Morning hours

 

The soft morning light filter through the foliage into the bedroom and wakes me up together with a number of sounds characteristic for the Loki-morning, countless bird calls, roosters crowing, a donkey’s anxiety-ridden scream, the sound of goats making their way through the fence reaching for a few single leaves and then the school children’s singing, the voice of a pastor’s  monotonous prayer from

one of the small churches in the neighborhood and a men’s choir who practice singing in three parts (sometimes they practice at 2 a.m.!) and so on. A cup of coffee, a time of devotion … and then the sound of the siren which announces the opening of the airport. It is now 6.30 a.m. Shortly airplanes begin to take off to Sudan from the airstrip, which is parallel to our house about 200 m away. KeA took off on his bike already at half past five. Here one wants to take advantage of the cool morning hours. 

  Home sweet home!

We have now been in Loki for more than a month. The tasks are plenty and time seems to fly. We experience great joy, inspiration and deep satisfaction being here. Our house is more and more turning into a home even though there are quite a few deficiencies. However, one get used to mottled walls, cracked mortar floors, termite-eaten door- and window frames, a toilet which doesn’t flush properly and all kinds of insects raging here and there … like yesterday in the newly bought flour!

KCCC = KeA Coordinates, Communicates and Controls

KeA has spent a lot of time going through, facilitate and improve different procedures at the MAF office. Earlier the Loki base was managed by pilots, who at the same time were active in the flying program. Consequently there was not enough time for them to follow up the work as thorough as they had wanted. KeA’s effort, we hope, will streamline and rationalize the work to make the mission and relief flying program as efficient as possible. MAF’s flying program into the Southern Sudan requires a lot of coordination and communication.

A severely dehydrated 80-year old doctor in Sudan needed urgent transport to Nairobi. A stream of calls, between Loki, Nairobi, Palouge far up the Nile, where our pilot was at the moment and Romme where the old man was laying waiting for transport, took place. Thanks to a well develloped mobile network and communication via the fantastic satellites orbiting above us, the medivac could be coordinated and the sick reach Nairobi and special treatment in time.

Miscellaneous  woman’s tasks

 So, what do I do? someone maybe wondering. It is always hard to tell about women’s tasks and make them sound interesting and important-looking. My morning might be spent as follows: I feed the cat,  give instructions to my gardener, teach Christine (my house girl) to make different kinds of bread and cookies, make a nice and nutritious lunch for KeA when he

comes home at 2 p.m., write various reports, answer various e-mails, investigate and follow up on various projects,  mend holes in mosquito nets, take care of litter and trash (I’m trying to introduce some environmental awareness on the compound!), look after the Pilot’s house (where some pilots who fly to Sudan sometimes spend the night) etc. I also use to visit the school under the tree and coach the teacher. The afternoon starts with siesta 2.30-3.30 and then I sometimes go with KeA to the plot (where we are building the school). Twice a week I visit the Turkana women together with Francis (the evangelist) 4.30-6-30. These women’s meetings are the highlights of the week … to be able to share the Word of God, sing, talk and try to understand the Turkana women’s situation and ways of thinking.  Sometimes I also have the privilege to take look after visitors.

A visit by angels!

If you have lived abroad you know how exciting it is to share your life with visitors from home. The 26^th October at 4 p.m. the family Lindback from Sweden arrived in Loki: Maria, Stefan, Johanna 8, Emelie 21 and Eric 23. They live in Orebro (our town) and especially Johanna and Maria have been very

involved in raising money for the school project.  It was fantastic to show them the school under the tree, the plot and construction site, the Turkana village and one of the few clinics in town (Stefan is a doctor and Maria a nurse) and the girl’s school. Johanna had to get used to being stared at and the whole family got very popular wherever they went. We also felt that they shared the burden we have for the people here and we were very grateful that they used their time and money to come and visit.

From dream to reality

The school construction is under way! To me it is a miracle. Little more than one and a half year ago we were standing in the dry shrubby land raising our hands to the sky praying a simple prayer: “Lord, we carry this dream about a school to you!” Imaging! Now the shovels are working the ground. It is all about God’s grace and a high level of team work, which involves: the people in the Turkana village, the Turkana school committee with Francis as the driving force, children, parents and personnel at Hannaskolan in Sweden, relatives and friends, friends’ friends and anonymous donors, Ankarstiftelsen (the Anchor Foundation), which let us use their charity-account, churches, which are supporting us making it possible for us to be here etc.

Seven brave men are at the moment working at the construction site, digging, filling and leveling the ground, preparing it for putting slabs. KeA has bought five drums, filled them with water (we pay $5 for 1000l) and transported them to the plot. He also designed a steel cradle to hold the drums. It was made by a local “fundi” (craftsman). The ground has to be thoroughly watered for the ground to be firm. Joseph, KeA’s right hand, seems to understand what it is all about and has been appointed deputy manager. We have had long discussions when it comes to payment. The agreement has been that we are not paying any salaries for the work. However we had agreed to give the workers, who are working full days, a meal. First we thought we would cook meals for the workers but we soon understood it wouldn’t work. The argument, that they couldn’t allow themselves to eat knowing that their children and wife were starving at home, seemed fair. So I went shopping: sacs of maize, beans, maize flour, rice, oil and salt. And then of course they also needed soap to wash themselves and washing powder to wash their dirty clothes. We were able to agree on the size of a daily ransom. Usually men here get money when they work hard, so the fact that they have accepted our deal is quite amazing. The idea of working for the benefit of the community’s children is completely new. The women, who previously had worked hard in cleaning the plot from cactuses and shrub, gathering stones, rocks and pebbles, planting trees and watering them, naturally thought they also should be given their share of the cake. Who would deny them!  Consequently, they also came to get their ransom.  Some of them even got a chicken, which I and Francis handed out on last Saturday morning.

The same day we also planted 16 Jatropha plants along the border of the plot. It is just a try and it will be interesting to see if they can grow here.

Security is a major thing in this area. According to Francis there is an AK45 in every fifth hut. No material can be left at the plot. Everything has to be taken back to Francis house and locked into a store room. It is quite a struggle to bring water drums, wheelbarrows, shovels, cement, molds etc. back and forth every day. Don’t forget that it is all done in the burning sun! Therefore it was a great relief and joy when we today got the news that we can borrow one of the containers that is stored on the Across compound, where we live. We will just have to find a way to get it to the plot and then use it as a store room.

And what about the car …?

It has finally been trucked down to Nairobi and hopefully they will start working on it in the beginning of next week. Patience!

Cooling down in Nairobi!

Tomorrow we will fly down to Nairobi for a fellowship day with MAF. It will be nice to cool down a bit, meet our MAF friends, maybe Nancy and Joseph and buy a baby walker to Christine’s little girl, Leslie, who cannot sit, stand or walk. She is 1 ½ years old. The walker has been sponsored by some friends in Sweden.

Lots of greetings from us both through Birgitta