Church of the Brethren Sudan Initiative

We are well. We have not been able to access power for several days, and have not been in one place nor secure enough to set up our solar panel, so I apologize that this will also need to be a brief entry.

Thursday we arrived in Leer, hitched a ride with UN to Bentiu, and were there that night in teachers' housing at the Ministry of Education, as I previously related.

Friday we caught a 40-passenger bus matatu to Mayom, were we were able to find lodging at the Commissioner's guest compound, staying in unfinished but secure buildings (although without water or power, but with latrines and some water carried in). We then met with many people who remembered and had worked with Schrocks, and walked over the Nile (we used the bridge, because we didn't want to raise expectations too high :-) ) to where the Schrock's compound had been--it has since been razed, yet we found a few pieces of foundation left. We visited with local people and a few church leaders.

Later that evening, the Governor of the State passed through on his way from touring the flooded areas here and further west, and returned to the compound we were at for supper! We briefly met the Commissioner who was hosting him (and us), but did not have the opportunity to meet the Governor himself... but after all the police and soldiers and that whole entourage of dozens of Land Cruisers and a few trucks left... we got to eat the leftovers from the Governor's meal! (Wheee!)

Saturday morning we met with the Commissioner, who had just returned from a month-long Leadership Workshop in South Africa the previous day--we were graciously received, and grateful for the opportunity. He called us "his people" (and would welcome the Church of the Brethren in this area) and arranged for a driver to take us back to Bentiu, arriving about 2:00p, where we then caught a bus to Leer... this time, we figure about 75 people crammed on! It took an hour of palaver to get things ready to go after they first starting letting people get seats, so by 3:45p we were finally on our way... and arrived in Leer a little after 8:00pm, after dark. A bit of food, cleaning up after a dusty trip, and we headed for our mosquito nets (they are bad here in the swamp areas).

Today we joined the church service at 8:00a [Presbyterian Church of Sudan--PCOS], although we were lacking breakfast and water... then met with church elders after to tour the machine-gun riddled missionary compound, and meet out back under a tamarind tree to discuss when we would meet will all the church leaders. They finally decided upon 3:00pm tomorrow. We then chatted further, hearing more war stories (literally) from Rev. John Rell, and discussing the sermon with pastor Solomon. After a while we headed back to our own compound, AMA (Assistance Mission for Africa, who has been hosting us in this area, under the directorship of Rev. James Koung, with our guide and host being Elder Michael Bentiu), stopping by the ACROSS compound for greetings and to borrow their latrine, as AMA's was torn down and they were building a new one. We then shared lunch, and some down time to rest or write, watch the birds, and relax a bit.

Later in the afternoon, we had a fascinating conversation with two lost boys, James--now living in Calgary, and Peter--now living in Australia. They had left Sudan 20 years ago, when 7 years old, and had finally returned for a visit and to reconnect with family. We talked about many things, and upon finding out that Peter was studying Countyer-Terrorism, we even discussed the Iraq War, with Peter supporting it (although we think that we and James, who thinks much like we do, may have convinced him after an hour!). James then said they were leaving for a village volleyball game... so we went along, and I played! This turned into one of the absolute best times of this trip, as Phil and Louie made a lot of contacts and had wonderful conversations on the sidelines (although Louie would have loved to play also) for the two hours while my team remained undefeated and took on all challengers :-). Some of the people we met are also lost boys, now working for the Gov't of Southern Sudan on a county-by-county assessment(!!), and so we exchanged emails and plan to be in touch in the following weeks, as they have invaluable information to share with us.

We then headed back to our compound for the night, supper, cleanup, and escape the mosquitos! I'm now typing on my bed, under the mosquito net, and it isn't too bad... a bit cooler here lately, which helps. My hope is that I can set up the internet through the canvas of the tent in which I am staying, so that I do not have to even move from here to send out this email! (I carefully filled my bed with all these electronics as I set up the netting, so that if I can stay here, I will! :-) )

Tomorrow we look forward to meeting with the local church leaders, probably a dozen or more. Then Tuesday will be a transit day to Loki, Kenya, as we begin the journey home.

I'm not sure if we will have the opportunity to connect tomorrow evening, as our hosts here set a lot of the agenda, but I hope to have the chance, like tonight. But if you don't hear again for another day, don't worry.

Blessings and peace... and with gratitude for all the blessings we have, the excellent conversations and data-gathering we have managed, and simple things like... volleyball.

Peace,

Enten, and Phil and Louie