Friday 28th October

We are not sure if it is the lack of electricity in the morning and the fact there is no light to read or do much before 6:30am, but we all seem to be sleeping well.  As I write this, it is nearly 10am and we were expecting a mini bus at 9am to collect Greg and Ruth to go to the youth workshop today.  Abraham is not answering his phone, so we are not sure what the plan is, but this is a good example of the difference between our planning and expectations and the South Sudanese way.

The bus came to collect us at 10am and we met with about 15 of the youth leaders.  Warwick stayed home to work on his report to summarise the discussions and lecture he was involved in at the University.  Greg, Ruth and I met the youth leaders at the White Nile Hotel.  We began with sharing a bit of our stories and some photos.  The young people were quite amused by the fact that my younger sister had married before me … this does not happen in South Sudan (the younger sisters must wait for their older sisters to be married before they may marry).  We then invited the young people to share something about themselves.  This proved to be very important ... and many stories were told from when they were born mostly before the war began in 1983, and disbursed when war came.  They ended up in Displaced persons camps in other countries where some of them lived for up to 10 years and did their schooling there.  Then when some peace came, they began to return to their home towns ... such as Bor to help rebuild the country.  All of them became Christians sometime along the way.  A couple of the young men were evangelists and often walk from door to door sharing Jesus with their neighbours.   

We stopped for lunch at 1pm and Ruth and I got our first rides on the Bota Bota … it was a great way to travel.  Though perhaps more dangerous than it feels with people walking all over the roads and vehicles and potholes etc.  It would be very easy to get into trouble I expect.  Nyiel has had a couple of bad accidents and her daughter calls them death bikes J  The Lord looked after us all today.  Apparently there was quite a bit of commotion among the crowds as Ruth went past straddling the bike in her skirt with blond hair flowing. The afternoon finished with us trying to answer some of the questions the young people had about various topics … mostly about our church and leadership.  It was a great day getting to know some more of these inspirational young people.