a single face. People in the villages do not distinguish between NGOs or programs; they remember the individuals who come to them. If people don't introduce themselves to the community together, it will seem as though the BRIDGE program is 5 different programs, instead of one.

Another major task this past month was to prepare for the quarterly report. Yes yes, reports are usually boring, but reporting on everything that happened in 3 months for such a large program is no small feat. I can explain the process best with an analogy. Just preparing and compiling the numbers for the report is like being in a boxing match with someone who you know you will beat in the end. You're in there, you're doing well, you're confident, and then BAM!- an unforeseen right hook. (The right hook is usually paperwork being turned in extremely late with no notice that it hadn't been turned in yet or that it was coming in.) The right hook does a good job at discombobulating you, and makes you think you should have seen it coming. Some clear examples of right hooks to the jaw/head have been: paperwork being turned in after the last minute- including documents from last year!, and my supervisor's post rotation. She definitely needed to have a break and we were practically forcing her out the door, but the day she left is the day my desk became a lot taller with a bunch of files. I am proud to say though, that I triumphed over these right hooks and have survived without too many bruises. (Although I'm glad this report is only due every three months.) I come away with some clear lessons and ideas for improving the process for the next round, and a sense that I have a least organized a little of the chaos that was there.

In addition to that, I was glad to be in Juba for the opportunity to help shape and define our some programming strategies. Particularly, I helped to articulate strategies for our governance component on introducing/implementing town hall meeting structures, and leading a discussion on one of our grant funds. Each of these activities focuses on tangible ways to bridge the gap between government and community, and hopefully will lead to a greater number of community needs being met. In general, I am completely new to governance activities, but I learned a lot.

Coming up next is a Senior Management meeting, in which I was told there was space for me to participate! The facilitator we have coming in for this is excellent, and I'm know I will learn a thing or two to improve my own management skills. Then, off to a field visit to Northern Bahr el Ghazal. On this trip, I will actually get to conduct spot checks (checking on program progress and implementation at the field level by interviewing groups and people we have trained or worked with in the community) by myself! I won't be alone because the field staff will be with me, but I will be the only M&E person from Juba. Gotta love independent work and being able to take charge.

The Last of the Surveys

(Sunrise on a morning in Northern Bahr el Ghazal)

After countless hours bouncing in Toyota 4x4 Land Cruisers along dusty roads in 3 states for 3 weeks, we finally completed our surveys; 170 of them.

In Northern Bahr el Ghazal, the days were long and hot. In Aweil, the capital of the state, our compound did not have running water, so my fellow surveyors and I opted to stay at the only hotel in town. Luckily, it was under new management and had significantly improved since one of my colleagues had last stayed there. There was usually running water, sometimes a vegetarian option of beans and rice, and air conditioning at night (although the power didn’t come on until around 7pm). Overall though, surprisingly pleasant.


(A mother monkey with her baby hanging on to her underside and a dik dik that hung around the hotel courtyard in Aweil.)

As we interviewed people in the communities, we noticed several differences from Warrap. First, although Northern Bahr el Ghazal is populated mostly by Dinkas, like in Warrap, the language is slightly different and so are the people. The fighting during the war was more intense at time in this area, and many people had recently returned (within the last 2-3 years) from the north of Sudan, most often from Khartoum (the capital city of Sudan). Many people were essentially still rebuilding their lives and livelihoods. While I’m glad people are returning to the areas from which they fled during the war, I sometimes found myself wondering why. The desire to return to the place where you were born after being forced to flee, and working to rebuild and possibly start a new country must have a very strong pull, but it had to be a difficult decision economically. Life in these areas is very hard, and at least one woman I spoke to said her husband had to return to Khartoum to make some money because they could not find the means to sufficiently support their family. In this state, it was the first time I began to hear people foraging for wild leaves and fruits as a means of supporting themselves and their families.

On the governance side of things, most people viewed the government as very strong, and as gatekeepers of sorts for aid. While most services to the communities were provided by NGOs, the government was seen as the one who brought the NGO services to them. This certainly elevated their perception of government, but people’s expectations of government to deliver basic services like education, water and health were still not being met.

(Children carrying water from a nearby borehole (water well). In some communities where boreholes are scarce, people may wait in a line all day to get water.)

The Dinkas of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, however, are very resilient and are trying to make the most of their situation. Two stories in particular come to mind. One is of a woman whose children were taken from her during the war by the arab raiders of the north. (During the war, children were often taken by the opposing forces and made to work for their captors for, I am assuming, very little or no pay.) Once peace had come, she was determined to reunite her family. She made it all the way to Khartoum (at least a 3-4 day journey by vehicle), miraculously managed to find her children, and brought them back home. The journey must have been extremely expensive, long and arduous. She even faced the chance that her children would not want to come back with her. For some families, their children were taken at a young age, grew up with their captors, are already making a living in Khartoum or elsewhere, and find that life is not too bad with their captors. When their parents find them, some do not recognize their parents and/or do not want to leave. Luckily, this was not the case for this woman.

