Naming Ceremony

My new short-term teammates and I arrived safe and sound in Parot yesterday afternoon. This afternoon a few of the ladies that I know best from our local church came over to give Dinka names to the two short-termers who are here for the first time, Myra (L) and Bridget (R).  

Myra and Bridget will be teaching at Cush Christian School. Each of the five ladies who came has children at the school, and they are grateful for these young volunteers who will be helping their children learn.

All visitors are given Dinka names because they are so much easier for our local friends to remember and pronounce than most Western names.

Also, having a Dinka name integrates new people immediately into the family and clan relationships that are foundational to community life.

One lady (with Myra in the picture above) suggested that Myra be given the name of one of her nieces, who is like a daughter to her, Nyibol Kur. The other ladies agreed.

Then another lady (shaking Bridget's hand in the picture to the right) said she wanted to name Bridget after her daughter, Akual Bol. This also met the approval of the other women.

After that, the ladies had a short time of prayer to thank God for Nyibol Kur and Akual Bol and ask for his blessing on their time here.

Update from Uganda

After being away from South Sudan since early March on a short home assignment, I'm heading back tomorrow. I'm currently in Lubowa, Uganda, which is a suburb of Kampala. Near where I'm staying there are some great views of the hills around Lubowa, so striking with their mix of dark green trees and reddy-orange roofs.

The past few days I've welcomed four short-term volunteers from the U.S. who will be serving with my team during the next months. We've been busy purchasing and packing supplies to take in to SS  on a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flight tomorrow. Today one of my new teammates and I went to deliver our freight to the MAF compound at the Kajjansi Airfield, which is just south of Lubowa. Here are a few of the scenes along the way. You will notice a banana theme--there were lots of them for sale. :-)

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Our 500 kilos of freight included personal luggage, boxes of groceries and toilet paper--can't get the latter in our area!

The MAF Uganda office building at the airfield.