Chills on the Nile

Top: The new SP South Sudan interns (left to right) Austin, Vanessa, and Walter.
Bottom: Standing by the Nile after church on Sunday!!

I have been in South Sudan for over a week now. I am still learning how everything works around here. I have been working and I am really enjoying using what I have studied in school to edit stories and photos, and I am learning a lot of new things already about Samaritan's Purse, South Sudan, graphic design and so much more.

Sometimes, throughout the day, I forget I am in Africa, though. Last week, I was in an office with air conditioning, streaming music from Pandora when I sat there and asked myself, where am I? I am so spoiled being at this base with air conditioning in almost every room. I talked with an English woman today about culture shock. She mentioned that she didn’t feel much at all because we interact with so many expats (expatriate or non-South Sudanese). Yes, there are South Sudanese working at the base, and yes they speak Arabic, we even worship in Arabic, but they still speak English and I can communicate with them easily. Yes, the food is different and we sometimes have meat pies or rice and beans for breakfast, but it isn’t that odd because everything is delicious. I am still able to get coffee most days, though most of the time it is just instant. So the culture shock I was expecting has not really hit me. But a bonus, I was happily surprised to find that they have what has become my favorite tea and that I shamefully admit to ordering from Kenya for the last two years.

However, I will willingly admit that it is very hot here. Any time I step outside I begin sweating, especially if we drink hot tea or coffee at breakfast in the rakuba. The rakuba is an outdoor covered area where we have morning devotions, and eat breakfast and lunch on bright blue plastic tables and chairs. Purple and pink bushy flowers surround the area, and in the morning the sun shines gold on all of us.

During my first week, I played ultimate Frisbee on another base with people from other NGO’s (non-government organizations). I met UN workers, marines, someone from the army, and those from many other organizations. It was so much fun getting to know new people and bonding through playing a sport together.

Yesterday afternoon, I peppered (a volleyball term for pass-set-spike) with a Japanese guy from my base in a dirt lot where Samaritan’s Purse parks their vehicles. We had to be careful not to turn our ankles on random rocks and uneven ground, while we were slipping and sliding in the dirt with every quick movement. During volleyball, I realized I was playing in sub-Saharan Africa… When I reread that sentence I am just in awe. I still can’t believe I am here. On Monday, I went for a run on the UN base and watched the sun set in an African sky. The wind blew and I felt the spirit of this land come into me. There is so much wonder in everything when you pause to take it in.

On Sunday, I went to church and worshiped next to the Nile River. Much of scripture deals with the lower Nile near Egypt, but there is still so much history here, flowing in this water. It might look like any other river, it might be dirty, but it felt so different looking out over it this afternoon.

I actually saw the Nile by moonlight on the second night I was here. I got chills as the two other interns and I stood on its banks, in awe of God again. Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Sadly, sometimes I read the stories of the Bible as a bunch of disconnected fiction histories. But, standing there under the trees, in the still darkness, a peace wrapped around me. I stepped into that history. The Word of God is true; I believe in my heart that the stories actually happened. I stood with my brothers in Christ on the bank of that river. The river that Moses was found on as a baby and that later ran red during the Exodus. I don’t know how far up the river ran red, but that same water that flows into the lower Nile comes from this area that I stood. The experience was surreal. Of the tiny bit of South Sudan I’ve seen, I can already recognize that there is beauty in this country, despite all the pain its people have endured.