Another personal story was of a woman who benefited from one of BRIDGE’s vegetable growing trainings, and found a creative way to save money. With no nearby borehole (water well), she planted her vegetable garden with the seeds and tools she received from the BRIDGE program on the bank of a river, and after they had grown, she found that tomatoes fetch a good price at the market. She was a wise woman and knew that if she just held on to the cash, it would disappear quickly (as cash does for all of us when it sits in our wallets!). There are no banks in the rural areas (only a few, 1 or 2, in the urban areas), but she needed a way to store her money. While most people I spoke to in Warrap saved money by buying livestock, she decided to put her money in groundnuts (peanuts). With the money she received from tomato sales, she bought groundnuts because they would not spoil. When she needed money, she would go to the market and sell the groundnuts. I do not know how much this scheme helped her monetarily, but most people ate 1-2 meals a day while her family was able to eat 3 meals consistently throughout the year.

After the surveys in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, we flew back to Juba for the weekend and lavished in some decent beer, pizza and Indian food from two of the best restaurants in town. However, the weekend soon ended and we were back on a plane, this time to Unity state.

(A picture of the dust storm that blocked out the sun and stars for three days in Unity state.)

Our experiences in Unity state were again unique from those in other states. First, the land was very swampy, complete with crocodiles, large monitor lizards, snakes, and a great variety of birds (the herons were especially elegant). As a result of the large number of birds, most people grow maize instead of sorghum because it is harder for the birds to eat, and with many rivers, more people fish for a living. Secondly, the majority of people in this state are Nuer, not dinka. (So much for the Dinka language skills I picked up in the other states.) Most people here have markings on their faces from a pattern of incisions made deep into the flesh on their faces, which resulted in slightly raised dots all over their faces (men and women) or lines across their foreheads (men).

Unity state is also where most of the oil in south Sudan is found, although the 2% of the oil revenues that are supposed to stay in the state seem to really stay in a few people’s pockets. On our travels to various communities, we saw many pipelines and the compounds of the oil companies. I even saw the compound of one of the first companies to find oil in Sudan (Chevron or Shell), which subsequently closed after several workers were killed. Some noticeable improvements from the money were seen though. In infrastructure, there was one long paved road through town, better dirt roads in many places, and city power from around 8pm until early morning. However, people’s lives were still very hard, lacking many basic services.

Another difference was that politics are more contentious in Unity than elsewhere. The elections are almost here and the campaigning is in full force. The governor is not very popular, and while the SPLM (Sudan Liberation Movement) is the major party in South Sudan (this party and the SPLA- Sudan People's Liberation Army- were the major entities fighting the war against the north), the wife of the vice president of South Sudan decided to run for governor of Unity as an independent candidate. Her husband, of course, is with the SPLM, but is still supporting her campaign. She, however, has the support of the people and may win. Basically, if she does win, the SPLM will be angry, and if she doesn’t win, the people of Unity will be angry. Either way, it will be very interesting to see what happens. The elections are from 11-13 of April and the results should be announced that week.

During our conversations with communities, the elections and campaigns were at the front of people’s minds, as was peace and security. These issues seemed to be more important and more often mentioned here, than in the other states. It appeared that campaigns were taking up all the time of the government, so there was no time left to listen to community needs. On top of this, a few communities we visited were recently re-established as communities (one within the last year, others within the past few years). This meant that local governments were even newer that the state or national government. The government of Unity state called people to return to the places of their forefathers, and so they did. Some came from the north and others came from towns and areas within Unity state. I’m sure they were promised many services when they returned, but they are still waiting. Needless to say, it is an uphill battle for both the government and the people of these areas. Interestingly enough though, I asked one person if they were considering moving back to where they were before they moved back to their birthplace, and they said no. This was now their home, and despite the hardships, they did not intend to move.

(Large tukuls, or huts. You may thing the largest ones are for large families. On the contrary, people live in smaller tukuls, and they build these large structures for their animals. At times, it seems that animals are worth more than people.)

In addition to the differences in the community and landscape, there were differences in our “off-time” as well. There were quite a number of people who came from Juba to work on monitoring spot checks and other program areas in Unity at the same time we were doing the governance survey. Since I normally work on monitoring and evaluation (M&E), this meant that when I returned from a day of interviews, there would be meetings to attend regarding a specific program area. On the upside, when we finally did stop working, it was great to hang out with that group of people (plenty of entertainment). The generator on the compound could not be run all day, and often, while we waited for city power to kick in at night, we would bring up chairs to the roof of one of the buildings and make it a scotch night. These nights were great until there was a 2-3 day dust storm, which blocked out the sun during the day and the stars at night. (After being out in the dust all day, some people’s hair would look either more gray or more orange, and you would swear that everyone had put powder foundation on their faces.)

One of my favorite aspects of the trip to Unity was the food. When I was there last summer, the food was good (curried vegetables..yum!), but I had heard horror stories of how bad it had become. I heard the cook was stubborn and had to be coaxed into using salt and pepper as seasoning. No matter, I thought, I will use the fear of vegetarians to force some good food to come. (Some cooks, when they hear I am a vegetarian, first tell me that there are no vegetables, and it will be very hard for me to eat. However, I think they get nervous, cook things they normally wouldn’t, and vioala! Delicious food.) It might have been that, or the fact that there was a new team leader in place, there was a large group from Juba coming, and either the cook or the team leader wanted to impress us. Still, I’d like to think it was the fear of the vegetarian… My favourite meal there had to be the foule (or fuul- Egyptian beans- fava beans- with onions, garlic, tomatoes, spices, and olive oil).

