Moving to Wau

Last morning in Juba with Sadam

Wau, South Sudan

Home for the next week, Tent #4

Yesterday I flew to Wau from Juba on a WFP (World Food Programme) flight.  Its a UN organization that cares for UN workers, NGOs on small flights throughout S Sudan.  The highlight of my flight was meeting a Peruvian woman sitting next to me and getting to speak some Spanish! 
Pamela, Rita and I are staying at the Wau River Lodge which is really nice.  We each have our own nicely equipped tent with bathroom, electricity and a comfortable real mattress (I've been sleeping on a foam pad in Juba).

The people here are very friendly, the atmosphere is a lot more calm and peaceful than Juba.  I already met some ex-pat friends at the hotel as well as some South Sudan friends.  Connie, the director here in Wau, took me to dinner last night at another hotel, the Amarulo Lodge, which was really nice.  I saw a wild African cat which was amazing, unfortunately couldn't get a picture.  It had large rounded ears, was the size of my dog and had black spots covering its yellow fur. . . incredible.  Connie says there will be a barbecue at that hotel this weekend and there's a party somewhere tomorrow night with one of the NGOs, so looks like Wau will be more social than Juba.  Driving home from dinner was interesting since there is no city power so complete darkness other than some car lights.  Getting back to my room was nice without the loud noise of a generator, motorcycles. . . just some light rain on the tarp above my tent.  I was a little nervous for the change, but now I'm very happy to be here.

 The only downside I see so far is the cost of living.  The prices in Wau are double prices in Juba.  I was getting lunch for $3 USD in Juba, dinner for $7 USD and last night my dinner was $18 USD!!!  Amazing how people survive here.  Its much more rustic here than Juba, hardly any of the roads are paved, like I said no city power but no one seems to mind.  People seem less stressed here, my kind of place. 

This morning I checked out the room where Pamela, Rita and I will be doing training next week.  Rita is a nurse midwife from Malakal, S Sudan who is with us to help train and most importantly translate our English into Arabic.  The rest of today I will be in the ARC office working on my systematic review for the CDC and hopefully finish a draft!!  Tomorrow, Silas, one of the RH officers and I will go to Wau teaching hospital to see if we can head over sometime next week to do FP counseling on some patients in the antenatal clinic.  There are no FP services yet set up here so we will not get to do any insertions of IUDs or implants like we did last week.  I can't believe I only have a week left, its gone by sooo quickly!!!