On Tuesday, I was startled out of my reverie, by a sharp rap on my metal door at about 2230. Now that is practically middle of the night round here, so as you can imagine, I leapt out of the chair where I was just about to finish the last chapter of an exhausting, brilliant and quite traumatic book. It was my German boss, telling me to come to the yard as there was something he needed to tell us all. It transpired that the President had just sacked the entire government. An internal coup, if you like. Information was scanty, but we were advised to pack a small bag, our passports, and be ready to be "extracted" if the need arose. Andrew and I dutifully packed bags, plus, being the ever ready nurses, a first aid kit and some strong drugs- you never know.....
We then sat about in the yard 'till midnight, drinking tots of whiskey (for courage, obviously), until it became apparent that the only thing to do was go to bed.
The following day it was eerily quiet. The clinic was open, but it appeared that most organisations had ordered a "lockdown" and very few people were travelling anywhere. The general consensus was - stay inside until further news.
Our local Doctors, however, brightened the atmosphere, by turning up at work in carnival mood, happily telling us that this is just what South Sudan needed, and not to worry, there would be no trouble. We still slept with one eye open that night.....
The next day there were reports of riots in one of the markets a few miles away. The news spread like wildfire, and phones were ringing madly - we found out a few hours later from Martha, our "Head of cleaning everything that you put down for a second ", that actually it was just two stallholders having a scrap - just shows what the rumourmongers can do....
So here we are, a week later, and frankly, (and I know this is bad), I'm a little disappointed. Our extraction plan had us in the back of a truck owned by the burly South African de-miners opposite, heading for the Ugandan border, where a charter plane from Nairobi would pick us up. I'd even packed my travel pillow ! In reality, it's business as usual. The people here appear so tired of conflict, so worn by it, that they are just going about their daily business, trying to survive.
The President has yet to announce the new government, so we remain on standby, but the general feeling amongst the Embassies (and I look after lots of people from the Embassies, so this is straight from the horse's mouth) is that this is a change that is wanted, and needed, and it will be peaceful. The plan from the President is to reduce the Ministries from 28, to 19, so there are bound to be some disgruntled folk, but it appears to be a change for good. In an apparent typing error, he forgot to appoint a minister for health, but that appears to have been rectified,so we await the announcement with bated breath... The ministry for "Roads and Bridge" still stands though ( bless him - there IS only one bridge...)
I wasn't sure whether to post this or not, as I don't want to scare my family, but it's an important part of the strange life I lead now. I'm safe, well looked after, and surrounded by people who have been in a lot scarier situations than this for many years, so deep breath Family - I'm fine.
In fact I couldn't even manage to get Malaria this week, the headache and achey feeling I had, was, in fact, a cold. In Africa. I'm even recovering from that quickly, and am nearly at 100% again.
There is a national holiday again tomorrow - "Martyr's Day", so the clinic is closed, but with nowhere to go we are planning on eating the best food we can cook again, and lying low.
I am now getting to the point where I am experiencing the first rumblings of cabin fever, and am craving decent cheese, a nice glass of wine, and a nice hot bath. With bubbles.
If only something exciting were to happen.....(only joking Family!!!)
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