Tonight’s special: Three cheese sauce with goat meat on spaghetti

So I am now in Tonj and have begun to settle in a bit. My partner up here, Ben, is a great guy, just recently graduated from University of Missouri in civil engineering. He has been up here about a month, so he is new but I am learning a lot from him about this place.

What can I say about Tonj? Well it is quite a bit warmer up here as oppose to Yei. Since I have been here the temperature in the day is between 115-120 degrees, dropping to around 85-90 at night (at least it makes the cold showers nice). We are expecting the rains to start in another few weeks; the problem then will be the roads and the mosquitoes. All around Tonj there are places that flood and some houses are even on stilts, thus making many roads impassible or at least very difficult even with a 4x4 (there are no paved roads in southern Sudan). This will make the collecting of building materials a challenge.

Our compound is fairly simple. Ben and I share a room and we have power in the evenings from a small generator but power is an issue and there is no fan at night. There are two others here as we are sharing the compound with another NGO. Joseph (Sudanese) is the compound manager and Kate (Ugandan) is a nurse that is working at a clinic on site here. The clinic is currently overwhelmed with cholera cases and she has been working very long days and nights. She has very little help and is 7 months pregnant – wow she is tough! This area really faces serious issues with water and sanitation. There are very few pit latrines and bore hole wells. Some families have to travel over 1 mile for water. This has been the biggest factor for cholera. A lot of people have to go to the river for water, and everything goes on at the river: bathing, washing vehicles, washing clothes, swimming, bathing animals, etc. Most people really don't have a choice and I know would rather not get their water here as it is very polluted.

A woman and her baby:

Praise the Lord we do have water filters at our camp but one problem or challenge we have had since I have been here is that there is no cook. Now for most of you in the states this might sound strange but over here it is very helpful to have someone to cook for you as we don’t have time to shop, nor do we have time to cook. So Ben, Joseph and I have been taking turns – we don’t want Kate in there after being about cholera patients all day. Hence the title of this message: Three cheese sauce with goat meat on spaghetti – this was Ben’s special dish and actually it wasn’t too bad but it was a little strange. Last night I made macaroni and cheese with some corn (mmm…everything yellow) – I tried to ignore the fact that the date on the boxes was Nov 23, 2004. At any rate I really don’t care to much what I eat as long as I find something cool to drink. Here is photo of a woman cooking in Thiet:

We are currently working with three church sites before moving to Rumbek:

Mapel Church: N 07۫ 17.589’ E028۫ 26.554’ Elevation: 1552 Distance (as the crow flies) from compound 26.16 miles – takes about 1 ½ hours one way (beginning on walls – about 2-3 weeks from competition)

Thiet Church: 07۫ 36.284’ E028۫ 48.745’ Elevation: 1356 Distance from compound 16.54 miles – takes about 45 minutes one way (almost done, finishing work underway)

Tonj Church: 07۫ 16.708’ E028۫ 40.869’ Elevation: 1440 Distance from compound .14 miles – takes about 2 minutes (completed). Here is a photo, this will be the general size and design of most the churches:

Most days I am running supplies to the various sites (diesel, concrete, water, tools, etc) trying to make sure that building crews have everything they need. There is no communication between the sites and us so it takes a physical visit and supplies can be very hard to find here. Like I said before, a lot of things come from Yei and Uganda but as that is a hard two day drive one way, you can’t exactly hop down there. Today I went to Thiet to bring the carpenter out there and get the trap to cover the slab at Mapel, then headed out to Mapel after lunch (last nights mac and cheese with some rice). But, at Mapel I found that the cement mixer was busted and we need to get the one from Thiet to bring over – we don’t drive at night so this will to wait until tomorrow as it was already 5pm but it is a constant back and forth.

Guys playing a card game in Tonj:

Well I guess that is all for now. I am planning to share some of the stories I am hearing and I want to tell you more about some of the staff we have working with us. Most people have been very kind and welcoming. Thank you for your prayers. Please pray that the cholera epidemic would end, that Ben and I would have favor with local pastors and officials and that we would have wisdom in working with our staff.

“Send out your light and your truth; let them guide me. Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you live. There I will go to the altar of God, to God-the source of all my joy. I will praise you with my harp, O God, my God!”

Psalm 43:3-4

Panyana Church Opening

Hello All,

This will probably be my last blog for a little while as tomorrow I head up to Tonj and there is no internet up there. Today we went to a church opening, which was very interesting. It lasted about 5 hours, mostly full of speeches but was still neat to see.

Here are a few photos from the day.

Here are some cute kids:

Panyana Church: most of the churches we are opening in this area are Episcopal; this is actually a church that was renovated not built (you can see the walls are brick instead of block), SP did the windows, doors, front, floor, and a few other things:

Inside the church (it was pretty full - this is an understatement):

Well I pray all of you are well. It has been somewhat hot today, proabably in the 90s with high humidity so I think I will go find some water.

A couple of prayer requests, tomorrow I really get into it so just prayer that I will find my way and have wisdom in what I am doing. Also, that I will build some strong relationshiops with the guys I am going to live with. Thank you.

phil

Friday in Yei

So it was a day off today because we are having a church opening on Sunday (usually we will have Sunday's off - but we did a bit of work anyway. Here are some photos from the day as we drove out to see some more churches.

