Thoughts.....

Dear Friends,
Greetings from cool, green Addis Ababa! My time is drawing nearer to return to Malakal, South Sudan. I will be in Malakal until early June when I will leave for Mission Interpretation in the states and I hope to be back to Malakal in early September to begin another term with the Nile Theological College. I hope to be teaching Theology III, Christology, to the current seniors.

Today seems like a day of random, unconnected thoughts. It may be my own unique way of processing all that has happened here in Addis in the past week and a few days. I remember upon boarding the Ethiopian Airlines plane in Malakal on the first leg of the journey to Addis at the end of February the feeling I had that "the other world is seeping in."

Addis Ababa is a city whereas Malakal is a town, at least from my perspective. Malakal does not have even one electric traffic light, and come to think of it I'm not sure there is even one stop sign. There are a couple of hotels, a few small eateries and some local banks along with the Kenya Commercial Bank which deals internationally. I somehow don't see Malakal being a popular tourist destination or a vacation destination. The friend and fellow Mission Co-Worker with whom I am staying here in Addis Ababa frequently receives packages in the mail or has people visit her from the United States and they often bring with them food goodies, books, or other things for her that we cannot find in Africa. Being in Malakal I don't have visitors or mail service so I can't receive gifts in this way as I could in Khartoum for instance.

I am grateful for church or church headquarters delegations as these have allowed me to receive things as my solar system generator and Katadyn water filter. Later this month I will be receiving a large solar lamp and two smaller ones through a delegation that will come to Malakal. This is very good because the person who is currently staying in my new house in Malakal has told me that the power in the BAM area (where the house and where the college are) has been off for three days now. This means no lights and no power to recharge computers. No refrigeration and no kettle for hot water. I've got to get help shortly after arrival "home" to get the solar system on the roof of the house so that I can use the computer during the day. I am going to be practicing an integrated cooking system in this new home; charcoal, solar and electric. I suspect I am going to get a lot of experience with heating water on charcoal for my instant coffee.....my VIA (Starbucks) coffee envelopes that I got from Costco have run out and I am not down to using instant Gold coffee that is available in Malakal. I have come to appreciate the full cream powdered milk in Africa and SUGAR. They make the coffee drinkable.

This afternoon I sent an expanded and extremely preliminary outline for my DTH Dissertation Proposal to my two promotors at the University of South Africa (UNISA). It feels very good to see and experience some movement forward in that work. Knowing that I am not going to have 24 hour access to internet or electricity upon my return to Malakal I wanted to devise a way in which I could at least read during the daylight (and hopefully at night as well once I have the solar lamps in my possession) and have a systematic way to store the information that I learn in reading. This way I can read by category or at least make notes by category. It is always nice to feel that I have some control over some aspect of my own life.

I am also realizing that I must continue to work on my Mission Interpretation assignments for this summer. Please keep me in prayer as I do the work of making plans for going from city to city, state to state. This is going to be challenging without having reliable internet to work with.

For prayer requests:
1. That power would become more consistent for the entire country of South Sudan.
2. That peace would become more powerful than not peace.
3. That my work on my dissertation proposal, mission interpretation for this summer, and plans for teaching the next semester would flow smoothly.
4. That the work on do on 3. would bear fruit.
Blessings,
Debbie