smells of death

the chilly morning air is a fresh welcome each day as the sun creeps up from the horizon. morning doves cooing as the fruit bats are wrapping up their activities. the cold shower is always a shock to the system but a sure way to jump start the day. as the sun sheds light across the camp, you notice the thick white fog or mist hovering over the nile, that is until you take a deep breath. expecting fresh dew air - your lungs are instead filled with the smell of burning plastic and garbage. a nasty disgusting gaging lung full of toxic air. the illusion of the cool mist hovering over the river turns out to be your lungs worst nightmare.

not far from our camp is a market slaughter house for cows and goats and sheep. apparently the waste products are dumped out back, left for the vultures and rats. there are days when the wind is just right and a nice strong stench of rotting flesh fills the air. the smells of decay, death, rot - and the opportunist circling vultures and hawks - somewhat symbolic of the harsh reality here.

to top things off, we are situated near a cemetery, the main one in town. it is overflowing and graves are being stacked on top of others - what can one expect from a place that has been in conflict for 20 plus years and enduring shortage of food. rumor is that the graves are also dug too shallow, thus adding to the stench. i find that a bit hard to believe that i am smelling decaying bodies, but as one goes past the cemetery, there are fresh mounds of dirt, crammed between pre-existing gravestones. space is at a premium here, so people are living in the cemetery - they have built houses (or huts to be more exactly) over graves.

on the matter of death - according to what i learned about the dinka (a cow herding people group out here) - traditionally when someone would die, they would leave them in a hut, close the door, and never return to the hut or use it again. it was sealed off for good. this is better understood in the context that the dinka do move around a lot, following the green grass that their cattle graze upon. this practice is being done less and less though.

on a side note, the dinka are very proud of their cows and basically if your cow is cool - then you are cool.

cow pics on the way.