"Wanna Meet For Drinks Later?"

One way I have chosen to describe life here is by using the word bipolar. One minute nothing is happening, the next minute everything is total chaos. Walking into the village we see no one, then we turn the corner and 16 drunk ladies come screeching our way wanting us to help build the house they're working on, and the next minute 10 other ladies are pulling us away so that we can teach God's Word under the tree. Madness.

In the span of two hours this afternoon I:
-drove to Kapoeta to get the truck tires changed.
-had an SPLA soldier with an AK-47 on his lap tell me that I needed to sit down because the sun would make me fall over. I sat down.
-had the same SPLA soldier tell Alyssa and I to give him one of our new tires so he could put it on the SPLA truck. We said no.
-had two guys ask if they could put their father's dead body in the back of the truck so that they could bring him back to their village to bury him. No room. 8 old tires in the back of the truck.
-got asked out by a UN deputy secretary something or other. I also said no.
-got a puncture in one of the new tires as I drove away from the tire repair place.
-bought two little Toposa girls their first coke and had to convince them that it wasn't beer. Nakai's face was hilarious! She kept closing her eyes and scrunching her nose because the bubbles "hurt" her tongue.

The end. How was your day?

Thankful

So many things to be thankful for. Right now, I’m REALLY thankful that Cody got to come and spend a week with me sweating to death in Toposaland. As much as I try to explain some of the differences in how life works here compared to in the US, there are things that I just can’t explain. Now Cody has been here to see and experience the culture and ministry in all its craziness/awesomeness/weirdness/ridiculousness/everythingelseness. I love that I have somebody at home who kind of “gets” it now. Plus, let’s be honest. As great as Skype and email are, it was so good to actually be with him in person.

First of all, BIG shout out to Emily, Kasie, Taylor, Katherine, Micah, Justin, FBC Lubbock youth, Deb, my parents and my grandparents for alllllll the stuff you sent with Cody! I was so overwhelmed that I literally had to open everything in small amounts and it took three days to look through it all!

After being here a day and a half, Cody had a baby named after him in one of the villages. Meet Lomuria/Cody. He’s cute! And P.S. I was here two months before I had a baby named after me so apparently Cody is way more popular than I am.

He even trapped and killed the rat that got in his tukel one night. The REAL South Sudan experience! I'm just glad it was in his tukel and not mine this time.

Hanging out in a village in Chumakori.

Shannon and Carrie and the boys planned a date night for us. They cooked us an awesome dinner, the boys were the waiters (complete with Italian accents) and we got to borrow their living room to watch a movie. Best date ever!

Yep. So thankful.

Ostrich Alert

Check out the latest addition to the compound...Lottie, the guard ostrich.

Another NGO worker found two baby ostriches wandering around in the bush with no mother and now one lives here with us. It's too soon to tell if it's a boy or a girl. So far the dogs seem okay with it. Ostriches are herbivores but I'm really hoping this one decides to try hunting rats at some point.