Emergency Response in South Sudan

Now that the rain has started in earnest, the landscape and environment of South Sudan is changing rapidly. One of the changes is that we now get to deal with mosquitoes and other insects in much greater quantities. Normally I would consider this a burden, but this week my African colleagues have helped me to find the silver lining. White Ant Hill Let me introduce you to white ants. They are extremely abundant here. When I'm in the field, I can look any direction at spot one of their massive anthills. During the dry season, the ant hills seemed abandoned, and it was rare that I even noticed insects. Now however, it is the larval season for white ants. Which means for about 24 hours, our compound in Luonyaker was over-run by the winged white ant larvae. For just one day, the ants develop wings, mate, and then lose their wings before returning to the ant hill. I'm not knowledgeable on the subject, but what I know is that this means hundreds of thousands of swarming, flying ...

I’ve had a few people ask about what a typical day is like in the field, so for one day during the Gogrial East Campaign I wrote down all of our activities. I would say it was a pretty average day. I apologize in advance if this entry gets a bit long or overly detailed- I’m new to this whole blog thing! A day in the field. My day begins abruptly at 6:30 am with a car starting and Dinka music blaring about 5 meters from my head. I lay in the mozzi dome for another few minutes listening to the roosters crow and a loud donkey braying in the nearby field. We all choose to sleep in our mozzi domes, because the tents are too hot. The mozzi dome is basically a pop-up mosquito net, it allows for air movement so it’s much more comfortable. I unzip my dome and reach for my shoes. Before putting them on, I check for scorpions- all clear. I’ve been lucky so far, but yesterday someone got stung by one, so today I’m even extra cautious. As I get up, I notice other Medair staff ...