The Chief's Court

There's a magnificent mahogany tree located near where we're doing the dental training. That's it in the photo above. It towers over everything else around it and is a landmark not only because of its size but because the head chief for the Wanyjok area (which includes our village) holds a traditional Dinka court under it.

 The chief, assisted by local elders, judges civil disputes. Particularly common are quarrels over cows, which are the most valued possession among the Dinka. The judges sit in a semi-circle and opposite them the quarreling parties sit on the ground. Anybody can come by and listen to the proceedings. My teammate James went to the court a few months ago and wrote an entertaining blog post about it.

Dental Training

Today was day 4 of ten days of dental training we are offering to two of the local pastors we work with. The focus of the training is on doing extractions. So far the two trainees, Kerubino and Thomas, have observed trainer Dr. Jim, an American dentist, do 19 extractions. Jim gives detailed explanations at each step, taking his time, going over and over certain things.

Kerubino and Thomas have learned a great deal about teeth and how to remove them safely, with as little pain as possible for the patient and without doing harm. They have begun doing some practical things like identifying and cleaning instruments, applying topical anesthetic and explaining procedures and follow-up care to patients. Here are a few pictures of the training.

 

  

 We are doing the training in Wanyjok, a town near our village, at a clinic run by a Christian mission from Guatemala. The staff there have graciously allowed us to use one of their rooms. It's been very helpful to be in a centrally located facility that is already providing medical care. We've treated some of their patients, as well as others who've come as a result of announcements we've had made in churches or in nearby markets. This photo shows the front of the clinic.

Making Bricks

My team has just begun a building project: a new training centre. We currently have a building that houses our radio station, Weer Bei FM, as well as a classroom for our Crossroads Training Centre. The training centre is used for various kinds of church leadership training, workshops and church meetings.  The CTC and the radio both need more space. The new building will have four classrooms, and then the current building will be used exclusively for the radio.

I visited the construction site the other day. About 18 workers were busy with various tasks: brick making, foundation digging, water carrying. We have two very nifty brick presses, each requiring a team of five men: two to mix the sand, cement and water that the bricks are made of; two others to operate the press; and a fifth to carry the bricks to the place they dry. The video shows how the press works.

Seven thousand bricks are needed for the building. As of yesterday, between 3,500 and 4,000 had been made, using 100 large bags of cement. Now we're out of cement and will resume brick making once a truck we have coming from Kenya arrives with 200 more bags of cement (it's much cheaper to buy in Kenya than here).

The Road to Aweil

The 45-minute drive to the town of Aweil, our state capital, is quite the bone-jarring experience. The road is full of heavy-duty washboard and potholes. Last week I was in the very back of the Land Rover with a few other passengers while my colleague Vince drove. The trip there and back makes for quite a work out just trying to hold on and stay in one place--and one piece! I shot a little video to give an idea what it's like.

Moving Stuff Around

Here are two common local ways to transport things from one place to another:

 On your head or on a bike. No "Wide Load" warning in front of the guys with the wood--pedestrians beware!

The woman you see is carrying a rolled-up mat woven from grasses. My timing was a little off to show the woman carrying the other mat!

Fight Corruption--Amen!

Seen yesterday at a government office in Aweil town, our state capital:

Holiday Guests

The Christmas holiday atmosphere goes on for a whole week after Christmas day here. One tradition is that people visit friends and "do Christmas" with them, dropping in unannounced and expecting to spend several hours and be supplied with food and drink.

The ladies in the picture above are friends whom I often visit. They are related and live right next to each other a short walk from my house. Their names are Adut, Akir and Acol (prounounced "a-chole). (Almost all names of Dinka women start with "a".) They had never been to visit me and told me a few days ago that they wanted to come and pay me a holiday visit. Contrary to custom, we pre-arranged a day.

They came over yesterday around 1:00 and we spent the afternoon together. I first served them hot tea with lots of sugar--the Dinka love sweet drinks. Then I made a hearty peanut sauce (main ingredients: onions, crushed tomatoes, natural peanut butter & lentils) which was served with rice and bread.

These ladies have been a big encouragement in my language learning. They put up with my broken Dinka, try hard to figure out what I'm trying to say, and laugh with me at my mistakes. We have a lot of fun together.

My Team

My team is called Cush4Christ (C4C for short) and we're a motley crew, from a variety of backgrounds, half Canadian and half American. (We did have one South Sudanese member, George the dog, but he came down with rabies recently and unfortunately had to be put down.) Most of us are from a church called the RPCNA (Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America), but we have two members from the PCA (Presbyterian Church in America). My intrepid team leader and his wife (the couple just to the right of me in the photo) have been here the longest, since 2006.

Happy New Year!

A new year, a new blog. I want to share about my life as a missionary in South Sudan. I've been here since May 2011. My teammates and I live and work among the Dinka people. The village where most of us live is called Parot. It's not on any maps on the internet (at least I've never found it!). It's located in the northwest of South Sudan, in a state called Northern Bahr el Ghazal, about a 45-minute drive north of the state capital, a city called Aweil. Our nearest town that might be on some maps is called Wanyjok, a 15-minute walk from Parot.

We don't always have reliable internet access, so that might be somewhat of a hindrance to regular updates. But I'll just have to start and see how it goes!