My First Weekend in Wau

This weekend was absolutely amazing. It was full of so much joy and excitement. On Saturday, we got to go to the market with Sister Maria Antoinette. Taylor and I stayed with her and went along to all of the places she had to go to buy food for the house. It was quite an experience. There was actually a lot more than I thought there would be. There was obviously a lot of food, but there was plenty of other stuff too- cell phones, random electronics, dishes, clothes, shoes, etc. I didn’t buy anything this time because I haven’t exchanged any of my money yet, but I saw peanut butter so that will definitely be purchased next time I go! It was so fun watching sister Maria Antoinette barter with the people there. She is small, but mighty.

Even though Saturdays are our official day off, I think that Sundays are going to be my favorite. Sunday mass at the parish was beautiful, long, but beautiful. Luckily, the first service is in English so I’m able to fully participate. On Sundays, we have all of our meals with the sisters. They have such joyous hearts so it’s great being able to spend so much time with them. Also, I don’t believe that I have talked about the food here yet, but it’s actually pretty good! There is more variety than I expected. We eat rice, beans, lots of vegetables (egg plant, tomatoes, green beans, and many that I don’t know the names of), meat, pasta, watermelon and a variety of homemade sauces. We have even had some pretty good desserts and yesterday we had boiled peanuts!

After breakfast on Sunday, we went over to the Salesian priests and brother’s compound that is next door. There are two polish guys volunteering with them from the same organization that Marta and Ania are in and they invited us all over for tea!  The 6 of us hung out and talked for a couple of hours. It was great to hear about the work that they are doing here with the street boys and at the vocational training school. We’re hoping that this can become a weekly tradition and I promised them that I would bring over my ukulele next time, which should be fun.

Every Sunday afternoon, we go to oratory with the children. For those of you who don’t know, oratory is something that St. Don Bosco (founder of the Salesians) had for his boys as the foundation of his ministry. It was a place where children could go to find a home, school, church and playground. There were around 170 kids at oratory. It was apparent that most of them came from extremely poor homes, but they were so joyful. We sang and danced to many songs and played games. I am assigned to help with ages 1-5, along with a couple of local volunteers from the school. After we broke out into our age groups, the other volunteers were running out of things to do with the kids so I attempted to teach them Duck, Duck, Goose. I don’t think any of them actually knew what was going on and I had to help every round, but they eventually at least knew that they needed to chase the other person when they heard the word goose. They had a lot of fun, which is really all that matters. At the end of oratory, we all come together and pray the rosary together (in Arabic!). I was very impressed by how quiet and controlled a group of 170 children could be. They were so respectful and prayerful during the rosary. It was a perfect evening, topped off with a beautiful rainbow on the way home.

And now, a super special surprise! It took a lot of patience, but pictures actually uploaded this time! Enjoy:

This is at the market in Cairo. These two guys sang us some great songs.

Giza pyramids: featuring a some camels. 

We couldn't go to the pyramids without getting some nice jumping pictures. 

I told you that our tour guide knew all the best places to take pictures. Here is one of me and my true love. 

This is our dog in the compound, Grigio. It turns out that I get the best wifi on the porch right by where he is tied up during the day. No one knows if I come over here to check my email or just to hang out with him. It's usually a combination of both. 

These are some of the children at oratory. 

This was on the way home from oratory. If you look closely on the bottom left, you can see the rainbow! 

The Journey and the Arrival

It feels so surreal that I am actually in South Sudan as I type this. After all of the time of preparation, and almost 5 days of travel, I am here. I made it safely and I am very grateful.

Traveling here was an adventure in and of itself. I had a flight out of Jacksonville on Saturday morning, so my parents and I drove there on Friday. When we got to the airport Saturday morning to check in, we found out that my flight to New York had been canceled. There was one a little later out of Savannah that would get me to New York around the same time, so they rebooked me for that one. Luckily, we made it to Savannah with plenty of time and I met Taylor in New York when I got there. The flight from New York to Egypt was extremely long (11 hours in the air, plus a 6 hour time change to Cairo). I was not able to sleep much, but the flight went smoothly.

