Since the last time i actually wrote something meaningful much has happened. And again i will only be able to scratch the surface.
I have been stationed in Doro, Mabaan County since the 28th of november. Things are well i've been quite busy doing maitenence work here mostly. SIM has a medical clinic here a community health worker school and a basic education learning center (which is about to close.) I've been responsible for the operations and mantenence of the base. As well as i was the only man on the base for about 6 weeks. Examples of work are- bat proofing the CHW school, built a new grass walled outdoor shower, repairing cruddy wheel-barrows, moving safari tents around... and lots of other stuff.
Life here is quite simple. Meals mostly are pretty basic. Lots of lentils and rice, goat, egg plant, pasta. The like. I live in a pretty large safari tent. Which is quite pimp i must say. I've got it all set up the way i like it.
I haven't had tons of interaction with the locals yet. At least as far as outreach. Mostly because the school have been on break the entire time i've been here (although they are starting up again in the next 2 weeks.) So i'm pretty stoked to see the students when they come back. I'd really like to get a cross tribal group of them together and do stuff together. Like worship, pray, talk, drink coffee, watch movies, share cultures. You know. The good stuff. :)
I did get to go to the christmas celebrations that were in the area. On christmas day several of us went into the closest town about 3 kilometers away for a multi church gathering of sudanese style worship and preaching. And then on the 27th of dec Doro village had their own christmas feast. The mabaan people are quite differant than alot of other tribes in sudan in one way. They aren't cattle herders. Instead they raise goats and pigs. And pigs are really what they're known for. So our christmas feast consisted of pig FAT (apparently they don't have much meat), sorgum, and slimmy ocra. Yum, Yum. :) Other than that. Christmas was pretty quite.
After christmas and new years (which i passed out from working at like 9pm... wups.) Not much happened up until the 2nd of January. That's when i went out to Nairobi for a short break. But that i will talk about in my next blog. Right now i'm tired from travelling and lack of sleep. I just got back to Doro today.
Peace
JB
