Welcome Back...

We arrived back at Doro yesterday and were greeted by this scene:


It is good to be back, and the people seem pleased to have us back, which is nice. The journey from Nairobi is spread over two legs, with an overnight stay in a place called Lokichoggio (or Loki, to seasoned tavellers) in North-Western Kenya. We made the first trip on a plane operated by Mission Aviation Fellowhip or MAF who have been flying missionaries around for over 60 years, before the journey from Loki into Sudan with our regular carrier, AIM Air (The airborne arm of African Inland Mission). Loki used to be the base for much of the aid effort in Sudan during the war, but now it's a bit of a ghost town with a nice restaurant. We spent the night in the SIM guest house:


Which is pretty decent, a kind of last dose of civilisation before the hardships of rural Sudan, before packing up our wee plane and heading for the skies over Southern Sudan. Loading the plane is a bit of a trade off between how much weight you can carry, and how much fuel you have available. We were fully loaded yesterday:


So fully loaded that we had to take some fuel off before leaving (I say we, I just watched while the AIM Air people did the hard work), which in turn led to a rather concerning low fuel alarm going off shortly before we landed at Doro. There were worried looks between us all, although noone ventured to put the obvious question to the pilot, who was otherwise engaged.

Anyway, needless to say we got here safely, and began the epic task of cleaning up the 3 and a half weeks worth of dirt that had accumulated in our houses (which equates to about a foot of dust on every flat surface). I moved a box in my house and found a massive scorpion hiding underneath. I really wish I'd taken a photo to share with you but alas, I panicked and killed it (at the third attempt).

And so we're all getting into the zone for returning to work on Monday, and being reunited with Sudanese friends, which has been great.

One of the joys of living on a base on which the primary focus is a health project is that you are frequently exposed to stomach turning medical chat. You never know what's coming next. Two minutes ago I went into the fridge to get a coke (one of the few luxuries available here) and found what looked like drugs sitting on top of everything. I turned to ask Amy, one of the nurses, what they were only to be informed that they were in fact rectal suppostories. On top of my coke.

Lovely...