Alas, I am now back in Juba, where the food on the compound is not very good, and where I will work from the office for all of April. A week long Easter holiday for local staff was recently declared for the beginning of April, the elections happen the week after, and at the end of the month, we are bringing in every one from the field to Juba for an all staff meeting. Until the all staff meeting, I’ll be working on entering and analyzing the data I collected from my livelihoods survey, taking over for my boss when she is on post-rotation, and hopefully finding the motivation to exercise more and get in shape for the hiking I will do on my trip to Turkey in June.

(Below: Tae Bo is brought to Unity! Me attempting Tae Bo on the roof on our compound in Bentiu, Unity State.)

America: Where Brides are Free

(Interviews were typically held under trees.)

This past week, I spent most of my time traveling to various communities, conducting interviews and surveys, and learning a lot about Dinka culture (the major ethnic group) in Warrap State.

At its core, the BRIDGE program is geared toward connecting the government with the people and the people with the government. So, the purpose of our visit was to ask community members questions about how they view the government and its services. In theory, if the BRIDGE program was doing a good job, involving the government in all that it does in the communities, then over time, we should see an increasingly positive view of the local government in the communities in which we work. To find out whether this is true, we asked questions about local government responsiveness, effectiveness, and about the community’s confidence in the local government.

Overall, people were more positive about local government than we had anticipated. After 22 years of civil war, even the smallest amount of change or help from the government seemed to result in high levels of confidence in the local government. Some, however, were still critical of the local government, and rightly so. In one community we visited, the community had made enough bricks and collected enough money and volunteer labour to build up the walls of a small 4-room school to the roof level. This was one year ago, and still, the government (or any NGO) had not provided a roof for the school. This type of inaction generally lowered the perception of government effectiveness among community members.

(Traditional chiefs of an area called Tonj, participating in a local government training supported by the BRIDGE program.)

Some interesting insights came out of our first week of implementing these survey questions. First, when community members think about the government, non-profit/ non-governmental international organizations (NGOs) are always attached to that perception. No one ever thought of the government working alone, many argued that the government shouldn’t work alone, and sometimes, it was unclear whether people could really differentiate between the help the government was giving and the NGOs. While this does show that the NGOs are working with the government to give out aid and implement development projects (a good thing), it may also be dangerous. As the situation in Sudan becomes more stable, some NGOs, especially those giving out relief aid, will inevitably leave, taking their resources (money, food, etc.) with them. What then, will become of the perception of local government?

Embedded in this question is that of community expectations of government. In Warrap, we really didn’t ask any questions about what the community expects of the government (although, we have corrected this and added a question on this subject for the next two states). In our survey this year in Warrap, results have been mostly positive. Naturally, as the BRIDGE program continues, you would think that the community’s perception of government would be increasingly positive. In reality, if the expectations of government are raised each year, and the perceived level of service does not meet those expectations, the perception of government could become more negative over time. As a result, even if the BRIDGE program was doing a better job each year; the results of this survey may not show that.

(A latrine being built for a local school.)

A third major insight, or rather, surprise, came when we interviewed a community where BRIDGE was not working. For all those data analysis junkies out there, this community served as our control group. The idea behind interviewing a community we were not working in was to get a sense of how an average community views government without the BRIDGE program. Theoretically, if BRIDGE, a program that is bridging the gap between the government and community, was successful, you would see a more positive perception of government in communities where BRIDGE was present than in communities where BRIDGE was not present. This unfortunately, was not the case for our control group community, Alek North.

In fact, residents of Alek North demonstrated the most positive perception of government of all the communities we interviewed. After asking some follow-up questions, we discovered that it might have been due to the continued presence and distribution of relief aid (mostly food aid) in the community. A colleague told me that the people here know by seeing. Development is slow, but relief is very quick, highly visible, and has a high impact in the short run. In short, it can save people’s lives today, but in the long run, it often does not build the capacity of communities to take care of themselves. At its worst, the community becomes dependent on the relief organization to take care of the community’s basic needs. In Alek North, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and to a some extent Farm Africa, is still distributing food aid to people. Several people in the community explained that when they are hungry, they ask the government for food, and the government delivers it. Therefore, they believe the government is very responsive, effective, and they are confident it the government. What will happen when WFP leaves and people realize that the government can no longer bring these services to the community?

At the end of the day, this community did not serve as a very good control group. (Unfortunately, having a connection with an NGO working in a community is the best way to speak to community members who you are not working with. If the community doesn’t know you, there is no trust, and the answers we would receive from them would not be 100% true or hones. We had a connection with Farm Africa, they could introduce us to the community, and so Alek North was chosen.)

In addition to the government perception survey, as a part of my own research, the other interviewers and I implemented a livelihoods survey I created. (Livelihoods, for those unfamiliar, is a term for how people support themselves and make a living.) In this survey, I was basically trying to paint a general picture of how community members support themselves and their families in rural South Sudan. In the survey, we asked four simple, open ended questions about the number of people in the household, how the respondent supported their household, if they were able to save anything, and the number of meals they eat per day.

