Village Scenes

Here are some pix I took this week of life in the village.

Girls carrying water from the handpump to home

Typical Dinka village--cows everywhere. They're feasting these days!

Cutting up pumpkin leaves to put in a sauce

The sorghum at this friend's house is the tallest I've seen so far this year

Ripe sorghum at a friend's house made of grass mats with tarps to keep the rain out

A friend's son enjoying some of the first ripe sorghum

Shacks covered with a climbing vine

Vine growing on the home of returnees from Sudan with a UNHCR tarp

Okra stalks--beautiful Christmas colours in August

Found a few okra plants with pink flowers instead of the usual pale yellow

Seasonal Flowers

The various crops here are thriving and it's a joy to see them grow and develop.  One thing I delight in is the flowers they produce. Here is a selection of some that are currently in bloom.

Peanuts.  Seeing a whole field of these plants with their cheerful little yellow flowers makes me smile.

 

 

Pumpkin. When I look out my kitchen window I see these plants that my friend Agau planted behind my house. Their big yellow flowers are fully open in the morning, then as the sun gets higher, they close up.

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Sesame. The sesame plants produce white, bell-shaped flowers.

 Watermelon. Some of my neighbours have planted a whole field of watermelon this year, and they seem to be doing well. Their flowers are small, cute and yellow (which seems to be a popular colour for flowers--perhaps it attracts the bees?).

Notice the tiny baby watermelon

My neighbour tending to his watermelon plants

Okra. I kind of went overboard taking photos of these today. They have such a delicate colour, and I love the contrast between the pale yellow petals and the burgundy at the base of them (there's surely a name for this part of the flower but it escapes me).

Field of okra plants

 

Okra has formed on some of the plants already

Scores of Sores

Soaking an infected sore

Many people come to me with medical needs. They are often beyond my abilities, but there are many basic things that I can help with. I try to explain and demonstrate as much as possible, so that people learn how to help themselves and others.

One common problem that kids come to me with is sores on their legs and feet, many of which are infected. Boys in particular have these--they play hard, tumble around in the dirt, and often aren't too careful about washing.

They get a cut or scrape or burn, a thorn in the foot, or they scratch and pick at an insect bite. Then this gets dirt in it, they don't wash, flies come by, and voilà, a perfect recipe for infection and pain.

Most of my neighbours don't know that keeping sores clean is essential for healing.

Boys with supplies to do their own wound care

My health group ladies have learned about the this, and they are teaching and showing others. So word is getting around. But there's still a lot of education to be done. 

Most of the time when kids come to me with sores, I explain to them (or their mothers) how to take care of them.

But in some cases where the sore is badly infected, or if it's a larger fresh wound, I do some care myself at first, soaking and cleaning, bandaging, providing antibiotics and/or painkillers if necessary. The kids come back every day or two. Then as things improve, they start taking care of the sores on their own. 

It's very satisfying to see the healing progress. And hopefully what they have learned through this will be of use throughout the rest of their lives.

Aweil Street After Rain

It has rained a lot here lately. Which is wonderful for all the crops. Not so great for Aweil Town, our state capital which is about an hour's drive south of us. Only a few roads there are paved, and after a big rain, some are a little challenging to navigate, whether by foot, bike or vehicle. I took these pictures on a recent drive down one of the main streets.

 

Planting Peanuts

We had a good rain last night and today many people were busy planting peanuts (or, as they are called here, "groundnuts").  The earth is soft and moist and perfect for digging holes to plant and for germination of the seeds, which are some of the choicest peanuts from last year's harvest.

The method used is the "dig and drop" that I described in a previous post. Our local church is using some of the land in our compound for crops, and I enjoyed watching three boys from church families working this afternoon. The oldest was digging the holes, and his younger brother and a friend were dropping in the seeds (one in each hole) and covering them.

 

 Here's a little video I shot of the boys' technique.

Gutters!

I am excited to share that I now have gutters on the front of my house and can collect rain water.

I have wanted to be able to do this ever since moving into my house almost two years ago. It makes so much sense to collect water during the rainy season to use during the hot, dry months.

My teammate Daniel installed the gutters last month and brought over a 750 litre reservoir that we brought in from Kenya on one of our charter planes.

We've had a few good downpours recently and my reservoir is now full. It'll be great for watering plants and small trees  when there's a gap in the rains. It will also come in handy for washing things like buckets and basins and for my laundry.

Seen on the Aweil Road

Last week I drove down to our state capital, Aweil, which is just over 30 km south of us. It takes about an hour to drive, though, because the road isn't very good. On the way back I was on my own with no time constraints and had the luxury of stopping to take photos whenever I wanted. So here are a bunch.

This photo and previous, lots of huts and cows!

Shops (in grass-mat shacks) near a bridge--ugliness and trash

Bicycles are a very popular form of transportation here

Traditional boats (hollowed-out palm trunks) in a dried river bed (it should fill up as the rainy season continues)

Weeding a field of sorghum

Borehole well in Akuem

The bus is the public transportation between Wanyjok and Aweil

Smoother driving off the road than on the road itself, and on whichever side is best

Ladies carrying rolled-up hand-woven grass mats

I had to stop for these two--talk about butting heads!