I am comfortably sitting in Susanna and Peter's living room in Kampala Uganda. Their beautiful baby boy is gooing and we're watching Speed on their TV. A strange contrast to the last 3 weeks of my life in Southern Sudan!!
Over the next 24 hours I hope to go several posts. I am sorry that there is so little, then so much! But this is all I can do! I hope to post some photos as well as information about what I've been doing.
Above picture is the sunset over Africa on my way into Nairobi.
The trip was delayed, but I arrived in Nairobi on Thursday, May 20th. I met one other fellow team member, Chris, in Amsterdam and we were joyfully welcomed by Fr. Herald at the airport. We met Fr. Sylvester when we arrived at the guest house. We had a late dinner and then headed to bed. We had a very early wake up to get to our plane. We were collected at the Northern Kenyan airport and waited at a parish guest place for a while... we had a very safe and pleasant crossing, which was a major concern. We were relieved when we got past the boarder. We then drove on to Narus, Southern Sudan. Picture is of a "traffic jam" we encountered.
We arrived in Narus, and to get to where we were staying we went down THE WORST road in Southern Sudan. It was pure insanity. Chris, Fr. Sylvester and I got settled and met the portion of the team that was there. It was Friday and the retreat started that day. So we got to work.
Angela and I stayed in a Tuku together, which are round huts. We had some bug adventures for sure. My biggest scare was from the latrine covered in cockroches. *shiver*
We had probably around 100 youth at the retreat. We did a lot of singing, some talks, small groups, prayer times... over all it was very good. Saturday night we had time of prayer for the girls which was nice. But then the girls (for a variety of reasons) had to sleep in the church. I ended up being the adult to stay with them! It was an adventure for sure!! We really didn't know each other as a team... so it was cool to have to just jump in and see where we could fit and serve!!
Sunday at the ending time, we had some powerful testimonies of how God moved in the lives of these young people. We also had a dance party. It was wonderful!! The girls taught me to dance and we simply rejoiced in the understanding of our unity, despite a different skin color.
The people in Southern Sudan are SO beautiful! They have nothing... now being in Kampala I realize how incredibly poor and underdeveloped Southern Sudan is. Hunger is a huge issue there.. bad rains last year have left many people without food. But the people are wonderful, loving, welcoming, excited about living life! They embrace you and share with you.
I made a point to get to know the women who work in the kitchens in all of the places we were. They are the heroes... them and the African priest and nuns who keep schools and hospitals and parishes running on nothing! These are true heroes... they are not white, they are Southern Sudanese, giving their whole lives to serve their own people!
We left Narus on Monday afternoon.... Fr. Herald and the other friars arrived and we quickly packed up the two large vehicles and were off to Chuchudum. It was a long drive, and actually pretty dangerous. We prayed a lot. The roads in Southern Sudan are unbelievably awful! Always an adventure.
Photos: Noelle and Agnes, the main cook
Loading one of the Land rovers
We entered the land of Mountains when we went to Chucudum! The land in Southern Sudan is SO BEAUTIFUL!! The mountains are breath takings!! Here is one of the first views.
Chucudum post will be tomorrow....
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