day forty-eight: CRMA vs Ushahidi!

It would seem that the compound is running out of space, but at $15000 per month, who can afford to expand?  For all my wanderings, the thought of working and sleeping in the same room may seem nightmarish but it’s been nothing shy of delightful.  Tired of waiting around for the UN to bring their ideas about crisis database management systems to me, I thought I’d get started on my own.  Although for anyone who’s a fan of open source software and crisis mapping, the Ushahidi platform would have been the first thing to come to their mind too!

The birthplace of GeoGeo Solutions' 1st working platform?

The idea behind a South Sudanese Ushahidi Tension Tracker is simple; radios already report in incidents from a community level to the county to the state; I train government staff to verify, code and enter that data online via their new laptops and ISP sticks, my baby does the rest.  With a laptop on either side, I’ve been on it a week.  Soon, confirmed reports of tension will be catalogued by its location, conflict categories and reliability.  Throw in a few extra boundary layers, charts, and cluster mapping techniques and she’ll look no half bad.  “Open and free” has been the motto of CEWERS from day one so here you go… my first GeoGeo Solution?

Having spent most of my mapping time pointing out what X and Y was, using HTML, Java and KML has been refreshing…I think even Bruce would be proud.

This weekend was my chance to become familiarised with the UN’s database system for crisis mapping, the CRMA tool.  A two week training squeezed into two days was surprisingly painless…though the feeling that the system had been created way before the nature of conflict had been considered is unsurprisingly apparent.  The idea that one incident can often fall into several boxes of causes was never considered… I shouldn’t be too harsh here…but if you can’t catalogue a conflict incident into more than one category, how are you supposed to show that it’s all related?  So after a three week delay, it was less than joyous to see that, as well as being inadequate for showing the relationships between indicators (lack of service provision, food insecurity, small arms, etc), it could barely be mapped.  Not so good if you want to visualise and bring awareness of crisis situations to people and government… CRMA said it needed a few months to iron out the creases, I told him the referendum’s in less than two…Ushahidi 1, CRMA 0…?

Outside of work there hasn’t been too much to dance around to.  During the week, the roof of our compound does make a nice late night place to jam to the stars whilst the weekends can sometimes bring a BBQ or two my way.  If I take a break during the day, I can enjoy my roof top views of our everlasting road works that shake the very ground our containers sit on.

Layer number three hundred and sixty one being laid down.

With only a few nights left in my office bedroom before heading back to the Bonnieland, time seems to have been speeding up.  I still can’t tell if that’s the approaching deadlines or my excitement in returning.

day thirty eight: don't say 'danish'!

It should come as no surprise to hear that my plan has changed once again.  I’m physically over any feeling of shock than can occur during lackadaisical times.  No Khartoum for me anymore, the UN CRMA will have to come to me.  The barrier of the day is cartoons and religious NGO names… but being under the auspices of GoSS (Government of South Sudan) probably doesn’t help these days either… the country is only pretending to be one just now, the split seems to already be in place (just nobody has even mapped a proper boundary yet!).

So it’s Juba until I return back to the Bonnieland.  Speculative rumour of the day goes to Juba as the most expensive city after Tokyo.  At $10 for a tub of yogurt I can believe that!  Joys of internet and all day long electricity are sharply contrasted by the cesspit-like surroundings.  I doubt anyone is caring about the 50 Sudanese Pound fine you receive for littering here; it comes in all shapes and sizes.

Boom-boxing pickups saunter by during the scorching days while the sounds of heavy machinery tearing up roads send shudders through our container-stacked-up compound every day here. 

Sadly, I have no time to join the drive by politics today or any day… I can feel the deadlines catching up on me so it’s actually a nice feeling to be behind on a desk instead of on the road again.  My first stop has been to train a database manager on an information system by the UN that I’ve yet to see or use.  Then for the next trick, using only mis-spelt reports and settlement names, I turned our draft account on a State’s baseline conflict analysis into an all-encompassing representation of the key conflicts and hotspots.  Not that anybody in Government here’s heard of the Oakland Raiders…but I was told my first attempt at symbolising cattle raiding was a little too intricate for A4 printing…but I’ll be pushing for it come the wall size charts.

I think it works quite well, don't you!?