(A women's center in Kuac South)

The picture I have been able to paint so far has been more or less bleak, but interesting. There have been a large number of women who head their household because their husbands either died in the war or died recently in the cattle raiding/fighting between ethnic groups. On average, most people eat 2 meals a day, although I did find people who could only scrape together enough food for one meal a day.

To support themselves, most people farm some combination of sorghum, sim sim (sesame), ground nuts (peanuts), cow peas (I think these are black eyed peas), maize, and sometimes vegetables like okra. (Vegetables are a new development brought to communities from organizations like Winrock and World Vision.) Most also have livestock, some find occasional wage labour, fish, run small tea stands (mostly women), collect grasses used for roofing and sell it at the market, or even brew alcohol (from sorghum). We also found out that since men are allowed to have multiple wives, each wife seems to be her own economic unit. Each wife gets a plot of land, house, and is responsible for feeding/caring for her children. With women responsible for food, they are more likely to farm, and the men are more likely to engage in other activities like fishing, if there is a river nearby.

(Although usually the work of women, these boys carry their small buckets to collect water.)

Livestock is interesting though. Basically, when it is a good harvest season or when you have some extra money, there is no bank to put your savings in. Instead, there is livestock. When you have savings, you buy a cow (or a goat or a sheep). When times are bad and you need money, you sell the cow to buy food. On average, a cow costs about $500 or so: bulls slightly less, and females slightly more because they reproduce. If you compare it to our banking system, it makes sense. The cow or other livestock is the bank account, and it is also an investment. With interest rates in the U.S., your money can grow. With livestock, you money grows when your cow gives birth. Further, just as the stock market can crash and you loose your money, you can also loose your money in cows when disease strikes.

In addition, cows are a culturally mandated when getting married. If you were wondering about the title of this blog entry, this is where it comes in. In order for a man to marry, he must present an agreed upon number of cows to the bride’s family. Without cows, you cannot marry, and cannot have a family. (This cultural norm, however, does have its drawbacks. Girls are often kept at home and out of school for fear that education or the journey to the school will damage or spoil the daughter, reducing the number of cows the family can get for her. Since cows are a measure of wealth, the girls of a family are very important.) One of my Dinka colleagues that I was working with in these interviews, asked me how much a bride costs in the U.S.

“In cows?” I asked.

"Yes," he replied.

“None.” I said. “Brides are essentially free.” (Except, of course, for the very nice ring many brides-to-be receive.) He was quite impressed, and we had a good laugh about how the Dinka should come to America because the brides there were free.

I’m now in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, about to embark on another week of interviewing. Dinka are again the majority ethnic group in Northern Bahr el Ghazal, but I have a feeling there will be some differences between the Dinkas of Warrap state and the Dinkas here. We will see.

Southern Sudan: Round 2

(View from the balcony of the new house for BRIDGE staff based in Juba)

After 3 months away, I'm back. In some respects, it seems as if I never left. As soon as I arrived in Juba, I picked up almost in the same place I left off. I'm again working for Winrock International on the Sudan BRIDGE program, based out of Juba, on Monitoring & Evaluation. When I arrived, most of the people I worked with last summer were still around, but there were some great new staff members as well.

On my first day back, I started the catch-up process, but almost immediately became side-tracked. I first learned that in a couple of weeks, I would travel to each of the three states and help implement a impact assessment baseline survey. However, my initial excitement about that project was almost immediately pushed to the side. On my first Monday (8-Feb) I was called into the Chief of Party's (COP) office, and was told several board members, program managers from the headquarters in the U.S. as well as the president of Winrock were going to be visiting South Sudan for 3 days within a week and a half. In particular, they were going to get to know our program better. "Can you coordinate this?" I was asked. "Sure," I answered.

There was no easing into life in Sudan this time. So, I jumped on this task and ran with it. Throughout the process I re-learned a valuable lesson about establishing clear lines of communication, the value of having reliable people, delved into the world of security and risk mitigation for VIPs in insecure areas, and realized that I never want my sole task to be logistics. (As fast paced and intriguing as logistics can be sometimes, I like having a balance between logistics and program content. Also, I value sleep... a luxury a logistics manager does not often have.) However, I am proud to say that their visit went very well. Despite a very tight schedule on their first day in Sudan, including visiting sites around town and numerous presentations, at the end of the day, we miraculously stayed on schedule.

(At a secondary school in Juba during the Board Visit. This school is supported by a Winrock program called GEE- Gender Equity through Education)

After this visit, sleeping for a day was definitely in order. Next task, prepare for a trip to our field sites (across three states: Warrap, Northern Bahr el Ghazal and Unity) to pilot/ administer a baseline survey for our impact indicators.* Over three weeks, myself and at least two consultants, along with members from our field teams, would interview members of the communities in which we worked. (*For those of you not involved in development, indicators are one of the main ways to manage and report on the progress of a program. An example of one of our indicators is: Number of people trained in agricultural productivity with US Government Assistance. Indicators that focus on outputs- i.e. number of people trained- are important, but in the end, you want to see that there has been a change in the human condition or in the situation.)

