Juba Aerial View

Yesterday afternoon I flew down from Aweil Town to Juba, on my way to Kenya for three weeks of R&R. Today I flew from Juba to Nairobi. Soon after take-off my plane flew over the northwest part of Juba and I had a great view.

In the forefront of the picture is part of "Juba Town," the downtown (and oldest, I think) part of the city. As you can see, it has quite a few trees and lots of unpaved roads. (Some of the main roads in the city are paved, but most roads are not.)

The water you see in the top left part of the picture is the Bahr al Jabal (Mountain Nile), more commonly known as the White Nile, although some say that technically it doesn't become the White Nile until further north.

Here's the view as my plane began to fly over the river, looking towards the south. There are quite a few hotels and restaurants along the river on in the green, treed areas on what is the right side in the picture.

The White Nile flows north from Uganda, past Juba, through South Sudan and on into Sudan. At Khartoum it meets up with the Blue Nile, which comes from Ethiopia, to form the Nile.

I'll be taking a break from blogging until I return to South Sudan just before Christmas. 

Cattle Camp Migration

On a drive down to Aweil Town yesterday morning, we came upon a huge cattle camp moving down the road. At this time of year, the start of the dry season, cattle camps from our area head down south of here to where there is better grazing land.

We noticed quite a few calves walking alongside their mothers. It seemed like there were more than at other times of the year. We wondered if there were more calves born at certain times of the year than others. Something to ask our cattle owner friends about.



I don't know if the women standing in the road were part of the camp or just bystanders, but women do move along with the cattle camps to do things like cooking and milking.

Abundance of Aloe

The three small aloe plants that I brought back from Kenya three years ago have grown much bigger and multiplied exponentially.


Aloe plants don't multiply via seeds; new baby plants shoot up from the roots of existing plants.

My aloe bed has gotten very crowded during the past months so I decided to transplant some of the plants.

I asked my friend and "right hand woman" Agau to help me do this. We worked on it for a few hours this past Saturday morning.

All of the plants in the picture above came out of a small section of the main bed.


We planted some of the plants but still had a lot left over. So we decided that Agau would do some teaching Sunday after church about using aloe gel to treat burns and then offer interested women to come to my house and get some aloe plants to take home.


Aloe gel is wonderful for burns, and unfortunately burns are common here, particularly among small children, since cooking is done on fires at ground level.

These are some of the ladies who came after church to get plants. We would love to see aloe growing in many homes so that when someone gets burned, the gel would be readily available. Aloe is also helpful for minor cuts and wounds and skin irritations.

Homemade Toys

Toy cars and trucks are very popular with boys here. They don't buy them at a store, though; they make their own.

This is ten-year-old Deng, the son of one of my good friends, with a car he made from bottle caps, a flattened tin can or two and a few other odds and ends.

Deng really enjoys pulling the car along using a string attached to a stick.

Deng and his younger brother Bol.

Deng and Bol are the fifth and sixth in a family of seven children, which includes them and five sisters. Tragically, their father was killed in June in one of the civil war battles, fighting in the government army. He joined the army earlier in the year, attracted by the regular salary.

On A Happier Note

Here is a happy update to my sad Two Graves post of a few weeks ago. One of my friends, Abuk, is related to the young woman who died after giving birth. Last week I asked Abuk where the young woman's baby was. She said that her paternal grandmother was caring for her.

I told Abuk that my teammate Natalie had a can of powdered infant formula that she would be willing to donate to whomever was caring for the baby, if it was needed.

Three days ago Abuk brought the grandma and her sweet little month-old granddaughter to my house. I was very moved to see them. The grandma, Nyibol, is delighted to be taking care of little Awut. Nyibol is nursing her* (see "footnote" below) and supplementing her milk supply with powdered milk.

Nyibol was very happy to get the formula. I showed her how to prepare it and give it to Awut using a small cup (much easier to clean than the bottle she had been using), but also strongly encouraged her to continue to breastfeed Awut before giving formula, and to eat as well as she can and drink lots of water to help her body produce milk.

Isn't she precious? Please pray that Awut would be healthy and grow well, and that her grandma would also be healthy and able to continue to take care of her.

* Many women, even those who are older or who have never had a baby, can produce breast milk if they have a strong will to do so and if the baby suckles often. The suckling stimulates milk production. 

Bike Rack Baggage

Here are a few things I've seen my neighbours carrying on their bike racks recently. (Bikes are the main form of transportation here aside from walking).

Groundnuts (peanuts) freshly pulled up.

A load of wood for cooking fires, perhaps going to the market to be sold.

A bed, with the mattress folded on top.

House Construction Part 6: Roof Toppers

Here (finally!) is my final post on house construction.

Once the roof is thatched, it looks like this. The ends of the last layer of bundles form a tuft at the top of the roof.











The tuft looks kind of fun and punky, but it's not very solid or waterproof.














This house has a more finished look, with what I call a "roof topper," for lack of a better term.

This is the most common kind of roof topper. It is made by tying bundles of grass very securely and placing them "upside down," i.e. with the tied part at the top and the loose ends on the bottom, around the tuft at the top of the hut and tying them together. 

The loose ends at the bottom of the bundles are then trimmed off so that they are relatively equal.

The picture below shows two women starting to make a roof topper. They are placing bundles "upside down" around the tuft made by the top layer of bundles. 

These ladies were actually making a topper for a rectangular hut. Here's a little video of one of them trimming off the ends of the topper.

It's common here for people to add a cross to the top of the topper. 

Close-up of the bundles tied together.

Sometimes they get creative and stick other things on top!