There and Back Again...Again

So I got back from Kampala on a Friday and on Monday was already on my way back with David. I was expecting to go back on Tuesday to facilitate the purchasing and transport of the PVC casing but ended up catching a ride with David a day earlier in his landruiser wagon instead of riding in the slow and hot lorry. Just to give you an idea of how bad the roads are, two people in the truck threw up just during the stretch from Sudan to Gulu (only halfway).

We arrived in Kampala safely and I got started on my work. Again I was delayed a couple of days because the URA (Uganda Revenue Authority) is slow and disorganized and took awhile to get my export documents processed.

During the week I was there, I made friends with some travelers and got to go out to dinner with them a few times. I thought it was pretty cool that our table consisted of two Australians, an Italian, a Swiss, and me an American. Quite an international table. The Italian guy helped me brush up on some Italian for my upcoming trip.

I got back to Sudan on Sunday with the casing. We now have everything we need to drill and will start in January. I was hoping to drill one well before I left but I'm leaving on either Thursday or Sunday for Kampala again and didn't want to rush in case something went wrong. I'm also excited about meeting a friend in Kampala that I met during mission training in Colorado. From Kampala, I'm leaving for Italy for Christmas with my brother Justin. We're going to fly into Rome, stay there for Christmas, and then drive up North for a few days. I'm pretty ready to get a break away from Africa but even more ready to spend some time with my brother.

Prayer Requests:

1. That I can get everything ready for while I'm gone.
2. Safe travel for my brother and myself.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. I'm looking forward to telling you about my trip when I get back!

There and Back Again

When I last wrote I was in Kampala. Since then, I've actually gone back to Sudan and then came back to Kampala Yesterday. Way too much traveling! The last trip to Kampala went well except that I was delayed and had to stay a little longer than expected and I got malaria again. Actually, the delay and the malaria worked together perfectly (one could say divinely) so that I was sick during a time when there wasn't much I could do anyways. After recovering from malaria, I left back for Sudan last Thursday along with our new big lorry a.k.a Big Momma and stayed the night in Ajumani which is just across the Nile from Sudan.

Just a day after getting back a big lorry came carrying our hand pumps. All we need to start drilling is the PVC casing and we're set!

And that brings us to the present. I'm back in Kampala to facilitate the purchase and export of 450 pieces of 5" PVC casing and screen. I've determined that we are able to use the big e3 lorry to export the casing instead of paying $2500 for somebody to do it for us. The only problem is that since the lorry is an open truck and typically exporting is limited to closed (seal-able trucks), the decision on whether or not they will allow us to export is up to the individual URA officer's (Uganda Revenue Authority) mood. This is why today I plan on calling a big URA officer I met last time I was here and taking him out to lunch and "befriending" him. Hopefully this will smooth out the process.

On other good news, the e3 container is finally coming sometime this week along with a bunch of tools and personal items. Yay!

If everything goes right, by the end of this week I should have everything I need to start drilling.

Pray that everything goes smoothly so I can get back to Sudan and put a couple of holes in the ground before Christmas.

I also uploaded some more pictures. I uploaded a few to the old album but also had to start another album because the old one was full. The links are below.

Old Album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012
860&l=64998&id=159100018

New Album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2013
625&l=6f4d7&id=159100018