Breaking and Entering

So here in South Sudan it is pretty easy to end up in jail. Any traffic violation (from failure to indicate with the proper turn signal to driving along the same tracks that obviously 50 or more other vehicles use every day across the central soccer field in town), taking out a pocket knife around a police officer to clip your fingernails with the scissors (threatening a police officer), taking pictures when police are anywhere around, or even climbing a mountain all could end up in you going to jail. In fact, all of these have happened at some point within the last year to staff here in South Sudan. This is what makes last Saturday all the more ironic and comical.

Church dedications are exciting events with lots of singing, dancing, many guests and visitors, and food. There are many people who put lots of time and energy into making sure that the church is ready and decorated and beautiful. And last Saturday one of the churches that we recently finished was ready for opening. The week before, we had sent some carpenters to do some finishing touches to the doors and windows, and deliver the benches and pulpit. So on Thursday a couple other staff and I stopped by the church and were informed that they didn’t have the keys to open the church in order to clean it before the big celebration. Of course I had no idea where the keys were, but would check back at the office. I did mention it to one of the other staff that evening around dinner, at which time there wasn’t much to be done. The next day (Friday), I forgot about it in the morning and didn’t ask the carpenters or the driver of the truck that carried the materials. While out and about, I remembered again, but couldn’t get through to the office to remind them to check the times I remembered. At 6pm, when I was returning to base and passing the church, I again stopped to find out that the people were there cooking and getting things ready while waiting for the church to be opened so they could clean and decorate inside. Oops. By the time I was able to contact the base, I was about 15 minutes away, and all the national workers had left the compound including the carpenters, and the driver had taken a tractor to a church about 45 minutes away and wouldn’t be back until the next day. So, we spent the evening tracking down anyone we thought might have the key to no avail. We called it a night hoping the next morning the key would be found, while also trying to determine the best way to get into the church causing the least damage in case we couldn’t find the key.

Well, of course the next morning still no one had any idea where the keys were. We swayed back and forth between trying to grind the lock off from between the double doors, trying to squeeze in between the ceiling and the wall, and just taking a chainsaw to the door (we don’t really have a chainsaw). So, we took hammers and chisels, a grinder and welding machine (to power the grinder), a drill, and the biggest crow bar we could find. We got there about 45 minutes before the scheduled opening of 10am (3hrs and 45min before the actual start of 1pm) and thankfully didn’t have more than 50 or so people look at Dan and I rather surprisingly as we walked around the church checking windows and door s and propping ladders up trying to fit between the roof and wall and trying to squeeze between the bars that went above the window. Upon realizing a six year old would probably fit it dawned on us that the 7 or 8 foot drop to the cement floor might hurt the unsuspecting child and leave him inside the building with a broken arm, leg, or back, and us still outside trying to get in to help.

After all the deliberating, we came to the conclusion of trying to break a window and crawl through the lower bars which were quite a bit more spread out than up high. So, as a few more people had gathered, we began banging the new church window as hard as we could (which also happened to be quite loud) and we demonstrated to all present how the window locks are the weakest point of the church and provide the easiest way to break in and steal anything from inside. And by 9:40am, we had successfully opened up the doors so that the celebration could begin. Thankfully, the fiasco of breaking and entering the church the morning of the opening didn’t dampen or dishearten any spirits as probably 400 or so people sang, danced, and celebrated from 1pm up until almost 5 before breaking to eat

(I didn’t actually have a camera with me, so there aren’t any photos of the mission, nor did I stay for the celebration, but these pictures are of an opening celebration I attended the next day and should provide a good picture of what a typical church would look like so you can imagine our attempts to break in.)

And although breaking and entering is probably the most unlawful thing I’ve done in Sudan, it is one thing that didn’t lead to me having to sit down in the police station trying to talk my way out of a prison sentence. Good times.

(Of course the inventory guy found the keys on Tuesday in the most obvious place you would have thought he would look.)