Stephen & Ginny's Adventures

A New Water Supply System for Yabus

2010-12-10T03:29:00.000-08:00

One of our final big projects while in Sudan was to help provide a better water supply system to the missionary base in Yabus. Yabus is about 50 km east of Doro, practically on the border with Ethiopia. While the distance is not that far, the roads in Sudan can be in quite bad shape, so getting to Yabus was our first challenge. Fortunately, there was an AIM AIR pilot and plane stationed in Doro for the second half of November, so we had him fly us as well as two of our Sudanese workers over to Yabus on the morning of November 22.

Currently to get water, the missionaries in Yabus put a large plastic drum in the back of the compound pickup truck, and drive to a nearby borehole with a hand pump. They fill the plastic drum from the borehole, and then drive it to various smaller barrels around the compound which they then fill. It works, but clearly it is time consuming and laborious and they would like to have an easier way to get water. Earlier this year, SIM contracted to have a new borehole drilled near the compound. The borehole itself has been completed, but nothing had been done since then, so our goal was to set up a system where the water could be transported to some holding tanks on the compound. A pipe had already been laid underground, running from the borehole to a centrally located spot on the compound. Our plan was to mount a solar operated pump in the borehole, connect it to a solar panel, and have it pump water through the existing pipe up to the storage tanks.

Over the course of the week, we got some good experience working together as a team, and overcoming various challenges. We were all put in charge of different aspects of the work: Ginny was the overall manager, who delegated various tasks. Our two most experienced Sudanese workers, Joseph and Dau, were there with us. Joseph was put in charge of the pipe work, and Dau was put in charge of the concrete work. I (Stephen) was responsible for the electrical work, such as mounting the solar panel and wiring up the pump. As we worked together, we ran into some small problems, and realized how important it is to be resourceful when working in the bush in Sudan with no access to hardware stores! Joseph in particular ended up not having all the parts he wanted, but cleverly found other ways to hook up the pipes in a way that would work.

As we neared the end of the week, things were going very well and it really looked like we would get a working system. Everything was in place, and the pump was wired up and working – the only thing left was to lower the pump into the borehole so that we could actually pump the water out! It was at this point that we ran into trouble. We measured the water level to be about 23m down in the borehole, but we also knew that we were at the very end of rainy season, and that as the dry season progressed the water level inside the borehole was going to go down. In fact when the borehole was first drilled, the water level was measured to be at about 34m. So we knew we had to get the pump pretty far down in order for it to work year round. Unfortunately, as we were lowering the pump it got stuck at 25m. We tried pulling the pump out and lowering it again a couple of times, and it stopped again at 25m. Thinking there must be something obstructing the borehole casing, we decided to try pulling it out a third time and seeing if we could lower something else down to dislodge whatever was preventing the pump from going down farther. Unfortunately, as we were trying to remove the pump the third time it got stuck, and would not budge. We ended up losing all connection with the pump, as the support rope, the electric cable and the hose all came loose as we were trying to dislodge the pump. At the end of the day we found that there was no way to recover the pump, and the only thing that could be done would be to return again later with a new pump. We found out later that when the borehole was being constructed, there were two sections of the casing that would not thread together correctly, so they were fused together using a torch. When this happened it likely caused the pipe to constrict slightly at that point, which would explain why the pump would not go down. The pump itself was only barely smaller than the diameter of the borehole casing so any constriction would cause a problem.

So at the end of the week we were all a bit discouraged that we failed to get the system operational. Still, we felt like we had made good progress in getting the system near to completion, and we are confident that with a little work it will be operational soon. It was great to see everyone work well together as a team, and especially good to see the hard work and resourcefulness of our Sudanese workers. It was also a blessing to us to spend some time at the Yabus base and get to know the missionaries over there. Overall, we were glad for the experience even if things did not turn out as we had hoped. I leave you with a few pictures of our work in Yabus.

Joseph with the pilot (Nate) immediately after landing in Yabus.

Doing the brickwork around the borehole.

Making the cinder blocks to use in the stand for the holding tanks.

The stand coming together!

Dau poses with the finished stand for the tanks.

Joseph shows off his handiwork with the pipework!

Wiring and testing the pump before lowering into the borehole. The solar panel can be seen in the background.

Lowering the pump.

The whole team at the end of the week.

Thanksgiving in Sudan: A story in pictures

2010-11-23T08:29:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again - the end of November. The time when everyone's thoughts turn to delicious food (at least, those in the US). Being on a base with mostly Americans, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to eat... Thus commences a Thanksgiving story in pictures.

There is no turkey to be had around Doro, so we acquired 8 chickens. These are two of them, patiently waiting their turn. For the faint of heart, I did not include any pictures of the chickens being killed. This blog post is acceptable for children.

Just to the right of the next picture is where the deed was being done. Abebech has in her hand the next chicken in line...

And then the seasoning commences...

Four chickens, variously seasoned, were roasted over the specially made barbecue pit, and Abebech made four into doro watt.

And there was dessert in abundance! Stephen's brownies and my pecan pie had just begun baking in the charcoal oven here. The pecan pie contained no karo syrup - only brown & white sugar, and was supremely delicious.

Sarah made mashed potatoes. Lots of mashed potatoes.

