Census, School, and Life

Well, for the past 2 months all of Ikotos and the surrounding areas have been a bustle preparing for the national census. Some of the teachers at the school have not been teaching for the last 4 weeks because of census numerator training. School was abruptly cancelled last week without the students taking their final exams and they were sent home to their home villages and towns. The census was supposed to take place in the whole nation from 13 April, through the 30th, however, yesterday after church we got word that the census was cancelled and that the 40+ Land Cruisers that were bought for the mobilization were held up in Juba. So, even though the numerators, including the teachers, are happy because they were not only paid for the training, but paid in advance for their census services, we are left with nothing to count on. I asked a friend what he thought about the census being canceled and we feels that it was a good decision b/c many are still in exile and others in the villages do not know it was supposed to take place, and so it should wait, he says. However, much donor money has gone into repatriation from the refugee camps in Uganda and Kenya, even money that has brought in building supplies for repatriates to build houses.
In my western mindset, I cannot imagine putting all this time and money, and confusion into a project as big as this and then canceling it. It’s frustrating, but I guess the country is still building and we'll see what happens next--never a dull moment. Although my every day life can be just as mundane as in North America.
There has been talk of re-opening the school, however I am not in favor of that b/c the students have already left town for their own homes and personally I intend to get started on preparation for a rape workshop for men. Part of me thinks that this won't help anything, but then I also believe that "if you don't know it broke, you can't fix it." So, I will work with my friend, who is the HIV/AIDS coordinator for an NGO on getting this workshop off the ground for May.
Speaking of workshops, the final STAR workshop took place last week and I was able to attend it. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those new peace counselors all over South Sudan. Here are some pictures from week.




Tomorrow I look forward to my coordinator coming in from Uganda to spend a couple of days with us. I hope that I'm not too tough on her, but I do plan to show her how to light the charcoal oven, make coffee from a Nalgene, boil water from a horribly cheap kerosene stove, and walk to the school while shaking hands with all the children as you pass them. ;)
On Thursday, the entire kewaja crew flies out to Torit for our annual South Sudan Unit retreat. The last one was in September, when I first arrived. Now, I'm an old veteran and am excited to swap stories with my fellow unit members. Also last time, I was sleeping in a tent and it rained--hard; and my tent was soaked-- including my sleeping bag. But after getting over that just-wet-the-bed feeling, I slept fine thanks to my Lafuma sleeping bag from the Outfitters! Have a great week and weekend everyone!



Here are some pics that I took while walking up here this evening. The red building is the part of the Catholic church. The mountain with the fence is just up from my house. You can see that a thunderstorm was on its way. ;)