Announcing... The May Trip!

Today the announcement and application form for the May trip from the Diocese of Missouri to the Diocese of Lui went online. Here's a teaser: The Companion Diocese Committee is pleased to announce the next mission trip to Lui Diocese in South Sudan. Tentative dates for the trip are May 16, 2009, to June 3, 2009. We are looking for people from the Diocese of Missouri who are deeply committed to their faith and open to cross-cultural experience, and who want to further the relationship between Missouri and Lui. To read on and find the application form, visit our diocesan website.


Meanwhile, all kinds of other things are under way. We have estimates for the many expenses related to the grinding mill for which we have a UTO grant, and we are working on putting together a comprehensive proforma invoice. The hope is that our friend Stephen Dokolo can shepherd it to Kediba next month. We are watching developments on many political fronts. Spring walks and bicycle rides to raise money for Lui are in the planning stages. And the most recent set of missioners are accepting invitations to speak in parishes or other venues to anyone interested in hearing about the trip, Lui, and South Sudan. To arrange for a speaker, you can email me and I'll try to help you set something up.

Tammy and I loved this sign we saw in Juba. We fully concur with the hopes of GOSS as portrayed here.


Here are some more photos from the recent trip. Imagine IDPs (internally displaced persons) from Mundri Diocese and beyond inserted along the margins and in the centers of all of them, because since our team was in Lui, the Ugandan rebel group that calls itself the Lord's Resistance Army has advanced on Moruland and wrecked havoc in the villages of Mundri Diocese, causing IDPs to pour into the Lui Diocese. We hardly recognized Lui on the recent trip because of the extensive development; we might not recognize it now because of the state of emergency. If you want to read about that, check out the Salisbury Link's very up-to-date news. And, apropos of nothing, if you want to read an overview of the current state of Sudan with regard to the CPA (comprehensive peace agreement signed in January 2005 by the government and the southern leadership to end the civil war), Chatham House, a British NGO, has a very impressive and helpful report. By the way, if you didn't see the faithful, generous coverage Episcopal Life Online gave our mission, check out reporter Joe Bjordal's story. We are supposed to be featured in the print edition of Episcopal Life in March.




Photos from December/January 2008-9


We go to church a lot in Lui, and never more than in the Christmas season. Here on the left is Bishop Bullen, seated, and Chancellor Nathaniel, standing, with the ordinands facing them. The chancellor had the responsibility of reading anything pertaining to canon law (we think!) during the ordination. At right, the choir prepares before the ordination. Both photos were taken in Frazer Memorial Cathedral in Lui on December 26, 2008. Below, a look at the state of the drums they're using... and check out the close-up of cathedral pews.





We wrote about the wonderful bread we ate most mornings, and we think it came from this bakery (center), which was the project of CHF International (an NGO) with funding from USAID, as you can see. At left, a more famous NGO (Oxfam) supported the development of a restaurant in Lui market, and at right, chicks cluster around a feeder in the chicken house UTO funded for the Lui Diocese Mothers' Union. Both CHF and Oxfam have moved their operations out of Lui Diocese. We wonder why. If you're interested in NGOs and their work in South Sudan, and you are in or can come to the St. Louis area, be sure to catch Dr. Nancy Kinney's lecture on her research in this area at UMSL February 5th, 2009. Some of that research happened on our December/January trip!



Of course there's also private enterprise. At left, Joe watches the carpenter at the shop down the road from Lunjini School. Center: Someone must own these goats that rove the compound. They are tasty. Right: Bundling grass or firewood for sale will bring in a few pounds.


Finally, who can resist kid photos? The children of Lui are as adorable as any you'll see around the globe. Here are a few of them. Left: Like adults, kids congregate near the well. Top right: Deb with baby Most. Center and bottom right: Aunts and cousins with baby Harriet (I think).

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Ever since I got back from Lui this time, it seems like I am more there than here. Tammy and I are spending a lot of time planning for the May trip, and I have subscribed to a couple of listservs and news feeds that keep South Sudan front and center.