I made dinner rolls, with my go-to french bread recipe from More-With-Less.

Karissa and Sheila made fresh squeezed limeade, and Joanna made four pumpkin pies. Four.

She got a little help from Sarah, Ginna, Stephen, me, and maybe some others for the whipped cream.

Grace set the table while Liam waited for the FOOD.

And there was food, and it was delicious. Not mentioned so far are the green bean casserole (center of the plate) that Julie made, including frying up the onions for the crispy topping, and the stuffing (top of the plate) that was my first attempt at non-box stuffing. The doro watt is on the left side, over the injera. At the bottom right of the plate is Sheila's sweet potato/butternut squash with pecan & brown sugar topping.

We ate very happily.

And then there was dessert... Delicious, delicious pie. Stephen's brownies were said to be delicious too, but I didn't actually eat any since I was already full, and get them more frequently than pecan or pumpkin pie.

...and remember, we cook over charcoal in Doro. We do it well.

Global Handwashing Day

2010-10-25T05:46:00.000-07:00

October 15 is Global Handwashing Day. But you already knew that. (Right?) What you do know, I'm sure, is that thorough handwashing does a lot to reduce incidence of various diarrheal and respiratory illnesses. Remember the number 1 thing we were told during the H1N1 panic last fall? Wash your hands! It really is that important.

So Global Handwashing Day... We live about a 20 minute bike ride from the town of Bounj, where a couple other NGO's are based. The WaSH (water, sanitation, & hygiene) coordinator from Relief International (RI) organized a Handwashing Day celebration for the region and enlisted help from representatives of other NGO's in the area. Stephen and I were both representatives for the SIM Sudan Water Project, along with 2 of the Sudanese staff.

RI invited 5 local schools to participate, so the day started with the schools marching across the football pitch (soccer field) where the day's activities were held. There were introductory statements, and then each school presented a song they had prepared - mostly having to do with handwashing and hygiene. After remarks various NGO representatives, the SIM Water Project team facilitated a handwashing & hygiene quiz. Each school provided 3 volunteers for their team, and each with an NGO "team leader." We asked 5 multiple choice questions, and had the teams give their team leader the card (A, B or C) representing their choice. Most of the schools did quite well, and we ended up with a 2 way tie for first place, both of which answered all the questions correctly.

Students gathered for the event

Introductory remarks - use water and soap together for your hands!

Bankuman Primary School singing their song. Their shirts, from Oxfam, say "Water for life, Hygiene for health"

Quiz time! You can see the groups of students behind us.

The schools then participated in various athletic competitions - races of different kinds, followed by a handwashing demonstration. The steps to washing your hands are as follows:
1. Put some water on your hands
2. Get the soap
3. Rub your hands together for 15 seconds (don't skimp!)
4. Rinse your hands thoroughly
5. Let your hands dry

Volunteers were asked for from each school to have a handwashing competition. Several of the students tried to make it a race, but the two girl volunteers took their time to very carefully and thoroughly wash their hands, so they both won first prize for the contest.

Volunteers for the handwashing competition

The students then were sent to a nearby school for a meal, during which there was supposed to be a football match (soccer game) of an NGO team vs. a local Mabaan team. However, as we were sitting by the field waiting for a ball to come (I was not playing - it was just men, and they were being way too serious about it for anyone of my very low soccer skills to participate!), we watched as a very dark, black cloud rolled straight for us. As the wind picked up, we decided it would be a good time to head over to RI to wait and see what the weather held. The rain began before we even reached the road, and we were all soaked through (at least on the side the wind was blowing from) by the time we got to RI - which was just around the corner! So the football match was canceled, and we ended the day by eating our dinner in an office while the rain pummeled the tin roof above us. Fortunately, RI had a vehicle available to give us a ride home so we didn't have to bike through the mud, pouring rain, and frequent (close!) lightening.

All in all, it was a fun day. The students seemed to greatly enjoy themselves, and hopefully learn a little too. And remember... Wash your hands!

Biosand Filters

2010-10-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

One thing the water project has begun working on recently is the construction of some biosand filters. A biosand filter is a simple, small scale filter for cleaning water. There are a number of ways to make the filters, but we are making them using old aviation fuel drums. AIM AIR, the missionary flight service that brings the missionaries in and out of Doro leaves a stock of drums full of jet fuel by our airstrip, so that the planes can refuel when they land here. The empty drums get piled up in a corner of our compound, and we can purchase them from AIM AIR for a small fee. They are ideal for making the sand filters.

To construct a sand filter, we put a small layer of gravel at the bottom of the filter, and a thick layer of sand on top of the gravel. A flexible hose is placed inside the gravel layer and fed to a tap on the outside of the barrel. The sand and gravel has to be cleaned thoroughly before placing it inside the drum. To use the completed filter, you simply fill the drum with water. The water percolates down through the sand and becomes clean. The way the filter really works is that over time a layer of bacteria forms on top of the sand. This layer of good bacteria actually works to purify the water, as it eats the harmful bacteria in the water as it filters down through the sand. These filters have shown to be very effective in cleaning water. One filter is sufficient to provide clean water for several families in a community.

So far we have constructed one filter which we have located down near the Doro health clinic. Our hope is to construct some more and place them in villages that have access to a source of water, but not a clean source. It could be a dirty borehole or river water. They can then take the water that they have access to and put it in the filter to clean it and make it good to drink.

