WARNING: LONG BLOG POSTING - SORRY!!!!!

Happy Christmas to all you lovely people!

Well, it’s Sunday evening and I’ve been in Sudan for two weeks now, so it’s about time I write something on here…

Ok, well it’s been a good two weeks. I took off from the UK late Friday 24 November and arrived in Khartoum on the Saturday night, having wondered round Dubai earlier in the day, as I had a six-hour wait for my connection - pretty cool place. I was picked up from Khartoum airport by the Tearfund Programme Director for North Sudan. He took me to the Tearfund House, where I met three Kenyan ex-pats who work for Tearfund in Khartoum. Khartoum is Tearfund’s Head Office for our North Sudan Programme, which includes three programmes in Darfur, and the Northern Upper Nile State (Renk) project (me!). Here they manage logistics, finances, personnel/human resources stuff for us guys in the field. They are complete stars!

I was expecting to be in Khartoum for a good couple of days, but no, I was told that the donors of the Renk Programme were coming to Renk on the Monday. Tearfund had to be there, which meant I had to be there. So, no lie-in for me on Sunday morning, but straight to the Tearfund office (Friday is their day off) for a whistle-stop tour of how logistics, finance, procurement and HR work… Then after lunch, we headed to Renk…only a five-hour drive now that there’s a proper tarmac road (thank goodness!!). Five hours of keeping still, in a car, without stopping….can you imagine…me, sitting still for that long! J Unfortunately, the scenery isn’t that awe-inspiring. I’ve never been in a country that is so flat, and so barren! The River Nile isn’t in a valley; it is just this huge river that flows through a flat desert. Quite amazing really. It’s such a slow-flowing river. The further north you go though, the greener it gets. A few more plants and trees begin to spring up along the road-side.

Arrived in Renk in the dark, but I couldn’t get over how big it is! Seriously! It’s a proper urban town with piped running water and generators supplying electricity. I suppose I wasn’t expecting that at all, but I think that’s why Renk was decided as our base.

The next two days were spent with our donor and the communities we are working in, informing them what we plan to do over the next three years. The Northern Upper Nile Programme is going to work in three Counties. It is formed through a consortium of NGOs, of which Tearfund is one of them. I work in a team with six other people, four of which are Sudanese national staff, and two are Kenyan. They are all lovely lovely people and have learnt so much from them already.

So yeah, we have a house and an office, not much different to the UK really. Most of my days are spent in the office behind a computer (no different from the UK really), sorting out what we’re going to do regarding water and sanitation, where and when. At the moment we’re sorting out a survey so we can find out where the greatest needs are and prioritise our work. I’m still trying to get my head round everything. Trying to work out who I need to talk to (government officials, government departments, other NGOs…) and who’s advice and help I need is quite a job. Especially when I don’t speak Arabic! Other people in my team are doing Livelihoods, Hygiene, Education and Community Mobilisation.

Evenings are….hmmm….how do I describe them….non-eventful springs to mind. Fortunately we have satellite TV, but apart from that there is nothing much to do. It gets dark by about 18:30, and I mean DARK! The sunsets are absolutely amazing though. And the stars and moon are so so beautiful. I do try and go for a walk round the town and down to the Nile before it gets dark. But yeah, there really isn’t much to do, which is why people will turn to doing work I suppose. I should try and go running, but slightly scared as I know the people here in Renk will find it funny – running is hard work, why burn energy needlessly??

We work Saturdays, but they are supposed to be half-days (Renk is actually classified as South Sudan, and therefore has a normal Saturday and Sunday = no work weekend). Sundays we do no work at all, which is SO nice! But then again, finding things to do to fill the time is another matter. Yeah, um…walking…oh, today I went for a walk (I tend to say hello to everyone), and ended up playing catch with loads of children, teaching them the ‘Hokey Kokey’ and ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ – in English, and them teaching it to me in Arabic. Was so great, I loved it! Could have played for hours J

That’s me in Renk really. Yes it’s sunny, but actually their winter at the moment. It actually gets cold at night and is really cold in the morning – well, cold enough for a hoodie. I have two mobile phones, one of which allows me to connect to the internet, and it’s not that expensive, which is great. We go to the market in Renk to buy our food; eat rice, bread, meat, salad, beans and other stuff that I can’t remember the names of. Don’t worry, we also have CornFlakes – Kelloggs CornFlakes!!! I didn’t even have that in the UK. But we’ve only got powdered milk, it’s ok though. People have 4x4’s (you need them), bikes, donkey & cart. Renk plays a lot of football – seriously, boys here play it all the time – and they all have Manchester Utd and Arsenal football shirts J - must try and teach them the errors of their ways!

Oh, and today, I had my first experience of buying a real live chicken from the market, slaughtering it (throat slit – and no, I didn’t do that!), plucking its feathers, dicing it, sorting out its insides, and cooking it. That was lunch, with rice and salad. I have photographic evidence! Never thought I’d live to say I’d done that. It is so normal here though. We’re so unaccustomed to blood or anything in the UK, just picking up our pre-killed, plucked and insides-removed chicken, coated in plastic and placed on the shelf in the supermarket.

That’s probably the most exciting thing I’ve done so far, as well as having SO much fun with the children today. I know, I’m easily pleased.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on far too much. I’ve just got to say Happy Christmas and have a lovely new year!! It doesn’t feel like Christmas here at all. No decorations, Christmas meals, Christmas cards…all I have is the advent calendar my Mum bought me. Thanks Mum, you’re a star!! I’m going to Uganda for Christmas and New Year, fly out on 21 December. Going to spend it with friends who I know from my visit to Uganda just before I left for Sudan. I’m really looking forward to it, but I am missing the coloured lights, Christmas songs, carols, decorations, meals, fun and laughter. But not the stress of thinking of cool presents for people – and you guys don’t have to think about what to buy me – see, I’ve done you all a favour!! You can thank me later.

Right, really better go. Thank you for all your e-mails and texts. I really appreciate it.

Missing you all lots (and I really mean that).
Love becks xXx