Haiti

It turns out that I’m on my way to Haiti today.  After changing planes in NYC, I am now sitting at the airport in Miami waiting for another transfer flight 40 minutes from now.  The most exciting part of the trip so far just happened as I checked my work email 15 minutes ago and found a nice little message from the person who’ll be picking me up in three hours.  Unfortunately, the email ended with the phrase ”please send me your flight information’ which kind of sounds like they forgot that I’m coming today.  Oops.   This should make for an interesting rest of the day.  Good thing I’m armed with phone numbers galore- although forgetting my skype headset may prove to have been a critical mistake.

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In other news, thanks to Josh Mutter I am planning on going back to school in January.  Well… sort of.

Sudan pics

It was pointed out to me by one Ian Cameron Mclaren that I had yet to put up any pics from the Sudan trip.  I usually don’t take a ton of pictures when away but I got a couple that should help to tell the story of what we’re involved in.

Above: Sudanese man graduates from vocational training school.

Above: Internally Displaced Persons camp outside of Khartoum

Above: A sub surface dam.

Above: classic boy on over-sized bike.

Above: collapsed shallow well

Above: new, reinforced shallow well.

Above: constructing a rainwater catchment tank

and i’m back.

Holiday + insatiable desire to accumulate cheap goods + store willing to accommodate such desire = death of an underpaid employee. Seriously folks?

Looks like I’m back to feeling negatively about the holiday season.

Christmas Heroes

I generally have fairly negative views about Christmas but you can’t be negative all the time, can you?  I co-authored the following for some EIC promotional purposes and wouldn’t you know it, it’s fairly positive….

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The Advent season is a time of expectation, a time of hope and a time of anticipating what is to come. As we move through the season we get ever close to the time when we collectively celebrate the birth of a king; the saviour who came to bring life. Somewhere around 2000 years ago, a very pregnant Mary was being led from Galilee through meandering hilltops and olive groves on her way to Bethlehem. It was probably cold; a desert cold that drips into your bones and makes you long for relief, for shelter, for some warmth- any warmth. If we think back to the Christmas story, there are obvious heroes, villains and a heroine but there are also the ‘extras’, the oft forgotten cast members who hold the story together, such as the anonymous innkeeper.

At the time of a Roman census, you would think that the busiest person in town might be the hotel manager; making sure the guests of the packed accommodations are having their needs met. You would also think that at this incredibly busy time the innkeeper would have been inclined to turn away any unfamiliar faces that approached the front desk. After all, he was busy. He was doing his job. What more could he be expected to do? However, this was no ordinary innkeeper; this innkeeper saw something in the eyes of the strangers that stirred compassion inside him. It turns out that he didn’t have a room, but he had a space- albeit space in a barn. He couldn’t do everything but he did do something.

Alexis is a thirteen year old girl who lives in Durham Region, Ontario. She is in her last year of elementary school and enjoys taking Karate lessons. Like most teenagers, she likes hanging out with her friends and watching movies. After high school she plans on attending university to major in the sciences.

Silvia is also a thirteen year old girl but she lives in Kamalo Village in Malawi, in a small brick hut with a grass roof. Her “spare” time is spent collecting water from a well one hour’s walk away from her village, usually with her two year old brother strapped to her back.

Alexis and Silvia live in two different worlds and would have continued to do so until last year when Alexis watched a television program about people in Africa who didn’t have access to clean water. It was like Silvia had come to Alexis’ door and asked if she had any room to help? Was there a space, somewhere- anywhere that Alexis could offer her?

Alexis was shocked to hear that people drank dirty water which often brought illness, and sometimes death. She realized she had to do something, so instead of shutting the door to Silvia, Alexis requested that her parents to forgo presents for her thirteenth birthday as an alternative she asked for small donations from family and friends to build a well in Africa. She also began to raise money herself as she sold bracelets, organized lemonade stands, bottle drives and garage sales, and in ten short months this thirteen year old girl raised enough money to change a community forever.

During the previous Advent season it was a beautiful thing to witness the excitement on the faces of community members as they struck water after two weeks of digging the fifteen foot shaft by hand. Bonds of community were strengthened as families took turns moulding and burning bricks, collecting quarry stones to mix with cement to form concrete, and paving the outer walls of the well to insert the pump. The anticipation grew by the day as the well neared completion, signaling a life-giving instrument was about to become a constant in the villagers lives. The official opening of the well was simply a joy to witness and it began when Alexis decided to do something.