This is just one of several ways that we are trying to help people in the villages have access to clean water. It is such a neat experience to not only learn about different ways of providing clean water (such as the construction of the filters), but also to be able to help the people with such an important need. Stay tuned for more updates on other ways we are seeking to provide clean water. For now I will leave you with some pictures of the process of making a biosand filter.

Here are the barrels that we are turning into sand filters.

Abel starts getting a barrel ready.

We cut out the top of the barrel and now John is filing the sharp edges.

This is what happens after a hard day's work!

Joseph is preparing the hose to go into the barrel. He is drilling holes in the hose so the water can pass into it.

Abel washing the sand.

Putting the sand into the barrel. Notice the tap is already attached.

Joseph and I with the finished sand filter.

How to start a fire, in 1 simple step

2010-09-30T10:48:00.001-07:00

Here in Doro, we use aviation fuel to start our cooking fires.

A few years back, there was a plane crash on the runway. It had rained recently and the south end of the airstrip was still a little soft. The plane was not quite off the ground when the wheels hit the soft ground, slowing it down enough that the Caravan was unable to clear the trees. Everyone was injured, but the only fatality was the airplane itself.

Later on, when the wreck was being cleared away, Sandy (who had been a passenger) asked about the fuel from the plane, which could not be re-used as aviation fuel. An agreement was worked out, and the fuel was syphoned out of the plane and back into fuel drums. Since then, the fuel has been used by folks on the SIM compound to start cooking fires.

I don't know how many drums there were to start with, but we are now down to less than 1/2 a drum of fuel, which has caused people to start asking what we are going to do about starting our fires when it runs out.

We at the water project have found a (short-term) solution - keep using aviation fuel! You see, AIM-AIR brings in full drums every now and then so that they can refuel when they land on our airstrip. The empty barrels get rolled over to the compound to sit around until another use is found for them.

We are using them as structures in which to make biosand filters. (Stephen will give you more on that later.) To make the filters, we have to first cut away a part of the lid and clean them thoroughly. I called them empty barrels, but that is not entirely true - they all contain just a little bit of fuel, which we can dump out and pour into our little plastic bottles to keep lighting fires with.

Most of the drums contain very little, maybe 150 mL or so. Certainly no more than 300. Others, however, contain a few bottles worth. Yesterday, when we were emptying the drums, you could hear distinct sloshing in 3 of them. 1 still has a quasi-reasonable amount (less than 1/4 full still) which we will likely return to the compound for everyone's use. The other two clearly contained some mixture of water and fuel, as there were two distinct layers of liquid when we emptied them into a basin. We were all pretty sure that the fuel would float on top of the water, so we started carefully pouring that into the bottles, but then became very unsure of ourselves, as no-one actually knew the density of aviation fuel.

That was time, of course, for a make-shift science experiment. (Hooray science!) We poured some water into an empty bottle, then poured a small amount of the top layer from the basin in. Sure enough, we soon had a small layer floating on our known water in the bottle. Had it been water, it would have mixed and we would not have seen any separation. But it showed us that the small amount we poured in was of a lighter density than water, therefore a different substance, therefore the aviation fuel, and therefore the top layer in the basin was, as suspected, the fuel. Hooray science again!

And now we have a few hundred more milliliters of aviation fuel to start our cooking fires with. That's just what we do here in Doro.

Tales from the road (or something)

2010-09-24T07:20:00.000-07:00

We're in Nairobi now, getting ready to head up to Lokichogio on Sunday and then on to Sudan Monday. The past two weeks have been our mid-term R&R, and they've been pretty full with a little vacationing and Nairobi business, including grocery shopping for the next couple months!

We started off by heading down to Tanzania to visit James, my (Ginny's) brother, for a couple days. We've been trying to plan this for a while, but since the flights to/from Sudan are chartered they are ever-changing. Our plan was to leave Sudan on 10 September, and we were supposed to ride on the DC-3 from Lokichogio to Nairobi. The DC-3, however, was delayed as their first trip of the day was to transport a group of students - who showed up 3 hours late for the flight. Consequently, we had an overnight in Loki rather than continuing all the way to Nairobi. This changed our plans, as we were going to take an all day bus from Nairobi to Dar es Salaam leaving at 6 AM on the 11th. The next idea was to take a bus to Arusha on the afternoon of the 11th (we arrived Nairobi around 9:30) and continue to Dar first thing on the 12th, but then Stephen found some reasonably priced flights directly to Zanzibar on the morning of the 12th. Much more restful of an option!

We arrived in Zanzibar around noon on the 12th - the first time to Tanzania for both of us. (I have, by the way, quadrupled the number of African countries I've been to since we arrived in June. Yup, from 1 to 4. Not bad!) We made our way to the hotel in Stone Town and wandered around a bit before James and his colleagues arrived. It was a very relaxing couple of days, including snorkeling in the Indian Ocean, wandering around Stone Town, and eating some delicious Swahili food. We then took the ferry across to Dar es Salaam and the next day took the bus to Nairobi. We boarded the bus at 5 AM in Dar, and got off at 11:30 PM in Nairobi after a very bumpy ride with seats in the back row. Needless to say, we were pretty tired!

