My last weekend :-(

Elaine as Sacajawea

A Hooded Vulture at the Riverlodge

I can't believe I've been away a whole month! It's gone so quickly and I've had my last weekend in Wau!
It started with the Explorers barbecue on Saturday night, at what is going to be the new aparthotel - the Marula village - named after the trees they have planted there. You were supposed to go as a famous explorer so I acquired a couple of feathers from the local vultures and went as Sacajawea the Indian guide.
After a lazy breakfast on Sunday I wanted to go exploring! Beautiful Wau is famous in Sudan for 2 things - the largest brick built building in Southern Sudan and two sets of traffic lights! In all the time I've been here I've never seen the lights working. Andrew assured me that they were sometimes on but...
Anyway as it was my last Sunday I wanted to visit the market and try and get a photo of the RC cathedral - the largest brick building in Southern Sudan.

The airport road in Wau

By the by - the Sudanese do not like you taking photos. They assume you are spying for the North and get very upset - so this picture of the airport road was a sneaky one taken through the car windscreen on my phone as I pretended to text! The market is off the road to the right.
On our way to the cathedral we had to pass through the traffic lights which were working!! We assumed the Governor was worshipping at the cathedral so they had switched the lights on.

Wau Roman Catholic Cathedral

As you can see from the (furtively taken) photo, the cathedral is a very impressive building. It was also full as people were standing outside and the service was being played to them over loud speakers.

Exhausted after volleyball!

We wanted to check out the market as there have been rumours of food shortages since the Government in Khartoum introduced austerity measures banning the import of frozen meat and dairy products, amongst other things. Prices have certainly risen sharply in the last couple of weeks, including the price of fuel which of course has a knock on effect on the price of goods. There seemed to be plenty of fresh produce for sale but we didn't ask the prices - we caused enough chaos just walking through the stalls!
There are so few white people around on foot that we caused great excitement. I'm so sorry I couldn't take photos but you can't capture the smells and the noise of the market on film anyway.

We met some friends at Asmara for coffee then back to the Riverlodge for pizzas and what seems to be the traditional Sunday afternoon volleyball session - again I volunteered to fetch the ball and take photos!

Sunday afternoon gardening in Wau!

Mangoes growing on the tree by the pool

Rumour has it amongst the local school children, that the mango trees were planted here by the British to say thank you to the locals for carrying them around during the rainy season in their sedan chairs that they'd brought over from India!
Whether that's true or not I can't say for sure, but the mango is a native of southern Asia, mainly Burma and eastern India so there is a ring of truth to the story.
Same goes for the coconut palms and papaya trees, that are not quite as abundant but seem to have been brought from India by the British as well.

The plant growing up our wall

It's fairly dry and dusty here at the moment as it's summer. They don't get any rain till around April, but there is an abundance of water from bore holes and the Jur river, so the flower beds here at the River Lodge are watered every day and there are plenty of flowers in bloom.

Andrew gets stuck in!

Last Sunday we were invited to the ACTED (Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development - disaster management and water/sanitation specialists) House for a spot of gardening! Andrew was hoping this was code for serious drinking, but unfortunately they actually meant gardening! They have moved in a different place which has a really nice shaded courtyard, and have decided to try and grow some plants.
As you can probably see from the photos, the ground is fairly solid and has to be broken up with a pick axe. A bit like digging in my allotment in the freezing weather last November!

Haida hard at it!

One of the new beds

A number of us turned up to help - I volunteered to take the photos - but the seeds and plants were planted and watered. Needless to say - plenty of beer was also consumed. So that's how Sunday afternoons are spent in Wau!

Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud (and a little bit of history)

I knew that the British had built most of the brick buildings in Wau, but was curious as to our involvement with Sudan. The British have been here on and off since 1869 when the opening of the Suez canal made control of the Nile of strategic importance as a route to the Indian ocean. The Nile flows right through Sudan, which is currently the largest country in Africa.

Brick buildings in High Street Wau

 General Gordon was killed in Khartoum in 1884 and it wasn't until 1899 that the British and Egyptians signed an agreement declaring joint sovereignty over Sudan.

The Jur river in Wau

In 1924 the British effectively divided Sudan into two territories - the muslim arabic speaking north and the christian south, where English was encouraged. When Egypt abandoned it's claims to sovereignty in 1954, the British also withdrew and Sudan officially gained independence in 1956.

Our Verandah!

Wau is the capital of Western Bahr-el-Ghazal state about 640 km from the capital Juba further south. It was an outpost for the British who built most of the brick buildings down the main street as well as the Riverlodge, which was originally built in the 1950's as a field hospital.

Some of the original brick buildings in the Riverlodg

They also built a grand 'palace' next door for the High Commissioner of Bahr-el-Ghazal which is now used as the Governor's office.

The lodge stands right on the banks of the Jur river which flows across Western Bahr-el-Ghazal into the swampy Sudd region formed by the White Nile.

Last year there was great excitement when a pair of hippos returned to the river and took up residence near the Riverlodge. The locals saw this as a sign of peace returning to the region as most of the wildlife was killed or fled during the civil war(s).
They tend to emerge from the water early in the morning to graze, which is when this picture was taken.

The Hippos at breakfast

The locals seem to be as enchanted with them as we are, and the hippos are totally unfazed by the admiring crowds of people standing on the bridge and the river banks, ooing and ahing over them. Everyone is hoping that there may be a baby hippo sometime this year although with a gestation period of 8 months there may be a while longer to wait!

THE BIG BANG!!

There is still a fair amount of unexploded ordnance from the civil war - both land mines that would have been laid by the SPLA as protection, and mortars etc fired from tanks or dropped from planes.

Stefan is one of the de-miners working in sector 2 and he asked me if I’d like to go along to one of their demolitions. He is ex-bomb disposal from the German army and has a team of 3 who go with him, one is a medic in case of emergency! Their company is employed by the UN to recover and dispose of all types of explosives.

They rely very heavily on locals giving them information, so spend a lot of time visiting villages and talking to the chiefs who can lead them to any devices that are found.

Today they had 2 RPGs (rocket propelled grenades) and some mortar shells to blow up. The RPGs would have been fired at tanks but failed to explode at the time. The mortars were just empty shells but they dispose of them anyway.

The quarry

We headed out of town to a maram quarry where the ordnance was already placed in a deep hole. The team spent half an hour telling the locals what they were doing. Doubly important that they understand what the explosion is at the moment, and don't think that the North is attacking again. 

The UN informed the local police and services what would be happening and we were on target to detonate at 10:00.

Unexploded ordnance

 Two of the team closed the nearby road to traffic 10 minutes before we set off the explosion and on a countdown of 3, I got to push the button! Stefan went to check that everything had gone according to plan and when we got the all clear over the walkie talkies we were safe to go back to the site.

Setting the charge

 

Stefan’s been out here for nearly 2 years having also worked in Iraq, the Lebanon and Afghanistan. Really good to meet brave people like him doing such essential work.