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!

Cold Remedies

Lots of people have colds these days so I did a review with my health group on some ways to help someone who has a cold.

 We talked about five easily-available things and ways that they can use them:
 1. Water: drink lots; breathe in steam; wash hands often
 2. Salt: use in warm water to gargle for a sore throat; sniff up warm water with a little salt to help clear a stuffed nose
 3. Garlic: eat a few cloves a day (easier when they're diced small and swallowed without chewing, with lots of water); for children, dice finely or crush a clove, put on a spoon with some sugar
4. Onion: cut up half an onion, mix with a cup of water and drink a few sips at a time
5. Hibiscus tea: drink lots, it contains vitamin C and other good things

One important thing NOT to do for a simple cold: go get injections of antibiotics (very common here--a waste of money and potentially harmful).

The women had fun teaching about these things at church.

"Here, have a glass of water with chopped onions."

A Time for Sowing

The rainy season has begun here in Parot. We've had a few good rains and people have been sowing seeds: okra, pumpkin, sorghum (a kind of millet). They'll sow peanuts later.

The Dinka around us typically plant seeds in two ways: scatter and bury, and dig and drop.

In the scatter and bury method, seeds are scattered over a plot of ground that has not been worked or dug in any way, only softened by rain. Then, usually on their knees, people turn over the earth with long hoes, burying the seeds in the process. No sowing in straight lines or making sure seeds are a certain distance apart, as is the custom in many other places.

The ladies in this photo are from our local church. We have given them part of our compound to grow things in. The fruit of their labours will help support their denomination's pastoral/leadership training centre. The past few days the ladies have worked sowing okra. The video below shows how they use their hoes while kneeling or sitting, turning over the earth to bury the seeds they've scattered.

The dig and drop method is usually used for smaller areas. My friend Agau planted a small patch of okra last week using this method. It's very simple: you did some holes, and drop seeds into them. You can do all this while standing, covering over the seeds with your foot, as Agau does in the video below.

 

 

BYOC (Bring Your Own Chair)

Heading to church this past Sunday morning

After-church chatting

Coming In On A Charter: The Flight

When I left off in my last post, my teammates the Farises and I had just gotten onto the MAF plane for our flight from Nairobi to Malualkon, South Sudan on April 4. The route for our flight was the following, which is the route our charters usually take to go in:

A. Nairobi to B. Lokichoggio, Kenya: 2 1/2 hours flying time
B. Lokichoggio, Kenya to C. Rumbek, South Sudan: 2 1/4 hours flying time
C. Rumbek to D. Malualkon, South Sudan: 1 hour flying time
The stops in Loki and in Rumbek are for re-fueling.

View Larger Map
To continue on with the timeline from the previous post:
9:30 - Passengers load onto to the MAF plane, which is a Cessna 208 Caravan with a single turboprop engine. Our pilot is Jane, who as far as we know is the only Kenyan and only woman pilot currently flying with MAF.

Daniel and Liam are sitting in the back of the plane behind the freight.

There are three passenger seats in front of the freight, just behind the pilot and co-pilot's seats (on our flight we only have a pilot). I'm sitting behind the pilot and Natalie and Liam are behind the co-pilot's seat.

My view of the control panel. The screen with green and brown in the upper middle of the panel is a map showing the position of the plane. It's fun to follow along our route.





9:50 - Take off from Wilson Airport to fly north up to Lokichoggio (Loki). I got some nice views of Nairobi (Wilson is located right in the city).

View of Nairobi city centre

Recent housing complexes

Slums

12:20 - Arrive in Loki.

View over the pilot's should as we were heading towards the runway in Loki, which you can see in the distance in the middle of the photo.

Loki airport official buildings (police and immigration)

Our plane being refueled

The official reason for stopping in Loki may be refueling, but for me (and I'm sure most women passangers), what Loki means is: toilets!
(There's no toilet on the Caravan.)
 

And the women's washroom in Loki is actually very decent for rural Africa. It's spacious and clean, the toilet usually flushes, there's toilet paper and soap and running water for handwashing.

13:00 - Leave Loki to fly to Rumbek.

13:40 - Cross into South Sudan. The route map below shows the plane right on the border. 

 

15:20 - Arrive in Rumbek, South Sudan for refueling. It's about 40 degrees C (approx. 105 F.)

Rumbek airport

We passengers go to the immigration office at the airport to pay a registration fee and have our passports stamped.

16:00  - Leave Rumbek for our last leg, a short flight to Malualkon. The Caravan plane cabin is not pressurized so it's quite warm in the plane.

Getting close to Malualkon - notice the plane's shadow, bottom left

Good view of typical Dinka compound in foreground

Coming in to the runway at Malualkon

It's always great to see our truck waiting at the end of the runway

Teammate James who came to pick us up, greeting pilot Jane

Unloading

Lots of interest on the part of onlookers

17:40 - Leave airstrip 

We can't fit all the freight on the truck at one time. We take one load plus all us passengers and pilot Jane, who will spend the night at our compound. The next morning, James will drive her back to the plane and pick up the rest of the freight.

18:05 - Arrive at our compound in Parot. We made it!

So sorry, no pictures of this. Guess my mind was a little fuzzy.  And I didn't even think of taking pictures of the final step: unloading the truck.

 

Thanks for coming along on this journey!