Since then, we've been taking care of business around Nairobi - settling accounts, doing shopping for the water project, bike project, other SIM Sudan folks, and our own groceries. We've also had a chance to enjoy some treats we don't often get in Doro, such as the vast quantities of delicious fresh fruits and vegetables, a little ice cream, fresh fruit, liquid milk, movies in a theatre, and restaurants. The past couple days were spent relaxing in Kijabe, where I went to boarding school for 7 years, and catching up with some folks.

This weekend we're heading back to Sudan - catch you on the flip side!

We had a potluck the night before the flight as one of the team was leaving. We eat very well in Doro, as evidenced by the FOUR deserts. What you can't see in this picture was all the delicious potluck dinner food - including doro wot!

On the Doro-Kurmuk-Yabus-Air drop of a solar battery for a satellite phone in the middle of nowhere-Lokichogio flight

Arriving in Lokichogio - this place seemed huge and fancy after a couple months in the bush

View of Kilimanjaro on our flight to Zanzibar!

Landing in Zanzibar

On the boat to go snorkeling

James found a starfish, but put it back before it became too angry.

In 1919, they brought 4 tortoises from the Seychelles to this little island off of Zanzibar. Now they have a lot more, and they're really big and old - the 2nd largest species of tortoises so we're told. One of the original 4 is still there.

Wandering in Stone Town

We had just eaten some delicious Swahili food, and then took about a MILLION pictures in this doorway.

We toured the Anglican church in Stone Town, which is built where the slave market used to be, and the high altar is positioned where the whipping post was.

On the ferry from Zanzibar to Dar es Salaam

Clean Water & Sanitation

2010-09-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

One of my (Ginny's) big projects during our time here is to see how the water project can assist Mabaan women. I've developed a set of questions to determine three things: 1) Felt needs 2) Water Usage and 3) Comprehension of water and sanitation. The idea is to go into a community, interview 3 or 4 women, and then do a follow-up session. So far, I've done a test a run with the local Doro church women. I had two interviews, with two ladies answering the questions in one of them, and today had a follow-up session.

We invited all of the Doro church ladies to come at 2 PM for a discussion/teaching/outreach about water and sanitation. 7 ladies showed up, which was about ideal for what I had planned.

First, we had a great time using some of Living Water's health teaching materials. They have a set of line drawings showing various sanitation-related practices, some of which are good and some of which are not so good. Each of the ladies got a handful of pictures and took turns describing what was happening in one and then determining as a group if it was a good or a bad practice. There was some quite lively discussion, but my Mabaan is far to limited to understand all but the occasional word - I picked up on "pwatchin" - good, "yeya" (or yaye?) - bad, and "pieg" - water quite a bit!

Handing out pictures

Katarina explains her picture

Now it's Elizabeth's turn (children, of course, are all around - especially when you're with the women!)

Second, I had some photos to show of some water testing I did to try and explain about keeping the containers for water clean. The ladies seem to at least have a concept of bacteria, so I did my best to explain how we can test for it. As I said this afternoon, we can put the water on special paper, add food for the bacteria, and put it in a warm place. If the bacteria are there, they will eat the food and grow until we can see them. They will look like spots on the special paper. I didn't find it necessary to go into the more scientifically accurate details, such as there being all sorts of kinds of bacteria everywhere, they're not all bad for you, and the test looks for thermotolerant fecal coliform bacteria, and that the bacteria don't actually grow, they multiply so that what began as one or a few bacteria becomes a very large colony. But I digress.. I first showed a picture of the test from the local borehole. The water there is very nice, and there were 0 cfu's (colony forming units, counted as blobby bits on the filter paper after incubation) in 100 mL. Then, I showed a picture of the test from one of the barrels we store water in on the SIM compound. It had over 200 cfu's - not to be drunk without filtration, please! I also showed three treatment photos. In the first, I had heated water to nearly boiling, and it went down to 2 cfu's per 100 mL. Much better, but still doesn't meet the EPA drinking water standard of 0. (Not that the EPA really has jurisdiction in Southern Sudan...) Five minutes of boiling resulted in 0 cfu's/100 mL, and chlorinating the water also resulted in 0 cfu's/100 mL. I demonstrated the use of chlorine, as we were giving each lady attending one bottle. We are able to make chlorine in the water project "lab" by doing electrolysis on water saturated with salt.

Demonstrating proper use of chlorine

John Kiya, who was translating, explains that the chlorine should be kept out of reach of children.

Tabitha looks at the photos of water testing results

The next section was a short Bible study, being that we are a Christian group. I read the passage on Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:1-26 in Mabaan (!) and expounded a little bit on the barriers Jesus broke by talking to her, and the great gift of living water that he offered her. While preparing, I initially wanted to use a different passage, as everyone doing water work with a Christian organisation uses this passage, so it seemed a little cliche to me. But then I read through the passage, and there were a lot of really good things in there so I stuck with it. Read through it again and think about presenting it to a group of undereducated (but very bright!) women who work hard all day but are undervalued. Good stuff! Just yesterday, another SIM missionary - Debbie - began a literacy class for this same group of women. Very exciting! They still won't be able to read the Old Testament in Mabaan at the end of it, but neither can the most literate of men since the translation has not been completed. I hear they have Genesis!