It’s amazing how productive you become when you have more than just daylight to play with…I even have time to practice the geeky programming things, but if I told you more about that you’d be trying to pinch it!

day thirty: road-a-phobia

my conflict baseline analysis journey

So six State Government Officials, a Russian and a Scot take a wander through the Counties of Eastern Equatoria… Seven days, nine hundred kilometres and engagements with umpteen Chiefs, Commissioners, Women’s Committees and Youth Leaders later; we’ve heard the same story of land dispute, just from different perspectives.

When war began some indigenous left, some people became internally displaced (IDPs for the acronymically insensitive) and encroached onto their land.  War (kinda) finished.  Indigenous came back to their land to find the ‘squatters’ won’t leave.  The classic “what you doin’ in my home?” vs the “where were you when I defended it?” spat begins… add cheap Ugandan booze and a Saturday night oot on the town then ten men’s clubs are met by one man’s gun.  Welcome to the most common nature in the indigenous conflict of South Sudan.

You dancing?

You wouldn’t think land would be an issue when you first take a wander through Eastern Equatoria.  The country is as infinite as it is green with the enormous opportunity to develop the natural resources.  So why don’t the internally displaced go home?  Well, in most cases, there simply isn’t a worthy road to get you there, whether reason be potholes or landmines.  Day one alone saw landmines quadruple our journey to Magwi from Torit.  Unless your home is on the way across trading links, nobody seems interested in fixing these problems either.  The majority of roads are still under construction thanks to the companies only concerned with making sure cargo can cross international borders; while the Government makes laborious the effort in linking these to the isolated communities.  You should be careful who you carp these frustrations to; you have every right to moan to the stranger whose laptop you'd agreed to help fix... it’s just sometimes they turn out to be the Director General of the Ministry of Transport (where's Sasha's knowledge on roads when you need it!?).

In Kwotos, vast valleys are bounded by volcanic mountains that glitter the countryside

Either way, this extensive country is populated only near the limited extent of roads (78% in fact – I made a map).   Only here will you find the provision of basic services close at hand… which is a shame, because the more rural you go, the more beautiful the country gets.  Apart from the repeated stories of cattle raiding and unnecessary killings that is… but despite the vision that South Sudanese are all ‘brothers and sisters of one country’, the remnants of conflict are still perpetuated in their hearts.  Too used to food aid, too shocked by environmental change; tough times have exacerbated the problem.  It seems a new age of perennial poverty and violence is appearing.

Nimule Payam on the White Nile

 Is it as simple as poor agricultural practice from an era reliant on charity, and idleness amongst the youth…?  It screams out the need for vocational training to economically reform the country but it appears every aspect of a decent livelihood is lacking for the majority here.  

Outside the Nimule Administrative 'Office'

After my week’s worth in the field, I have returned to Juba in preparation for my departure to Khartoum.  Who knows if seven days is enough to gain a sense of the underlying factors to Eastern Equatoria’s conflict… My task in Khartoum is to make sure the UN’s Crisis and Recovery Mapping Analysis (CRMA) tool reflects as much.  I should start working on my ‘cattle raids’ and ‘border dispute’ icons now then…if all else fails, at least it’ll look good.

day twenty-three: baseline conflict analysis begins

In Southern Sudan things rarely get much forewarning.  Khartoum won’t happen till the first week in November now.  This came in the same sentence as confirmation to get my stuff together for the field!  No need to think twice, few DDG-branded tops, socks and a guitar and I was on board for Wednesday morning.  Head packed with the excitement at the chance to see more of Eastern Equatoria, albeit it for a sombre mission to assess the root causes of recent conflict, I'm just happy to get away from the shoddy shacks of Torit.

There's more to this story, because it's day three of the our travels right now, but with no phone signal and internet on a USB stick, it's a satellite-only affair for the large part until all is done by Thursday October 28th.  More details and tales to come when I get the chance!

=)

day twenty-one: driving round in circles

There was time on Sunday evening to enjoy some sophisticated dining.  I finally had the chance to show off my marinating skills on our beef fillet - a luxury when it comes from a slaughtered cow as opposed to one that just gave up the ghost.  Our de-mining team swapped pleasantries over some 10 year Talisker; the usual tête-à-tête over maiming blasts and child kidnappings.  It was a fine end to an enjoyable weekend in Juba anyway…

roadside markets provide your arse from much needed relief

This morning however, it was yet another joy to hit the highway from hell…this time with a driver who was determined to treat his land rover like a wild horse needing broken.  You have your own ‘special place’ you go to in a desperate attempt to avoid the nausea but it didn’t save me from the bum and back-breaking adventure I'm yet to accustom to.  The usual sightings of stranded trucks ensued and entertained at least.

but look on the bright side, the back garden's huge...

le discoball

Today’s psychotic driver was sponsored by Catholic Relief Services.  The road was taking another lashing from the rains and many were out on foot.  Many adults watching new rivers take away their homes, children using the opportunity for a spot of fishing.
 
