Oh the Irony.

Okay so I just posted a blog. If you haven't read the one underneath, you need to scroll down and read it first before you read this one........

....done?

Alright. Now, I just re-read my blog after I posted it. I realized that I wrote something super ironic to the story I was telling. Something Africans do is put the world "really" at the end of sentences. Sometimes it means they are asking a question, sometimes, it adds expression, sometimes it is just in a weird part of the sentence and it would make more sense to me if it was in a different part of the sentence. Well this paragraph, I did just that and here it is....

"So my warning to you Canadians back home is this: If you ask me how I am when I get home and I say, "I'm FINE!" in sort of surprisingly abrupt sounding tone...I am not angry really. I am just speaking African-Canadian-English.

I laughed when I read it. Maybe you had to be there. ha, I dunno.

Takin' a Break

So I am feeling like I am tired of giving the regular ol' update blog and how things are going. But first...I know many are wondering...preaching was good. I wasn't even really nervous.

Okay story time. This story is devoted to all you people who have been to Africa.

Since coming to Canada, I have heard Swahili, Arabic, and Moru on a consistent basis and then when you mix that with a few other tribal languages, I have been confused more than most of the time. I have also learned that English is a different dialect here than I am used to. I have learned to speak more of what Paul is always urging me to speak. (You remember Paul...he is my favourite person...the retired pastor I am working with. Also Africa's biggest jokster and class clown. I love it.) Anyways, Paul says I need to speak African English. You people who have been to Africa know what I am speaking of.

The problem with adapting to this English, is that it is ungrammatical according to the rules that I am told are correct. In fact, they are rather confusing if you are not used to the speech. I talked to my sister and brother-in-law yesterday on the phone, and it was actually an incredibly difficult thing to speak in the Canadian English that I grew to love once upon a time. I was trying in vain to not use the African accent that I have acquired.

So my warning to you Canadians back home is this: If you ask me how I am when I get home and I say, "I'm FINE!" in sort of surprisingly abrupt sounding tone...I am not angry really. I am just speaking African-Canadian-English.

Okay, that is all I have to say.
Pray for:
1) Actually just praise God. I have been really encouraged for the past 2 days. Life is good here.
2) Discernment. People all want help. I want to help, but I don't know the best way sometimes.
3) Better ability/motivation to learn the languages. It can be overwhelming but I genuinely want to learn.

Okay, I will update you more on the situation of what is going down with our work here next time. As for now, I have to go look at the gazillion stars that I can't see at home which is the coolest thing ever!

Finding My Role

Warning: Long blog post. Sorry about that.

So first of all, I have a new number in Mundri. Forgot to say that before but you can now reach me at 011-249-925-608-779

Anyways....many people before I left were asking me what my specific goals are while I am here in Mundri. They understood that the eventual goal is to develop an orphanage centre but obviously in just a few months of being in a village in the outskirts of Southern Sudan, this process takes its sweet time. At the time, I would feel bad that I couldn’t really give people a concrete answer and I tried to avoid the conversation sometimes. But alas, I have begun to figure out what exactly my role will be here in Mundri. So this is to all you people who are confused what I came here to do...

First of all, meet Paul. Paul is a retired pastor who used to walk 3 days (each way) to do evangelism in some of the neighbouring communities. Wow. Anyways, he has a vision to develop a school that includes all clans of Greater Mundri (approximately 13). This school would teach children in the local language so that children would re-learn to be literate in the local dialect. This skill has been greatly decreased because the Northern Sudan influence brought mostly Arabic into the schools. Paul has had this vision since 1995, but no real means of being able to begin to see it take shape.

Afro-Canadian Evangelical Mission’s vision all along was to have our projects and our goals be the same as those of the community. After hearing about Paul’s vision, we wondered how we could combine the visions. Could we make the school targeted towards orphans then? So we met with several various local leaders and chiefs in our immediate area of Mundri to see how they felt about this. The idea was met with great excitement because it seems that although other NGO’s are here and doing great work, no one has really been able to approach the issue of orphans.

Orphan in this side of the world means someone who has lost a parent. As poverty is so severe in Southern Sudan, when one parent is lost, the means to survive under only one parent’s care is extremely difficult; especially if he/she is expected to provided education for his/her child.

All that to say, people really want to see development in the area of orphans. Our visions are merging. Now what will I be doing...

I will be working to document and survey the various regions of Greater Mundri and gather statistics and document stories through video and pictures in order to develop a project proposal to take to donors in Sudan and Canada to see this project take shape.

So this will take time but on the less busy days, I have found a primary school to volunteer in. Now I don’t really know, but I might actually be teaching my own class. Class sizes are huge here in Sudan. They range from 60-150 kids! So I am a little overwhelmed at that but hey, what’s life without it’s challenges right?

Oh and I think we have found a motorcycle that we are able to borrow for some of our transportation! Sweet deal.