Reading in Mabaan! Tabitha and Katarina may just be straining to pick up the words in my khawaja accent, but they seem to be listening...

At the end, we gave each of the ladies a bottle of chlorine and a bright pink bar of soap, and then had tea. Stephen left before tea to prepare for tonight's Men's Bible Study, so I don't have any pictures of it, him being the event photographer and all.

Handing out the bright pink soap!

It was a great afternoon, and a lot of fun. I enjoyed watching the women in their animated discussions of the pictures, and had some good reactions while reading 26 verses in a language still not entirely familiar to me! My pronunciation is apparently decent, but I don't know half of the words coming out of my mouth. :D

Living in Sudan has been a great adventure, and doing this work with the women has been especially enjoyable and rewarding.

Bikes and other news

2010-08-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

Here in our corner of southern Sudan transportation by bicycle is quite popular. Hardly anybody has a car, and the roads are dirt and in quite poor condition, especially during rainy season. Thus, in order to get between villages people normally either go by foot or by bicycle. Knowing that the use of bikes is very handy out here, Justin, the water project manager started a bike hire scheme a few months ago. Some generous friends of his back in the UK donated some money to get the scheme started, and with the money he purchased four nice mountain bikes in Nairobi as well as a supply of parts for repairing and maintaining bikes. These bikes are now stored in the water project office building, and anyone in the community can use them for a small fee of 2 Sudanese Pounds per day (less than a dollar in US currency). Over the past few weeks the scheme has really been taking off. We’ve had well over fifty hires in the last month, and we typically get several people over the course of a day coming for a bike. The bikes are good sturdy bikes, so they work well on the rough roads in this region. It has turned out to be a good way to help people in the community, as well as bring in a small amount of money so that the scheme can support itself to some degree. Managing the scheme has been one of my (Stephen’s) main jobs here, but one of our Sudanese workers is also heavily involved in keeping it running.

In other news, life in Sudan continues to go very well. Work with the water project is steadily progressing, and we are continuing to learn a lot. Many of the local men are working in their fields pretty much every day, and some crops are just coming into harvest. The corn is ripe, and it seems that every time we go to visit a village these days we receive a gift of many ears of corn. It is really tasty, especially when roasted, which is the most popular way of eating it around here. Will leave you with a few pictures of the bike hire and other happenings!

Bike hire! On the left is Abel, who works for the water project.

This cat loves popcorn. For real.

We had a meal on the compound for a group of (adult) students, and pretty much everyone helped prepare it.

It's rainy season!

On the road to Nalgan, where we went for church last Sunday.

The church at Nalgan.

Lots of birds! This picture is for my (Ginny's) dad and Uncle Bob.

Of many new things

2010-07-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

We've now been in Doro for close to 3 weeks, and have (shamefully) not put up a second blog post in that time. We're very much enjoying life here, and have gotten settled in well. Slowly by slowly, we're learning how much really needs to be put out of reach of the pesky thieving dogs (including laundry soap and french presses, apparently!), but the new fence has curtailed their activity. Needless to say, everyone is exceedingly grateful for the new fence.

Since herds of goats no longer wander into the compound, we took time this past weekend to set up and plant our garden! We're now eagerly awaiting the first signs of the coming okra, eggplant, tepary beans, cow peas, pumpkins, cilantro and tomatoes. Especially the okra. And cilantro.

Planting the garden!

During our orientation to the water project, I (Ginny) learned how to use the water testing kit we have, as testing will be one of my responsibilities. Included in the kit is the ability to test for fecal coliform bacteria, complete with a mini incubator. The EPA drinking water standard is that there should be none. Among the water samples we tested were the barrel from which we get our water, and from our Katadyn ceramic filter, which we use to purify our drinking water. There were a number of coliform forming units in the source water, but in 100 mL, our filtered drinking water showed none. We like our filter. (Pictures of the test results below!)

collecting some river water to test

We get our water from the barrel by the shower. See all the little yellow bumps on the paper? Yeah, lots of coliforms.

But then it goes through a filter, and ends up with none!

Stephen has been going in to Bounj, the nearby town with a market, a number of times to meet with some church elders there about starting a vegetable garden project. The church has hired a manual irrigation pump from the water project, and the idea is that it could be used to irrigate the garden. They've cleared the land, and on Thursday there will be a work day to build the fence. Around here, a fence is a vital first step towards a productive garden, as the local pigs and goats would otherwise enjoy the produce long before it's ready for the people.

The cleared land for the garden. You can kind of see some indentations in the ground - we were told that this is where land mines have been removed.

One of my (Ginny's) main tasks during the first few months (while it's rainy season and it's hard to go anywhere) will be to undertake an evaluation of past projects. I've been spending a good bit of time this past week doing some of the preliminary work - spreadsheet templates, brainstorming, and literature review.

There is no doubt that it is rainy season! As I type this (at 9 PM on Tuesday, assuming it probably won't get posted until Wednesday evening), it's raining for the second time today, and I can hear crickets chirping and frogs croaking. Our Bata gumboots that we picked up in Nairobi were a beyond worthwhile purchase. Also, I'm not sure that I believe the stories about the heat here. Actually, I do, but thus far, it's only gotten as high as 90 a few times, I've used both the sheet and the bedspread all night every night for at least a week, and I've needed to wear long sleeves on at least 4 separate occasions.