Initially the idea was to conduct a survey with our target communities on how the BRIDGE program (the program I am working for again) was affecting their lives, and how they were interacting with the government. Through several discussions and arguments, the purpose changed. Now, we are focusing on field testing and implementing a governance perception survey. While focusing on areas like water, sanitation, education and agriculture, the BRIDGE program was designed first and foremost as a governance program. In all our activities, we try to involve the government and put the government's face on the activities we implement. The reason behind this is that when the BRIDGE program eventually ends, we want the government to be better able to provide public services, and for the communities in our target states to overcome distrust of the government and see the government as a provider of those services, rather than just NGOs. Our questions, therefore, are focusing on how the community perceives government. We expect the answers to be more negative than positive at this point, but in the coming years, we hope that the perception of local government in South Sudan becomes more positive.

(On the way to Kuajok, we ran into a seemingly never-ending World Food Programme caravan carrying food supplies toward Wau town from, presumably, Khartoum.)

I am currently in Kuajok, Warrap State, Southern Sudan preparing to implement this survey. The team and I worked on improving the survey today, but we know that once we actually start asking our questions in the communities, more changes will come.

On a personal note, Kuajok is very nice. When we travel here, my colleagues and I joke that we are heading to paradise. The programs and compound are well managed, if you need something done, it happens, and Kuajok is a nice town. Compared to Juba, Kuajok is much more rural, and because of this, you can see for miles around. The town is calm, and evening walks are a must. The compound has running water now too! Very exciting.

Overall, there have already been challenges, and I know there will be many challenges ahead. I'm confident I can overcome these challenges (I'm keeping a running list for myself of lessons to be learned to help out with this), and by developing personally and professionally, help out the project in a meaningful way.

Northern Bahr el Ghazal M&E Visit and a Quarterly Report

(After one of the many rains in Aweil that week, a rainbow appeared. You can't see it in this picture, but there was a double rainbow!)

From 13-17 July Lutfiyah and I again went to the field; this time to Northern Bahr el Ghazal (NBG) state. The trip started off a bit rocky. As we were checking in our bags at the airport, we discovered that our luggage was too heavy. The limit was 15 kg (around 30 lbs) for everything you are carrying. Normally, they just weigh your checked luggage, but this time they weighed everything. To make matters worse, we were carrying training materials for sessions we would hold with the team in Northern Bahr el Ghazal which added extra weight. After some begging, pleading, angry phone calls to our logistics team for not pre-arranging for the extra weight, we took only the essentials and boarded the plane.

After a quick plane transfer in Wau, we arrived in Aweil, the capital of NBG. Our team in Aweil has no compound yet so most are staying at the UNOCHA (United Nations Organization for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) compound. A few observations about Aweil and the UNOCHA compound: First, Aweil is HOT; very hot. The only relief is found under the many mango trees (sadly, mango season had ended) on the compound and the area. Even then, when there is no breeze, you simply suffer. The room I was staying in for the first half of the trip didn't have a working air conditioner or a fan. So, I simply could not go into the room during the day, and at night, the humidity and heat in the room was not conducive to sleep. Needless to say, I was awake for far too many hours during this trip. Second, logistics and communication systems in NBG were awful. Since the Winrock compound wasn't finished (or even really started) the program coordinators who we needed to speak to were scattered throughout the compound, either commandeering an open office if available or working under a tree. In this state, the junior staff were all based in the counties and could be up to 2.5 hours away from Aweil. Exacerbating the situation were poor cell phone networks, and terrible/unpredictable internet connection. Lastly, when you hear things that sound like hundreds of birds in the mango trees at night, don't be fooled, they are actually fruit bats. Upon this realization, stop video taping and begin walking faster.

These difficulties aside, we had several good field trip days in the county locations. We met two Community Action Groups, two Women's Support Groups, visited a school identified for rehabilitation by our program, two vegetable producer groups, a couple water points, and attended a PTA training. The vegetable producer groups and the PTA training were the unique aspects of this visit. Vegetable production is not very good in Aweil North or Aweil West (the two target counties in NBG) and it is evident in the lack of locally produced vegetables in the markets. So, the BRIDGE program (Winrock's program name) is going to train several communities on vegetable gardening techniques, and give training on "farming as a business" to the vegetable producer groups we train. Hopefully, these producer groups, as a result of being a group, have more bargaining power to get a better price for those who would sell their produce at local markets. Unfortunately, the message and purpose of these types of groups sometimes get lost or not effectively communicated when BRIDGE is forming the group. Team members continue to work on this, and due to visits such as our M&E visits, we can observe these shortcomings, inform project decision makers, and make recommendations on what needs to be done.

(Below: One of the vegetable producer groups we met. Second Picture: The children that naturally gather when they see outsiders, especially a white person.)

The PTA training was the first activity we have visited that was actually taking place during our visit. Although the training was set to start at 9am and was around 2.5 hours away from Aweil (starting from the UNOCHA compound), this did not seem to phase the coordinator in charge of the education sector. Lutfiyah and I were ready at 7am, but we didn't leave until 8:15 (and they still needed to pick up supplies and other trainers for the PTA training). It had also rained earlier that week so the roads were not the greatest. Several times we had to get out of the car and survey the mud/water puddles to see if the ground was hard enough for the vehicle (SUV with 4-wheel drive) to pass through. We finally made it to an area (called a boma, which is made up of several villages) called Marial Bai. In many societies time is not a huge factor and communities gather for meetings very late, but here, the communities always show up relatively on time. So, we were very late, and some people who had gathered earlier, namely women, had already left to attend to their daily tasks. On the bright side, people did gather after we came and the first of the three day PTA training began. For Lutfiyah and my sakes, translations from dinka/arabic were translated into English during the opening remarks we were observing. After opening remarks, the training continued in either dinka or arabic- training the PTA members on their roles, the role of a PTA as a whole and instructing them on how to create a proper project proposal.

