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September 10, 2005
A Day In Sudan
Dear Friends,
Thank you so much for your prayers and your loving concern for us. Between that and our time with God, we stay refreshed.
Had an interesting day today. We woke up early, around 4:45, when the call to prayer went out over Kurmuk. That seemed to wake up the roosters which began to do their thing. We were drifting off to sleep again when we began to hear whistles from the SPLA base nearby. I think they run around blowing whistles to wake the guys up for the morning run. They form up in platoons of about 20 and run around the town perimeter singing. We really enjoy the songs, even though it's a dreadful way to wake up. I'll try to get out early one day and take a little video.
Having skipped my shower the night before, I staggered off to the shower. It's a bag with a valve on the bottom surrounded by a nice grass fence. The water was cold, so I just danced around a bit and toweled off. I was partially dressed when Isa, our guard, came in with a bucket of hot water. So, I just missed a hot shower. Ok, no problem.
Off to spend about 15 minutes with the Lord, then to our group devotionals. We had small group prayer time. Earnest and I prayed for political corruption in Kenya, the hurricane victims in the US, and for the gospel to spread to a nearby region.
Then Beverly took off for the hospital, and I loaded up some things and took a few guys out to see our blockmaking operation. Worked hard for a few hours trying to get things running smoothly and efficiently. Took digital pictures of the guys to make a bulletin board. One of the guys' dog followed him to work. The dog's name is Sadaam Hussein? Two guys from the compound came out on the quad bike hauling a big plastic container of water. Six of us managed to lift it up and pour about 150 liters of water into another container. The blockmaking program uses a huge amount of water. It's one of the things I'm concerned about. We put six, yes, six guys on the quad bike and rode the 2km back to the compound.
We tried to lay down for a brief nap from about 1:30 to 2:30 but were
interrupted by a local official who came to ask/demand we attend an urgent meeting. To explain, Samaritan's Purse operates as an NGO (Non-government Organization) with the permission of the local government. There is a special government agency called the SRRC who interfaces between the NGO's and government. So, what happened is, one of the local NGO's got crossways with the governor and is probably going to be run out of town. As in, get out in 72 hours. With our program managers all gone, it was left to Earnest and me to handle it. We decided to stay out of it, so we replied that we
are merely workers and besides I had only been in Sudan for 7 weeks. So, the director accepted our excuse and left.
We both went to visit Bev's Arabic teacher, the wife of a guy who works with SP. Samira Moussa is a woman large of personality as well as girth and generosity. She's a Muslim lady whom we really enjoy, and she seems to enjoy teaching Bev immensely. Good relationship building is going on. Samira served us the sweetest, hottest, blackest coffee I've ever had. It was like espresso on steroids. I went charging out of there ready to take on anything, running on pure caffeine. Who needs a nap!
Then Beverly went to teach a math class at the hospital. Her Math-BINGO game was a raving success. She gave out chocolate bars to the winners. She also teaches English and nursing skills.
I hiked the 2km to the jobsite accompanied by Paul, a Mabaan guy, who works as a guard at the hospital and who is a deacon at the Unity church. His English is pretty minimal, but luckily I know enough Arabic words to say things like "we go now, ok" and "rain is coming". Scintillating conversation, but he is a happy guy and we had a lot of fun.
We found the jobsite in crisis due to a broken-down blockmaking machine. The onsite manager, Bol went off on his bike to fetch another one. I got dirty with the guys and found where soil had clogged up some of the works. No problem. Got it taken care of. Finished up the work, locked up the tools, and then piled in the pickup to go home. Of the 13 guys on the site, we got 11 in the pickup and bounced off down the road scattering children and chickens in our wake. The kids all run out of the huts, gawk at me, and
start yelling "khawadja!", "howareyou!!".
Bev and I went for a walk with Neil before dinner. Nice sunset. Flies were not too bad. Neil is a great guy who works for USAID and stays on our compound. You can pray for him because he does not know the Lord. Yesterday he got really offended because we left some evangelism materials on the table. I think he thinks of evangelism as trying to 'westernize' or 'Christianize' people against their will. God willing, I hope to explain to him how God does the work, our job is to get the message out to people.
Dinner was a yummy tuna casserole thing with these tortilla like things. Good conversation. Off to bed.
Good night all,
Chris for the Crowders in Kurmuk
Published at September 10, 2005 07:47 AM