Prayer List:

1) There is a NGO base with excellent facilities that is going to be unoccupied at the end of the month. The government will then have control who this is given to. Pray that if God wills it, we can somehow obtain this. It is a shot in the dark, but God is a great God. Never know.

2) Continued support from the community as they begin to adopt and take ownership of the project.

3a) That ice cream will fall from heaven just like manna.

3b) Just kidding. Okay that when I preach on Sunday, I won’t pee myself from nervousness. Yup, I am preaching. I was informed this last Sunday that I would be preaching in the English service of a church nearby. Hmm, okay sure...why not?

“So what am I preaching on?”

“Oh, I will give you the readings on Friday or Saturday.”

Good, at least it’s one day to prepare right? Gulp.

Mundri at last.

We made it! I heard that Mark (my bro) explained our adventure getting here, but we are here nonetheless. I have heard lots before coming here about the mango trees. Yup, it's true, from my house I am staying, I can see dozens of them at least. As for the people here...they are awesome.

Here is my favourite story so far here....
Yesterday I was sitting underneath the shade of the Mango tree (which is quite pleasant) when some kids walked by. So Mark and I motioned for them to come over. We went into the house and got a few chairs. That is how guests know they are welcome to stay and chill a while. So these boys sat but they didn't know English. So we just chilled until another group of boys came by and wondered what was up. So we told them to come over and I got some more chairs. Our place has about 15 chairs handy to use for this occasion. It took no time at all before there were none left. (And yes at this point, some girls came by too).

One of the boys who came by knew some English. Quickly I grabbed a book and jotted down some Moru phrases from him. One of these phrases was "Come here and sit." So I used this for any children coming by. Then I remembered about some things that were given to me by my dear friends before leaving Canada. I was given some things pill shaped thing that when you put it into water, a dinosaur comes out after a few minutes. This was quite a surprise to the children here and I pretended that the foamy dinosaur shape was alive when it lunged at the children. They lept back and then I started laughing. They did too. It was fun.

In total, I think there were probably 30-40 kids that came by throughout the time and many would come back with others and get me to show them the dinosaur show. ha, I loved it. I think I will do okay here. My worst experience here was the first night when my flip-flop broke. So I had to go to the market and buy the only pair of footwear that would fit my seemingly gigantic feet...a pair of used, fake, crocs. haha, I have never worn these before but I am learning to get used to them. I would say that if this is my "bad" experience, I am doing alright.

As for things with our mission here, we have been meeting with a local, retired pastor who has a vision similar to ours. We have already met and discussed a bit with some of the local leaders governing NGOs who seem to express excitement with our ideas. We will be meeting with local chiefs of the clans here in Mundri to see if they support this idea on Thursday afternoon. I know this sounds vague but I will give more details as we develop the project plan more and more.

Three things to pray for:
1) Open doors with the Chiefs the project.
2) More connections with kids to play with.
3) A cheap motorcycle to buy/borrow so I can get around in this place.

By the way, the meeting with the Chiefs will be held under one of our mango trees....awesome :)

Guest Author Time!

Hey everybody. So this is Adam's brother, Mark. I too am now left to wander somewhere deep in the South Sudanese wilderness although I'll be here only another week and a half or so. In the meantime, Adam and I have traveled together with Lexson from Juba after finally finishing our business there to the smaller but vibrant county of Mundri. We left around mid-afternoon on friday and until that moment, we were unsure how we would be travelling. Somehow, Lexson managed to procure a prison vehicle to tow us to Mundri. It was a Land Cruiser with benches running along the sides in the back. Lexson rode up front with the driver, while Adam and I rode in the back along with Lexson's aging mother and aunt. The journey went relatively smoothly until a few hours in, when the the aunt yelled something in Moru to Lexson. The vehicle stopped and Lexson instructed Adam to open "only the small door." (the back of the Land Cruiser shuts with two doors together). In retrospect, I wish Lexson had impressed upon us the gravity of the situation but he chose not to. Before we knew it, there was something of a cough and we were splattered with something that in a second I realized to be poor Auntie's vomit.

That's right. She puked on us...and I was covered from the neck down. Adam's arm and leg were also among the casualties. I didn't really know how to react so all I managed was a toneless, "Darn." Adam was still processing what had happened and what was all over us. We jumped out of the car and I started dumping water all over myself to rinse it off. Meanwhile, Lexson had seized the moment and was furiously taking pictures of the situation between bellows. It was actually quite hilarious and we didn't contain ourselves for long. Of course the humour was quickly lost when we got back into the vomit-smelling vehicle and bounced along a dirt road for another hour and a half praying that grandma and auntie (and by this time Adam and I as well) would hold it together and not allow a recurrence of the original event. After what seemed like forever we arrived and were forced again to wait for an eternity to shower. Nevertheless we have lived to tell the harrowing tale and are safely in Mundri as of now.

The Nile and things.