(Below: PTA training sign-in for day 1 in Marial Bai boma.)
















As I mentioned earlier, the roads were not in very good condition due to the rains and communications systems were not good either. We had planned to leave the PTA training after 2 hours and get picked up from another car of Winrock's. It turned out that no one had the thuraya (satellite phone) number or vehicle radio number of the vehicle that was picking us up. We had heard that the vehicle left on time to pick us up, but hadn't arrived when it should have. With its front tires almost bald, we had to assume that the vehicle was stuck in the mud somewhere, which ended up being true.

During the wait, the heat was becoming hotter by the minute it seemed. The only relief we received was standing under a tree and listening to very interesting war-time stories of the area from the Director for Education in this county. The director, Jamesco, who was in his early or mid 30s perhaps, casually described the days of insecurity. People did what they could to maintain some level of a normal life. He was in school (either elementary or secondary) during some of the war and was very dedicated to his studies. Whenever word came that there was insecurity in the area, teachers and students would quickly get up, collect their chalk boards and materials, and run into the woods far enough away to be safe. There, they would set everything up again and continue their lessons. We also heard other, more terrible stories of the war. Schools, such as the one we visited in Wedwill boma a few days earlier, and any other structure within a community was bombed. The goal was total eradication of infrastructure. We were even told the story of a day of celebrations for education in Southern Sudan. Teachers, professors, and leaders within the education center all gathered for a day to celebrate some achievements. That day, with all these great minds of Southern Sudan gathered together, the venue for this event was targeted by the armies of the north and bombed. The director only knew of one person who survived ( a member of the community in Marial Bai where the PTA training was taking place). There was no foresight in this war, as in many. If there weren't any educated people left, then there wouldn't be anyone to lead the people to fight back.

(Below: Classes are most often held outside because buildings are either destroyed or unsafe. Because of this situation, classes are cancelled when it rains. At times, the rainy season lasts from June through September. Second Picture: One of the many buildings of a boarding school in Wedwill Boma that was bombed during the war.)




























Overall, the trip was better than we had expected. We had heard horror stories of a monkey that lived near the Southern Sudan hotel we were originally supposed to stay at that particularly liked to attack women, the team leader's tendency to never stop talking (mostly true), and the disorganization of the program in Northern Bahr el Ghazal (partially true). Whew- thank god the monkey wasn't there! (Below: One of the more serene pictures of Aweil. Mango trees line the streets.)

Unity State M&E Visit

On 28-June my supervisor, Lutfiyah, and I departed for the second of three monitoring and evaluation (M&E) trips. This time it was to Unity state. From the start, I knew it would be an interesting and unique trip. After we had checked into the Juba airport, we boarded a bus that took us to our plane. Every flight I had ever boarded in the past had seated at least 20-30 people, but not this one. This one seated 15 people, maximum, and there was no divider between the pilots and first seat of passengers. (Watching what the pilots actually do during take-off and landing is surprisingly interesting.) Despite the size of the plane, we took off very smoothly. The plane flew lower than other planes, and we were able to see beautiful scenery of Southern Sudan for most of the flight. (Below: A pastoralist tribeswoman, children and their donkey's at a water hole we visited.)

The place we were going to was called Bentiu, the capital of Unity state, where the Winrock BRIDGE team was based. However, the place we had to land was 2 hours away. There is an airport in Bentiu, but apparantly there is a radio tower at the end of the runway which is too close for WFP's (which manages the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service we were flying on) standards. So we instead landed in a small town called Leer, which had no airport, just a dirt runway. On the upside, without an airport, flying is completely hassle free. When the plane landed, we simply got out of the plane, removed our bags from the cargo area at the bottom of the plane, and got in the car to Bentiu.

On our trip to Unity, we wanted to accomplish several things: visit as many groups as possible that were formed by our field teams, speak to community members about the BRIDGE activities they have participated in, and train the field staff on the overall M&E system as well as proper procedures for documenting the work done with communities. I was expecting to find much of the same things I saw in Warrap state. However, as there are different staff members implementing activities, and varying srategies being pursued by the team leaders in each state, the results are not all uniform. Lutfiyah and I spoke to 4 communities where our team had formed Community Action and Women's Support Groups (groups meant to represent the larger community and help to introduce as well as manage self-help community development projects). In most communities we visited, our partner organization PACT had dug a borehole (a well) and formed a water user committee for each water point. While Lutfiyah interviewed the water-user committee, I interviewed the Women's Support Group (WSG), and then we both spoke with the Community Action Group (CAG). Generally, this meant that we would show up at a community, someone from our team would find a group representative, who would gather others from the group, and we would stand/sit under a tree and ask questions about the groups' activities, thoughts, and plans for the future. (Below: Myself interviewing a Women's Support Group in Tong Boma- a boma is a small administrative district)

Unfortunately, we discovered that while the Community Action and Women's Support Groups were formed nearly 2 months ago, none of the people in management positions had been trained on their respectives roles within the group. Despite this, many of the women I spoke to were very inspiring. Generally, the women do the majority of farming work, are responsible for bringing up the children, fetching water and charcoal or firewood for each day, and cooking. I do not know how they have time to be in such a group that BRIDGE has helped form, but they were all happy to be in it. They were eager to learn about their roles, repair or build schools and clinics for their communities, and build stalls for those in the community who sell goods at the market (usually they just sit on the ground to sell their items).

