7.26.2007
"I'm not a genius, but maybe you'll remember this, I never said I ever want to be a man."
- White Stripes lyric that immediately comes to mind when my coworker told me I was becoming a man out here.
Chronological Highlights of my last 3 days:
- Get stuck in the mud. My comrade Ryan was behind in another SP truck and pulled me out after 5 minutes.
- Get stuck in a sandy river. 4.5 hours of work, drank lots of river water to fight of dehydration, and we were out.
- Became acutely aware of lack of food all day apart from a piece of bread for breakfast and a handful of peanuts.
- Person guiding me to destination took me down a foot path and the ground crumbled beneath the truck. I actually thought we were stuck forever. See picture above. 20 guys from the village came out and we were out in under an hour actually.
- Now dark, attempt to cross a sandy river. I succeeded but when I got to the path on the other side I couldn’t get up the hill. When I reversed got stuck. Spent the next six hours digging out of sand. Got some reinforcements from nearby village. Arrived at someone’s house to sleep at 1am. End day 1.
- Driving back from village we slept at, planned a short day of dropping off my translator and then going home and sleeping. Instead got stuck in a small river. 1 hour or so of work and we were out.
- Dropped off translator and realize I have a flat. Replaced flat with spare and began journey home.
- Driving fast to avoid getting stuck, I slid in the mud and I sheared the right side mirror off of the car. Also busted the snorkel in half, so I will no longer survive if I drive the truck totally under water (I anticipate this happening any day now.)
- Being smart I drove off the road to avoid big mud holes. Unfortunately the side of the road was sludge. 2 hours of futile work. Realized my high-lift jack was no longer functioning. Realized another tire was now leaking air.
- Hiked to Heiban, hour and a half away, barefoot in the dark through mud, rivers and thorns. Water was thigh high on multiple occasions. I was wearing jeans for some reason.
Slept at our Bible School in Heiban, where I found one of our tractors. End day 2. - Take tractor out to truck and haul it out of mud.
- Get stuck 5 minutes down the road, but tractor was still just ahead and pulled me out no problem.
- Left tractor and entered home stretch back to base. Got stuck. Dug out in 10 minutes.
Get stuck again. Worked for over an hour, truck full of other NGO workers shows up and they help push me out. - Arrive back at base. Shower and realize the pain in my feet is not from cuts, but from splinters. Spend 30 minutes digging them out.
The mud is slowly killing my will to live. In case you are counting that is 10 times stuck in 2.5 days.
Other than that, things are great. We got a big shipment of food in, so now we have cereal and potato chips and ramen noodles. Probably the most exciting thing in my life right now. Oh and I get two weeks off starting in one week. I don’t know what I’m doing for sure yet, but I am very ready for a break.
7.16.2007
"Anybody who wants to get their way says that Jesus supports their view. But that isn't Jesus' fault."
- Donald Miller in Blue Like Jazz
Hey people, think I'm past due for another update. Here are a few recent highlights.
1. Got stuck in the mud this morning. I don't really mind that anymore. What I do mind is when I have people ranging from 12 year olds to 65 year old women pointing and telling me what I'm doing wrong as I attempt to get out. None of them have ever been in this sort of situation before, much less driven a car. I had about six people tell me I needed to move the jack I was using to the other side of the car, even though I was obviously doing everything I could to move it and it was stuck. (If the winches are broken on the front of the car [and they always are when I get stuck] then the next way to get out of the mud is to use our high-lift jacks to get the wheels off the ground and then we stick a bunch of rocks under them.)
2. Spent yesterday (Sunday) up on the mountain right behind our compound. Only like a 15 minute hike up, but it's really nice view and quiet and I spent like six hours there reading and writing. It was my favorite day in a while.
3. The sister of a guy who works for us hit herself in the foot with an axe. So I drove her to the hospital, only like 25 minutes away, but it is up the worst road in the area. The ride wasn't comfortable for me, but I think it was worse for her judging from the amount of blood she left on the floor. Watched the doctor stitch her up with no anesthetic cause he said he had to get the bleeding stopped right away.