Next, we had our lovely one-day Cairo adventure! Our tour guide, Laila, picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel to check in and drop our stuff off. Then we were off to see the Giza pyramids. Laila was great and gave us a ton of information about Cairo on the way. She was telling us about the lack of tourism in Egypt since the revolutions, because many people still do not think that the country is safe to visit. This has been hard on the economy there because it relies so heavily on tourism. When we got to the pyramids, it was evident that tourism was slow because there was not that many people there. That worked out kind of nicely for us though, because it was easy to walk around, explore and take pictures.  Laila knew all of the best places to take pictures so we got a lot of good ones!

After viewing the pyramids we explored an old market place in Cairo. We walked around, went to a Mosque and got serenaded by some local boys. The last thing on the agenda was a dinner cruise down the Nile River. It was so fun! We ate a lot of good food and then they had some entertainment afterwards.

After a brief nights sleep in the hotel, we had our flight from Cairo to Juba. The airport in Juba was very very different than an airport in the US. It was not too hard to navigate though and we got through customs and got our luggage with the help of some friendly locals. After waiting for a couple of hours at the airport (and starting to worry that no one was coming to get us), Sister Bebiana got there to pick us up. We had dinner and stayed the night with the community of Salesian sisters in Juba. Our flight to Wau was the next day and we found out that we could only bring one of our suitcases with us on that plane. After some rearranging, I was able to get everything I would need for now in one suitcase and one of the sisters will bring my other bag the next time she is traveling from Juba to Wau.

When we got to the Juba airport Tuesday morning, we found out that, even though we had tickets, our names were not on the list. Luckily, a sister was flying with us so she helped sort everything out. After a lot of waiting, we ended up getting to go in business class! In business class, they offered us a fine meal of chicken, fish and pasta. Unfortunately it was also 9:30 in the morning so my stomach was not quite ready for all of that! It was a nice flight, though. The airport in Wau was smaller and a lot less hectic than the one in Juba. Sister Marie Antoinette, one of the sisters from my community in Wau, met us at the airport and helped get Taylor and I all squared away with registering in the country. Everything went smoothly and we were on our way to see our new home!

We got the warmest welcome when we arrived at the compound. Our room is absolutely adorable and the sisters made us welcome signs in our rooms as well as their dining room and the Poland volunteers made us welcome signs in our dining room. All of the sisters are amazing and I love them already. It was the perfect day to get here because it was the feast day of the nativity of Mary. We had a birthday celebration for Mary, complete with a cake. We went to mass at the parish (in Arabic!) and then did a procession around town with the Mary statue and prayed the rosary. After the procession, the children performed songs about Mary and it was so precious. There is so much joy in the community.

The sisters gave Taylor and I this week off to rest and get settled and I will start work at the dispensary (the clinic) on Monday. It was nice to have time to set up our room and get more familiar with how things are run. The Poland volunteers, Ania and Marta, have been such a huge help to us. They have answered so many of our questions and showed us a lot about the compound. It’s really great to have the volunteer community of the 4 of us to spend time together and support each other.

Life here is so beautiful-starting every day with mass, participating in such a faithful community, living simply. God is doing big things here and I can’t wait to see what he is able to do in my own heart!

PS They have a dog named Grigio and he is so cute. We are becoming best friends already!

I wanted to post some pictures, but the internet connection just isn't strong enough. Hopefully I can share some later!

Let the Journey Begin!

I can’t believe the day has already arrived for me to depart for my mission. As I sit here at the airport waiting for my first flight, I have such a mix of emotions. Goodbyes are hard and I can’t even explain how much I am going to miss my family and friends back home, but my heart is so full from all of the love that I have received, especially this last week. I have the most incredible, loving and encouraging people in my life and there is no way I could be doing this without their prayers and support. I am so excited to begin this journey.

For those of you who aren’t aware of my travel plans, I am flying into New York today and should arrive there around 2. After that, Taylor and I will fly to Cairo, Egypt where we have a 22 -hour layover. We have booked a tour there to see the pyramids and go on a Nile River dinner cruise which we are extremely excited about! Monday morning we fly into Juba, South Sudan. We will stay the night with the Salesians there and then head to Wau on Tuesday. It’s a long journey, but it’s all part of the adventure. Please continue to keep Taylor and me in your prayers!