The Big Blue Bird and Other Things

Yesterday afternoon – Sunday – continued blistering hot. Jermaine says that he thinks Sundays are consistently the hottest day of the week, but I’m not so sure. Today seems awfully hot, too. 120 degrees is apparently not uncommon here. Last night, several hours after sunset, one of my water bottles (which had been in the shade, anyway) was still almost hot enough to use for coffee.

For a couple of dollars, we ate a lunch of red-beans-and-rice at the nearby hospital run by Mustardseed International. Their beans-and-rice is better than we seem to make here. I also used the hospital Internet connection.

The only significant punctuation of the afternoon came late, when I had an opportunity to get a picture of that beautiful large blue bird I mentioned earlier. If any of you readers can identify it for me, I will appreciate it. I don’t have much access here to research materials.

A couple of hours before dark, we picked up the rest of the Fusion team and headed for a school not far outside Akot to show the Jesus video. The location was still being used as a polling place for the national elections, but there was plenty of space under the trees, so we went on with setting up.

I remember, as a child, seeing missionaries take 8mm movie projectors and show silent films “out in the bush” in Nigeria. The technology has changed – now one uses a laptop with a DVD player, a digital projector and some small speakers – and you still have to plug into a portable generator, but even those are smaller and quieter now.

It is amazing how well a video will show up on a white sheet strung between two trees! The video had been translated into Dinka, and we probably attracted a crowd of around 100-150. The movie was very “white” in many ways, but it still seemed that the Dinka were understanding it.


It was about 10:30pm by the time we got back to our encampment. It didn’t take me long to get to sleep.


Today has been a slow day. We had been hoping that the army commander we met the other day would come visit us, but since no specific time was set [and specific times have little relevance here], we have just been waiting and hoping.


I did laundry early, before it got too hot. I hung up several items, then washed three more. By the time I went to hang up the second batch, the first batch was almost dry already! I am using almost totally lightweight synthetic fabrics, except for my standard Army wool socks. Even the socks were almost dry!


The young ladies (Jessie and Kaley) from Fusion came by earlier and cooked up a bunch of cinnamon rolls in a clever oven-made-from-the-end-of-an-oil-drum, heated by charcoal.


A little while ago (about 3:00pm our time), I was writing up my letters and this blog entry in preparation for sending it out later this evening. As I sat under the Training Center shelter, out of the sun but with a good breeze, I heard two men calling from the gate, seeking admittance. I didn’t recognize them, so I was in no hurry to see what they wanted.


As I neared the gate, however, I recognized the army commander we were looking for, with a younger man. I welcomed them back under the shelter and went to get Jermaine and Andrew, who had seen what was happening and were already preparing some drinks and some of those cinnamon rolls.


The five of us sat together and tried to converse for some time. (The drinks and cinnamon rolls needed no translation.) The commander speaks no English, and he is “not from around here,” so our local Dinka interpreters are of little assistance. The young man who had come with the commander to interpret turned out to know almost no helpful English! We struggled with communication, and we think we understood some key points, but we agreed later that it had been the worst-translated conversation in which any of us had participated.