Seeing as this is getting long, we'll leave you with a couple more pictures...

Joseph, a water project employee, explains the stall where he's selling flocculant and chlorine for water purification.

Setting up a tent roof so we can cook outside even when it's raining! Note the safety standards again - bare feet, and standing on a plastic table.

First Look at Doro

2010-07-11T11:15:00.000-07:00

We've finally made it to Sudan!

Last Thursday was our flight. We and 7 others arrived at Wilson Airport at 6:30 AM for our AIM-AIR flight. The planned route was a short hop to Eldoret (about an hour from where Ginny used to live) to pick up another passenger and refuel, a bit longer flight to Lokichogio (on the Kenya-Sudan border) to drop off the passenger, exchange some money, and refuel again, followed by a flight to Bor, Sudan to drop off a passenger, on to Yabus to drop off 6 passengers, then finally to Doro, where the pilot would overnight. Life being unpredictable, it didn't quite happen that way. To start, the load was 200 kilos overweight, so we had to sort out on the runway in Nairobi which of our cargo could stay, and which needed to come. As it turned out, we left almost all of our stuff except a few essentials. The two hours to load the plane left the pilot a little nervous about whether we would be able to make it all the way to Doro, what with his flight-day length requirements. By the time we arrived in Eldoret, we got word that it was raining both in Yabus and Doro, so we may have to overnight in Lokichogio. Once we got to Loki, word was that it had quit raining, and the runways were both looking usable again, so we took off to Yabus, skipping the Bor stop (that passenger was willing to be dropped off the next day). After testing the runway by touching the wheels on it and lifting off again, the pilot decided the runway was in good enough condition, circled around, and landed the plane, much to the delight of the Yabus passengers. They unloaded, and we continued on to Doro to test the runway there! After a brief 12 minute flight, the pilot tested the runway, approved its condition, and landed us. We had quite the welcoming party waiting to meet us!

The runway is right next to the SIM compound, so we were taken to our new home, which is a tukul for the time being. There was a team from Scotland leaving on the plane the next morning, so our first meal was their farewell - a nice team pot-luck. That night, we were welcomed with a very loud thunderstorm, complete with rain blowing in our windows. Our blanket hasn't yet arrived, and extras were in short supply with all of the people on the compound that night, so we shivered a little through the rainstorm. As soon as it let up, the shivering ceased.

We are, as I mentioned, living in a tukul for the time being. It's a mud and straw type of building, and the one we are currently in is usually occupied by an Ethiopian couple who will be returning in August. There will be a little shuffling around once they return, at which point we may be moving into either another tukul or a new tent. There are pit latrines - three for the whole compound. One has a seat, but the other two are squatting types. There are two bucket showers which are quite nice - there's a regular shower head on the bottom of the bucket, and it's raised on a pulley system. A third shower area can be used for a sponge bath. And we have high speed wireless satellite internet. There is a monthly bandwidth limit, so we do have to be careful about our time, file sizes, etc, but it works quite well.

Since we basically arrived in time for the weekend, we've been spending our time getting acquainted with the area and the way of life around here. Here's a few picture highlights:

Here is the Doro Airport, i.e. the murram airstrip as we were getting ready to land... It's very lush right now, since it's during the rainy season. So far, it hasn't been hot yet. We've had a couple of rains and some cloudy weather since arriving.

In front of the AIM-AIR plane (a Caravan) shortly after landing in Doro.

Here is the tukul that we are living in for the time being. It's quite nice and cozy inside! That's a large baobab tree in the foreground.

The plane departing the next morning. It lifted off the ground just a few meters before some puddles from the night's thunderstorm.

Stephen's first lesson: how to weld! They are building a new fence at the compound and let him give the welder a try. Note the safety precautions - welding goggles and gloves are a must, but flip-flops are all right. There's a quad bike attached to the front of the trailer that was covered in children during the whole process.

We went to the local market for some basic supplies and got lunch. It was quite yummy!

Cooking dinner in our "kitchen". Most of the cooking takes place outdoors over jiko's, which are basically mini charcoal grills. There is a charcoal oven on the compound which we'll have to try sometime!

Ethiopian Adventure!

2010-07-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

On July 2 we took a trip to Ethiopia for a few days. The idea for this trip was conceived a couple of weeks ago, when we found out that we would not be able to fly to Sudan until July 8 due to the limited number of flights. Rather than just sit around in Nairobi for three weeks it was suggested to us that we go on a field trip to Ethiopia to visit some water projects that SIM is doing there in conjunction with the local church. We were only too happy to oblige, as we are always looking for a new adventure to go on or a new country to visit! This is a brief overview of our time in Ethiopia.

We arrived in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at about 1:00am on July 3 after our flight from Nairobi was delayed by about two hours. The man who was scheduled to meet us at the airport was an Ethiopian who works at the SIM office in Addis. I called to let him know that we were running late, and he seemed somewhat happy because he was in the middle of watching the Ghana - Uruguay world cup match and didn't want to be interrupted! (Too bad the game didn't end so well.) We finally arrived at the SIM guesthouse in Addis at 2 AM and settled in for a short night of sleep.