As said in my last blog, my brother was coming. Now he is here and things are sweet. We have had some good times. The first adventure we took was on Sunday when we caught some “bodas” to the edge of the Nile and went swimming. We chose to go to the area where most the kids were playing (and apparently where people are bathing...hmm). So anyways, we cooled off for a few minutes and then realized that everyone there was filling up there UN donated jugs to get water from the river back to their mud houses. Naturally, Mark and I were put to work. We started a service for a little while of filling up all the locals jugs so they wouldn’t have to wade into the water as deep and carry the water as far. I think we created quite the scene because it didn’t take long before a small crowd formed to observe this sight.

Today we were able to get our registration papers from the Ministry of Legal Affairs which was really cool. We are getting closer and closer to getting to Mundri. Also, this morning we found out there is a guy here named Charles who knows Lexson and said that he would give us his plot of land that he has in Mundri for our projects. That is a huge answer to prayer and it was really encouraging. I don’t know exactly the shape of the land yet but it is still exciting. We are going to be writing introduction letters to the NGO’s here and we are hoping to be able to generate some optimism from organizations that we can work with here.

For those of you who know my eating habits, know that I enjoy ice cream. Actually that is quite the understatement. Everyone before I left asked me, “How are you going to deal with being in Africa without ice cream?” I was sure that it would be next to impossible to find ice cream in the Sudan. Well today, Mark and I found it. I got the largest serving possible of soft serve ice cream. Then Mark needed help finishing his portion. So I gladly obliged.

Anyways, there has been some request for prayer requests on this blog. So I think I will start putting three things that you can be praying for at the end of my blogs. Cool?

1) Smooth sailing as we finish up here with registration in Juba so we can get to Mundri ASAP.
2) Positive response from the NGO’s here to aid us in our projects.
3) Open doors and optimism from the people as we head to Mundri.

Well I hope that gives you an idea of what to pray for and thanks for asking :)

Tastes of Canada

Taste #1: Today, my brother is coming to visit. That is pretty awesome. What a guy, traveling literally across the world to come hang out. He has informed me that is just inside the border on his bus...woot!

Taste #2: Shania Twain was playing on the radio (or at least I think it was).

For the record, I like taste #1 more than taste #2 :)

I am Sudanese.

Since arriving in Juba, I have begun to embrace many things about the culture. On of these things is tea. Now the picture of tea your mind probably just jumped to, is probably not the tea that I drink. It includes 2 scoops of milk powder (because you can't really get milk in liquid form from my understanding), then as much sugar as a child could ever ask for (except I put much less than locals) and then a tea bag...or sometimes Nescafe instead. The other day, I had caught a boda (motorcyle taxi) to go to a linguistic institute to buy a book to learn some Arabic. (Which by the way I am no longer a Mazungu...I am a "Cawaya"). I was walking along the road after I bought the book and walked past a group of guys chillaxing in the shade during the morning tea time.

"Hello. Come have tea with us."

hmm, never take food from strangers. But I do like the idea of stopping in the shade and forgetting about my duties for the day.

"Okay."

So we hung out for a while and talked about life. Then just when I was about to go on my way again, Lexson came by on his boda.

"Oh hey, I stopped to have tea."

"haha Adam! You are Sudanese!"

Nice, I have done it. Too bad everyone still looks at me like I am the strangest Sudanese man to walk the country. In fact, yesterday I made a poor little girl cry simply because of my skin colour. Rats (in the words of Charlie Brown). And she is my neighbour. Her family is trying to help her adjust. But mostly they just laugh a lot and think it's quite funny.

Anyways as for my work here, things are going well. During the course of this week, we have managed to register the organization (Afro-Canadian Evangelical Mission) with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and with the Ministry of Legal Affairs and a few other logistical thing such as getting a PO box and design business cards (which apparently are the bees knees around here so we really can't function without 'em). So ya we are getting closer and closer to being able to operate and I am truly excited to go set up camp for a while in Mundri. That is the place where I will be hanging out working to start developmental efforts focused towards children. It is a state over from here and from what I hear, about 4 hours on a terribly bumpy road. But the good news is, it's supposed to be much cooler there which will be a sweet change from this intense heat. Oh and yesterday, I saw my first African storm which was accompanied by watching a transformer blow up across the road (for all you transformer nerds...don't worry, it was a decepticon). haha okay just kidding but it did make us lose power once again for 1 day and counting. The whole scene was quite spectacular though :)

I got some pics up finally now too. Just a couple. The first is of the day Lexson and I left. The next is of a sign in Kenya that I am still trying to make sense of so I just had to snap a shot. I don't really have any pics of Juba yet because the police have laws against taking pics so I have been hesitant.
If you can't read it, it says: Credit will only be given to people over 85 years of age. (Provided accompanied by both parents)
Ha and weirdest thing is that this was in a photocopying place. Both parents? 85? hmm.