If there is actually anyone reading my blog who is not following the news from South Sudan, you need to know that the news is bad. The Lord's Resistance Army has moved northeast, farther into Sudan, and cut a wide and tragic swath through West Mundri County and the Diocese of Mundri. A number of people were killed or kidnapped, and many more have been displaced. Some were fleeing to Lui Diocese, especially around Lozoh, and Lui Hospital is feeling the effects. Then today we heard that the LRA has entered the Diocese of Lui too, but so far we have heard no details. You can read Bishop Bismarck's story of the attacks in Mundri Diocese here: http://salisburyanglican.org.uk/admin/news-nav.asp?page=890 The map shows the areas where the LRA is active. I copied it from salisburyanglican.org.uk and I thank them for their very current news and helpful images.

This news makes me incredibly sad. Kony and the LRA are beyond brutal, and I can only imagine the terror my Moru friends must feel. Looking at the development in Lui while we were there, I couldn't help thinking how fragile it was, just like the peace, and how the breakdown of the CPA would threaten all the progress the people in South Sudan have made since January of 2005. I was worried about the possible consequences of the 2011 vote. I thought I was being realistic, but it didn't even cross my mind that the LRA, then only barely across the border into Sudan, posed a much more immediate threat.

Right now, losing ground in development looks like nothing next to the threat to human lives. All over the southwestern part of Southern Sudan, at least from Ezo to Lui, people are in danger from the LRA, directly or indirectly. ERD - Episcopal Relief and Development - has already committed to a relief grant that will be administered through SUDRA, an NGO in South Sudan, to help those in the path of the LRA. If you want to help, you can donate online to ERD at https://www.er-d.org/donate-select.php. If you want to help the Diocese of Lui specifically, you can donate via the Diocese of Missouri: http://www.diocesemo.org/donateonline/.

The Way Forward

Yesterday our mission team -- minus Emily who had to go back to seminary -- had a reunion and debriefing meeting with the Companion Diocese Committee. They came to our house and Wayne (aka The Bishop) made the pizza owed them from a canceled mission prep meeting. We had some raw vegetables that weren't a danger to our health, and M&Ms for the sake of chocolate. (Dan told us that his first night back, Shelley had made a big chocolate cake!)

It was odd, but comforting, to see my Sudan buddies in winter clothes sitting around my den instead of cradling their water bottles and enjoying rice and beans in our payat back in Lui.

I think we need to stop calling ourselves a "mission team" when we go to Lui. The term sets up a mistaken attitude of having a project, going to do something that we either do or don't accomplish, and then being finished. The relationship between Lui and Missouri is not like that. When I go to visit my aunt and uncle in Fort Worth, I'm not on a mission but just going to see my family. Maybe I say I'm going because there's a show I want to see at the Kimball Museum, but that's never the main point. Same with Lui: Maybe we go to inspect wells or photograph a chapel or check on the grinding mill progress, but the real purpose in our visit is to see our beloved brothers and sisters in Christ.

People keep saying to us that we got so much done this trip. And we did. Deb collected a lot of data about what's going on at Lui Hospital, and she, along with the rest of us, got a much fuller picture of who the real players are in the hospital drama. Those players are not us, by the way; whatever sense we had going in that the Diocese of Missouri could or should "fix" anything at the hospital has been corrected by the better idea we now have of the respective views and roles of the Diocese of Lui, the Episcopal Church of Sudan, the government of South Sudan (GOSS), and various medical NGOs working there.

Robert and Tammy visited the six wells the Diocese of Missouri has provided in Lui Diocese up to now, and Robert and I visited Sumadhura, the company that drills the wells, and arranged to have three more dug. With Gordon, Vasco, and Bishop Bullen, the three of us determined that those wells would go in Wiro, Kediba, and Lesi, which is on the far northern border of the diocese, in the Lakamadi archdeaconry. Clean water is one of the Millenium Development Goals for a good reason. We saw firsthand how much healthier the people in Lui look, especially children, and we saw constant activity wherever a well had been dug. Because they spend less time at water holes spooning water into containers, some women have had time to enter adult education classes to learn to read their own language.

We did not shepherd the new grinding mill to Kediba. (This one is private enterprise, a mill in the Lui market.) That was one of our tasks, and we did not accomplish it. But we made progress. We have a list of supplies needed to complete the mill house, which must be built before the mill is delivered. And we have a plan with Stephen Dokolo to find and buy the mill in Kampala. We also presented the certificate from UTO to the Mothers' Union's diocesan leaders, Jenifa and Margaret, with a speech about how UTO money is collected in the US and what UTO does with that money around the world.

