Khartoum Sudan

Dear Friends,
It has been a few days since I have shared with you. As you might imagine, it has been a hectic time of flying out of Nairobi on Sunday, getting to my new apartment on Sunday night and then a week of adjustment to my new home.

The kindness of the people at the Nile Theological College, my new colleagues in ministry, has been almost overwhelming. I had failed to tell the college of my eight boxes, two suitcases, carry-on and personal item. The young man who picked me up at the airport had to wait two and a half hours as I argued with passport control (I didn't know that I would have to register upon entering the city, after all I already had a visa), had two porters assist me in getting all of the baggage onto carts and move them for me, faced customs and then finally rolled out the door of the airport to find him. As to customs I will simply say that God blessed me by sending someone who sped me through.

Patris, the young man who fetched me from the airport, had a car, not a van. I was simply in awe of the two porters who managed to get every single piece of luggage into that car. I had to have a van in Nairobi to get me to the airport on that end. These two men were clearly talented.

Patris welcomed me to Khartoum, to Sudan. Upon arrival at my apartment he welcomed me to my new home. He had provided water, a big bottle of Pepsi, cheese, yogurt, bread, instant coffee, sugar, tea, cheese. I almost started crying. Such contrasts in life, let those who have ears to hear, hear.

I now have a Sudanese SIM card in my Kenyan cell phone. It doesn't do international texting as I could do in Nairobi, that is a pity, but otherwise it works well. This was after we found out that I could receive calls but not make them because the company had failed to unlock the SIM card.

I am at last connected to the Sudanese wireless internet system. I am amazed that both Kenya and Sudan have this system, but we in the states do not.

A man has been here at the apartment making repairs for two days. He is pretty amazing -- he does everything from repairing loose tiles in the floor to replacing shower heads and preparing pipes for washing machine installation. He got water to the kitchen and repaired the leaky faucets in the bathroom. I can only assume that his "Honey Do" list at home gets finished with such dispatch.

The Principal of the college came to visit me yesterday with another colleague. They thought I might be lonely, more or less trapped as I am in the apartment for now. How many places in the world would the Principal of the college come to visit a teacher in her home? He asked Patris to arrange for someone who speaks both Arabic and English to accompany me in learning how to shop at the souk (marketplace) and negotiate town by walking, taxi, or having a car come to fetch me from the college. I am being integrated into the life of the community here and my heart is overjoyed with the attention to detail.

Tomorrow hopefully my Apple computer will be wired as well as my small Acer and I hope to be the proud new owner of an updated washing machine. There is one here in the complex we discovered yesterday but it the old fashioned sort where the clothes must be moved from washing to spinning. The Sudanese man who is doing the repair work informed Patris that I need a more modern machine that automatically does all of this -- I thought that was rather cute!

In closing I will share with you that an Indian couple in the Nairobi airport tried to get me to move to India so that they could marry me off. Use your imaginations on this one -- I kept a sense of humor about it as best I could. They were clearly well intentioned and horrified that I was without a husband.

Blessings,
Debbie