November saw the Doro team very thin on the ground for leadership and so Deborah went in to support Christiane and enjoy her long-awaited return visit.
We travelled in through Juba (my first time there) where we registered as aliens, started to acclimatise and enjoyed some delicious street-cooked fish (for me) and chicken (for the others). Ruth (USA) and Joanna (Scotland), plus Briana (USA) were my very fun travelling companions. It was Ruth & Briana's first time in - they had been language learning in Egypt up until now.
Cooking on the street
I was too overwhelmed to get photos of the Doro airstrip on arrival (see end) but it was HUGE. For starters were were travelling on a UNHAS plane carrying at least 50 people which would never have been able to land before. Doro now has the highest concentration of NGO workers in SS outside of Juba thanks to the 120,000 refugees who have been forced to make their homes there.
It is still absolutely beautiful, especially in the early morning - my favourite time of day
I stayed in Asule's new house (the half of this building where you see the door)...
...and enjoyed having team-mates over for supper - here Ruth and Briana are roasting marshmallows for desert - yummy!
I was thrilled to see one of the (five) bourganvilleas I had planted by our old house beautifully thriving
The Nutrition Village had new buildings and one had been given a lovely Noah's Ark mural by a team-mate's parents
A wonderful six-hour visit with Tabitha and her family. Joanna is a regular visitor and she was able to supplement my limited Mabaan (but it was amazing how much came back!)
The busy Doro airstrip sees around 5 of these big planes take off (just over our heads) each day
Some things haven't changed - the church is on the left and this path leads towards the Water Compound (and now the Secondary School and a second residential compound too)
Headteacher Amule at the Secondary School
Christiane relaxing with Tiddan
With Simoni the guard
A wonderful visit with Christiane to Gasmallah
What a smile!
A wonderful reunion with Joy, the wife of Justin's Water Project colleague Joseph. We are both 'Mama Caleb and Bethanie'!
Thanks to the lake outside of my window (river flooded its banks), there were lots of these little critters to try and avoid stepping on at night!
A wonderful visit from Tabitha and Grace (my Mabaan 'mothers'). Grace and I sat together for 3 hours enjoying juice, biscuits, tea, popcorn and somehow we made conversation that whole time. It was a relief when Christiane could join us and I could check I was making out her stories correctly but we did pretty well!
Grace
Doro airstrip check-in - another new innovation! Note all the white UN landcruisers
Edge of the new, massively enlarged airstrip with the refugee dwellings in the distance
A closer-in view of the homes the refugees live in. Many remotely located tribes from deep in the bush are now living side-by-side here. This corner of Mabaan county is surrounded by conflict - whether it's across the border in Blue Nile State, or in our very own Upper Nile State, but we thank God that for so many it has been able to be a place of refuge.
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