But the most important thing we did was not one of our stated goals when we left home in mid-December. The most important thing is that we showed up in these hard economic times and stayed long enough and deepened relationships to show, we hope, that we aren't going to abandon Lui now that money is tight at home, or now that development is occurring there at the hands of others besides ourselves. The trip wasn't a project, it wasn't really a mission trip (although the term serves us well with government officials, who understand who we are if we put it that way) -- it was a visit to friends, the only real way we have to check in with some people we have come to love. The relationship between Lui and Missouri isn't glamorous, and it will never be based on the handing over of huge amounts of money. As Robert pointed out last night, Americans who immigrated from African countries decades ago are still sending money back home. Africans need financial help, and their relations help them. We have covenanted with Lui to be in a relationship, so we help them with development projects and with money when we can. But the money is about the relationship, and not vice versa.

We are planning our next trip in May. With luck, that's soon enough that we will be able to enter significant conversations without quite so much startup formality. Bishop Bullen has asked us to do several three-day conferences: one for pastors on contemporary society, English language, and computer skills; one on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention; one on adult education with some concurrent English instruction for the adult ed class; and one on Christian formation for the Sunday School teachers. He'd also like an agriculturist who can teach farmers to graft and bud citrus, an administrator or accountant who can help with basic systems and processes in the diocesan office, and doctors who would do specialty clinics for a couple of weeks. All that in the context of continuing to build relationships! That's probably more than we can tackle in May, but how the trip shapes up will in part depend on who applies to go. Which brings me to another point: The Companion Diocese Committee will be putting an application online soon, and we hope that people from around the diocese who are interested in going to Lui will apply. You don't have to be a specialist in one of the conference areas to go; you just have to be willing to help with them.

And the other thing, of course, is money. The big initiatives of the Diocese of Lui right now have to do with managing the increasing development needs of the Moru people. We and others have been digging wells, and GOSS has been working hard on roads and schools. To manage their projects, educate their clergy, and stay in touch with their people and their outside partners, the diocese needs an office building and a vehicle that will carry groups across bumpy dirt roads without breaking down constantly. (The one in the photo is a matatu; we rode it to Juba for 30 SDG each.) They are raising money for these projects and collecting in-kind donations for the office, but they need our help, and -- despite our own financial woes in the US these days -- we hope we can help.

Home

Deb, Dan, and I had a long but uneventful trip from Kampala to St. Louis. Our whole team of missioners has now returned. On the last plane today, from Detroit to St. Louis, I sat in about the same position as I'd sat Tuesday on the MAF plane, and found myself thinking about the parallels. Both trips crossed fertile farmland, different though the two lands are, and both followed -- part of the way -- the continent's most famous river. That got me thinking about how recent, in the great scheme of things, the American Civil War was, and correspondingly how quickly Southern Sudan could develop and change.

Yesterday (Wednesday, 7 January) we had fun checking out Ugandan shopping with Stephen. Later his wife, Lillian, and son, David, joined us for Indian food and kept us company till time to check in at Entebbe. It was wonderful to see Stephen happily reunited with his family. While we were at the MAF guesthouse with them, another old friend from Lui turned up as a guest -- check out his photo. We were excited to learn that Ramsey has a new baby, and he told us about breaking with Moru tradition to be present at the birth!

Once again thanks to everyone who sustained us during our trip. I'm going to be adding photos to my blog over the next few days, so check back if you want visuals.

Back in Kampala

We had an uneventful trip to Kampala today. MAF's plane (pilot Laura again :) arrived only 5 minutes after the promised time, and I was able to reach Sheila, the guesthouse manager, from my Sudanese cell phone as soon as we got to the Mundri airport. (For some reason the satellite phone was unwilling to call Ugandan numbers; I finally had to reach the MAF office to confirm our flight via their satellite phone.) Sheila arranged for our ride from Entebbe to the MAF guesthouse, and Lawrence, our driver, was right on time too, and charged us what Sheila had told me he'd charge. I spent the whole ride reading and writing email because for some reason T-Mobile decided to support BlackBerry email on MTN in Kampala between the time we left for Lui and today (yay!). So we have showered and dined like royalty and are sitting out on the porch in the cool Ugandan breeze. Stephen met us at the airport and asked lots of questions about all the changes in Lui. He's going to join us for an expedition in downtown Kampala tomorrow, and his wife and son will come visit us tomorrow afternoon, then they'll all see us off to the airport. We leave at 11 p.m. Wednesday Uganda time, which is 2 p.m. at home, and arrive home about 5 p.m. Thursday. I'll post one more time just to say we're safely back in St. Louis.

