Curious stares
As we drove around --off-roading, really-- on the terrible roads of Southern Sudan, with traditional African music blaring through the speakers of our giant Land Cruiser, I was overwhelmed by my surroundings.We passed many, many lines of Sudanese women and children carrying huge loads on their heads, presumably on their way to or from the market or a water source. In some places, people must walk for miles to get to anything. We drove through remote, dusty villages with perfect mud huts and small family agricultural plots, often surrounded by lazy cattle or goats meandering in the street.We drove on dirt roads littered with potholes big enough for an adult to crawl i

Hope and Humility
I finally left Juba and headed for "the field," where the real action of our project takes place. I'm on overload processing the mix of beauty and poverty that surrounds everything out here. There is so much to take in.Over the past two days, I have been to villages that have never seen a “white person” and have learned so much from talking with village elders, community leaders, parents, and farmers. They tell stories of incredible hardship, but they also speak of hope, pride, and opportunity: things these villages haven’t seen for many, many years.They all so graciously expressed that they feel proud that someone like me would come all this way to visit them.

greens with peanut sauce and other Sudanese treats
I have only had one chance so far to get off the compound to eat some local Sudanese food. All of the staff thought I was strange for wanting to do so. For me, there is no way I could leave here without having an authentic eating experience. -That's the best part of any trip!One of our local staff took me and my Italian colleague to a local restaurant. We were among only two other "Westerners" (everyone else was Sudanese), so that was a good sign of its local authenticity. While watching African music videos, we dined on a variety of local dishes which were good but pretty strange.The food comes "family style" (everyone dips into communal bowls), and the custom is to

Stomach of Steel (not so steely in Sudan)
For years, I have prided myself on having a Stomach of Steel. - But apparently, my stomach is no match for HOOKWORMS (!) and some other parasite that has decided to use me as a home. It has been a grueling last couple of days, complete with a visit to the hospital in Juba.When I asked the doctor how I got hookworm, he just laughed and said "This place is filthy; everyone has worms here." Nice.My colleagues have been great, checking up on me and bringing me soup and oral rehydration tablets every couple of hours. Two days later, I am much better than I was before. Hopefully I'll be back to 100% very soon. -It's definitely not fun, and it's not easy, to be

the Little Things
When our project conducts trainings in the field, attendance is taken by fingerprint. Most of the participants do not know how to sign their own name.There are so many little things that we take for granted.