We woke up at 6:45, just as it was beginning to get light outside. The temperature had cooled down enough during the night that I was able to sleep with a sheet over my body without sweating.
We had some prayer that morning together and I recall our missionary, Silas, using the phrase over and over again, "In the mighty name of Jesus"... It struck me that he prayed as if his life depended on every request he made for safety and guidance... After a day, I realized that it does...
We walked into Rumbek town just as the sun was rising and were good and thirsty as we were hungry by the time we reached a cafe. Most cafe's in Rumbek are run by either Kenyans or Ugandans. We ate at a Ugandan one... I had egg and chapo, a soda and some water... (Too hot for tea)...
Then we got another tuktuk and headed out to the airport. We had to register within three days and the main place to find immigration officers was at the airport. We had a hard time getting through to immigration officers why we had come... It was after talking to three officers, we were finally able to get across the purpose for our visit... In Juba, they had told us it cost 84 SP to register.... Here they said it cost 48 SP. So, we asked for receipts in addition to the stamp in our pass (a visa that one carries in addition to a passport).
That done, we went back to town and drank more sodas as we awaited public transport to take us to our final destination, the village of Cueibet, the County seat of the Commissioner who had invited us to come to Sudan last September when he visited us at KKV in Nairobi. After a few minutes, a Toyota Land-cruiser Matatu or taxi showed up and we piled in with about 20 other people bound for all points in that direction... I had clocked the distance by Google Earth to be about 30 miles (45 Kms). About an hour out, we stopped at Silas's house in the village of Abiriu for a minute while he rushed to drop off our third piece of luggage which had carried 12 liters of bottled water and 4 lbs of peanuts we had packed for the trip. By that time, we dropped off only two remaining liters of water... We still had 3/4 of all of our peanuts left... and boy would they come in handy later on the way home...
After another bumpy hour, we finally arrived in Cueibet. Silas walked us over to a kiosk where Janet hangs out alot. It was a mix of grocery store clothing store and hair salon; a Kenyan run business.
There, we were told that Janet could be an number of places at the moment, but would be sure to return shortly.. John and Silas went off to try to find her and returned after a while with no success. So we finally went next store to a Ugandan restaurant to have some lunch. When finished, we returned to find her there at the kiosk. What a grand re-union. Then she took us straight to the Commissioners office, a ten minute walk past military camps, police posts, a make shift court and jail... All these were bush type hut structures... So different from the development of Kenya...
Once inside the brick building that resembled a run down police post in rural Kenya, we were ushered into the office of the Commissioner of Cueibet, Mr. Kon'gore. Upon seeing us, he was overjoyed and quickly brought the meeting he was chairing to a conclusion... We talked for a little while and he then had his official land cruiser brought around to take us to our guesthouse. It happened to be the very Medical facility were were asked to spy out while in Sudan. More on that later... We reached the guesthouse at 3pm.
Diakonie is a medical relief organization based in Germany. Their stated purpose is to help in relief efforts on a short term basis in disaster and war torn areas of the globe. They are built a series of ten medical clinics in the Chueibet area with a central clinic and base in the village of Cueibet. They are presently planning to finalize their side of the project by turning the facilities over to a local NGO (Non - Governmental - Organization) to continue to serve the medical needs of the area. I was sent up there to gather information and media so we could ascertain the possibility of taking on such a project.Once settled, we spent the rest of the day cleaning up and adjusting to the environment we had come upon.
I had been told that this was the most innovative and beautiful facility in the entirety of Southern Sudan. My first impression of it was that of an outpost far away from any technology of any kind. How wrong that first impression became to be as we discovered German technology at its best... That facility is run almost solely on solar technology. They have an inversion unit that is powered by twenty truck sized batteries hoked up in series. Those batteries are in turn charged by solar power. That system runs 24/7 and powers everything from their satellite internet for the two PCs in their office, the satellite TV service and the TV that plays it, one lighting point per house, and lights that light up their dining and social halls. The only thing left for the generator that runs for a few hours each night is the ceiling fans and a couple extra lights in each house. We enjoyed showers in our rooms and the relative cool of screened in bedrooms.
The mostly Kenyan staff that runs the place were very friendly and we had nice fellowship with them. We ended the day by eating a nicely cooked meal by the kitchen staff. After that, we checked our email and updated our facebook pages... Exhausted from our two and a half day trip, we slept well irregardless of the sweltering heat.
