Lui, California, and the General Convention of the Episcopal Church

I don't usually write in this blog when I'm not in Sudan or announcing a trip or something like that. Which reminds me that I might not have properly announced the next mission to Lui. We are going back the week of Thanksgiving and the week following, leaving St. Louis Sunday, November 22, and returning Saturday, December 5th, if not Friday the 4th. We'll be in Lui 11/24-12/3. The main "conference" this trip will be an art project with Lunjini School -- more to come about that later. We will also spend some time with clergy, discussing topics to be determined. There are still perhaps a couple of openings on the team; the application is available on the website of the Diocese of Missouri, the Lui page.

Right now I'm at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church. Plenty of people with more information and insight than I have are writing about that, but I can't resist writing about Sudan from this perspective. First, I should say that I am excited about all the opportunities at GC to share stories with others who've traveled to Sudan. Today I sat at the AFRECS booth with Connie Fegley from the Diocese of Bethlehem, which is in a very productive relationship with Kajo-Keji, and it was just nice to find that we share a lot of experience and perspective on Southern Sudan. I'm looking forward to talking with several other people with lots of Sudan experience, reporting to ECW about their grant to the Mothers' Union in Lui, hearing from ERD about their work in Africa with the other bishops' spouses, and networking with spouses whose dioceses have Sudan connections. If Archbishop Daniel and Mama Deborah get their travel documents straightened out in time, I also look forward to seeing them and spending time with Deborah during the spouse activities.

What really makes me think about Sudan, though, is Southern California. I never expected to like it here, but it is beautiful, and the climate is unbelievable. I am now unsure why the entire population of the US doesn't just move out here. Aside from the climate, which is fortunately quite different, the geography of this place reminds me a lot of Sudan in the dry season. Like Southern Sudan, California is a curious mix of desert and tropics, with palm trees, evergreens, and deciduous trees and lots of tropical flowers. Like Southern Sudan, the soil is amazingly fertile. They are beautiful in so many of the same ways, and yet they seem worlds apart. Walking around "Downtown Disney" tonight, I was watching the happy couples and families and thinking about the corresponding people walking around downtown Lui. I'm not sure which to say is like a parody of the other. And watching the nightly Disney fireworks, I couldn't help thinking what that much fire in the sky and booming and banging would mean in Sudan. I am baffled by the distance between our cultures and the seemingly unbreachable divide: How did we become like this, people who would build a Disneyworld and flock to it? Why do they suffer from malaria and TB and nodding disease and sleeping sickness and river blindness and malnutrition, and -- for the most part -- we don't?

The other thing about GC that reminds me of Sudan is seeing old friends. Stepping onto the elevator in the Hilton and seeing a friend from seminary or a diocese we used to live in is pretty much like stepping off the plane in Mundri and finding Vasco waiting for me.