Apart from that I want to talk about my guy Hamad. Hamad drives a truck for us in one of the areas we work. While I was up there I was sharing a tent with him and I figured out that he's my new role model. This guy is from a totally different world. He's 60 years old, uneducated, lived his life in a war torn land. Doesn't know much of anything outside of the Nuba Mountains. He was forced into being a government soldier during the war. They kicked him out of the army when they realized he was purposely shooting his gun over the heads of people during battles cause he didn't want to hurt anyone.
The man has as much Godly character as anyone I've ever known. He's works harder than anyone else around. He's humble. He gave up his bed for about five days to someone more than 40 years younger. He's generous. Where most of the other guys want to ask us for things (sodas, food, clothes, etc..) Hamad is the one guy who always wants to share what he has with us. He has integrity. When most people are sick they feel the need to moan and put on a show so we let them off work. When Hamad is sick he tells us and then continues to smile and have a good attitude anyhow. He's content. He's not well-off by the world's standards, but he's happy and he doesn't complain and he praises God for what he has. And he has faith. When he talks about the war he talks about how God was faithful. When he talks about the current hardships in Nuba, he talks about how God is still faithful and will take care of their needs. When he prays he prays with passion.
Could Hamad give an intellectual defense of his faith? Probably not. Could he argue the finer points between Calvinism and Armenianism, or for that matter Catholocism or Protestantism? Definitly not. Is he a more worthy role model than anyone I've known who could do those things? Absolutely.
Hey people, think I'm past due for another update. Here are a few recent highlights.
1. Got stuck in the mud this morning. I don't really mind that anymore. What I do mind is when I have people ranging from 12 year olds to 65 year old women pointing and telling me what I'm doing wrong as I attempt to get out. None of them have ever been in this sort of situation before, much less driven a car. I had about six people tell me I needed to move the jack I was using to the other side of the car, even though I was obviously doing everything I could to move it and it was stuck. (If the winches are broken on the front of the car [and they always are when I get stuck] then the next way to get out of the mud is to use our high-lift jacks to get the wheels off the ground and then we stick a bunch of rocks under them.)
2. Spent yesterday (Sunday) up on the mountain right behind our compound. Only like a 15 minute hike up, but it's really nice view and quiet and I spent like six hours there reading and writing. It was my favorite day in a while.
3. The sister of a guy who works for us hit herself in the foot with an axe. So I drove her to the hospital, only like 25 minutes away, but it is up the worst road in the area. The ride wasn't comfortable for me, but I think it was worse for her judging from the amount of blood she left on the floor. Watched the doctor stitch her up with no anesthetic cause he said he had to get the bleeding stopped right away.
Apart from that I want to talk about my guy Hamad. Hamad drives a truck for us in one of the areas we work. While I was up there I was sharing a tent with him and I figured out that he's my new role model. This guy is from a totally different world. He's 60 years old, uneducated, lived his life in a war torn land. Doesn't know much of anything outside of the Nuba Mountains. He was forced into being a government soldier during the war. They kicked him out of the army when they realized he was purposely shooting his gun over the heads of people during battles cause he didn't want to hurt anyone.
The man has as much Godly character as anyone I've ever known. He's works harder than anyone else around. He's humble. He gave up his bed for about five days to someone more than 40 years younger. He's generous. Where most of the other guys want to ask us for things (sodas, food, clothes, etc..) Hamad is the one guy who always wants to share what he has with us. He has integrity. When most people are sick they feel the need to moan and put on a show so we let them off work. When Hamad is sick he tells us and then continues to smile and have a good attitude anyhow. He's content. He's not well-off by the world's standards, but he's happy and he doesn't complain and he praises God for what he has. And he has faith. When he talks about the war he talks about how God was faithful. When he talks about the current hardships in Nuba, he talks about how God is still faithful and will take care of their needs. When he prays he prays with passion.
Could Hamad give an intellectual defense of his faith? Probably not. Could he argue the finer points between Calvinism and Armenianism, or for that matter Catholocism or Protestantism? Definitly not. Is he a more worthy role model than anyone I've known who could do those things? Absolutely.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)