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Day 8.
It was truly a day of miracles and humility, as God had really BIG plans for our team. On Saturday morning, Peter, Kerry, Mandy, and Angie once again loaded into the commissioner’s truck to head out to Kierwan. The blessing in that was two-fold: it was proof that the commissioner is truly supportive and because of the driver’s behavior the day before, Aid Sudan paid less for the ride than ever before! Andrew, Jengmer, Chris, and I stayed behind to continue our work in the Bible school. Admittedly, I was initially a little crestfallen that I wouldn’t get to see Kierwan, too, but God needed me in the Bible school, especially because Chris and I each learned an extra Bible story overnight so that we could cover for two of the team members heading to Kierwan.
God also had a BIG lesson for me that day.
Snapshot of Saturday:
-Peter, Kerry, Mandy, and Angie headed to Kierwan to check on Village-to-Village project that Buay is overseeing
-I rehearsed my new Bible story over breakfast, and then headed to the school with Andrew and Chris
-Received a HUGE lesson in humility at the school (see “Lows” below)
-Students recorded 2 songs for the Radio Project
-Walked out to the radio tower and made two new Sudanese friends
-Played kura (soccer) with Sudanese kids
-Prayed with team about getting sand to Kierwan…God answered our prayers that very night!!
Photographic Documentation!
Recording songs in Nuer…
Our Bible duel gora’s own DJ…
Jerry can and cup that our Bible school students used (they thought this picture was strange, too)…
Before we headed out to the radio tower, I threw on my baseball cap. I didn’t have a mirror to see what it looked like, so I took a quick self-portrait. Yes, I know, I’m a dork…
I am always blown away by the size, weight, and amount of stuff that these women can carry on their heads without falling down or dropping any of it!
NyaMandy with her new friend…
Me with my new friends, Bil and Kim…
Aid Sudan’s second radio tower, which will broadcast Bible stories, songs, teacher training, and news in Nuer….
Jengmer and Mandy decided to climb up the tower a bit, but they didn’t go dangerously high!
These children were either really frightened of us or really shy, and they didn’t come close until I started taking their pictures. Once I did, however, we were fast friends!
This is one of my favorite shots from the whole trip…
Duel tocha (living hut), or sometimes called a tukul (Arabic)…
Jengmer is quite the photographer, as well. I’m sure his three-month trip in Nasir was well documented!
This is Buay, a Sudanese-American man who was born in Torpuot (about five miles from Nasir), but came to America when he was quite young to seek political asylum. He later earned a construction management degree, and had a job in the field until the economy fell apart and he was laid off. Right about the same time, Aid Sudan was having some trouble with their current contractor in Sudan, who walked off the job. Buay felt a calling to join Aid Sudan’s work in Kierwan, and now oversees the Village-to-Village project. Kuoth goa e long!!
Bil is either really concentrating or really not sure about something…
Team leader discussion…not your typical conference room meeting!
After asking Jengmer if he could get me a Sudanese toothbrush, we finally found the specific kind of tree, nip, from which the toothbrushes come. Jengmer had Bil and Kim fetch each of us our own toothbrush, and then they taught us how to shape and use them. You may be skeptical, but they actually work very well! One morning it was raining, and instead of going through the hassle of brushing my teeth the American way, I just used my nip brush…and my teeth felt fantastic!
Madu (friend). At this point, you [hopefully] have caught on to the fact that the Sudanese culture is quite different from our own. In Sudan, relationships are expressed in very different ways than they are here. Couples don’t paw all over each other in public, and friends hold hands and walk with arms intertwined. It is very common to see people of the same sex holding hands, but unlike here, it is only a sign of friendship. It is so pure and such a great honor to be considered a friend of a Sudanese person. This is definitely one of my favorite things about the Sudanese culture…
Wong mit (fire weed…though I’m sure I didn’t spell that correctly). As we walked back to our compound, we meandered through some tall grass and weeds. As I swung my left foot forward through a clump of grass, I suddenly felt an intense burning/stinging sensation all across the front of my shin. OUCH!! I thought for sure that I had just been stung by a scorpion, but then Jengmer and Bil found the culprit: this awful, terrible, no good, very bad weed that turned my leg to fire! Jengmer assured me that “it’s okay” and my leg would stop hurting before we reached the compound. He was right, as usual, but I was much more careful about where I walked after that! Here’s wong mit…
Laundry day. The ladies of our compound washed our first load of laundry that day. They completely ROCK!! I had twak all over some of my clothes, but you would never know it after they were done with them!
