Mission in Bentiu(Unity State) and Malakal(Upper Nile State)

Yesterday, I came back from a mission in 2 northern states.
I'll write about it little by little. 

Picnic at Community Farm

On this weekend, My friends and I visited community farm supported by JICA project.

It was very sunny day and was like a picnic!

The farm itself was really great with various kinds of veges which I hardly find in local market.

They even supply for several our favorite restaurants. 

Surrounding community started to copy this demo farm! Great impact!!

After the picnic, we cooked together using vege from the farm!

Spring rolls, Miso katsu(pork cutlet), Okonomiyaki(japanese solty pancake),
stir-fried eggplant, tofu & chinese  cabbage, temaki zushi...

On the following day, we cooked sumai(dim sum) and ebichiri(chinese shrimp dish)
using spring onion from the farm!

From today, another mission to Bentiu and Malakal for almost a week!

Nile fish for dinner

Bor is famous for its fresh fish! I tried fish dinner buffet at South Sudan Hotel.
Fish was too big and I couldn't finish it in the end.

A scene from Bor

Even within the town, most of the places offer very traditional  scenes

Similar to Malakal, Jonglei state also has black cotton soil
which  become quite muddy after the rain and cannot be dried easily

Accessing a house is difficult due to the rain & muddy ground in some places

This mission gave me another view of this country.
Compared to northern towns which I visited so far (Malakal and Aweil), Bor offered me a totally different scenery.
Malakal and Aweil has several old brick structures(influence of north) in town and town looked really town.
But for me, Bor looked much traditional and rural than those town even I only could see around inside of town due to security and seasonal reason(Still rainy season and almost impossible to access out of town, I was told.).

Mission in Bor started with an accident!

Crashed aircraft
If you click the photo, you will read an article at Sudan Tribune.

On Wednesday, we landed at Bor with crashed aircraft.

It was so sudden and I just hold the front seat.
After a piece of silent, pilot said "Is everyone OK?" with pale face.
Then we found that something not normal happened.

Anyway, we 6 passengers and 2 pilots were so lucky and blessed not to be injured.

Japanese Business people in Juba!

We were invited to a dinner hosted by Ambassador.
More than 60 Japanese were here!

Last week, we had a very big mission from Japan which was consisted of mainly Japanese business persons.
I heard that they attend part of investment workshop in Juba and met several government official to see the future possibility to make investment in South Sudan.

It is very interesting that, before PKO mission(self defense force of Japan) come, many civilians are already on the field.

Shelter project @ rural area of Aweil

In Aweil, we visited one of our shelter project.

In this region, we built "Tukul"(local traditional house) for our beneficiaries.

They dry some foods in front of their tukul.

They sleep inside and cook even inside.

On the way to Aweil....

One day, my lunch was like this...

When I went back to Japan, some of my friends asked me "what do you eat in South Sudan??".

This was Indian style for me though...
and this is from a kind of special lunch occasion...

Classroom under the tree

English & Mathematics class for adults

In Aweil, I visited one of our project in the village.
From Aweil town, we traveled almost 2 hours by road and reached this scene.
This is classroom under the tree. Students are all adults.

We were happy to hear from our implementing partner that the registration lists for this course is
over the expected number and now there is a long cue for the stand-by list.

Inauguration Ceremony in Aweil

(Totally forgot about the blog when I was on leave in Japan! Had an indulge at hot springs!)

The time flies in Aweil. I was busy for preparation for inauguration ceremony of one institution.
On the day, we received the high officials from South Sudan government and its donor(happened to be my country) and celebrated with local communities.

2,400 students came for its celebration!

What is his fate??

All the respected guests step over him...

And he was sacrificed for celebration following local custom.

Moving to ceremony venue.

Ceremony starts!

After the ceremony, we had a tour to look at the facilities.

Even there were several happenings which made me down, I was glad to be there for this occasion.