Akueth's Tea Shop

Drinking "chai" (tea) is one of the main leisure activities here in South Sudan. South Sudanese love very sweet, very hot tea. Almost every adult has at least one glass of it each day, and many have several. Tea is made and consumed at home, in the workplace, on the street, in tea shops. Making tea and selling it is one of the common income-generating activities that many women do to help support their families.

I recently had tea in a shop run by a young woman named Akueth. She is the cousin of my friends Achol and Adut and I went to the shop with them. Akueth's shop is located in Wanyjok market. Dozens of other women also make tea and sell it in the market.

Here is a video I made to show the tea making process. You'll hear lots of laughter from Achol, who got a big kick out of looking in my camera's monitor as I was filming.

 

 

Adut, Acol and I enjoying our tea :-)

 

My House

My house is located on the plot of land where the two families on my team live. It measures 24 ' (7 m)  X 14' (4 m), has two rooms and is built of cement blocks with a tin roof. My colleague Daniel oversaw the construction of the house and did a lot of the work himself, with the help of several local hired men. What a joy and privilege to have this house to call home!

Front of the house during the rainy season last fall--nothing green left now!

Front porch

View to the right side of the kitchen from the front door

Left side of the kitchen looking from the front side of the house

View of right front side of kitchen

View of left front side of kitchen, looking from the back door

My bedroom: view from door towards the shower in the corner

View from shower towards the bedroom door

Mohktar's Shop

The town nearest to where I live is Wanyjok, a 20-minute walk from my house.  It has a market (shopping area) to which I go once or twice a week. Food, clothing, soft drink and beer stores, tea shops and bars abound, as well as a few pharmacies, hardware shops and places that sell cell phone credit. There are also some bread shops, restaurants,  and a few tailors, flour grinding mills, and motorcycle and bicycle repair shops. A section of one of the side streets has a traditional market area where women sell perishable things like seasonal vegetables and leaves and peanut paste.

I get some staple items like sugar, flour, macaroni, tomato paste, onions and garlic at the shop of a trader named Mokhtar. He, like many of the other traders in the market, is from the Darfur area of Sudan. He speaks very good English and Dinka as well as Arabic (and probably a few other languages, too!). In addition to food items, Mokhtar sells things like pens, batteries, soap, perfume, toothpaste, and light bulbs. 

The main street of Wanyjok market

Mokhtar's shop

Mokhtar in his shop

Bulk items (not in order shown in the picture): ginger and cinnamon bark (for flavouring coffee and tea), sugar, flour, lentils, tomato powder, garlic, dried hibiscus flowers (from which a fruity tea is made)

Mokhtar's scale--I love the brass weights he uses.

Child's Play

I love seeing how children use their imagination and the things they have at hand in their play. This morning while out walking I came upon some young neighbours "playing house."

Here are two of the kids and their creations.

Akol sitting on his house, which is shown below

Aluet and her "bedroom in a box"

Blogging Challenges

One of our Zain USB modems

Some of you may have noticed the I didn't blog during the past week. It wasn't just a lack of time due to the dental training. A few evenings I did have some time and tried to post, but the internet connection was so slow I couldn't get on to the Blogger site--or any other site--not to mention upload any photos or video. The internet is generally faster during the morning hours.

We access the internet through the cell phone network. Our provider is a company called Zain and we're very grateful that they operate in our area. Up until 18 months ago, my team didn't even have cell phone access, let alone internet! We use modems provided by Zain that plug into a USB port.

My team has a total of three of these modems, which is not enough for each "unit" (i.e. family or single) on the team to have one. We have to share them because Zain doesn't have any more available. One of the families on my team were in Nairobi recently and bought a cell phone that can access the internet plus serve as a wi-fi modem for their computer. I may get one of these phones when I'm in Nairobi for R&R in March.

New Dental Health Workers

The dental training ended yesterday with a small ceremony to mark the occasion. Congratulations, Kerubino and Thomas! And congratulations and many thanks to Dr. Jim for the excellent training he provided.

Happy trainer and trainees

The training team