Once again another trip is done and dusted – everyone is home and recovering from the long journeys each day and cultural challenges but enormously encouraged by the continual comments and gratitude of those CRESS is helping. This year was quite a milestone with it being exactly 10 years since I first visited South Sudan...
On Friday, after many goodbyes to the CRESS team in the office, we flew back from Arua to Kajjinski, the first leg of a long journey home for most of us. It was a good flight with no detours: the MAF flights often operate as a taxi service, hopping from airstrip to airstrip picking up...
Visiting a refugee camp is something that I have never done. Today’s agenda was to visit two of the huge camps near here that house South Sudanese refugees, Imvepi and Bidi Bidi. Bidi Bidi alone has nearly half a million refugees. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I suppose I thought there would be row...
Today was a day full of surprises. We set off from the White Castle hotel on time, heading for the Arua teacher training college to see if Caroline could meet with the wonderful principal Gladys to see if they could offer teacher training to some of the CRESS sponsored students. While we had a quick...
Tuesday started with a bang – literally! We awoke to the most mammoth tropical storm. The garden outside our room had turned to a river, heavy heavy rain sheeted down, pelting onto the ground, and loud rumbles of thunder were pierced through with scarily close bolts of lightning. One hit the ground just 20 yards...
Today we visited the – not the clinic we visited 18 months ago but the brand spanking new clinic just down the road. And it’s simply amazing. Spotlessly clean, two small wards, beds with mosquito nets, a maternity room with a bed and a delivery bed, a lab, a dispensing room, offices and a reception....
Today was mandazi day. For the uninitiated (which I was until this morning), mandazi are probably best described as doughnuts without the jam or sadly the sugar. They look like deeply, deeply fried angular blobs of bread but taste delicious. These plus hard boiled eggs – enhanced by the surprise addition of Pippa’s marmite –...
Today was the CRESS family day: but not just a family day, but the 10th anniversary of CRESS. And a great day it was! After an early breakfast of hard boiled eggs and lovely soft Ugandan rolls, the team set off to decorate St Paul’s church where the celebrations were to be held. An hour...
Although I’ve now flown on MAF a good number of times, it’s still a thrill to see the little planes on the airstrip at Kajinski. Brought up on tales of missionary adventures in Africa I early on knew about MAF and never dreamt that one day I would be sitting in an 12 seater flying...
So, the first proper day! We all slept well, catching up on the effects of overnight flights. After we had retired to bed, Bishop Joseph arrived, having spent a couple days visiting his children who are at school in Entebbe. Many of the sponsored children live away from home in order to access school and...