Last Day in Lui

Today we are all packing and having debriefing meetings and last-minute computer trainings and such. We feel good closure: My list of things to do and find out is mostly checked off. Deb has gotten to see her old friends and revisit lots of experiences and issues, and Dan has collected stories and observations for many sermons to come. Our time here has been marked by joy, but we're coming back with lots to chew over and discuss with our parish and diocesan communities.

Yesterday, while I was hanging out by myself, I wrote a long reflection on the tension between a feeling I call "alone on the planet" and a strong sense of connection to and communion with other people. I will spare you the whole long thing, but I do want to say that nowhere do I feel them simultaneously like I do in Lui. Alone-on-the-planet is richly available on a dune in the Sahara or the streets of Chicago, and communion is best at home, but only here in Lui have I experienced them both at once. God is present in both feelings -- more directly in the former and through other people in the latter -- but the constant presence of both feelings here has brought me to recall the name of the film about the Lost Boys of Sudan, God Grew Tired of Us, and say no, God never grows tired of us, and if there's anywhere we can realize it, that place is Southern Sudan.

That's it from me till we're back in Uganda, where we will be staying at the MAF guesthouse and expect to have Internet access. Part of the sense of communion I mentioned is my awareness of the connection with both my Moru friends and my friends back home at the same time, and this seems like a good time to say thank you to everyone who has been reading my blog and holding all eight of our team of missioners in your hearts and prayers. The feeling of your support is almost palpable, and it has carried us. Please don't drop us now! We expect to be home Thursday night, 8 January.

Sunday in the Compound with Nobody

Today I stayed home alone. Deb and Dan went to Lozoh without me because Deb pointed out that I'd have a respiratory system full of mud if I inhaled a road full of dust on top of my cold. So I slept and read and hung out all by myself. I told Ada I didn't need lunch so she could get her time off and instead had some nice almonds and apricots that Tammy kindly left me (thanks, Tammy!). I should have started counting motorcycles and semis when I saw the first ones; it was a very trafficky day out on the road.

Deb and Dan seem to have had a wonderful trip to Lozoh, and they are safely back. I'll let them tell their stories -- check tomorrow on Lui Notes (www.luinotes.blogger.com, I think).

Lazy Saturday

Not that I'm counting, but we have three more days here.

Yesterday I had a meeting with Bishop Bullen to discuss building parish-to-parish relationships and the possibility of some kind of connection between Missouri clergy families and Lui clergy families. Somehow that led him to ask me how people become gay. We had what I thought was a very good conversation. We also discussed the possibility of applying for a CPC Miles of Pennies grant for Lunjini School, and he definitely wants to do that. Eventually the conversation went down the road of all his hopes and dreams for Lui, which are, right now, symbolized by two big piles of rocks out in front of our compound intended for the diocesan office building, to which he dedicated the St. Stephen's Day and (I think) New Year's Day offerings.

The other thing I did yesterday was -- with enormous difficulty -- download AVG and clean off both computers in the office here. Virus checking is never very exciting at home, but when 20 threats, a combination of viruses and trojan horses, popped up in the AVG window as it scanned, I found the process lots more fun. And now I am so famous for virus extermination that Peter, the hospital administrator, just came over and asked me to clean off the hospital's laptop too. After all Robert and Joe did to fix technology here, I was worried about collecting any street cred at all in this department, but AVG has kindly rescued me.

We have had doughnuts and coffee for breakfast every day since the rest of the team left, but lunch and dinner have been less exciting. We have also stopped doing our own laundry as that seemed to be offending our caretakers. Yesterday Ada did the last of mine; as long as I stay away from things like spaghetti sauce, I have exactly enough clean clothes to get home. (Which, in case you can't tell, I am ready to do.)

Just Another Day

So what nobody told us yesterday is that the Baptists were slated to come today and teach "Discipleship" in Lui. We were not invited. The men are in the cathedral and the women are under the mango tree. The women are learning praise songs in English. That's all I know about that.

