Jeff is Where?: April 2009

21 April, 2009

Going Green

It seems most places in the world have a change in seasons. This past weekend I was in Central Park with my sister and enjoyed marvelous weather with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 70s. The trees are budding and grass is now green as bare dull branches spring to life with purple, white, and various colored flowers showing their buds. The colors started appearing a few weeks ago, but they’ve now taken over everywhere. The beauty of creation is a bit easier to appreciate this time of year than in the winter, and life becomes a little more enjoyable.

It’s about this time that things in Sudan should also be turning green. While the colors aren’t as varied, it is a bit more dramatic. The seasons in Sudan oscillate between completely dry, brown, and dusty to full of life, green, and muddy. While I didn’t see places in Sudan get as beautiful as many other places I’ve been and lived, the drastic change from the end of dry season to the wet, rainy season is more drastic than any seasonal change I’ve seen. I think the closest comparison I could make is when a random snow (enough to cover everything) occurs in late April after things have turned green and trees have flowered. Then, as the snow melts, you see everything go from white in the morning to green by afternoon as the sun melts the little bit of snow. It is almost as quick a change as everything goes from complete brown everywhere to completely green in a matter of days.

The spring brings beauty to North America and we can enjoy getting out of the house or office. Sports go from indoor basketball, volleyball and the like to outdoor baseball, beach volleyball, and others. In Sudan, transportation may go from rough to nearly impossible, but the rain is welcomed by all. If the rains don’t come or get delayed, a drought results in outbreaks of disease and deaths from malnutrition and starvation as nearly all households rely on farming to provide the food that is eaten. Seasons are a wonderful thing, and it’s incredible the different purposes that are served in different areas around the world.

December 28, 2008

June 22, 2008

These photos are on the same hill. They aren't at exactly the same spot, the dry one is looking up the hill as the green one overlooks a bit of the valley, but you can see an example of the difference. In rocky areas such as this, you can hardly tell that any grass would grow when it's dry, but during the rainy season, you would hardly know it was rocky.

07 April, 2009

A Doozy

A couple months ago I had the chance to climb Mount Kenya with a friend working in Sudan. It's an incredible mountain that's located right at the equator (0 degrees, 09 minutes south latitude... that's like 10 miles from the equator). The sun feels about as intense as can be, and I got the worst sunburn on my face from the hike over the last 3 years in Liberia and Sudan. I didn't think about it until after the first day when my nose was fried to put sunscreen on. It's about as close to the center of the earth as you can get and find snow. And that's because the elevation of the mountain is 5,199 meters (17,058 ft) at the highest. The point to which we climbed (to reach the highest point, you need more time, climbing gear, and a certain time of year) is called Point Lenana and it is 4,985 meters (16,355 ft).

Phil's schedule didn't allow us too much time, so we rushed our trip into 3 days instead of the typical 4 or 5, covering 30 miles and going up and back down from the starting point at 11,000 feet (3,300 meters). It was something I'd wanted to do back in 2000 when I was studying for a semester at Daystar University in Kenya, but didn't get around to then or during the last two years in Sudan. Thankfully we never suffered from altitude sickness that keeps some from reaching the top. But, we did also have porters carrying and cooking our food while we just carried our personal belongings. That made it easier for sure, and helped us to be able to do it in the three days.

The last day, we hiked a few miles to the top and back down to the camp we'd stayed the night before and then continued all the way down to our origin. We were up at 3am in order to be able to get that all in, and by the time we reached the bottom, we were completely wiped out. It was worth it, though, to get to be at the top for the sunrise (if we'd had another day, I'd have been ok with starting at a normal time and only coming back down to the same camp for the night and then hiking the rest of the way back down the following day).