Our trip to Malakal

David needed to travel to Malakal to get our visas renewed at the end of July. When he proposed that Rachel and I travel with him, I was a tad hesitant but after I thought about it I was convinced that I would have more fun in Malakal than staying for 2 nights by myself with Rachel in Melut. He was right!  It also gave us an opportunity to visit, yet another one of our organization's bases here in South Sudan.

We left on a sunny Wednesday morning. Malakal is just a boat ride away. The boat driver was able to find some more people at the Melut mina (port) who also needed to travel to Malakal. Rachel was terrified at first, but started laughing and having fun after a few minutes of engine humming and breeze blowing against her face. The ride was about 3.5 hours and both Rachel and I snuck in a nap.

Leaving for Malakal

David and Rachel enjoying the boat ride

Our view of the towns from the boat

We arrived in Malakal at the WFP (World Food Programme) port and while the sun was scorching down on us and David found a donkey cart to transport us all to the Catholic Church Guesthouse where we stayed.  I sat on the cart with the luggage while David carried Rachel on his head. The mud tracks made the ride quite a bumpy one, and we got quite a few second glances, halts, laughter, and I heard the phrase "Mashallah, mara Hindi" thrown at me quite frequently.

David walking around town with Rachel on his shoulders

We arrived at our guesthouse, dropped of our luggage and then went out exploring. We knocked the door at the SIM office and were greeted by our teammates, Caleb and Michelle. We had met them when we arrived in January, but slowly got to know them at our team conference in May. I really enjoyed the two days we spent with them and getting to know them better. They are finishing up their first year of focused language learning in Malakal and will be building a house and moving to Doro in 2014.  I am excited to follow their adventures there.

I was famished at it was around 2:30pm, so Caleb and Michelle told us that the Ethiopian restaurant next door has "free delivery"! So David placed our order and then we ate and hung out at Caleb and Michelle's house. David was also able to get US money exchanged and he gave our passport to the SIM staff person in Malakal who renewed our visas the following day. After a little while, we all went out for a walk around town and my jaw was dropping at the amount of stores and items inside the stores!

Ethiopian delivery!

After just seeing all the stores, we arrived back at Caleb and Michelle's place for a scrumptious meal! We returned back to our guesthouse and then crashed for the night. The electricity is very inconsistent in Malakal (typically only a few hours at night), so thankfully the generator came on for 2 hours.

The next morning, David, Rachel and I walked over to the Ethiopian restaurant for breakfast. I was amazed at the sheer volume of children heading off to school. I counted at least 7 different types of uniforms! We got tea and deep fried bread (donuts) and just watched the crowds go by. I had a moment where I realized how much I loved cities. Now, Malakal is nowhere near what I grew up in (New Delhi!), but it is much bigger than Melut!

Lady pouring our breakfast tea

Breakfast :)

We then took a taxi (yes there's transportation!) to the big market. We arrived at a huge vegetable market and I was astounded at the amount of vegetable (and fruit) options there were. Currently in Melut, we only get okra and a green leafy vegetable. In Malakal, there were carrots, green peppers, potatoes, yams, tomatoes, apples, guavas, several varieties of green leafy vegetables, eggplant, oranges, pumpkin.

Eggs and tomatoes!

Now this is what I call a vegetable market

I counted at least 10 pharmacies, and some household shops and many more grocery stores. I was frantically writing down a list of things that can be currently be found in Malakal that cannot be found in Melut.

• Corn Flakes cereal
• More than 5 varieties of juice powder
• Cans of coke
• Milk!
• Yogurt
• Dates
• Cocoa powder
• Drinking chocolate powder
• Vinegar
• Soy Sauce
• Oats 
• Canned Cheese
• Basmati rice
• Honey
• Toilet paper
• Disposable plates and cups
• Tissue boxes
• Canned fruit (cherries, pineapples, mixed fruit)
• Canned veggies (corn, peas)
• Canned tuna
• Coconut milk in a can
• Olives in a jar
• Tobasco
• Spices (rosemary, ground pepper, paprika, fish & beef masala)
• Nutella
• Chocolate bars (Snickers, Take 5 - which is like a Kit Kat)
• Jik (Cleaning bleach)
• Dishwashing liquid
• Colgate toothpaste
• Tide
• Lots of variety of cookies (not just Glucose brand)
• Refrigerators
• Frozen 1.1kg chickens
• Baby wipes

I was pretty speechless seeing this

We went back and ate yet again with Caleb and Michelle for both lunch and dinner. I was blown away by their hospitality and generosity. They also provided us with clean filtered water for the three days we were there.

Host and hostess extraordinaire

Burgers, salad and potatoes!  All ingredients from Malakal.

Rachel and I returned to the guesthouse for an afternoon nap and I happily woke up to the sounds of cars honking, men working on a construction site close by and a Hindi song blasting outside :) For a minute I thought I was in Delhi! While Rachel and I were resting, David was off with Caleb, finding construction supplies for the college and he thankfully found everything he needed. We also received back our passports with our visas renewed!

Our room

with a sink and shower

Rachel having her afternoon nap

The next morning, David picked up the construction materials, transported all the supplies to the dock via a horse cart and then came to pick Rachel and I up at the guesthouse.

We took a donkey cart to the market, bought veggies, fruits and eggs, then we sat down to eat Sudanese shwarma. I had another "I love the city" moment when we were sitting at the restaurant eating our shwarmas, watching the hustle and bustle.

Donkey cart ride with all of our luggage and groceries

Sudanese shawarma

David picked up a frozen chicken, and then we took a rickshaw ride to the dock. We loaded up the boat and enjoyed a 4 hour journey back to Melut with the sun shining!

David and Rachel's first rickshaw ride

Our full boat on the way home to Melut