I am learning lots about how to live in South Sudan. How to cook on a small iron cookstove, how to be a surgery nurse in an operating room with flies in it, the words to all of the ingredients I need at the market… the list is endless. But this week I learned how to set my yard on fire.

Our corner of South Sudan is covered in beautiful teak leaves. The trees provide beautiful wood, nice shade, and soundproofing. But during hot season, the enormous leaves dry out and fall. The sound they make when they land on the tin roof and screeech their way off before making a slight crashing sound on the ground was actually mildly alarming before we realized what it was.

The side yard of the house we’re staying in has a sizeable grove of teak trees. The leaves keep on piling up. People have been seeing more snakes than usual (so I’m told– I haven’t seen one yet, which I’m fine with), and burning them takes away their place to hide.  So our girl-neighbors came over and sweetly asked if they could help me out by setting fire to the leaf piles. So we got to work.

Sweeping

Small girl setting things on fire. Nothing to see here.

Gratuitous baby who amused himself on the porch far away from burning leaves