Sunday in Sudan

Sunday’s are the day that we have off from work. Sometimes, however, the work finds us. Like today, when four large trucks full of medical supplies showed up and had to be offloaded at our hospital. My colleagues and I spent four hours carrying box after box of syringes and gauze from the truck to our storeroom…and there went our Sunday.
Now I am back in my tukol, after a nice cold shower, wondering why it is that work always shows up at the least opportune times. My colleagues and I are tired. Most of us have been in the field now for at least 10 weeks, which may not seem like a lot, but when people habitually show up with work for you to do on your day off, ten weeks becomes a looong time. We all love the work we are doing, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, but at times it can be very wearing. Usually it is the small things that are wearing. For example, the rains stopped over a month ago and now we have to bring water in our trucks from holes dug in the bottom of a riverbed. It is a small task but a constant battle because no matter how many trips of water we get, we always seem to need more.
The good news is that we all get to take a break in a few days. I am heading home to Uganda to spend Christmas with my family and the best part is that I won’t have to collect any water…there’s a whole lake of it right next door. I am looking forward to two weeks of relaxation and time with my family!

On another note – I was recently flipping through a TIME magazine that was sent in to us by our office in Nairobi. It had a section on the greatest inventions of 2007. As I was flipping through it I came across one invention that really made wonder at how wealthy the US has become. It turns out some clothing stores in the US are going to start putting in some sort of camera/mirror that allows people who are trying on clothes to send images of themselves to their friends’ phones to get opinions on whether or not the clothes look good. This particular invention really disgusts me. Every day I see people who can hardly afford one set of clothing, and some who clearly can’t afford any, while people in my own country are sending pictures of themselves to each others’ phones so that they don’t pick out anything that might not be in style. Think about it. And if anyone happens to send you a photo of themselves in the changing room…do me a favour and tell them to get a life.