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Norman Brierley and Mark Taylor recently spent two weeks in several locations in Southern Sudan. They went looking to strengthen mission friendships, attend the Cush Consultation, and look for new possibilities for meaningful ministry in Africa’s largest country.
What is in this show?
Mark talks with John Kwech, a leader in the Sudan Community Church – Dr Rob Conda’s presentation about the state of health services in Sudan he gave at the Cush Consultation in Yei, September 2007 – Norman Brierley, Area Development Director for North and East Africa talks about Feba’s possible partnerships with ACROSS and CUSH FOR CHRIST.
The church singing at close of the Podcast was recorded at the Sudan Pentecostal Church in Aweil, in Northern Bahr Al Gazhr State. The cows walking by during interviews were real! Norman survived his being whacked by a football during recording.
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A picture of the ‘Hotel Parot’ – our cattle hut sized accomodations in the village of Perot, near Aweil, in the Southern Sudan state of Bahr el Gazer. It is called the ‘guesthouse’ by the missionaries we were staying with, and comes complete with mosquito nets, water cans, basin, termites and wood borers, who entertain non-stop with their cute little sawdust dropping number all over everything. You had to stoop to get in, and keep the doors closed or goats and cattle would come in and do food experiments on anything they could find. The dwelling is a typical Dinka tribe design.
Here we were taking a short 15 minute walk from the village to the nearby JUNCTION, where a new road crosses an older road, making a N-S and E-W connection for the whole state. The location is about 30 kms from Aweil town, the state capital, and about an hour from the northern border and a little less to Darfur. In the picture are two of the local missionaries Heather, Vince) who are working with Cush4Christ, and Norman Brierley, who I was travelling with on this trip.
Update: I was very surprised to get a comment to this post from someone else who has actually stayed in the very same hut. So remote, and disconnected from most things, and yet this interconnected web we call the Internet manages to connect such an experience.
The photo is a passing view of the White Nile, taken over Southern Sudan, between the Kenyan town of Lockichogio, and the Sudanese town of Yei. Both the Blue and White Nile pass through Sudan. The pic was taken a few days ago aboard the DC3 we flew up in from Nairobi. The plane interested me because it had signs inside in English and Afrikaans!
Turns out the South African Airforce in the bad old days of apartheid, etc, developed a turbo-prop improvement on the old turbine engines, in order to extend their aged planes. The idea was passed on to others, including Winela, the company that recruited mine labour for the goldmines in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. These miners were moved around in DC3’s and this was one of them. The plane was built in 1945!
The cockpit has much updated equipment of course, but it still takes some creative flying. We landed on two dirt strips on the way up, one was pretty bogged down in mud, so I understood why there were two large shovels strapped to the door at the back of the aircraft.
Water is a huge problem here in Southern Sudan, especially clean drinking water. In the picture here, water is being hand-pumped to provide washing and bathing water for the 80 or so of us who have gathered at the ACROSS mission station in Yei. There are a number of NGO efforts here to bring more water supplies to more people, but it remains a crtical need, along with decent medical treatment, and more simple things like good nutrition and mosquito nets.
Sudanese women making a biscuit thingy we ate for breakfast today
Day two of our Cush Consultation, and it has been cool this morning after rain yesterday, but since lunch time the heat and humidity has been building up again. The little biscuits we had were very spicey (sweet spice) and the water here doesn’t tast that nice so it is doctored with cinnamon to disguise the flavour. Which works well for a cup of tea, but the coffee is terrible when made with this water. Dinner last night was some very fine goat, and loads of spinach. Rice and cooked maize meal with everything, of course. There are no shower or bath facilities here, so it is a wash in a bucket of water, and a long-drop toilet. But the fellowship is great and the people are interesting. Including Billy, retired US Army Special Forces officer, who is teaching literacy to the SPLA, and in the process getting the chance to share the gospel. He is tough as nails, but has a huge heart for these people. He became a Green Beret in 1961, one the the very first. I will get an interview with him tomorrow, and also with the pilot of the DC 3.
An early start from Nairobi this morning, to get a flight on a DC3 from Wilson Airport to Yei, in Southern Sudan. Yei is just below Aweil on the map shown above. We will try to head to Aweil at the weekend, but currently the roads are washed out with the flooding affecting this region. We had a couple of stops on the way, so the flight was almost four hours of great fun for me – I just love old aeroplanes! We are in the middle of nowhere it seems – very hot and humid. Enjoyed flying over the Nile en route, and I was amazed to find the Cush Consultation we are attending has arranged satellite-based broadband, wifi, the whole deal. But only at certain times. Pity there is not much electricty around the Teacher Training College, so charging up the laptop will be a test.
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