Go engineer Go!!!

Racing against the rainy season, the engineer is now casting the ring beam (beam of cement on top of the walls). A few more courses of bricks after that and then the roof. Let's get these kids out of the rain!! We gained a few more skilled volunteers for the mason work and the community should be coming in large numbers this week and next to speed up the job. Meanwhile, the WDC and I are planning projects for 2012. They are going to do some worm medicine distribution soon, thanks to some funding from Abby Moore( abbyelisemoore.blogspot.com )and other donors. After that the WDC is hosting a leadership seminar...

I was sitting in a coffee shop in Yei sipping on some ethiopian goodness. Juma came in with a pastor friend of his named Henry. Henry calls me "pineapple man" because of our lush pineapple garden in Wadupe. Henry and I start talking about Wadupe and some of the problems there. We talked about the lack of good leadership and good national examples for the people to follow. We talked about how the people of South Sudan have lived so long under the care of foreign aid and government handouts that they have no concept or desire for self development. Granted, when bombs are falling and you are forced to flee, handouts are necessary to survive. Praise the Lord for the massive list of organizations that provide relief for refugees. Unfortunately bombs fell for over twenty years, leaving a whole generation of adults and young people weakened. They remained motionless in refugee camps and foreign lands for so long they lost the muscle necessary for self development. I have used the illustration with the WDC, "if you are carried like a baby forever you will never learn to walk."

It was refreshing to hear Henry, a Sudani, talk about the need for his people to learn the ways of development. These ways include sacrifice, taxation, and donations for the sake of community and state. Just getting the chiefs to understand that nothing is free and you have to work to succeed has been a mountain. One chief's comment to me: "let the Ugandans, the Kenyans, and the white people come and develop us."....and that was a chief!!!  So...Leadership seminar coming to a mango tree near you, led by Henry the pastor, hosted by Pineapple Man and the WDC.

You can't blame the chief for saying that or thinking that...yet. We have to change that mentality. A capable person who sits and complains, who doesn't feed himself, who welcomes foreigners to come and "develop" his own land is simply unwise or unschooled. I shudder when I think of these people welcoming outsiders into their farm land and their precious resources. I think a world history lesson is in order.

pray for us...pray for Sudan...pray for leadership.

GOD is Greater

billy