We had some prayer that morning together and I recall our missionary, Silas, using the phrase over and over again, "In the mighty name of Jesus"... It struck me that he prayed as if his life depended on every request he made for safety and guidance... After a day, I realized that it does...
We walked into Rumbek town just as the sun was rising and were good and thirsty as we were hungry by the time we reached a cafe. Most cafe's in Rumbek are run by either Kenyans or Ugandans. We ate at a Ugandan one... I had egg and chapo, a soda and some water... (Too hot for tea)...
Then we got another tuktuk and headed out to the airport. We had to register within three days and the main place to find immigration officers was at the airport. We had a hard time getting through to immigration officers why we had come... It was after talking to three officers, we were finally able to get across the purpose for our visit... In Juba, they had told us it cost 84 SP to register.... Here they said it cost 48 SP. So, we asked for receipts in addition to the stamp in our pass (a visa that one carries in addition to a passport).
That done, we went back to town and drank more sodas as we awaited public transport to take us to our final destination, the village of Cueibet, the County seat of the Commissioner who had invited us to come to Sudan last September when he visited us at KKV in Nairobi. After a few minutes, a Toyota Land-cruiser Matatu or taxi showed up and we piled in with about 20 other people bound for all points in that direction... I had clocked the distance by Google Earth to be about 30 miles (45 Kms). About an hour out, we stopped at Silas's house in the village of Abiriu for a minute while he rushed to drop off our third piece of luggage which had carried 12 liters of bottled water and 4 lbs of peanuts we had packed for the trip. By that time, we dropped off only two remaining liters of water... We still had 3/4 of all of our peanuts left... and boy would they come in handy later on the way home...
After another bumpy hour, we finally arrived in Cueibet. Silas walked us over to a kiosk where Janet hangs out alot. It was a mix of grocery store clothing store and hair salon; a Kenyan run business.
There, we were told that Janet could be an number of places at the moment, but would be sure to return shortly.. John and Silas went off to try to find her and returned after a while with no success. So we finally went next store to a Ugandan restaurant to have some lunch. When finished, we returned to find her there at the kiosk. What a grand re-union. Then she took us straight to the Commissioners office, a ten minute walk past military camps, police posts, a make shift court and jail... All these were bush type hut structures... So different from the development of Kenya...
Once inside the brick building that resembled a run down police post in rural Kenya, we were ushered into the office of the Commissioner of Cueibet, Mr. Kon'gore. Upon seeing us, he was overjoyed and quickly brought the meeting he was chairing to a conclusion... We talked for a little while and he then had his official land cruiser brought around to take us to our guesthouse. It happened to be the very Medical facility were were asked to spy out while in Sudan. More on that later... We reached the guesthouse at 3pm.
Diakonie is a medical relief organization based in Germany. Their stated purpose is to help in relief efforts on a short term basis in disaster and war torn areas of the globe. They are built a series of ten medical clinics in the Chueibet area with a central clinic and base in the village of Cueibet. They are presently planning to finalize their side of the project by turning the facilities over to a local NGO (Non - Governmental - Organization) to continue to serve the medical needs of the area. I was sent up there to gather information and media so we could ascertain the possibility of taking on such a project.Once settled, we spent the rest of the day cleaning up and adjusting to the environment we had come upon.I had been told that this was the most innovative and beautiful facility in the entirety of Southern Sudan. My first impression of it was that of an outpost far away from any technology of any kind. How wrong that first impression became to be as we discovered German technology at its best... That facility is run almost solely on solar technology. They have an inversion unit that is powered by twenty truck sized batteries hoked up in series. Those batteries are in turn charged by solar power. That system runs 24/7 and powers everything from their satellite internet for the two PCs in their office, the satellite TV service and the TV that plays it, one lighting point per house, and lights that light up their dining and social halls. The only thing left for the generator that runs for a few hours each night is the ceiling fans and a couple extra lights in each house. We enjoyed showers in our rooms and the relative cool of screened in bedrooms.
The mostly Kenyan staff that runs the place were very friendly and we had nice fellowship with them. We ended the day by eating a nicely cooked meal by the kitchen staff. After that, we checked our email and updated our facebook pages... Exhausted from our two and a half day trip, we slept well irregardless of the sweltering heat.
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