Recently I...

...crossed the river in windshield-deep water to get to the airstrip in Kapoeta.

...went to Nairobi for a company meeting with other friends serving Jesus in East Africa.

...celebrated my 25th birthday with several of those friends.

...got henna on my hand, which was a little hard to explain to a Toposa friend when I got back.

Toposa BBQ

If any of you are squeamish or overly sensitive about being nice to animals, just do both of us a favor and skip this post. If you want to see how the Toposa prep a bull for cooking, keep going.

I got woken up on Saturday morning by a girl calling my name at the fence. One of the men in a village close to us had given a bull for eating and so I grabbed my camera and headed over. 

This was what was happening when I got there. I was a little bummed to have missed the actual killing part, but maybe it's better that I ease into situations like this anyway...

First they skinned one side...

Then everybody grabbed a leg/tail and flipped it over to skin the other side.

Several people asked me if people in America eat meat and I said yes, but definitely not in the same way that the Toposa do. There is no party, no one puts on goat skin skirts and dances around while they blow whistles...we just eat it. That is an extremely foreign concept to a tribe who values bulls more than they do people so there was a lot of laughter when I said that I had never seen any of this before and that people in my village do not have a big celebration every time they eat meat. 

She was standing in front of me the whole time and was way cuter than the bull.

After they skinned it they started cutting it up for cooking, and then my camera died. Lame. But the answer is yes, I did eat some of it and it was not the best steak I've ever had. But most importantly, so far nothing has gone seriously wrong with my digestive system so I would say overall this "cultural experience" was a success! 

Ode to a Muddy Road

The Road Not Taken

Inspired by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a muddy wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And being without a wench, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it flooded in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as torn
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was clearer and had no thorns;
Though as for that the passing there
Had them looking really about the same,

And both that afternoon equally lay
In mud no tires had trodden down
Oh, I kept the first for another day
Knowing there was waist-deep mud that way
I doubted if I should ever get to town.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere on blogs or Facebook hence
Two roads diverged in the bush and I
I took the one that looked most dry
And that has made all the difference.

Hello Lokichoggio

This past week the entire Toposa team was in Lokichoggio, Kenya to pick up the Nehemiah Team guys who are here for the summer. The road travel itself was really draining, but it was nice to see Jonathan and Holly, get our gas bottles filled, and sleep in a room with an air-conditioning unit for a few nights!
Our oven and stove run on gas and since there isn't any gas to be found in South Sudan or in Loki, we drove to Lodwar one of the days to get our bottles filled. Lodwar is about a three-hour drive from Loki and we drove through Kakuma on our way there. Do any of you have Netflix? Watch God Grew Tired of Us next!
Three new experiences I had during this drive were a) driving on a paved road (the 1/2 mile stretch in Loki doesn't count), b) going 120 kilometers an hour in the truck and c) having to stop and wait for a herd of camels to get out of my way.

The Nehemiah team made it on time and with all their bags--SCORE! There are seven guys on the team and they are camping in an area about two hours from our compound all summer. Their two primary goals are to use the GPS marker to note where all the villages are in the area (to prepare for future ministry) and to share the gospel in each village that they mark. It will be a summer without many physical comforts (they are in the middle of NOWHERE) but I can already tell that God has brought them each for a specific purpose and it's going to be great! As you are praying for our team this week, add in these seven guys.

The time Alyssa didn't have malaria

I've already given away the ending with the title of this post, but I am mostly using it as an excuse to show pictures of where we live anyway. Because of Alyssa's symptoms we did a rapid malaria test yesterday and it was negative for malaria. The test was actually expired so we decided to go to the clinic by the compound, just to be sure.

When I say "clinic" don't even get any sort of picture in your mind of a clinic in America. Think a concrete room with a bunch of pills, alcohol swabs, and of course plenty of flies. It is South Sudan, after all.

This is the clinic, or natalia in Toposa.

The waiting area is outside where it is usually cooler. Walker, Davis, and two of their friends were out riding their bikes and stopped to see what we were doing.

Davis, Alemu, and Walker with their "we are sick" faces.

This is Lokoyo. He is a follower of Jesus and has learned English from school and being around the compound almost every day. He is awesome and has led many Toposa to the Lord!

There are two ladies who work at the clinic in Paringa. They are from another Sudanese tribe but they speak Toposa and are a great help to the people in our area.

Alyssa was showing Walker where they stuck her finger. He was very worried that she would have to get "yucky medicine" and "lots of shots that hurt so bad." She had neither.

Alemu watching the action inside the clinic and Lokoyo watching the action outside the clinic.

For those of you who are interested, this is the tree outside the natalia where we meet for church!

best. week. ever.

Alyssa's family came to visit this week and I'm not sure who enjoyed them more, me or her! It was so wonderful to be included in their family while they were here and I wish they could have stayed longer!

 It hasn't rained in about two weeks so the river wasn't a problem at all! Thank you, Jesus for letting us get everywhere we needed to go!

We had a week-long Nerts tournament. Colin and I dominated.

 There is no gas for our stove/oven within a 6-hour drive from here so we are majorly rationing it. We successfully cooked for 7 people for 3 meals a day for 7 days using only our charcoal cooker...

 ...except the time we made pizza.

 A lot of you have been praying for our language helper, Charles. He is still with us (YEAH!) and we really appreciate him. Alemu is one of the boys' best friends and he likes to come with us to do ministry sometimes.

 Our truck only holds three people at a time so we had a party in the back of the truck every day.

 Thank you, Christian for all the awesome new music!

 Mom, me, Colin, Alyssa, Christian, Walker, Charlotte, and Dad.

Couldn't do it without her!

Oops.

I should be updating more regularly but apparently it's been a month since I have taken the time to do that....oops.

Alyssa and I finished out April with a re-stocking trip to Nairobi, Kenya. Since the only food items available in Kapoeta are onions, bell peppers, cabbage, tomatoes, oil and flour, our team has to go to Kenya every few months to stock up on everything else. This time is also used for things like medical appointments and immigration appointments. And let's be honest, having a hot shower and eating at a restaurant is also awesome!

We got back to South Sudan just in time for rainy season. There are 39 rivers on the one road from Lokichoggio to Kapoeta and heavy rains had washed away the bridge concrete bottom on the biggest river just outside of Loki. God was good to us and he held the rain away on the day we got to Loki so we were able to get home before the two weeks of solid rain hit.

The women are busy working in their gardens now so our ministry looks a little different than it did during dry season. More men are back from cattle camp so we have been able to tell the AIDS information to several groups of men. This is great because the Toposa men hold more sway in the village than the women do.

Most importantly, we've been able to celebrate the baptisms of 17 new followers of Jesus this week! Eight women and three men from Lomayen were baptized on Friday and several friends from the village closest to us were baptized this morning. For the past few months the people in Lomayen have been listening to God's Word as Carrie, Alyssa and I have shared stories from the story cloth and we are so glad that they have decided to follow Jesus! Shannon will continue to teach in their village on a weekly basis. Pray for them as they learn about things like prayer and the importance of listening to God's Word.