Batty

A dying bat in the sink greeted me this morning. The first aid training I had before this trip was good, but I don't think the antacids and zinc oxide tape I'm carrying would stave off the Marburg Virus, an Ebola-like illness that is endemic here. DeeAnn, our project partner who arrives tomorrow, is a wildlife researcher who a while back identified a bat carrying Marburg in the compound that we rent...

Mah, if you worried that every dying bat in your sink carried Marburg, you'd never leave the house. Although I have been brushing my teeth gingerly.

Today was a good day of field preparations, sensible conversations with the Wildlife Service about chimpanzees, much greeting, shaking hands and exchanging of pleasantries, plenty of purchases of tea, lentils, rice and sugar, numerous fizzy sodas, frantic searching for internet connection, just about enough bandwidth to make progress on stuff with colleagues in far flung corners of the globe, a plate of beef, a deafening background of Mariah Carey's Greatest Hits and at least one hundred cigarettes passively inhaled.

On the way back to the compound I caught up with Eva, to pay her rent, as it's her brother we lease from. She always provides excellent insights into South Sudanese life. Her family originates from Tumbura, towards the north but within the same original state boundary of Western Equatoria. After independence the government split 10 states into 28 and Yambio and Tumbura both fell into Gbudue State. Last year some were split further, including Gbudue, part of which was cleaved off to form Tumbura State. There are rarely legitimate reasons for these administrative changes; usually done to award more governorships and top jobs to those in favour. Eva has been working at the Gbudue Ministry of Health and has stuck it out despite the devaluation of the currency, earning a handful of dollars per month, if paid. As her family once hailed from Tumbura, even though she's not been there since she was 10, her position has been transferred to the new Tumbura State Health Ministry and she's expected to simply move there and resume work in a job that now doesn't pay enough to survive, with the cost of the full day's travel north being around what she now can make from two months' salary. If she doesn't accept the position she no longer has one available in Yambio. She believes this process is done to clear the way for cronies and family members of ministry bosses who will be ushered in when it's made untenable for the original position holders to keep their jobs.

Eva and I giggled about the similarities between British and Azande culture. Neither sets of people are very direct, and both will say they're fine when they're at death's door. She did an impression of a respectful Azande greeting their in-laws, which entails shuffling across the floor on the knees, avoiding eye contact and mumbling pleasantries in a submissive voice. Then shuffling back without presenting the back of the body: an ultimate faux pas. Some similarities in 'putting on a brave face', yet I'm glad we don't have to do the prostrating in the UK.

One of Eva's younger siblings lives in Canada and she reflected on attitudes to domestic incidents in South Sudan and Canada. When the sister and her husband want to argue they plan to do so away from the earshot of their daughter, who apparently threatens to call the police when she hears raised voices. She believes involving the police is the way to stop domestic disputes. I found their 'argument management' amusing and told Eva to pass on that I don't imagine Canadian police would waste their time intervening with a bickering couple.

The temperature is perfect for sleeping in Yambio. Heavy rains have made the air cool, neither teetering with a moist brow all night nor shivering and reaching for more layers. I still sleep better in Yambio than most places I can remember. It's probably because YouTube videos are not possible to access.