Mary and Jeanie's temporary home, a tukul typical of South Sudan. What's a tukul? See how to build one here.

Photo by Jeanie Smith

Going through customs at the Arua airport.

Photo by Jeanie Smith

New friends

Photos by Mary Cole-Duvall

Bev Blaha remembers the boy on the right as her friend Bakata, who she met when she visited three years ago: "Bakata and I spent a day together when I was staining the dental chair that David and Larry Anderson made. I talked to him and sang the Ark songs. He smiled and he stole my heart! I have been smiling all week. He is three years bigger, but the smile is the same."

Learning from the people of South Sudan

It's hard to describe how it looks here.  The dirt is really reddish orange and dust is omnipresent.  We woke up this morning (Friday, Feb. 6) to women sweeping the dirt "floor" outside the Bishop's house, outside our tukels, etc.  The road that runs between the cathedral and the bishop's house/our tukels is a main road (the only road I guess) and so trucks go through noisily and, in their wakes are clouds of orange dust.  Right now, they are carrying teak, which grows here in profusion and is being harvested for shipment everywhere around the world.  Trucks do not come through often because this place is truly remote.  Most shopping occurs in Yambio. When we go to Yambio later in the week, I will try hard to get some photos.

A real roof (as distinguished from the thatched roofs of the tukels) is corrugated tin or other metal.  I'm trying to imagine what it sounds like when it rains.  A real roof is a mark of wealth here.  We are here in the dry season, but things must be a mess in the rainy season because mud would be everywhere.  I wonder how/if the MAF or other planes can fly here on these dirt airstrips if there is mud everywhere.  Maybe they just don't.  I'll have to ask the bishop.

We spent the day at the equivalent of the Diocesan Convention.  I have copious notes on what was discussed and how they conduct business.  These folks are much more open than we are about facing conflicts and speaking their minds.  In my experience, they are not hampered by Robert's Rules of Order, which I believe can be a real detriment to honest conversation.  Thank goodness for Indaba!

In some ways, the issues they deal with here in the church are the same as the ones we deal with:  How do we minister well to youth?  Funds needed for repairs of the Cathedral.  But others are very different.  The bishop wants to make sure that all clergy have their marriages blessed in the church.  This is a big issue here, as is training for clergy wives.  

After the final session of the afternoon, we gathered with the Bishop on the front porch of his house and presented the stoles to the people who are to be ordained at the service on Sunday morning.  There were so many stoles!!  We also had some clergy shirts, some collars and some altar linens.  There were new stoles for the archdeacons and people were so wonderfully appreciative for everything!  For all those who donated these items, many, many grateful thanks.  We were very lucky to be the ones who got to deliver them.

Dark here is DARK.  It really is full dark by 7:30 pm.  There are 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark, so if you get up early (like 6:30 a.m. maybe), it is really still dark outside. They don't turn on the internet until the sun has been up for a while to power the solar cells, so I never know when what I write will leave here and get to you.  Morning prayer begins here usually at 7:30 a.m., but during these days of the Diocesan Standing Committee meeting, not until 8 a.m.  There is coffee available at the Bishop's house before we walk across the road to the cathedral.

We are very grateful for the prayers and well-wishes for us travelers.  Please keep the people of Nzara in your hearts and prayers as well.  They are so faith-filled and up-to-the-brim with humor and kindness.  We might well all take a lesson from them in our approach to life! — Jeanie Smith

First day of standing committee

Photos by Mary Cole-Duvall

Good discussions, uplifting prayers, presenting stoles to deacons and ordinands to the priesthood and now singing with the youth for the next four hours.

Preparing for the meal after communion.

Getting there, high tea, and sharing a tukul

We left Des Moines on Tuesday, February 3 at noon. Uneventful flights to

Atlanta and Amsterdam and Entebbe, where we spent the night at Matoke Inn

guest house. We arrived there just before midnight on Wednesday, February

4. Up early the next morning for MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship)

flights to Arua and from Arua to Yambio. Why do we have to change planes

in Arua?  Because there are some planes that are only registered in

Uganda and so can only go as far as Arua. These MAF planes are small prop

planes with pilot, copilot and 6 passengers. Because they are

church-affiliated, the pilot always says a prayer before takeoff—

sometimes disconcerting and sometimes reassuring!

We arrived at the small airstrip in Entebbe at 7 a.m. and took off at 8:30. We cleared customs in Arua, in a small tent with one customs official, a small boy about 6-8 years old, and an armed

guard. Each flight from Entebbe to Arua and from Arua to Yambio takes about 1.5 hours. We were met in Yambio by Bishop Peni, Bob North who had arrived here a couple of days ahead of us, and three others and a truck. 

The drive from Yambio to Nzara takes about an hour over rough dirt roads.

Arrived in Nzara about 1:15 or so. Greeted by a wonderful delegation of

priests and deacons and some of the people who will be ordained on

Saturday (five deacons and two priests). All of them are so glad we are here

and so very, very gracious with their hospitality.  Mary and I are sharing a tukel, 
a small hut with concrete walls and a thatched roof) and Suzanne has the one next 
door. Very nicely outfitted with two double beds and—oh, God is good—an electric fan.

We attended Eucharist at about 3 p.m.  We were each invited to say a word

of greeting.  There is a gentleman who does simultaneous translation from

English to Zande as we speak.  It's hard to remember to break your

thoughts to give him time to remember what you say and then translate—

harder than I would have thought!  We had been given prayer book/hymnal

combination books in Zande so could sing along with the hymns.

Interesting way to distribute the bread and wine—four priests, two with the

bread and two with the wine.  The minister distributing the bread dips a

wafer into the wine and then puts the wafer into the hands of the

communicant.  Lord's Prayer is said after the distribution of the bread

and wine.  Gloria is said immediately after the Lord's Prayer.  After the

dismissal, we all line up one after another as we leave the Cathedral so

we shake everyone's hand.

These people are warm and friendly and so grateful for everything.  They

have so little.  I think God sends us here so that we will take this

wonderful attitude from them and, in return, work with them to develop

what they have.

Contrary to my expectations, food for us has been plentiful and frequent.

I feel a good degree of guilt about this—on the one hand, we are

guests and should partake of what is offered gladly; on the other these

people have so little that it feels bad to be so lavishly fed.  We were

served tea, at which were pineapple, bananas, bread, peanut butter,

strawberry jam, very strong coffee and tea, before the Eucharist.  Then

lunch—beans, rice, more bread, chicken (?)—after the Eucharist and then

supper at about 8 p.m. (cassava cakes (if cakes is the right word -- these

are doughy large dumpling-like things that have very little taste but

soak up broth and gravy and whatever else very well), bread, and beef in

broth.  The beef is very tough and stringy, but tasty and the broth was

delicious!

It's now 3:30 a.m. here (nine hours ahead of where most of you are in the

central time zone) and I can't turn off my head!  I've had so little

sleep in the 3 days that I know I'm going to crash soon, but can't seem

to get to sleep.

Love you all and miss you!  This is truly an amazing experience!

Jeanie Smith