We also took other field trips to explore our agricultural component activities. First we visited a fishing group in a community called Manga. There, gender relations were in a poor state, more intense that in the previous communities we had visited. The men did all the fishing and fish drying. The women's role was to cook them and bring up the children. In this community, the BRIDGE project is focusing on forming fisher groups so that they can combine their efforts in fishing, marketing, and selling their dried fish in order to either get a better price for their fish or to invest in materials needed by all fishermen. We are also going to introduce an improved fish dryer system to them, which will result in more sanitary dried fish (currently they hang them to dry outside among the flies) and get a better price at the market. (Below: A fisherman getting off of his boat.)

However, much to our dismay, the group seemed to be hastily formed, and besides working together for a common interest, no group member really understood why they were in this group or what this group could do for them and the community. As we asked questions about their plans as a group, representatives simply responded by asking for fishing nets and boats.

While supplying fishing nets and boats sounds like a very simple request and a good plan to help meet community needs, these types of activities are characterized as relief, not development.
Throughout the 20 year civil war (that just ended in 2005) between north and south sudan, international organizations focused on supplying people with what they needed; giving hand-outs. After 20 years, many communities became dependent upon these hand-outs, unable to help themselves; unable to sustain themselves. This is one thing our program is trying desparately to avoid and overcome. Instead of simply giving people things, we require that there be some community contribution. Most communities cannot afford to pay for materials, and in those cases, we require that the community or the government, for example, commit to maintaining the borehole (water well) after we install it. For other projects, the community may contribute the labour required to rebuild a school. Unfortunately, we are simply relying on the voiced and signed committment of community leaders and government officials that they will maintain material items we supply them; it is unclear how we will actually ensure that maintenance.

Aside from work, Unity, specifically Bentiu was a decent place. By and large, Unity state is a marshland, which unfortunately makes it quite humid. On top of that, the water is often salty, which makes digging boreholes for communities difficult at times. Our team's compound we stayed on had several buildings recently built, but terribly designed. The building seemed to be made out of plaster and maybe cement, had high cielings, large and loud metal doors, and no air conditioning. Luckily there were cieling fans, but as city power only lasted from 7pm to about 6:00am, and the generators were not switched on all the time, it got hot; not just hot, but humid and sticky. Needless to say, I did not get a lot of sleep on that trip.

Compounding the situation was a plethora of really weird and large bugs, many of them able to fly. I constantly woke up with a jolt during the night, thinking there was bug on me. Half of the time there was. One thing I have found is that there are two insects that I just don't like, and when I see them, would like to run away: large wasps that seemed to be everywhere (their long dangling legs made me cringe every time) and large flying beetles. Luckily the beetles would only fly for a short period of time, drop from whatever height they were at, and if they crawled on you, were easily squashed.

As we departed, I felt like it was a good trip, but I was happy to be going back to Juba to my nice bed where there were fewer bugs. We once again drove to Leer, the plane landed, but the runway was a little wet due to the rains earlier in the week. As a result, the pilot stated that he would only take 6 of the 8 people that were scheduled for the flight to Rumbek (a city in Lakes State where we would transfer to another plane to Juba). As a result of being very vocal and slightly pushy, both Lutfiyah, myself and another BRIDGE employee were able to board the plane. Unfortunately, after we landed in Rumbeck, we discovered that our names were not on the manifest for the next flight to Juba. It turned out that our logistics team instead booked us for a later flight. A later flight wouldn't have been too bad, except that WFP only flies a certain number of planes on certain days to and from specific locations. As this was a friday, the next flight out of Rumbek to Juba was not until Monday. After some furious phone calls, Lutfiyah and I settled into the hotel (more like a campground because we stayed in safari style tents- complete with a full bathroom!) next to the airport. All in all, Rumbek was great. We slept, hung out, and watched the Wimbledon finals. What a final match for the men! On Monday, we made it to Juba, safe and sound. (Below: the plane we flew in from Leer to Rumbek)

A Workshop and a Whirlwind of a trip!

(Myself at Buli's Restaurant in Kuajok, Warrap State, Southern Sudan)

I have to say I am quite tired, but there is no end to it in the near future. It started the second and third week of June. We geared up for a workshop to disseminate the central government's (Government of Southern Sudan- GOSS) recently adopted water policy to government officials in the three states in which Winrock is working (Warrap, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, and Unity states). We flew a total of about 35 people from these states to Juba, where the central government is located as is Winrock's country headquarters. We were all working about 12 hr days getting last minute things ready for the conference.

