Getting Close

So the last time I wrote I was about to leave for R&R in Italy. A lot has happened since then. Before I left for Italy I got to meet up with my friend named Issac who worked in Burundi and who I attended MTI mission training with in Colorado last summer before I left for Sudan. Italy with my brother Justin was amazing. We had a great time and I definitely felt rejuvenated after I got back. It was so nice getting to see our family friends the Nespolis in Bergamo.

After getting back to Africa I spend a day in Kampala and got to meet up with the outgoing e3 team which was fun too.

Getting back to Sudan I was only there for a few days before I left to go to Juba to get a multiple entrance visa for Uganda. It's one of those strange African ineffiencies that I can't get a Ugandan multiple entrance visa in Uganda... This was my first time to Juba (the capital of S. Sudan), and I was amazed not only at the dirtiness of the city, but also at how expensive it is. Once we got near the city we had to drive literally through the city dump before making it into the city. All of the mainstream hotels in the area were at least $150/night for a dingy prefab trailer made into two separate bedrooms. My employee Asiki and I drove around for hours visiting at least six different hotels until Asiki contacted a friend who lives in Juba to help us. When we told his friend our budget was about 40 Sudanese Pounds (about $20) he just laughed at us. The friend told us he knew of one place for that price but, "it is not good." You have to understand that "not good" to a Sudanese man is probably not good to anyone in the world. In the end, he took us to the slums where we found a room without windows and a tin roof for 40 pounds each a night. Keep in mind the temperature in Juba is in the high 90's. The next day I got my visa so the trip ended successfully.

After getting back from Juba I spend one full day in Kajo Keji before driving to Kampala again with another employee of mine Aboi in our big Tata lorry. The Tata doesn't have A/C so we had to drive with the windows down and were covered in dirt by the end of the 14 hour trip. It took 14 hours because we were stopped at every police checkpoint where the cops come up with every excuse in the world to try to get a bribe from us. Some succeeded. I only spend a day in Kampala gettng the Tata serviced and buying some household furniture. One fun thing I did was bring my Yamaha dirt bike and ride it around Kampala. Let me tell you, riding a motorcycle around Kampala is a pretty big adrenaline rush! The next day we drove back to Sudan.

Since getting back from Kampala I've just been in a rush to get the compound done and the drilling started. I'm intervewing a retired driller tomorrow to have him supervise us for our first few boreholes just in case something goes wrong. If everything goes ok with the interview, I expect to drill this week. I'm getting very close to being able to move into my new house. It will be awesome to have my own space.

Last night I decided to host a movie night for the bible school students. I bought a case of sodas and connected my laptop to my Landcruiser's speakers and had the laptop sitting on top of the truck. We watched Iron Man and I couldn't help but laugh through most of it. The students were so funny! Throughout the entire movie they were all giving commentary. Whenever the lead actor would come on the screen the would say, "There he is! That is him." Also, Arabs are not liked much in this part of S. Sudan so whenever the terrorist would come on screen the would have a few choice comments for them as well. Many of those students had never seen a movie or had seen only acoupe so after the movie I had a few students come up to me and ask, "Is Tony a real person? Did the old man really die?"

Well, I apologize for the long delay between my last post and this one. It seems that whenever I have time to use the internet, I just end up responding to emails.

I am really looking forward to telling you how our first borehole goes.