Welcome Roomie!

Welcome Bethany! Bethany was one of the friendly faces who welcomed me to Uganda in Aug. 05. We overlapped for two weeks as she handed off RMS (Rwenzori Mission School)responsibilites to Amy and me. Then she returned the next two summers to lead our summer internship program. During this time we developed a great friendship that continues to grow. And now we get to continue sharing in life together here in Mundri, s. Sudan. It will be nice to share the tukul; to have someone to grumble with when Chai (the Masso dog) barks randomly in the middle of the night, to laugh with when random critters crawl into shoes or other things, and to talk the night away together.

Big Week at School

This was a big week at the Parish Primary School. All week long a film crew was around taking pictures and film of the students and their soon to be finished school building. The crew was hired by OXFAM, an organization who dontated money to finance the construction of the new school. As you can imagine it was one distracting week as students were more facinated by the 'Obonje' moving around with high tech equiptment rather than a lesson from their teacher. And then to add to the mix, on Tuesday the commissioner and some of his sidekicks stopped by as part of their official tour of all the Mundri district primary schools. And of course the commissioner can not just stop by without a welcome banner, welcoming songs, and a few speeches. Even though not a lot of teaching was taking place during the week, it was fun to observe the students get excited over all the new things happening around them.

This is the current school building. There are only enough rooms for P4-P7 (4 grades), the rest of the students meet outside under trees.

The new spiffy school buildings. They are just weeks away from being finished, but the school year ends at the begining of Dec. so they probably won't shift till next year.

Desks! Currently the students sit either on chairs they bring from home or stones/bricks they find laying around the school grounds. They write in their school excersize books using their laps as a hard surface. These students are very excited about their new school furniture!

Sisters Reunited

It is common in the course of a conversation to find that a person has not seen siblings, parents, or other relatives for years. This due to multiple variables such as work or school, but the greatest one being war. During the war here in Sudan many families were forced to separate as they ran to the bush or sought refuge in nearby countries. Yesterday I got to witness sisters who have spent many years apart reunite. It was amazing to watch my friend and her sisters pick up from where they left off. One sister she hadn’t seen in over 22 years! The reason for the reunion was to celebrate the giving of the dowry for one of the sisters even though she has now been married for over 25 years. I guess now is better than never. Most of these sisters live within Sudan but even traveling within Sudan is difficult and expensive. I feel very honored to have been a part of the reunion and have the opportunity to meet the family of my dear friend.

Coloring

Last week I took some coloring books and crayons with me on one of my visits to see friends. I thought the children on the compound would enjoy the pictures and colors. As I opened the coloring book I tried to find pages that didn’t look too complicated and then I demonstrated how to put crayon to paper. It was fascinating to watch the children try to stay in the lines and advice one another on different techniques. For many it was obvious that they had never even used crayons before. At this point I only know how to say the primary colors in Moru, but I am not even sure if other words exist outside of the basic colors. As I held up pink and asked the children what color, they responded with “oka” which means red. When I held up purple, they responed with “Läbuli” which means blue. The children were very proud of their pictures when they finished and made a point to show me their masterpiece. This of course brought a huge smile to my face.

Work Day

The land that was given to us here in Mundri has quickly transformed from a field full of long grass and bush to a lovely haven, or almost anyways. On Monday we all took part in a work day out at the land along with our two visitors from Bundi Ashley and Sarah. Most of us worked on one of the Dukuls, creating wire walls and the wire frames for the windows. I was looking forward to working with the cement, but we didn’t get that far. I guess I will have to go out there again in the coming week. It was great to have the opportunity to literally pore sweat into our future housing. We are all excited to see the finished product!

Liana and her level head was a huge help :o)

Just imagine that will be a nice screen window someday soon.

Friendly Faces

As I try to learn the Moru language I move around from home to home and sit with neighbors. There is one home in particular that I make sure to stop by almost every time I move around. The women of this home have become good friends and I look forward to seeing their friendly faces each time I go. Neither of these women speak even a small bit of English, which forces me to communicate solely in Moru, and maybe a few hand motions. Through these relationships that Lord continues to show me that it is possible to build friendships even with the language and culture barrier.

Few Words, Multiple Meanings

In the small book shop here in Mundri town you can find a Moru to English dictionary. This dictionary has become very handy for my teammates and I when needing to look up words we hear or read that are unfamiliar. Compared to our massive English dictionary this dictionary seems small with its 146 pages. I find myself thinking 'Moru can't be too difficult to learn if their dictionary only has 146 pages.' Although, I am sure not every single Moru word is listed and the dictionary was written some years back. I have also come to realize as I look up different words that many Moru words have multiple meanings. And when I say multiple meanings I mean drastically different meanings. Take the word dri for example, depending on how it is pronounced, used within a sentence, or what sound or letter is stressed it can mean: head, hand, on, through, bundle, or used to silence someone when they are talking. I confess that using words like this make me a little nervous because I fear I may say "Did you hand your firewood today?" instead of bundle firewood or "Put your book through the chair" instead of on the chair. But of course with learning a new language comes many many mistakes and lots of laughter.