The Edge of Nowhere

When I arrived here over a year and a half ago I felt that I was quite truly in the middle of nowhere. One of my bosses had quipped that to get here, “you go to the end of the world and turn right”, and it certainly seemed to be true. You fly for hours over the emptiness that is South Sudan and suddenly you bump down on a little dirt patch surrounded by shrubby trees and you are here; here where muddy trails are called a road and the nearest ice-cream is six hours away through the dust of migrating cattle and a zillion thorn trees.
As time has passed however, this “middle of nowhere” spot has taken on a vibrant life of its own and has ceased to be just “nowhere”. It is now a place with memories and faces; a place that has been filled with moments of joy and moments of utter frustration and doubt. As I prepare to leave for my next adventure it is dawning on me that I will miss this unpredictable patch of Africa. Here are some of the highlights that have made this place a little like home for me…

* I now have two lizards that sleep on my door at night. They are super skittish during the day but at night they just climb up onto my door and fall asleep. The lizards, along with the rats have ceased to bother me….well actually the rats still bother me, but they don’t keep me up at night anymore.
* I have survived two devastating fires and witnessed how people can pull together in times of crisis.
* My favorite time of day is dusk when we go to the market and enjoy a small cup of dark, sweet coffee under the shade of a Niem tree.
* I can’t decide which is worse, the mud of rainy season or the heat of dry season, but at any rate there are still those few months when the rains are just starting and the grass pops out of the parched earth which are absolutely stunning in beauty.
* The mud actually has its enjoyable moments…like when you get to slosh through some muddy trail with the vehicle sliding all over the place and in the end you conquer the road. Yes, that feels real good …as long as the vehicle doesn’t get stuck.
* My 16 hour trip through the mud with my friends Gorshi and Nile is probably my most memorable moment here…partly from the absurdity of it but mostly because it was the time I got to know them the best.
* One of the guys I work with actually knows how to use a carpenter’s square now, which after a year and half I feel is a huge accomplishment.
* I have eaten A LOT of goat meat here.
* When a father happily told me he was teaching his son to hate the northerners, my heart bled because it was such a hopeless moment for this country. It was a moment that makes me want to pray and pray and pray for this place. It also makes me long all the more for the King’s return.
* There was one evening when a friend received a package from the US that included some bubbles and he ran around blowing bubbles over all of us. It is a moment of silly joy that I will never forget.
* When the first rain came in April we went out and danced in the rain. The sound of it pounding on the tin roofs is probably the greatest sound I have heard in my time here.
* There are those half-naked, snotty-nosed kids that stand by the road just to wave at the vehicles as they pass by and it makes my day.
Those are just a few of my memories of this place…not all of them are happy memories but that is the way life is, there is good and bad wherever we go.


I have been waiting to say where I will be headed until I knew for sure that it was actually going to happen but it now seems to be in the works so I thought I would fill you in. In March I will be headed to the DR Congo with Sam’s Purse to do some relief work in a couple of the areas that have seen mass displacements of people due to recent fighting. I am excited about this opportunity as Congo is still the country on this planet I would call home. I am also quite nervous and would ask for your prayers as I try to remember the languages of my youth. (French, Swahili, Lingala)