As we sit in the tension of Advent and wait with expectation for Christmas this year, may we remember the anonymous nativity characters, such as the innkeeper- or modern day innkeepers such as Alexis. May we be led by their example by showing compassion to help strangers and understand that while we can’t do everything, we can do something.

good bye sudan

It’s currently 3:52pm in whatever time zone I’m in, meaning that if everything goes according to plan (this is africa, as they say) I’ll be aboard the plane that shall take me to my homeland (via my father’s former homeland) in about 12 hours (yes, that’s an early flight).  It’s been a really interesting two weeks and I have decided that it actually would be quite easy to work and live in Khartoum, as it has many similarities to Toronto.  Village life is another story.

And so I bid you adieu Sudan, I barely knew you.

See you soon Canada.

house party.

I’ve been out of touch with the world for the past three days as apparently not every village in Sudan has satellite internet capabilities.  Unbelievable.

This week has essentially been a whirlwind tour of south central Sudan as the days have been filled with traveling from project site to project site.  It’s been incredible to see some of the activities but I am thankful that I won’t be spending 7 hours in a truck for the sixth consecutive day.

I am back in Khartoum, where I was scheduled to be arriving later on today but plans were changed yesterday morning when I awoke to the news that the town we were in was in lock down, meaning that our little contingency was under house arrest.  Apparently the SPLA determined that Nov 12, 2008 would the be day that they would systematically go through the town to perform a disarmament, which in my opinion is generally safer than an performing an armament.  That said, I have heard stories of people who, you know, don’t want to give up their guns which resulted in things I don’t care to share with you here, but nothing of the sort happened where I was staying.  It was determined that once the lock down was over I would go back with the others instead of busing it the next day.  I don’t know that the lock down was officially over when we left but a nice man from the SPLA escorted us out of town to the first check point at around 5pm.

And now I’m back in the office; catching up on work emails and chatting sports with expats who are starved for conversation about the NHL.

nuba.

I’m in the Nuba Mountains in the middle of Sudan at the FAR compound and I have the greatest internet connection in the world.  I haven’t been near anything I would consider to be a ‘town’ in over four hours worth of driving and yet I bet I could call Canada right now and it would be crystal clear.  In fact, someone here is just video skyping right now and it is crystal clear.  Sure there’s no running water and there are solar panels that provide the only source of electricity but we’ve got a strong internet connection… thank you to whoever invented satellites.

Being at the FAR compound is just about the closest thing I’ve  ever felt to being a part of the Swiss Family Robinson- except it’s in an arid region.  After a rather long day of traveling/ visiting project sites I decided to have a shower in a room that was built against the side of a rock face.  As such there are three wall, one rock face wall and a large plastic container full of water on the roof with a pipe that connect it to a shower head.  My shower was amazing.  So warm.  Solar energy is God’s gift to humankind.

This longish day began with an early morning flight from the UN airport to Kidugali (sp?) and then a long trek across the country on some roads that the ministry of transportation (if they exist) should probably take a look at.  After arriving at the compound sometime around 2pm we met with Chris & Bev who run this FAR office and are the main field contact for the CIDA project we’re working on.  They are a fabulous Canadian couple, late into their 50s, doing great work among the returnee Sudanese population.

We spent the afternoon together eating lunch, visiting some project sites- such as subsurface dams (which are my new favorite project) and then came back for din din and night chats on the interweb.

All in all- a pretty good day.

here

My flight arrived a little earlier than expected at around 4am on Tuesday morning.  I was met at the airport by Mark, who I have met on a number of occassions in Toronto, and he promptly drove me to the apartment where I’ll be staying for most of my trip.  I finally got to bed at around 5:30am and then slept until 10:30am, got up and went downstairs (the apartment is in the FAR compound) to get introduced to other trip members and FAR staff.  The first day was long.  Really long.

I think that I’ve just about completely recovered from jet lag- I say this because I didn’t sleep very well last night which means that tonight is my night to get back on track.

Today was spent at an IDP (Internally Displaced People) camp just outside of Khartoum.  Four of us (one EI, one Serving in Mission, one Canadian Foodgrains Bank, one FAR) were guests at a graduation ceremony for students who had completed a vocational training program sponsored by the government and implemented by FAR.  It was a pleasure to witness over 90 students, both young and old, have their name called over the sound system to receive their diploma and then watch the community celebrate their accomplishment with shrieks of joy.  The students all completed courses in such things as electrical wiring, general mechanics, welding, hairstyling, sewing and a couple of other things.  It was a great way to spend the day but after not having much sleep last night I definitely fell asleep on the way back- until we stopped for shwarma.  yum.