We drive on regardless.  With only 3 passengers, there was leg room to spare.  So you can imagine the guilt felt when passing by a woman of a rather long-standing age carrying a clay pot the size of a disco ball.


As she waved her hand in desperation for the short lift to the nearest town, my colleague from CRS just turned to me, “it’s not in our policy.”  Well don’t you think you should stick that in the acronym somewhere?  ‘Relief Services (Within Our Policy)…it's not that I don't get the rules, but not everyone is a freeloading drunk with an AK, so where did sense of charity and circumstantiation go?

roadside fishing spots are cropping up towards the end of the rainy season

So I'm back in Torit while I wait another week before heading to Khartoum.  Torit didn’t miss me, I didn’t really miss it either.  Could show you more pictures of the rather not-so-glittering capital of Eastern Equatoria but, as my Russian comrade found out, pulling out your iPhone for a quick pic of the kids taking their chairs back from school is not recommended.  Nope, that’s just a guaranteed method to signal to national security members lazing in the streets that you’re a spy for sure.  Referendum paranoia in full effect.  Once the head of security had stopped our vehicle and finished going through every one of his photos however, it was alright to settle down.  How do you say ‘panoramic’ in Sudanese Arabic?

You mean this photograph officer?

day nineteen: back in paradise?

I don’t think I’ll get tired of taking on the rough road back through the scenic side of South Sudan.  The drivers certainly won’t…one small error of judgement and you could be stranded for days.  With each passing you can see the cost of unfortunate faults.  Livelihoods and livestock don’t survive particularly well when stranded on deserted roads.  With every truck stumped in the mud you tend to find a few goats lying waste on the side. 

another unfortunate

But with death there is also life and my favourites happen to be the tiny swamp butterflies that sit by the puddles that cover the crevasses.  The sound of land rovers soar them into the air as they turn from green parasitic-looking beasts into a brilliant array of yellow and white winged beauties.  You could spend the whole journey taking photos of the largest flocks of them, but that’s a quick-fire way to nausea.  Then again, so is stopping for lunch at the halfway trading centre, despite how hungry you thought you were.

swamp butterflies!

Arriving back in Juba and any previous feelings of isolation quickly disappear…my internet comes with a cable, and there are people staying where I stay too!  I head to the nearby Ethiopian place, mainly for their aromatic meat and injera, and it turns out Juba even has pub quizzes!  I was feeling happy in my little ice box back in Torit but its amazing how quickly the little things like variety eating and an Oxford accent become like extravagances… I have to keep reminding myself that it’s only been 19 days since the Bonnieland.

But you can imagine how little I cared to be told that it may be a while still before I head to Khartoum.  The skyscrapers in the desert can wait while I indulge.

day sixteen: not much of an early warning system for me

You have to be good at jigsaws if you want to have any kind of clarity it seems.  Little snippets of information get thrown at you from all directions and eventually you start to have a clue.  In fact, I find myself instructing others based on these small snippets in the hope that they have some idea what it is I’m going on about.

That was the second jigsaw today; involving myself trying to convince one Ministry to find two telecommunication engineers to be given to an organisation that I’ve never met before, to go to places I’ve never heard of before, and to do things I don’t understand at all – I don't play with RF radios... 

The second was about me and my travels to Khartoum.  By the time I’d pieced together a Friday night dinner invite in Juba, I knew it was going to be sooner rather than later.  So it seems I’m packing up again and taking the fun road to Juba tomorrow.  Whether or not I fly on the Sunday to the North is still up for debate.  Especially since my job up there was to accompany a database manager who is yet to be hired…

Either way it seems I’ll be missing out on my first chance to do some field work actually ‘in the field’.  I’ve mixed feelings over that.  On one hand I’m happy that I will continue to live somewhere that can afford electricity for my fan.  But on the flip side, it’s all a bit backwards; too often has information systems been developed without first tailoring itself or connecting with the happenings on the ground.  Maps seem to convince others of their ‘expert’ knowledge regardless; I was just hoping to experience some ground truthing before I started mapping my version of the truth on the ground…or before it gets hotter!