Arrival in Sudan

This is now my first newsletter from the Sudan. I arrived safely here in Goli last Thursday after two days of travelling and actually met a few more staff from Open Doors on the plane who also worked in Goli. I was welcomed more than warmly here by my friends Heidi and Heinz, who I met last year and kept in touch with.

During the course of the week I got to know the other members of staff who are all very nice. We are a good mix of nationalities I think: About 10 Sudanese, 2 Kenyans, 9 South Africans, 2 Germans, 2 British, 3 Americans and one German-speaking couple (Heidi and Heinz; he is from Austria and she is from Switzerland – I got in trouble for calling them German before). We are all responsible for different things that are run on the base: a clinic (for the community and staff), the English department, the women’s department (for pastor’s wives – they are taught English, bits of theology, Aids awareness, hygiene etc.), the theological seminary, and a teacher training course. The teacher training course is run by FCE (Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education), cross meaning the cross of Christ in this respect. They train teachers how to teach e.g. maths, English and geography in a Christ-centred way and how to include the Gospel in lessons (I expanded on this because I think their organisation is doing a fantastic job!).

For the first 3 days I shadowed all the teachers, which gave me a good idea of what Goli is like and of different teaching styles. I started teaching myself on Thursday with the advanced women’s class and an all male class of Sunday school teachers, who still have to improve their English. Right now, I am learning how to work in 40°C heat (apparently hotter times are still to come at the end of February) and not to be bothered about sweat running down my legs…

Just after I came last week the leadership changed, i.e.
George William is now in South Africa for one year and Oliver, a Sudanese, has taken over the post of the principal. This was quite an ad-hoc decision, which was made in December, and – as usual in such a situation – it always brings insecurity with it. Please pray for Oliver that he will find his ground quickly, that the staff gets used to the new leader soon and that any difficulties that might arise are dealt with in a Christ-like manner.

Unfortunately, I found out that my parcels still haven’t arrived. They have been kept in Kampalla now for almost a month and all my teaching material is in there plus a lot of the stuff that we specifically bought for Sudan. Officially, they should be sent up on an Eagle Air plane next week… Please pray that they will arrive soon and that nothing has gone “missing”.

Thank you for all your support and for your encouragement over the last few weeks, specially leading up to my arrival in Sudan. Officially, we have had wireless internet on the base ever since last Friday (I feel like I came at the right time :-), so I would be more than happy to hear your news (unofficially, it sometimes works, and sometimes doesn’t, but better that than nothing at all… ).