6 Months in Sudan (almost)

“I hope this thirst will not last long and will soon drown in a song not sung in vain.” ~ Rich Mullins

Today we were supposed to fly out to Kenya for our r&r and Christmas break. This all changed when we received news that the plane needed some maintenance work and wouldn’t be coming until Saturday. We were all quite disappointed by the news, but having worked so hard to be ready for today, we don’t have much to do for the next two days…so I thought I’d write a little about some lessons I’ve learned in my first 6 months here.

Here are a few of the lessons I’ve learned:

1) Driving in the mud is fun until you get stuck for the first time – after that its only fun if you don’t get stuck and the only way to insure that is to make sure you get the new Landcruizer pickup with the tractor tyres.
2) I’ll never get used to kids collecting water from roadside mud puddles.
3) Convincing people who have lived on handouts in refugee camps that working hard is important isn’t the easiest task.
4) When the rats start making noise in the thatch at night its easier to just roll over and go back to bed – getting up to kill them is way too frustrating.
5) Worm medicine and antibiotics….maybe I’ll leave that part out
6) When the rain stops – it really stops.
7) When the rain stops – the fires start
8) The wind blows at night – it blows enough to make me think my roof is coming off and I wake up covered in nice thin layer of dust.
9) When I’m most tired – that’s when four trucks full of medicine to offload will show up.
10) Beans and rice is only exciting for about a week.

On a more serious note though, I’ve learned how important fellowship is in our lives. Often, the work here can be lonely and frustrating and it is in those times that I realize how much I miss the fellowship I’ve had with my brothers and sisters in the places I’ve come from. If I didn’t have my coworkers here, I would certainly find the work here nearly impossible.
I’ve also learned a bit about how wonderful our Father is. The other day I was washing my hands and I looked down to see a Praying Mantis at my feet. One of the drops of water landed right near to it and I watched as it slowly knelt down to drink from the drop that had fallen. It struck me that it could have drank from the drop of water without kneeling down and it seemed as if the little bug was kneeling down in a prayer of thanks. This little analogy may sound really cheesy but it hit me how ungrateful I am for the many blessings I receive each day. I have a Father who is so good to me and yet I go through my day frustrated and downtrodden, not willing to open my eyes to the gifts that have been given to me. Each day is a blessing itself – I hope that I can learn to live more like that each day.

Sunday in Sudan

Sunday’s are the day that we have off from work. Sometimes, however, the work finds us. Like today, when four large trucks full of medical supplies showed up and had to be offloaded at our hospital. My colleagues and I spent four hours carrying box after box of syringes and gauze from the truck to our storeroom…and there went our Sunday.
Now I am back in my tukol, after a nice cold shower, wondering why it is that work always shows up at the least opportune times. My colleagues and I are tired. Most of us have been in the field now for at least 10 weeks, which may not seem like a lot, but when people habitually show up with work for you to do on your day off, ten weeks becomes a looong time. We all love the work we are doing, otherwise we wouldn’t be here, but at times it can be very wearing. Usually it is the small things that are wearing. For example, the rains stopped over a month ago and now we have to bring water in our trucks from holes dug in the bottom of a riverbed. It is a small task but a constant battle because no matter how many trips of water we get, we always seem to need more.
The good news is that we all get to take a break in a few days. I am heading home to Uganda to spend Christmas with my family and the best part is that I won’t have to collect any water…there’s a whole lake of it right next door. I am looking forward to two weeks of relaxation and time with my family!

On another note – I was recently flipping through a TIME magazine that was sent in to us by our office in Nairobi. It had a section on the greatest inventions of 2007. As I was flipping through it I came across one invention that really made wonder at how wealthy the US has become. It turns out some clothing stores in the US are going to start putting in some sort of camera/mirror that allows people who are trying on clothes to send images of themselves to their friends’ phones to get opinions on whether or not the clothes look good. This particular invention really disgusts me. Every day I see people who can hardly afford one set of clothing, and some who clearly can’t afford any, while people in my own country are sending pictures of themselves to each others’ phones so that they don’t pick out anything that might not be in style. Think about it. And if anyone happens to send you a photo of themselves in the changing room…do me a favour and tell them to get a life.

No More Rain

It has been less than a month since the last rain but it is astonishing how quickly the landscape and atmosphere of this place changes. Within two weeks of the last rain, roads which have been impassable for months due to mud opened up and vehicles from the north began to slowly trickle into town with supplies for the small shops here. This was a sign to us that we can also begin to travel out of town and it has changed the range of our work considerably. The drying of the roads has also meant the driving of our water tanks which have collected rain water throughout the rainy season. We now have to rely on boreholes and water collected from holes dug in the sandy bottom of a nearby riverbed. Our vehicles are no longer getting stuck every few days but instead are constantly at work collecting water, getting supplies and facilitating travel to different areas. It has become quite a task to keep track of the whereabouts of all our staff!
I have had the chance to travel out of town three times in the last few weeks. The first chance came when one of our workers, Mahmoud, explained that his mother was giving birth and needed to be brought to the hospital. We grabbed the doctor and piled into the truck to see what we could do. The road was dry, but still the worst road I have ever seen. For miles in every direction there were deep tracks left in the earth where tractors and bigger vehicles had tried to pass through the mud during the rains. If it had been wet we would have easily spent a month trying to dig ourselves out of the mud, but as it was we spent four hours weaving our way through the hardened mess to reach the village where Mahmoud’s mother was giving birth. She was giving birth to twins and the second child was blocked from coming out by the placenta of the first. We put her on a mattress in the back of the truck and bounced our way back to town where she had a c-section and another healthy little girl.
My second chance to leave town was much less dramatic than the first but still very important for the spread of the Kingdom in this area. I had the opportunity to take a group of church leaders to a town south of here for some training. It was exciting to see the enthusiasm of many of the men and encouraging to listen to the teachers’ desire to spread the Kingdom. The training is still ongoing and we will go to pick up the trainees this week. We hope to continue it further in the future as it is so important for the growth of the Christians in this area.
With the dry season in full swing now it is easy to become disheartened by the enormity of the work to be done and the harshness of this place. The tall grass has turned brown and much of it has been burned, which leaves the ground black and soot floating through the air. Last week a huge fire burned around our compound and we spent most of the afternoon watching it to make sure it didn’t get too close to our grass fences. Every day now the heat is very intense and at the end of the day I am quite wiped out. Pray that my teammates and I will find strength for each new day and that we will be a great source of encouragement for one another.