Dukul Progress

It has been a wonderful experience to help design and build the house Larissa and I will be sharing in only a few short months. Since we are building with ferrocement, all our furniture will be built in the walls. Over the last few weeks, we have been making decisions about where to put our beds, desks, and shelves. Pretty soon we will be picking fabric for curtains. The tent next to the main house has been a good home for the last six months, but I am looking forward to having a quiet place with a desk to sit at during the day and hopefully fewer visitors of the animal variety at night. We are rapidly running out of construction supplies, but thankfully the truck of supplies I purchased with our contractor a week ago in Kampala is now making its way from Uganda to Sudan.


Local houses in Mundri are called tukuls, and since two people will be living in each of the structures we are building for single men and women we have decided to call them dukuls (duplex + tukul).

Blue Pipes

The last time Michael and I were in Kampala, we bought some blue PVC riser pipes to install in local boreholes. This week we had the opportunity to replace some corroded galvanized iron (GI) riser pipes with the PVC riser pipes. The PVC pipes were about half the price of the GI pipes and won't corrode. Corrosion of the riser pipes is one of the most significant causes of handpump breakdown we have seen in the Mundri area. The PVC pipes are also lighter and easier to work with than the GI pipes. We are working with the county water office to continue replacing corroded GI pipes with PVC pipes.

Friends in DRC

Here are a few pictures from my visit to Beni, DR Congo. I had an amazing week at UCBC (Christian Bilingual University of Congo) with friends I met at CIT and new friends. We have been on the field about six months now, and it was such a blessing to be able to talk to someone who went through missions training with me. I had great conversations with students, played cards and Settlers of Catan at night, and rested to prepare for the second part of a hectic shopping trip in Kampala.

At the construction site of the new classrooms at UCBC with Meredith

Chelsie and Grant in the teacher's lounge between classes at UCBC

Grant hasn't had a haircut since he arrived in Congo

All smiles
Check out Meredith's tan!

Tan Lines

After five months in Sudan and a lot of time spent working outside on the water tower and construction of our housing, I have pretty great Chaco tan lines. This picture was even taken after I scrubbed all the dirt off my feet.

What goes up...

I am the new volunteer S1 (first year) physics teacher at Mundri Seconday School. Tuesday was my first class, and I had a lot of fun preparing a lesson plan and teaching the students. When I was studying engineering in college, I never would have thought that three years later I would be teaching high school level physics. There are approximately 50 students in the class, and we meet for two hours once a week.

I am truly excited to be teaching a subject that I enjoyed as a student. I am also looking forward to getting to know the students as well as the other teachers. Most of the students are very motivated and eager to learn.

I know that teaching this class will be challenging. Students don't have copies of the text book since they cannot be bought locally and are expensive. In addition, due to the recent teachers' strike, the start of this school year was delayed for over two months, which means teachers will be trying to fit the entire curriculum into the remaining months.

This class will not only be challenging for me as the teacher, but it will be challenging for the students. I was told several times during my first class that the material was very tough, and I expect that it will get harder as we move on from the scientific method to Newton's laws of motion.

As I teach physics over the coming months, join me in praying that I would remember that everything good that I am is Christ in me. If I am patient and show the students love, then the glory belongs to God. If I am impatient or get frustrated with the students, pray that God would show me my sin. Also pray for wisdom for all the teachers including myself as we teach the students are Mundri Secondary School.

If you have any words of encouragement for a first time teacher, send it my way!

Flowing Water

After months of work with the help of many people, we now have water flowing to the construction site and a new tap for the community. The work on the water tower is essentially complete. We took this picture of the completed water tower and community tap with two of the men who have been working with us for the past few months and the Bishop. Since Kyle couldn't be with us in person to see the water flowing, I made cardboard Kyle who joined us for the pictures. God has provided every step of the way during the construction of the water tower. There were even two short term teams here at the very times when we needed extra manpower to raise the tank and tower.


Everyone is very aware of the importance of water everyday in Mundri. The crops need rain to grow. We all need water to stay hydrated in the heat. Many people work hard everyday to keep their family supplied with water. We pray that many hearts in Sudan would flow with rivers of living water and that the provision of water would be a foretaste of a time when there will be no hunger or thirst.

Revelation 7:15-17 "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Construction 201

Over the last week our team house has started to take shape. First the walls were marked out with string, and after a few minor changes, the contractor's team of men started on the foundation. By the end of today we should have two courses of blocks completed on the walls.

As construction progresses on our team housing, I am learning a lot of new skills and techniques. I would say that I've moved on from Construction 101 and started classes in Construction 201. Today I learned how to make structures out of ferrocement which we will be using extensively on our team housing.

Quibe

Every Tuesday I cook dinner for the team. This week I decided to try a meal that reminds me of Brazil and all the good things from times I have stayed with my grandparents in Santos. I decided to make quibe, with several substitutions for ingredients available in the market or in our pantry. One of the main ingredients in quibe is bulgur wheat, which we did not have, so I used couscous instead. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but in the end it tasted pretty close to the real deal to me. Acacia even announced at the dinner table that it tasted strange but she liked the quibe.


Learning to cook here has been a gradual process for me. As I gain experience and figure out the little tricks that make things work, I am really starting to enjoy cooking in Sudan. Next week I may just try a Brazilian version stroganoff.

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quibe

Our Housing Arrived!

With "some assembly required" as Karen said on her blog. A truck arrived today with A LOT of cement, pipe, paint, and even a few sinks. It drove from Kampala, Uganda to Mundri, Sudan over the past week and half with a few delays due to a broken bridge and some import paperwork. The store which is holding all our supplies is complete except for a few finishing touches, and once the construction is finished it will serve as a tool shed/garage.

Dependent Engineer

Yesterday we installed three of the pipes on the water tower. We are making progress, and it is even starting to resemble the finished product.

Connecting the threaded pipes to the tank seemed like it would be a simple job compared to lifting the tank onto the platform, but it turned out to be far more challenging than expected. Things were complicated by the fact that our ladder has not yet arrived with the remainder of our building supplies. Michael climbed on top of the tower with one pipe wrench while I stayed on the ground with the other. One of the pipes had to be rethreaded once it was already bolted to the tank, and the cordless drill charger broke in the middle of the job.

As I learn how to work as an engineer who is dependent on God, I am continually reminded of the importance of prayer. I am not always diligent about praying before we start work, but when I don't pray I am more apt to get frustrated, feel unqualified, and act like an orphan instead of a child of God in a thousand other ways.

In the next few days the supplies we bought in Kampala for our housing will be arriving on a truck. I will learn a whole set of new skills as we continue construction including how to build structures with ferrocement.

As construction continues, please join us in prayer.
Pray for protection and safety.
Pray for success and efficiency.
Pray that we would be good stewards of our funds, supplies, and the land.
Pray for the community that will be impacted by our work.
Pray for my heart as I continue to grow in dependence on God.