Downtown (D town for those of you in Pittsburgh) Yei:

Here is inside one of the old churches:

Here is a church in the beginning stages of being built with the foundation layed out:

Like I said before, churches have to collect several materials: two kinds of sand, one from the river, the other from a pit. These two are mixed together for block making. A church will make there own blocks (around 1000) but we have someone there to assist them. They also need to collect stone and break it into small pieces for the foundation. The last thing they need is mirrum (a reddish dirt), that is used to help level the foundation before the slab is poured. Here are some photos of these materials (top left are blocks, top right is river sand in the front and pit sand in the back, bottom left is river sand, blocks, and mirrum, botttom right is stone):

And here is one nearing completion with Jeff and Peter (site manger):

have a great day,

phil

The Yei Base

Greetings from Yei,

So for the next few days I am getting oriented here, working with a guy to learn what I am suppose to be doing before heading up to Tanj. Basically I will be part of a three man team: a engineer, logististion and I will be the mobilizer.

The steps in building Churches is pretty simple although the process and work is quite difficult.

• Step one is to find the Churches and take an assessment of whether they need to be rebuilt. The main qualification here is that they were destroyed during the war. Currently there are 570 church sites identified.
• Step two is to meet with the church and see if they are willing to partner with SP in rebuilding. If agreed, they sign a contract agreeing to provided/collect the sand, stone, and water for the project. SP then agrees to actually build the building; a team of builders will be brought in for the actual construction.
• Step three is for the church to begin collecting supplies. SP provides the transport but it is up to the church to provide the labor to go and collect the supplies. It also includes breaking stones and clearing the site. This is where I will come in - my responsibilities will to help motivate the church in collecting the supplies, keeping them encouraged and making sure they have all the tools, transport and other materials they need. SP does not just want to give a hand outs but realizes that somethings need to be provided if anything is to be accomplished. This process can take up to a month or more depending on how quickly the church volunteers work. Sometimes they will work very very slowly, in which case we may move to another site until they are more serious.
• The fourth step is to have the building team come in and construct the church. The Yei compound is the main staging area for all materials moving north. Both iron (for trusses) and wood (doors, windows, pews, pulpits) projects are done at workshops here. Most of the wood is mahogany.
• And finally there is a grand church opening (I am going to one on Sunday so I will get to see what that is like.

One issue here is the feeling from the churches that more should be done (i.e. the church should be bigger or there should be better benches, etc). I know this will be a frustration, but in many ways this is part of working in development.

For those of you interested the SP Compound in Yei is at:

N 04 05.560'
E 030 39.905'

Elevation at 2983ft

Everyone I have met as a part of this project is a guy around 25 years old - I am the old guy out here but I guess I am just trying to still be tough like them.

SP Compound in Yei:

Wood working shop at the compound:

until next time -

phil

Heading for Yei

So tomorrow around 6am I am head out for S. Sudan - Yei (on the boarder of Uganda). There are actually commercial flights going in now so I will catch a flight in with another guy coming back from R&R. So after Yei I head to Tonj. Below is a sat map of the area, you can find a larger one at:

http://www.respond-int.org/Respond/viewmapdetails.html?map_id=367

Follow the red line from right to left and Tonj is at the end.

Another good map is through google, Google Earth will be better but this isn't too bad: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=sudan&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=7&ll=7.373362,29.421387&spn=3.311773,8.547363&t=h&om=0

I think the largest city I will be nearby is Wau.

Unfortunately, I think I will only have very limited email capacity here and will probably will not be able to update my blog for a while but I will as soon as I can.

Well that is all for now. May our Lord fill you with the fruits of the Spirit that you may share the love of Christ with those around you.

a fellow servant,

phil

Stop over in France

Well friends and family I am now in Kenya for few days of orientation before heading up to Sudan. Samaritan's Purse has a nice guest house that I am staying at so that is a plus. Before getting here I spent a great couple of days in France. Here is a photo from the top of a mountain (Mont Sainte Victoire in Aix - southern France) that a friend of mine and I climbed:

And of course what would a stop in Paris be without seeing Norte Dame:

Well, on Wednesday I finally get to Sudan - I am interested to see what it will be like. I may not be able to post much to my blog up there but will whenever I can or when I get back through Kenya.

One more photo, here is sky picture from southern France:

Orientation Week - Boone, NC

Well I am here for a week of orientation. Above is a picture of the crew that went through it with me. Two others are headed to Sudan, while the others are headed to South East Asia and El Salvador. It has been a good week but all of us are ready to head out. From left to right it is me, Margeaux (Field Support Unit based in Boone, Josh (headed to Sudan), Terry (Field Support Unit in Boone), Jared (headed to Sudan), Mike (headed to Indonesia), and John and Connie Bowman (John was in Afghanistan with Tera and I for a short time) they are head to El Salvador.



Here is another photo from where we took a little hike at Bass Lake just near Boone.

I hope and pray all of you are doing well. I will write more when I am in Sudan.

phil