March 14, 2012

Dear Friends,
Greetings from Malakal. We experienced a severe rain/wind/thunder and lightening storm here last night. I have never been alone in a house before during this kind of an event. I am grateful that God placed peace in my heart that I was not truly alone, Jesus through the Holy Spirit kept me company as the fury of nature’s wrath was unleashed all around my new little home and one side of the veranda flooded.

I had two visits this morning from three different people checking on me to make sure I was okay. That was awfully nice! Last night was a good preview of things to come and helped me to learn about the work that needs to be done on the house in order to be ship shape and battened down for the rainy/mud season that is soon to come.

In the two rooms of the house there are two windows in each. The bottom 2/3 of the window is covered with a double metal shutter. The top 1/3 however has no covering but mosquito netting and bars. The rain slashed in through those openings and I had to rescue several items in the library/storage room and get trunks buckled shut. I am really hoping that when I open the trunks of books that are located near the one of the windows that I will not find water logged pages. I now know that I will have to reorganize the room, placing boxes (plastic trunks) as far away from the windows as possible. I also have to get some kind of a covering for the top 1/3 of the windows. The bedroom did not fare as badly but it is mostly bare except for a mattress on the floor and a mosquito net tent placed upon the mattress. I hope and pray that a bed frame and clothing rack will be soon to come.

ln the larger community outside of my little life the storm was very destructive. There was a loss of life and at least one person was injured. Houses were destroyed and I have heard that many fences were blown down. There is no fury like a woman scorned? I beg to differ -- perhaps not worse but equal if the fury of the first storm of the season as it vents its power upon human beings and our perishable lives and structures.

I did realize last night that I have placed myself in a position where I am no longer on a compound shared with other people who I could shelter with if necessary. That was part of the sense of isolation last night. I am in a Nuer neighborhood and it is going to take time to get to the know the folks here. It isn’t the same as being in an ex-pat, foreigner neighborhood where we have history and heritage that gives us the commonality for relating to one another and quite often the English language in which to communicate, even if that language is a second language for many or some.

Life is different here. How to explain? It is slowly, bit by bit. Instead of looking at just today’s schedule and compartmentalizing I have to look at the week. What is to be accomplished in a week or a month? Things go along and somehow tasks get accomplished, it rarely works in a linear fashion and this takes some getting used to. I believe that the past ten year or so in my life have been preparation for this way of living in life. I have learned to be flexible, very, very flexible. In a country which is not developed there simply cannot be the expectations of a developed country in terms of life as clock work. It is more like circle work. It gets done when it gets down. Eventually.

Now, I will remind myself of that as I try to get help with having my solar generator reinstalled on the roof of the new house and the plastic on the windows -- both before rainy season which is approaching rapidly. Not to mention waiting for help from a computer expert for reinstalling the internet software on my Apple computer after a non Apple computer used it for over two weeks. I of course want technology instantly available as I know it can be. I’m not in Kansas anymore.....
Blessings,
Debbie