The next few days were spent driving and visiting two SIM sites which were about 200 km south of Addis. The countryside in Ethiopia is really scenic with lots of mountains and lakes. Both of the sites we visited were in very rural areas where the local people are living in very basic living conditions. The first sight was near the village of Tuffa, where SIM has set up a water irrigation project to help the local people water their crops. The second site we visited was at the village of Langano. SIM has a larger station set up here, with a variety of projects going on including a health clinic and a sports ministry. There are not any water projects going on currently at this site, but there were some well drilling projects that had been recently completed. We visited several of these wells, which had been fitted with simple hand pumps and provided the people easy access to an abundant source of clean water.

Our final night in Ethiopia was spent back at the SIM guesthouse in Addis. We had most of a full day in Addis, which gave us some time to do a little shopping and relax. We also went out for dinner at a local restaurant that night, which was a real treat. Ginny has always loved Ethiopian food and has introduced me to the tasty deliciousness as well. We have been to numerous Ethiopian food restaurants all over the United States and Kenya, so we thought it would be a real treat to actually get it in Ethiopia! Not only was the dinner fantastically tasty, it was amazingly cheap. Due to the current exchange rate between the US dollar and the Ethiopian birr (the local currency) we only spent the equivalent of about $5.00 for a huge plate of food. Not bad!

Overall, even though the trip was very brief, we came away with a good appreciation for the work that SIM is doing in Ethiopia. We also enjoyed getting a little insight into the Ethiopian culture, and seeing the beautiful countryside. One of the more challenging portions of the trip was communication - our driver who we were with pretty much the entire time was a really wonderful man, but his English skills were somewhat lacking, and we had zero knowledge of Amharic, the main language in Ethiopia. So there were a number of times were communication was very difficult, and it made me realize just how important learning the local language is if you really want to be an effective missionary. Even though we will only be in Sudan for about five months, we are going to do our best to learn as much of the local language as we can. We would definitely appreciate your prayers that the language learning would go well especially considering our limited time!

Tomorrow morning bright and early we catch our flight to Doro, Sudan where we will be for the next few months. Our next update will be from there. Thank you all for your continued support. We can't tell you how much we appreciate you praying for us, and would appreciate your continued prayers as we begin our work in Sudan. Will end with a few pictures from Ethiopia.

This is a fairly typical sight when driving in or around Addis. The blue van is a taxi - this one happened to be very loaded down!

There were a lot of these huge and very interesting looking trees near Tuffa, at the first site we visited.

Here's Ginny walking through a cornfield in Tuffa as we were getting our tour of the irrigation project.

The road to Tuffa was very rough. This picture doesn't really do it justice - the land rover was definitely about the only type of vehicle that would have made it!

A typical scene in the area we were in - lakes and mountains were quite prevalent.

This was near Langano. I thought the Acacia trees contrasted against the dark sky looked neat.

One of the well sites in Langano, with the local people demonstrating the use of the hand pump.

There are donkeys everywhere in Ethiopia.

Eating lamb tibs (a local Ethiopian dish) at the Addis airport before flying out.

Weekend in Kijabe

2010-06-27T12:19:00.000-07:00

We've been in Kenya for a little over a week now and are pretty much all recovered from jet lag! So far most of our time has been spent getting oriented for going to Sudan, and working on shopping for all the supplies we will need in Sudan. Not too exciting, but all necessary things. This weekend we were anxious to get out of the city, so we went up to Kijabe and visited friends up there. Kijabe is a little north of Nairobi and is the location of Rift Valley Academy (RVA) where Ginny went to highschool, and she still knows some people there. It's in a great location right on the edge of the Great Rift Valley. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:

A chameleon! This one was caught in Kijabe.

The town of Kijabe. We got yummy Kenyan food (stew and chapatis) at one of the little Dukahs (like a mini-restaurant).

Tennis and basketball courts at RVA with Kijabe Hill in the background.

Us in the forest just outside RVA.

A butterfly that we spotted in the forest.

A view out over the Great Rift Valley. The mountain on the right is Mount Longonot, a dormant volcano.

Hello from Nairobi!

2010-06-19T01:11:00.000-07:00

Tumefika Kenya! (We have arrived)
We got to Nairobi last night (Friday) after a night flight from Newark to London, just enough time in London to get to our next plane, and a day flight from London to Nairobi. We're a little sleep deprived, but glad to be here. We're staying in a self-catering guest house while we're here, and have the weekend to just rest. Orientation starts Monday, and we may be heading to Sudan as early as Friday, but that is subject to change of course!

So far today, we woke up at 5, fought being awake for an hour, and finally gave in and got up at 6. After a couple hours enjoying a leisurely breakfast and a little reading, we went to Yaya Centre (mall-type place) for some groceries and a cup of coffee. In the kitchen are fresh avocados, mangos, and okra, among other produce, as well as some delicious fruit juice.

The question now is this: nap, or no nap? We're a little sleep deprived from the traveling, but trying to fight jet lag... If we're sleep deprived when we go to bed tonight, that will mean we'll be more likely to sleep a full night and get over jet lag faster, right? But, OH I'm so sleepy right now.....

Travels!

