Day two started off with an early morning jog with Karen, Acacia, and Chai. Then I enjoyed a cup of coffee in my new insulated travel french press which is the perfect size since I am the only coffee drinker on the team at the moment. It was my cook night, so I started the process of going to the market.
Step One: Locate Bike - It was deep in the store in the far corner behind several other bikes.
Step Two: Clean Bike - It was covered in spiderwebs and dust.
Step Three: Fix Bike - The tires needing air was the simplest of the issues. My bike chain was pretty rusty and dirty. Michael brought out his new bicycle repair tools including a chain cleaning device and rigged up a gasoline bath for the chain. After lots of WD-40 and a few other tweaks, the bike was ready to ride.
Step Four: Add Spiff Bike Basket - The Massos had brought two bike baskets for market runs, so one was attached to my bike and the other to Karen's new bike.
With my bike fixed I was set to head into the market. Acacia joined me on Karen's new bike with the other basket and with our shopping list plus a few items for the Bishop's wife, we were off. The bike ride to the market wasn't as far as I remembered, but the main road is in far worse condition and very bumpy. I didn't see a single person I knew at the market, but I got to brush off my Moru and Arabic greetings. I really enjoyed the whole process of getting back to the market.
Check out Karen's blog post for more about the food and fuel situation in Mundri, prayer requests, and a picture of me and Acacia on our bikes sweaty and just back from the market.
On another happy note, both of the new skirts I got for Sudan so far have been very successful. They don't fly up when I bike or have so much fabric that it gets caught in the spokes and they aren't too hot. =)
Michael spent a good portion of the day replacing some of the door locks that were broken with new locks from Kampala. That night as I was locking up the team house to go to bed one of the brand new locks broke. It is broken in the locked position so the deadbolt will have to be sawed in half to get the door open again. The same thing happened to my door last year and Phil came to the rescue using the angle grinder to cut the deadbolt since Melissa and I were locked out of rooms.
The next day Michael and I headed out find out the status of the water projects at Hai Salaama and at BNTC. The water office staff were out of town fixing another hand pump so we will meet with them early next week. We biked over to the project, and there was no water flowing at Hai Salaama. Unfortunately there wasn't anyone around with enough English to tell us how long it has been this way or what happened. Monday we will head back with some troubleshooting tools and take a closer look starting with the electrical connections. We headed over to BNTC next and found water in abundance. The float switch isn't working so the tank overflows occasionally and the tarp used as a temporary tank cover is torn to shreds, but overall things look to be in great shape. We headed over to greet the students at BNTC, and we found them digging in the garden and picking some Moringa leaves for lunch.
That afternoon we had team meeting with the four of us (Michael, Karen, Scott, and myself). It was a wonderful time of hearing more about what has been going on with each person while we have been apart and praying together as well as some logistics and team business.
Note: I will NOT be continuing day by day posts, but for now as I transition back to life in Mundri they will probably be more frequent. =)
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