It is always a painful time of decisions when we consider what we will take into South Sudan. The weight and volume are very important and we try to maximize impact with what we bring in. (I truly overdid it this time with only three sets of underwear though!)
Each shipment of medicine's costs are more than doubled by the cost of transport to the remote corner of Northern Bahr el-Gazal. Soccer balls and volleyballs are leaped upon when we unpack them and disappear really fast. Are they put away for the big occasions of soccer tournaments? Do they just burst fast because of the thorn bushes? (The more we know about South Sudan the more we know we don't know. Every question seems to have as many answers as the number of people you ask - a bit like asking Italians for a pizza recipe!) I'll take more soccer balls next time. More games, more shoes, more clothes. In fact I'll probably pay more to take another bag.
It was truly disappointing to discover that two boxes of malaria medicine had 'disappeared' somewhere between Marial Bai and Akuak Rak. Hard to imagine how $1,500 worth of medicines could just disappear in that place. It seems likely that a bunch of people must know something about it. Transportation of, or hiding, large boxes, couldn't be done easily. We are praying that God will use that medicine for good.
One afternoon as we sat drinking tea we noticed a frenzy of activity as a group of small boys scrambled for what looked like a large envelope on the ground. Another older boy tossed another 'envelope' out and the original group broke up and tore off towards the second missile. After the dust settled we realized that the older chap had gone into the clinic storage and found some surgical gloves (much thicker than the ordinary gloves used daily in the clinic). The tossed envelopes were the sealed sterile packages of pairs of gloves. The younger boys blow these up and then use old clothing wrapped around the inflated glove to make a decent ball. The original horror of seeing surgical gloves being taken for mere balls was displaced by admiration and the realization that surgery of any kind was highly unlikely.
Each shipment of medicine's costs are more than doubled by the cost of transport to the remote corner of Northern Bahr el-Gazal. Soccer balls and volleyballs are leaped upon when we unpack them and disappear really fast. Are they put away for the big occasions of soccer tournaments? Do they just burst fast because of the thorn bushes? (The more we know about South Sudan the more we know we don't know. Every question seems to have as many answers as the number of people you ask - a bit like asking Italians for a pizza recipe!) I'll take more soccer balls next time. More games, more shoes, more clothes. In fact I'll probably pay more to take another bag.
It was truly disappointing to discover that two boxes of malaria medicine had 'disappeared' somewhere between Marial Bai and Akuak Rak. Hard to imagine how $1,500 worth of medicines could just disappear in that place. It seems likely that a bunch of people must know something about it. Transportation of, or hiding, large boxes, couldn't be done easily. We are praying that God will use that medicine for good.
This is where I am going in june
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