Khawaja adventures

So, I’ve finally found my crew. The Rumbek expat crowd are a real mixed bunch: managers of two of the local hotels, African Expeditions (Afex) and Safari Style, one a South African, the other an English Kenyan; two Russian pilots; American policemen training the local police force; an ex-military American and his German counterpart working (strangely enough implementing a water & sanitation program) for the fashion-world funded Obakki Foundation; UNMISS (UN Mission in South Sudan) guys that live in self-sufficient, air conditioned containers on the UN World Food Program compound; religious Americans working for church-funded NGOs (aka “The Menenites”) and people working for NGOs such as Oxfam (me!) and IRC – Americans, an Italian couple and  'the beautiful people' - a beautiful Scottish girl and her equally beautiful American boyfriend.

Safari style is the venue of choice for leisurely Sunday afternoons sat by the pool. Or, more to the point, splashing around IN it. Pool volleyball is the order of the day after we’ve tucked in to the Sunday barbeque, which reminds me of barbies at home ... a point which I’ve made out loud in conversation, only to have it jokingly suggested that all that was missing was the shrimp. Stupid American-oriented tourism oriented campaigns. Tainted the reputation of Australian barbeques forever more. Shrimp? Bah!

One thing I’m particularly enjoying, now that I’m more familiar with the different establishments on offer, is the variety of food I can access should I feel like a change from the catering at the Oxfam guesthouse. While our cooks Mary and Margaret do a very good job of feeding us, the rotating menu of posho (or ugali, a bread-dough-like, carb-loaded food not unlike mashed potato... but with less taste), beans, rice, sukumawiki (cassava greens), goat stew or the boniest chickens I’ve ever seen start to get a bit repetitive after a while. And do they use a lot of oil... ? you bet. I’ve been avoiding the meat dishes, if not to save my heart, then to save my taste buds. 

There are a number of Ethiopian restaurants in town, which are good to eat at. I really like Ethiopian food, particularly the big, round, almost fizzy flat bread that forms the base of all their dishes, be it meat, vegetables, lentils. South Sudanese food also features a similar bread, ‘kisra,’ which is just as good, but slightly different, and is served as an accompaniment rather than underneath the food, which you then mop up with your hands.

But it’s the Western food that I enjoy a lot – because it’s familiar, and of course delicious. One thing that Afex do very well is wood-oven-fired pizza. So good. They even say its the best pizza in South Sudan – and I can’t disagree; it’s the best I’ve come across. We regularly hit up Afex for their pizza during the week; and while you don’t always get what you’ve ordered, by the time it arrives you don’t really care. It’s got CHEESE on it!

But what I enjoy most of all is the company. I do love our staff at Oxfam, and really enjoy their company. They’re also a mixed bunch, from South Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and our Program Manager is an Ethiopian; so it’s not like I’m the only foreigner. And they certainly know how to put on a good barbeque (nyama choma – yum!) and turn the Oxfam compound into a raging disco on a Saturday night. But the food I would normally eat and the activities I would normally do are still quite different to what these guys like. Plus I see the Oxfam staff all day every day; I live and work with them 24/7. 

There’s also my local buddies, Dak and Dier, two guys that I hang out with, one of whom shares a love of basketball with me. I regularly meet them in Freedom Square at the basketball court and watch the game, or go to a local bar, have a drink (normally soda, these guys don’t drink beer!) and talk shop. Early in the morning we sometimes go and shoot some hoops in the square too – before anyone else takes over the court!

I really enjoy hanging out with them, to learn what it means to be a young person in Rumbek, to find out what they want to do with their lives. They are cousins, one of whom left Sudan during the war (he lived in Egypt and Nairobi for a while), the other who has never left Rumbek. Dak has never been educated beyond school, but hopes his brother, who lives in Canada and is married to Canadian, will help him to pay for training to become a pilot; Dier is more studious and is currently studying to complete his entry level exams to get into University. They are both very different, and I really like them both. But what I find difficult about hanging with them is that their idea of ‘doing things’ together usually involves just hanging out – they don’t have the cash to go and do something that costs money, and its too hot in the middle of the day for them (or me for that matter) to go on a day-long excursion, so late afternoon/evening is when I see them most – but security issues mean this is also limited. I’ve only just managed to become familiar enough with how things work, plus build up the courage, to request if they can come into the compound. They aren’t allowed to come and hang out in the staff social area, and I think my colleagues would find it weird anyway, so we just have to hang out in my office or at the front of the compound. Or I break curfew and go and hang out with them at the local pub. It’s really frustrating.

So while I love hanging out with the other expats, it’s not because they’re white; it’s because they’re ‘my people’. They understand the need to escape the everyday grind and do ‘normal’ things. 

So we get together for movie nights; cook up pancakes (after a debate about golden syrup vs maple syrup); hold bake-offs in the Safari Style kitchen (based on debates about definitions of cookies vs biscuits – my Anzac biscuits were clearly the best); go on picnics on the outskirts of town; have spur-of-the-moment night swims in the Safari Pool, or day swims in the Hillview Hotel pool; and of course, drink loads of alcohol together. The Russians even managed to get a carton of Fosters from Juba. Now that really impressed me! Drinking can really help you to relax on a Friday (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...) night.

The other thing that’s really helped is that by knowing these guys, I suddenly have access to transport, and generous people who are more than willing to help out in that department. We currently are short of drivers, and with our security restrictions (no walking outside the compound after 7pm, only car travel, and we must be back by 11pm), plus the long distances between different locations in town, it certainly helps to have people who can drop you home or take you on picnics.

Hanging out with these guys makes my time in Rumbek so much fun. It’s really made a difference to being here – I’m really starting to enjoy it, and always look forward to weekends.  Plus I’ve made some good friends to boot. Too bad they’re not hanging around for long; but none of us humanitarian workers ever do.