Rain, Best Friends, and Monkeys

Hmm, the English language is funny. I thought the plural of monkey would end in an "ies" because I am teaching in my level 6 and 8 English class that the "y" does that sorta thing. But then the little squiggly red line indicating a spelling error came up. Turns out we speak a pretty funky language.

Anyways, the title does apply. Stay with me folks. So I left on Thursday at 3:30 in the morning for a 5 and a half hour drive to Yambio--the capital of the state of Western Equatoria (where I am). The main purpose was to meet with the SSRRC which stands for some stuff (most of which I forget but I know its got the word "rehabilitation" in it somewhere). Basically they take care of the NGO stuff and organize stuff and...ya know, STUFF. Yup that's what they do.

So we went there, and then we didn't know which documents we needed. Turns out we didn't have a couple of them printed off. After a series of technological implosions, we didn't get them. Lucky us though, the head of the office is a guy that calls Paul "his best friend." He was pretty excited about our coming so it was all good, he hooked us up to still register. Then he continued to feed us 3 meals over the 20 hours and told me that the house is now MY home whenever I come back. Pretty sweet...but why exactly? Well, it also poured rain that night. Unlike us in the West, it seems that rain is a real blessing in Sudan. This guy told me that anytime it rains when there is a guest, then the guest is very special. Well lucky me! That's pretty sweet of you God, to hook us up like that. (Okay, the guy might have been a little tongue and cheek but he seemed flattered that I came on a night of some good African rain so I am gonna embrace it alright?).

Then after enjoying laughs with him and having his support to the "enth" degree for our project, we drove back. On the way back, we saw monkeys. They were running into the bush. Away from the car in front of us. I think this had to do with the fact that the car in front of us contained a minister of finance from Yambio who had a police man with him for security. The police man was really excited about having monkey for supper. So he used his rifle....

Now that you all have GASPED, you will be happy to know that he missed. So the monkeys lived happily ever after to eat the vegetables from the locals' gardens (another reason why they are less of a fan of monkeys than me). But nonetheless, I finally saw legit, exotic wildlife. Pretty fun.

That's all.
Prayer List
1) Praise we got hooked up by the best friend
2) Pray for our upcoming trip to Juba which includes conversations with possible donors and partnerships.

Takin' Dad's Advice...mostly

Do you remember my April Fool's blog I made a couple weeks ago? I pretended that I saw a snake and scorpion and that I tried to beat them with my shoe. When my dad talked to me later about my hypothetical defense tactics, he informed me I had it wrong. I was not supposed to use a shoe, but I was supposed to use a long stick or something that could keep my distance from the dangerous creature in case it made a lunge at me.

So this morning I went to go use my shower and there was a scorpion in the shower. (For realz this time...promise!) Once I had recovered from my initial, superhero, manly reaction (because men like me don't get scared at all; we just flex our muscles), I thought quickly of the advice given to me.

But wait, I need a picture!

Once I had the picture taken, I looked for what stick could effectively kill a scorpion. Nothing really that great.

What would Dad do in this case? Hmm, okay something to keep my distance he says. Got it.

I went with Mundri's best resource--a mango. So long story short, it worked. But it was dad's advice that kept me focused during this moment. I know it wasn't a stick, but I hope you are proud.

Here is a picture of the scorpion next to the drain plug in its last moments. Some of you might be saying, "Adam, this is small. Why would you write a whole blog post about that measly thing?"
Well, to you I say, "Go watch the most recent Indiana Jones." In that movie, Harrison Ford informs us that "when it comes to scorpions, the bigger the better." Therefore, small = not good. So there.

I am teaching at school now. Here are some things to pray for with that:
1) Patience and cultural understanding for me.
2) Teachers for the school. They are way too few. I am teaching up to 3 separate classes at the same time. I get sweaty walking from class to class all the time.
3) An overall revival of the education system here.

Mundri meets Canada

Today, Mundri encountered Canadian culture in a new way. This morning, four of the neighbourhood kids poked their head into my door. So I went to sit outside with them. As we sat there, talking was minimal. Communication is usually done in form of them touching my skin and then we smile and sometimes laugh too. But after a few minutes, I looked and found a stick. It had a slight hook on the bottom that reminded me of the stupid grass hockey sticks from elementary that I thought were so bizarre (I mean why do they only have a tiny blade anyways?)

So I got an idea. I told the kids that I wanted them to find sticks that looked like the one I had. So we went and found 4 more sticks for each of the kids. Then we found another couple short sticks to push into the dirt to stand upright to make goals. Then we found a mango. Yup, you got it, we played hockey in the yard of a church in the dirt. It was awesome. It also drew a small crowd of other children. I tried to tell them that this is called hockey. I don’t think they really cared about a name.

These are some pics of hockey. They aren't that good because I was in a hurry to get back and play but just so you can imagine a bit better. The last pic is just a cute kid name Wala that is always hanging around is quite jolly. I like him.

Prayer List:

1) Continue for the land and that all will go well.

2) Paul who is sick with something like Giardia and maybe Malaria.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Here are the good, the bad, and the ugly things about being here:


The Good – The stars.

The Bad – Stubbing your toe when you are walking at night and staring at them.

The Ugly – The bruise on my toe.

The Good – Mangos

The Bad – The ridiculous stickiness that you acquire when eating them.

The Ugly – Results of too many mangos.

The Good – Breathing

The Bad – Breathing Dust

The Ugly – Everyone pickin’ their nose to get the dust out (especially me!)

The Good – I have a real toilet.

The Bad – No seat and it only sorta flushes

The Ugly – I will spare you the details given the theme is toilets.

The Good – Eating Chicken

The Bad – Watching them lose their heads.

The Ugly – All of the chickens are funny-lookin’ to me.

The Good – Goats

The Bad – They make the freakiest sounds (similar to a child crying)

The Ugly – Their facial hair looks like mine ;)

The Good – I have a bicylce

The Bad – The brakes are hit and miss.

The Ugly – You have to have a bell on it....wait, that isn’t ugly, that is SO COOL!

The Good – Visitors (like me) are treated super awesome-ly.

The Bad – Apparently it is an honour as a visitor to be fed the liver and intestines as opposed to a nice T-bone steak or something. Ha, TIA.

The Ugly – I think I would go with the intestines again on this one...not super excited to look at it. Eating it is another battle.

The Good – Toyota Landcruisers

The Bad – The roads

The Ugly – Getting vomited on (refer to previous blog post if confused).

Prayer List:

1) We are on the brink of being given two and a half acres. That this will go through successfully.

2) For the children with "Nodding Disease" here. It can be super tough for some children.

3) For continued and further support by other NGOs, agencies, and local leaders here.

You know it's a bad day when...

A snake slithers to the foot of your bed and as you slowly get up and get ready to attack the poisonous creature, there is a scorpion just in the way of your shoe that you were going to use to attack the snake. Crazy I know!

But it gets worse when in the background, you can hear a hyena just laughing in the background at your dilemma.

Sigh...

Don't worry, I survived with my ninja capabilities.