Since the rest of our team left, Deb, Dan, and I have faced a larger number of individual requests for various types of school funding. Between that and the mirror of the Baptists from Birmingham, I am struggling a bit with how I feel about our role here.

At the same time, we are now having the leisure to sit in the compound with whoever wanders in, and yesterday we experienced a first: Betty, one of the teachers the diocese of MO sponsors at Lunjini, sat with us and asked lots of questions about life in the US. Mostly she was interested in our food and how it gets to us; the conversation started with a question about whether we grow something or another -- coffee, maybe. In the end, she asked for some health information and advice, as well. It was one of the best conversations I've had here. We are also getting deeper and more subtle information about things in Lui. Yesterday Vasco explained a lot to us about the prospects of Lui Hospital and the apparent conflict between what the church wants and what the state wants. That was helpful. So on balance I think it's good that the three of us are still here.

I'm grateful to have Deb and Dan here to process it all with; we are working hard to recognize the cultural mandate or sense of desperation behind the requests and to give the moments of sharing their due weight. I guess the via media was never easy -- for us equilibrium exists only as moments of balance between two extremes.

Through the Looking Glass

Today has been surreal.

New Year's Day is a big deal here. The Moru Christians "renew their names" and write them in God's book (figuratively, as far as I can tell) each year on this day. So we went off to Moru church expecting something about that. We sat down in the south transept even though we always get sent to sit in the front by the altar, not wanting to be the ones sent down lower in the gospel story about who sits at the head of the table. Lucky we did -- a while after the service should have started, six other Americans were ushered in and up front. We were offered plastic chairs at the front of the transept, but we held our position on a concrete bench. That wasn't the surreal part.

What was surreal was sitting out in the congregation of Fraser Cathedral watching six Americans play the roles we usually play. They greeted us in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for starters. They went on in a way we wouldn't, each bringing us "a message of encouragement" by reading scripture to us and giving little mini sermons about giving our lives to Christ. Deb and Dan and I wondered if we sound anything like they did when we're up front. Turns out they're from a Baptist church in Birmingham. They send a team to the Lui-Mundri area twice a year. They are digging wells. (One of the team has an organization called Never Thirst.) They just finished one at Wito, between Bwagyi and Mideh (not sure which archdeaconry, but you can be sure I'm going to find out). They come to check out wells and bring a team to teach the gospel, or something, when they come. The women had been teaching Moru women and the men Moru men something they called Discipleship. Ever hear of that??? They said the Moru had not. Turns out they have some kind of written series they're using and hoping for an each one, teach one continuation after they go home. (Their total time here? One week.)

If that's not enough, get this: The person who brought them to Lui was Jeffreys, the former diocesan secretary of Lui Diocese. We had heard he'd gone to law school, then we heard he was working for ITAM (It Took a Miracle, which maybe has been dismantled now), but now he's working for this Sudan Christian Strategic Advocacy group. We had a chance to eat lunch with them, chat, and exchange contact info so we can coordinate our well-digging efforts. (We thought we'd leave the Discipleship part to them since we personally find ourselves learning something about discipleship from our Moru friends.) Tomorrow they are visiting Lui hospital, and Deb, Dan, and I all plan to go along. Maybe we can encourage them to help the hospital.

By the way, Deb preached a knock-'em-dead sermon at the English service this morning, weaving together a number of scriptures that connect Holy Name with their name renewal thing.

Yesterday I didn't blog. We've been having trouble with the Internet, but I think Dan and I have isolated the problem now. The most important thing we did yesterday was clean out our blue box, the repository of stuff we might need from trip to trip that is stored in the guest compound here. We threw away what was expired and gave most of the medical stuff, which has never been used, as far as we know, to the hospital, which is desperate for supplies. Because of the tape we found, a woman with a 5-day-old baby was able to have the bandage over her severe burns changed. Deb told a poignant story of this woman lying in the hospital suffering with her tiny baby nestled beside her.

The three of us have made the segue from team of 8 to team of 3 well and are continuing the team's traditions. Happy new year -- if we didn't phone you, know that we thought of you all and wanted to call you "from the future" when it was 2009 here and still only 2008 there.

Lu karu ami.