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.

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).

View from the start

some weird plants

the long valley

Thankfully it cleared up (but on the way back were too worn out, and didn't get a photo when you could see the mountain)

at the summit

Batian, the highest peak

batian is on the right, nelion in the middle and lenana on the left

scenic trail

Point Lenana

Looking straight up at Batian

sunrise

My Last Months in Sudan

Things in Maridi quieted down, and we finished our operations there in November. Things had slowed down over the previous couple of months, and it was tough to lay off our local staff that we weren’t able to transfer to other sites. For most, they were providing for a large extended family. The road work (that I had posted about previously) came as things were winding down, and thankfully several of our staff were actually able to get jobs with them before we had completely finished. The church and community leaders were grateful for what we had done, and sent us off with God’s blessing and their prayers for our further activities throughout Sudan. The area has suffered from attacks by the LRA in the months since, and it’s difficult to know the people I’ve spent time with are facing problems.

From the end of November, I was fortunate to get to spend time at several of our sites spread across Sudan. I had already known that it is a diverse country, but had only seen it from areas that weren’t so much different from one another in the Southwest of the country. I now witnessed some of the areas closer to the areas controlled by the Northern Government, where the Islamic influence was much more widely accepted. I also ended up on the shores of the Nile and witnessed some of the areas near where the oil fields are and consequently have received a lot more investment. Even in Juba, the capital, there are few cars as the roads require 4x4 traction to move for a large portion of the year, but in the swampland of Malakal on the Nile river, there were hundreds of small Toyota and Kia cars and rickshaws being used as taxis in town during the dry season (apparently during rainy season they are just decorations).

Between this and going back to some of the towns I had spent time in early on, I also was able to witness some of the changes that are taking place over South Sudan. There is electricity in places that hadn’t previously had it, new roads are being made and travel that was previously only seasonally possible is becoming faster and possible longer. There are new buildings being constructed all over and the markets have more and more available. There are still so many in Southern Sudan that are far removed from any of this and haven’t had seen any of this. And, even in the areas where people see the changes, the majority hasn’t had their family’s circumstances improve any but they continue to try to eke out an existence.

Missing

So it's been awhile since I last wrote anything. Yeah, there's a lot I could and should write about.



This will be brief, though.



I'm back in the States, and have been for a little over a week. I don't have plans for what I'm doing tomorrow or the day after that and so on. I'll be reflecting, processing, and seeking some divine guidance for the future.



But I thought right now I'd just update to share a few things I'm missing:

-Peeing outside

-Diversity

-Hot tea all the time

-Freshly picked fruit

-Picking my nose in public without people looking at me funny

-These guys

-Liz's freshly made mandazi

-Stopping and greeting people on the walk into town

-Warmer weather

-Seeing the colorful wraps covering ladies' curves and babies tied to their backs

-Hearing other languages

-Catching up with Edward, Simon, and the other Yei staff on a short stopover

-I'm actually missing asida and beans (and kisera)

-Seeing children playing soccer everywhere

-All my friends I've left

-Various other sights, smells, and feelings

The upside to being in the States:

-NCAA basketball. Yeah, I timed it well to return Championship Week. But March Madness will be all over April 6.

You were right, Mr. G. It won't take 7 or 10 days till I'll want to be back. But, I'm sorry that I won't be back quite that quickly. I guess we'll see how long I can really stay away, though.