Duel wodora. So, I am an American, and although I tried really hard not to make any major cultural faux pas, I failed. I didn’t know that in Sudan, you are not suppose to talk about the bathroom at all. As in, don’t say you have to go, that you are going, that you just went, or even the name of the hut the long drop is housed in. Evidently, there is not a Nuer word that directly translates to bathroom/long drop. I embarrassed Bil and Kim terribly by asking what the word for bathroom is; they told me duel wodora, but they laughed uncontrollably the whole time. Buay later informed us that duel wodora does not translate directly to bathroom, but rather “poop house”. My bad. So here’s our poop house…
For the final photo of the day, I took this shot of Peter proudly showing off a picture he took on his new iPhone4. Love it!
Highs:
-Seeing the radio tower and understanding the blessings that Aid Sudan’s donors are providing through their donations, and realizing just how many lives this project will transform
-Being called a friend by Kim and Bil
-Using my Sudanese toothbrush
-Playing kura with Sudanese kiddos…Andrew, Mandy, and I played. Andrew later stopped playing to take pictures, so Mandy and I continued to play. Originally, Mandy and I were on separate teams, but as the game progressed, I realized that some of my team members were playing against me. When I said something to Mandy, her response was, “I don’t think we have teams anymore. I think it’s all of them against us!” I think she was right.
-Realizing how much I felt at home in Sudan…and how tough it was going to be to leave
-Hearing from the commissioner that the UNITED NATIONS was going to haul sand for Aid Sudan!!! What?!? This only happens when God is involved, just so you know!
Lows:
-After a couple of days of chuckling at our Bible school students’ “Sudanese serving sizes” at lunch, it came to a head. Chris commented that those portions would make him sick, and I agreed. I said that I could never eat that much. Andrew’s response was simply, “You could if that was your only meal of the day.” I was immediately humbled by the realization of their daily struggles and by how naive I had been. In my journal that night I wrote, I will never again chuckle at a hungry person filling his or her stomach. God provides, and for that I am forever grateful.
-My leg catching on fire! =)
Lessons God Taught Me:
-He provides for those who pick up their cross and follow Him. As I have already mentioned, those Bible school students make big sacrifices to attend school faithfully. They are answering a call from God, and that requires them to give up a lot of themselves. Many of them walk great distances to get to the school, and do so on empty stomachs. God laid it on Aid Sudan’s heart to provide lunch for the students, so they are able to fill their bodies with nourishment while filling their souls with the Word. Seeing them take in their one meal for the day was a lesson in humility, and a lesson in God’s provisions. We take food for granted here, with our aisles upon aisles of food in the grocery stores (which I am still unable to step foot inside). Though the people of Southern Sudan are joyful and filled with hope, many of them are hungry. However little sustenance they have, they are very thankful and give God the glory. Many of us are not even thankful for the lives of luxury we live, but they sing God’s praises for one meal of rice and beans a day. It humbles me deeply, and I hope it humbles you.
-God is BIG!! The trip to Kierwan went really well that morning, but the new challenge was that we needed sand hauled out to the project site. Aid Sudan does not have a vehicle in Nasir, and the commissioner’s vehicle is not equipped to haul sand. And it is the rainy season, which means that the roads are near impassable. So, we prayed. Then we learned that sometimes the commissioner is allowed to use UN resources to do things in the community. So, we prayed. Literally, only about 30 minutes after we each prayed that the UN would come through, Peter received a phone call that, indeed, God was working things out before our very eyes. The UN was going to haul sand for us the very next day!! God is bigger than any of us, and yes, God is bigger than the United Nations.