While there were some minor hang ups before the conference, over all it went very well. One incident, for example, was when the Minister of Health from Unity State demanded that we pay for an extra 3 or 4 days for her to stay in a hotel of her choosing as well as her gas money while in Juba... And would you know, we gave it to her! Very frustrating.) It lasted a total of 3 days and all the participants from the states were very engaged and communicated openly with the central government representatives. We were told before the workshop that when GOSS representatives state something, the state representatives rarely say anything to challenge the statements or even add on to GOSS statements. Luckily, this was not the case for our workshop. In the end, the central government was really pleased with the workshop, and they said it exceeded their expectations.

The real trouble came when we tried to get all the state participants on the plane to go back home. Juba airport is the smallest airport yet is still took us 2 hrs to get everyone on the charter plane. Apparantly we paid the charter company in full before the event so basically everything went to hell. Then, as the airport is really small, we were actually all allowed to go out on the tarmac where all the planes were pulling in. While the participants were loading, a huge cargo type plane came, went through a large puddle, turned its back to us and sprayed everyone with dirt, mud and water. Oh fun.

Overall though, it went well. Aside from helping prepare for the workshop, I also worked at a registration table every morning, then took notes all day on workshop discussions and helped out the facilitator with anything he needed. Also, my boss (the chief of party) stated that I was invaluable and asked if I could stay on after August! Silly grad school getting in the way.. Honestly though, even if I did stay on, I think I would need a break anyways.

After the workshop ended there was no real break. The workshop participants left on a Friday and we (my supervisor Lutfiya- the monitoring and evaluation director) left on Monday for our trip to Warrap state in the northern part of Southern Sudan. We first flew on a World Food Programme (WFP) flight to Wau, of which our first view was of two airplanes that had crashed, then drove north to Kuajok where Winrock has a team based and a recently opened, still being constructed, compound. Kuajok was great actually. The weather was surprisingly cool (meaning not too hot- only high 80s/low 90s F), there was a lot of open space as it was a small town in the country, and it was surprisingly green. I heard the rains earlier in May were responsible for that, but I'm grateful. It was very pretty- lots of palm trees and other vegetation.

The purpose of our trip was to speak with field staff and learn more about the programs they were running, observe ongoing activities and speak to community members who are participants in Winrock activities. We traveled to Twic (twich) county first. It took about 2 hrs or more on a very bumpy road to get to the area, but just before we arrived it started storming. The sky was really pretty before the storm, but the rain made it very difficult for us to get around (even in a four wheel drive jeep!). In the end, we weren't able to meet with any communities, see any activities, or even meet with our partern organizations in Twic. We arrived and left about 30 minutes later. Only a slight waste of time... (Picture above: On the way to Twic County, possibly near Gogrial in Warrap State)

The whole next day was spent in meetings- first one starting at 8am and the last one ending about 9:30pm. Then we ate dinner... The next day we went to Akon South county to visit a few boreholes that our partner organization PACT drilled, speak with newly formed water user committees, and interview a community action group (formed to discuss and plan actions they will take to develop their own community, i.e. building schools, adult education for women, etc.) that was formed by Winrock staff. We traveled on ok to terrible roads. We saw three vehicles get stuck on the way, and we even had some trouble traversing the huge puddles (more like lakes) that were still around from the rain the other day. That trip took all day, followed by more meetings with field staff, then it was friday.

(Above: Children we met when visiting a community/borehole in Akon South.)

(Below: Video of us going through one of the very wet, muddy, and lake like areas. Thank goodness for four wheel drive. Although, even with it we were a little worried.)

On Friday, while Lutfiyah conducted a meeting with one of our partner organizations, I was able to go to a nearby community (Angui) and speak with another community action group. This community was particularly interesting because they had formed a community action group and elected a woman as its chairperson. The only group so far to do that! I had a wonderful conversation with the woman and several of the groups' management officers, and they showed me around their community. The woman was very remarkable. Before Winrock came to the community, she had been a member of the community school PTA and ran her own business. The community as a whole was similarly inspiring. Instead of relying on outside organizations to build things for them, they have made their own bricks and begun building a storage room for future ox-ploughs as well as a school. The group also contains a women's sub group which plans to start up a bedsheet weaving and dying business. When I left Angui, I left with a potential success story to report to USAID, and I learned some words in Dinka! Unfortunately, as soon as I returned to the Winrock compound in Kuajok, I found out our plane would leave Wau (south of Kuajok by about 1.5 hrs) very early in the morning, which meant we had to leave that afternoon (about 15 minutes to pack up and leave).


Wau was actually pretty nice. It's a much bigger city than Kuajok (Kuajok is a very small town, despite it being the capital of the state). We stayed in The River Lodge to which we each paid about 130 dollars to stay in a tent. Mind you it was a very large tent- the type you see in old safari movie scenes. That night, we had the most wonderful potato soup, one beer (which did us both in- very sad), and were otherwise completely happy staring into space. There was a storm that night which we were worried would not allow planes to leave or take off (no tarmac here.. just dirt), but thankfully there was no large damage. We even took off relatively on time! Granted, this was only because we decided to fly a Southern Sudanese commercial airline instead of the WFP flight. The WFP flights are always late, sometimes leave early, and sometimes don't show up at all, stranding you for days.

I'm back in Juba now, but I'll be leaving again on Tuesday. This time, it is for Unity state. Much like the last trip, we'll be staying where Winrock has a compound, in Bentiu, then traveling to one or more counties to visit with communities and see how our activities and programs are progressing. (Below: The view we had before it poured in Twic County.)