Wartime recharge

It was bizarre last time returning from South Sudan and reporting that I felt better rested after being in a conflict zone than how I normally feel in the UK. There is something about the lack of processed crap in the diet and the fact that everybody's body clock closes down for the day earlier, and there's definitely a lot about the lack of connectivity and distraction.

I slept for nearly 12 hours on Saturday night because every time I woke up the temperature had reduced, there was almost complete silence and it was too comfortable to get up and go and sit behind a rickety desk.

I wrote about Victor the compound guard last time and here he is with his family. For the photo his wife replaced the colourful joy that had greeted me at the door with the austere expression and black jacket.

I felt monumentally guilty when I finally surfaced that the family had been hanging around waiting for an advance on his wages so they could go to the market and buy food. 'You sleep too much', he grabbed my hand and chuckled. I atoned by making sweet milky tea for them all and printing off a previous photo of Victor in his Wildlife Service uniform, which made him interrupt his bible reading to whoop with delight.

Then Benneth, our main partner in the Wildlife Service, turned up in a jazzy shirt after attending church. He rolled his eyes explaining how he escaped after the two-hour English sermon in advance of the three-hour local Zande language service. He joined us for tea. With four sugars. I disputed his claims that it didn't matter because all of his back teeth were removed 20 years ago, and that Yambio has high quality dentists.