My lovely, larger than life, funny, practical and very competent boss, Patsy, left today. After 5 years here, from working with an NGO, living in Tukals, dodging snakes (both the animal and human kind), bullets, malaria, Nairobi fly (they are REALLY evil - go on, Google the pictures), to taking on this clinic when it was a single room with the odd pot of paracetamol, and turning it into what is the safest place to be in Juba if you're sick, she has finally moved on to new adventures. Leaving Andrew and me to carry on - scared? us? OF COURSE WE ARE !!!. Crikey, what a name to live up to. She knew everyone in this town, from the entire cabinet it seems, to every local cleaner/driver/groundsman - and treated everyone with the same respect and consideration. I only hope we do her legacy justice.
We had a great weekend - out with the EU army on Friday, which turned out to be a slightly more, shall we say, lengthy, evening than I had planned, to partying on Saturday night in the infamous "Bedouin's" - the local meat-market/dance hall/shisha bar.
Everywhere you looked there was a character, from the 7 foot Dinkas ( I know, they're getting taller every week - but they are!), to the middle-aged ex-pats, eyeing up the local talent ( I use the word "talent" loosely), to the usual crowd of NGO's letting their ruined hair down and having a laugh. It was hilarious. At one point, some of the local "ladies" decided to have a bit of a scrap ( a nightly affair apparently), and no-one even noticed the wigs flying about and the screeches as the hair extensions were yanked . My boss told us a story of a similar night in there, where one lady's hair extension had come flying over the bar and landed in her friends drink. He calmly pulled it out and continued on with his conversation
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The music ranged from Madonna, to dance-hall, to rave, completely WITH seams, and by the time we left everyone was having a great old dance (especially the local "ladies", who were really showing off their wares by now). Being slightly broken from the festivities the night before, I was off at 1130, only to sit in the yard of the compound 'till 0230, giggling to yet more "you wouldn't believe it if was in a book" stories from Patsy. Hilarious. Poor Andrew was a bit startled by the whole experience, and has sworn never to enter "Bedlam's" ever again. Very apt.
With Andrew safely retrieved from Nairobi, we are really going to crack on with the things that need to be done in the Clinic. The logistics of getting the things you need are mind boggling, and we really have to sort a system out that will work for us, and the clinic. Lots of hours ahead of us, with the realisation that we're on our own now, and we have to learn even more quickly than we have had to so far.
All this positive thinking was a little dampened when I put my request for leave in today, happily thinking to myself that I would be off on a plane to catch up with friends in 5 weeks, only to actually COUNT the weeks, and discover that August seems to have lots more days in it than is strictly polite, ( I know it's only 31, but WEEKS wise...), and recalculate to 7 and a half weeks. I'm not wishing my life away ( my Mother cautioned me against that at every given opportunity), but here, in this funny old place, you have to have a glimpse of another world every now and again. I was going to say the real world, but it's no more real than here. Here is definitely real.
I'm not sure I've mentioned it enough, but I am very glad indeed that Andrew is back and I can share this experience with someone who gets what is going through my head - I got overly excited at the arrival of some Typhoid reagents from Nairobi today, all cold chained properly, and only a few hours late.
My world has got a lot smaller,despite living in a vast continent.
Funnily enough, it's all OK.
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