Arriving in South Sudan + Living Conditions

We arrived in Juba, South Sudan, squished into a land rover and drove the bummiest [no joke] five hour road I ever experienced. We arrived around 10 p.m. and after Esther and I argued with our driver over the price of the ride that we had SET before hand we sat down to a lovely meal made by the Yei base staff. Little did we know that the staff from this base would become our family.

Seven students, two co-leaders, 10 bags, six tents and around 15 carry ons stuffed into a Land Rover.

After our journey I was definitely concerned about the rest of our outreach.

 The girls' tukle/mud hut with grass roof/home.

The men helped the ladies set up our mosquito nets.

That is Esther. She was my co-leader [be concerned :) ]

Victoria had difficultly trying to put up her pretty pretty princess mosquito net.

Lucas [uhhmmm] had the same kind of net for his bed.

 This is where we ate and washed our dishes.

We ate every meal together. Literally.

Breakfast consisted of a single roll and tea/instant coffee, and was our favorite time together. The bell rang at 7 a.m., and we spent two hours eating our rolls [sometimes with the peanut butter we packed in our suitcases] and talking. Although we spent nearly every moment of our 24 hour days together, we never ran out of anything to say.

We became family very quickly.

Lunch and dinner alternated between rice or corn maze and beans/greens/cabbage.

This was our cement squatty potty. Friends included cockroaches, bees, ants, frogs and occasional jumping spiders.

This was where we showered every day/night. While our showers had no roof, we were blessed to have a water well in walking distance to shower whenever we needed to.

Some of my best memories were showering under the stars.