Tomorrow is Friday which means our office shuts down for the day.  I’ve heard our agenda may include a German swim club (oops, forgot my trunks), visiting a museum and some sight seeing.  Then, if our paperwork comes through today, on Saturday we will fly to the Nuba Mountains area and spend a couple days with the project staff and see what has been accomplished.  If all goes according to plan I will then head to Renk on Monday and spend two or three days there with other FAR staff (one of them is friend of mine) before heading back to Khartoum for the last day of the trip.  Isn’t that going to go by fast?  You’d better believe it.

layover part two

After my last post I found a bench with sufficient room to stretch out began to drift in and out of sleep over the next three and a half hours.  I’d say that’s a solid haul for an airport bench, despite the fact that I was consistently interrupted every 15 minutes by an airline who was looking for a passenger.  C’est la vie.

I mentioned in my last post that I had some thoughts about traveling and they seemed to get quite coherent as I slipped into unconsciousness but at the moment they seem a little murky.  Let me try and tease something out.

When people find out you are traveling to places such as Sudan, they ask you:  how are you feeling about it (which is code for: aren’t you scared out of your mind)?  The other question people ask is: are you excited?

My answer to both questions is mostly found somewhere in the middle.

I don’t think I’m scared to go- especially since Khartoum, according to Tracey B. is one of the safest cities in the world.  Who knew?  I also don’t think that Christians should be scared, so I’m not.  That might sound like a cop out and kind of a dumb response but let’s really think about this: I have been given the opportunity to have a brief encounter with a people group who have gone through hell and back in the last two decades; I have the opportunity to work on a project that will provide them with water, health information and sanitation services and I believe that Jesus would do that same (or the equivalent…).  More than that, if I’m confident that this is exactly the kind of thing that the Church should be about, and if I truly believe that God is actively involved in history, in seeing the fruits of his kingdom take root in desolate places, then what is there to fear?  Seriously, what is there to fear?

Secondly, people ask if I’m excited.  Again the answer is a little bit yes, a little bit no.  I certainly don’t like the airport side of things but who does?  I find airports to be so strange, so commerical and lonely.   I’m confident now more than ever that traveling in twos wasn’t just a safety thing that Jesus initiated- (because who can control safety anyway?). No, instead traveling in twos was all about community, about fellowship and about having someone to share the journey with.  Traveling isn’t easy but it’s much more bearable when it happens with people you know.  That’s not a complaint, just something that has been stewing for about 5 months now.  I think if I ever started an NGO where travel was involved, we wouldn’t send one person overseas unless we could afford to send two people.  So, I’m not excited at this present moment but I am looking forward to being in Sudan.

There’s more brewing here but my gate is about to open so I should get going.

You take care now.

these lines on the road [continue]

After traveling for most of August and a flight to Denver in September, followed by a trip to Calgary in October, I thought my travels were over for the time being.  Then I got approved for a visa to Sudan on Friday and so now I’m sitting at Heathrow, waiting for a connecting flight to Khartoum which leaves in about 8 hours.  I might leave the airport but I’m feeling kind of tired- so I might just crash for a while.  I’ve never been out of this airport but I don’t want to rush London- so maybe another time.

So far the trip has been good.  After spending 15 hours on a plane in August, a quick skip over to the UK feels like a cat nap.  I’m thankful for that.  I’m scheduled to come back on the 16th and once you factor in travel time it means that I’ll really only have 12 days in Sudan.  What am I doing there?  Well, I know 50% of the trip will consist of hanging out with Canadian board members of this organization, which has a joint project with Emmanuel through the Canadian government.  I’m here to get to know the project, write some reports and generally make sure EI is doing due diligence on this rather large project.  Should be fun.  The other 50% of the time I have no idea what I’ll be doing.  My assumption is that they’ll try and send me to the south to hang out with a recently hired staff person who was an EIC intern last year- and work with this individual on whatever it is that they are working on… food security I do believe.

I am feeling a little ambitious and have some random thoughts about these trips across the globe.  I’ve purchased a 24 internet pass so I should be back on a little later on and then perhaps I’ll write down some of these thoughts.

night night.