2010-06-04T15:45:00.000-07:00

School is finished for the summer, and coursework forever (at least for this degree). As promised, we took off from Indiana the day after I (Ginny) turned in my last assignment. Our friend Corrie drove up from New Mexico to help us move. We managed to fit most of our stuff into the two cars, and took off across the country.

We arrived in New Mexico May 22nd, and have been enjoying ourselves visiting friends & family and being back in the Southwest!! No more of this Midwestern business, at least for the foreseeable future.

Highlights of our past couple weeks include: Stephen's sister's (Laura's) wedding, catching up with friends, meeting some new folks, and hiking/camping around Mesa Verde.

As for our travels to Sudan go, we have our full support pledged! Most of that is in-hand, but some is still coming in through monthly gifts. This is a huge blessing in the very short time we've been raising money. We know some generous people! ALL the support we've gotten has been great - a number of people have not been able to give financially, but are faithfully praying for us. We're still looking to leave the US June 17th from Newark, but still waiting for our tickets to be issued... The British Airways strike has delayed that, but we've been told they should be issued by Monday, so we'll see. We are looking forward to greeting you all from Kenya in just two weeks!

And now to leave you with some pictures...

Laura and James Holland, with attendants

Camping in the San Juan National Forest, near Mesa Verde

Geology of Mesa Verde! Yes, reading it while I walked - I had to know what was going on around me!

Us at Mesa Verde

2010-05-13T10:10:00.001-07:00

Well, it's been awhile since we have posted on the blog and I thought you all were overdue for an update! These last few weeks have been pretty busy for us as we've both been working towards completing our semesters. I (Stephen) finished up my semester of teaching at the community college last Friday, and Ginny still has one more week to go. As soon as she is done we'll be loading up the car and driving out to New Mexico where we will be staying for about three weeks. We'll be going to my sister's wedding on May 30, and also spending time visiting with our other good friends in New Mexico. And we are also looking forward to getting in some good hiking and camping!

On June 15 we will fly out to Philadelphia, and are planning on spending a couple of days with my brother and sister in law who live in Princeton, NJ. After that we will depart from Newark and fly to Kenya to begin our six month adventure abroad! We'll have about a week or so of orientation in Kenya before flying up to Doro Sudan to begin our work up there.

Our last few weeks in Indiana have been good and rewarding. We have had the opportunity to travel around the midwest and do some fun things, as well as visit with friends and family. We spent one weekend in the Chicago area, where we had the opportunity to share about Sudan at Bethany Chapel in Wheaton, which was the church that Ginny attended when she went to school there. Last weekend was spent in Cincinnati, where we visited Ginny's grandparents and also got to see Ginny's mother who was up for a few days. We went to a Cincinnati Reds game which was a lot of fun. They were playing the Chicago Cubs - here's a picture of Ginny and her mom at the ballpark:

We also went up and checked out the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore a couple of days ago, and really enjoyed spending some time hiking around. Here we are at the shore of Lake Michigan in northern Indiana:

So that's what we have been up to lately! We'd really appreciate your prayers as we continue to prepare to live abroad for six months. We really feel at peace about this, and it is amazing how God is allowing all of the pieces to fall into place for us to go. We are extremely grateful that we are at over 90% of our fundraising goal, which is especially amazing considering the short amount of time we had to raise support. Thanks to all of you for your generous support. We know that some of you can't support us financially at this time, but please know that we are still very grateful for your friendship and support of what we are doing. We certainly covet your prayers, and know that many of you will be supporting us in prayer regardless of whether you are able to give money or not.

We'll hopefully be updating here more regularly as we get ready to go, and certainly once we are settled and living in Sudan.

Fundraising update!

2010-04-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

Here it is... the fundraiser idea Ginny has been working on this week. The proceeds from all sales at my Etsy store will be going towards our ministry fund to get us to Sudan, so head on over and drop your friends a line to direct them to the store too! That's http://njema.etsy.com.

Support raising update

2010-03-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, folks! In just one month of support raising, we've got just over half of our goal. That's great news, since most of the items in the budget are fairly non-negotiable - you have to pay the full ticket price for the international trip, visa costs are pretty set, and the nurses in the health center don't let you bargain the price of your shots. When we first saw the estimated budget of over $20,000 we were honestly a little concerned about being able to raise it in such a short amount of time.

Now, we have less than $10,000 to raise. But $10,000 is still a big number, and $8000 of what we've already raised came from a connected pair of gifts. That means most of the donations we got added up to $2975. And that means we've got a lot of work left to do! We have $9740 left to raise, and probably can't just count on all that money coming in from the initial 200ish letters we sent out.

We appreciate your prayers for the support raising process! And if you have any creative fundraising ideas, please give us a holler.

Meanwhile, it's spring break for Ginny! We've got one fundraising idea up our sleeves that she'll be working on getting set up this week, so stay tuned for an announcement about that.

Welcome!

2010-03-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hey, friends! With our upcoming trip to Sudan, we thought we'd set up a blog to keep you all up to date. On here, we hope to keep you up to date with the process leading up to our departure, including mini-adventures we may have before departing, and then when we arrive, give you a picture of what life is like in Sudan. The blog will evolve a bit once we return to the US, but we plan to keep it up for all of our future adventures.

Feel free to drop us a note, contribute to the conversation via comments, or just read to keep up.