Life In Wadupe

I wake up at around 6 AM to birds and soft rain drops. I walk outside and stand beneath a young acacia tree in my front yard. I circled it with big stones last summer, and planted small purple flowers in the circle this summer. The stones make a nice morning seat. The sun rises over the Wadupe mountain, through the mango and acacia trees, and into the few clouds left over from last night. I breath in and soak up the life that radiates from the new grass, the new trees, the new flowers, the breeze. Everything is waking. Everything is gentle. GOD is painting this morning; He wants us to be quiet for a little while.

When the sun gets just over the trees, and begins to turn up its volume, I wake up Allie and Abby for morning tea. My pet monkey rides on my shoulder, or in my arms depending on his mood, as we walk down the path to the churchyard where the cooks have prepared hot water. Juma John, my newly hired base manager greets us with his wide Sudanese smile. He is a blessing from GOD. Juma updates us on the World Cup results, I struggle like a young parent to keep baby Monkey's curious hands off the table, Allie and Abby savor every sip of their african tea.

The girls work on various projects such as tidying the house, slashing the grass(cutting the grass with short metal sickles), painting our porch poles to discourage termites, or playing with the children who wander down our path. Allie and Abby spend the day with them teaching them English words and learning Kakwa in exchange. We even taught a few girls how to make bracelets out of colored thread which we bought back from them to help with their school fees.

There is one nine year old girl that we especially enjoy named Ena Estella. Ena has sass, or as we like to call it, "ENAtude." She looks at us white people like we are crazy with her hands on her hips, her lips poked out and one eyebrow cocked. She refuses to be intimidated by some crazy white people in her village. She dances like she owns the place and no boy is brave enough to push her around. We can't get enough of her smile and her laugh. (See the link to "Allie's Blog" for a picture of ENA). But we noticed in the past few days that Ena hasn't been her normal spicy self. She has coughing spells that come from deep in her chest and a fever that comes and goes. So when we hitched our weekly ride to Yei on top of a passing dump truck, loaded with sacks of beans and people, Ena was with us. She had walked the three miles to the main road, fever and all, with a proud strut, not at all afraid that the white people were taking her to town for the night. When we got to Yei, we took her to the compound where we stay. She flicked the lights "on" and laughed, "off," and laughed again. She put her hands in and out of the freezer then pressed them to her face. She first thought the shower was a latrine, but when Abby turned on the overhead water to wash away Ena's mistake, her clothes went flying and we could hear her laughing as she splashed the water all over her. The actual latrine was weird for her at first. She fell completely into the porcelain toilet. She laughed like we were the dumb ones for having such a weird thing, but again Abby helped her figure it out. The clinic gave us several types of medicine to help with her fever, the cough, and a de-worming pill. Yesterday she taught us a card game and fussed at us when we made mistakes. It's hard not knowing each other's language yet, but Ena doesn't need words.

A few weeks ago we established the Wadupe Development Committee. I am leading them in a Bible study twice a week that focuses on the book of Nehemiah. Through this study the committee is learning how to assess a need, develop a plan, count the costs, and write a proposal. I am showing the community that even a slave to the enemy king can do an impossible project if GOD is behind it. We are also learning the value of praying and planning before acting or asking. We have had great turnouts (20-70 people depending on the weather) and the people are asking really thoughtful questions. My hope is that one day the community will have the knowledge and the confidence to do their own development projects.

During the week the community gathers to collect stones and river sand that will be used when we pour the foundation for the school. In two days they collected enough stones to build a small castle. Just when we were about to begin collecting river sand, we had a full day of floodwater rains and the wooden bridge that connects Wadupe to the main road was washed away. Only two timbers remain for us to walk across. Until that gets fixed no vehicles can pass.

Please pray that the bridge will be repaired soon and that we will get the foundation ready before I return to the States for the month of August.