“Yom” here (that’s “Alicia” to the rest of you back home!).  I was 
told that my Dinka name means “cow with brown spots,” especially 
“spots around the face.” OK, so my Irish heritage is CLEARLY coming 
through here, folks!! Can’t get past those freckles!! So… How do I 
even begin to describe what we’ve experienced here so far? It’s just 
downright amazing. I now understand why so many of our Rancho del Rey friends were unable to fully describe what it was like here in Tonj. 
So… I guess I will make my attempt!! LOL! In a nutshell, the trip 
has already gone beyond my expectations. I could go home tomorrow and feel satisfied (but I’m so glad we have 9 more days)!

First, the welcome at the airport. Unbelievable! I was fighting away 
tears as so many ministry workers and community residents were 
standing at the airfield with expressions of pure joy and glee on 
their face at our arrival. I immediately felt loved and wanted here. 
That was huge!

Evidently it is much greener now than in February, because Sheena, 
Stacie, Mike and Amy were just in awe of the flowers, grass and 
bushes everywhere! I have to admit that it was much more beautiful 
that I’d imagined. Picture gorgeous purple flowers just popping up 
around the buildings; delicate butterflies buzzing through the 
bushes… all against the wide African sky and soft green grasses. 
Just picturesque.

God’s timing has been so evident already in our time here. First, 
because we arrived on a Friday afternoon, we had today (and will have tomorrow) to get acclimated to life here in Tonj and our daily responsibilities. For example, today Sheena, Stacie, Tiffany and I spent the morning shadowing John Paul (the clinic officer) in the clinic. We got our first tutorials in wound care and in treating malaria patients. I got to do my first injection (into an IV bag that was exciting enough for me right now!) and Sheena was awesome in giving a huge shot in the rear to this poor little boy suffering from 
malaria. We’ve also been promised to be woken up if a mom comes in during labor. I and the rest of the girls are also excited to be working with John Paul in doing prenatal care on the moms that come in. What an amazing privilege! Monday is supposed to be one of the busiest days in the clinic (and of course our first “official” day on the job!) so please especially pray for us that day! Tim and Mike also start their teaching in the pastors’ discipleship center that day too… so pray for them as well! Which brings me to the men… they spent the day working on the electricity in the training center, and in trying to fix the solar panels. Lots of guy labor stuff. 🙂

This afternoon was amazing. After taking us on a tour of the town, Sabet and Suzy took us over the bridge, past the cattle camp and outside the city to the area where they are going to start building their house! It was just a crazy place–TALL, tall, tall grasses everywhere on a flat plain. It looked very African! So once we drove off the side of the main road (which is Tonj really isn’t a main road!) we literally drove through 5 foot tall grass for like 15 minutes on this barely discernable path to where they would be building. All I could think as we’re driving along is “oh my gosh… I can’t believe how many snakes must be out there in that grass!!!” And then… they stopped the car and were like, “oh, let’s get out and look around!!!” AAAHHH!!! (Cameron, I was really counting on your daily “please don’t let mommy see any snakes in Africa” prayer at 
that moment!!!) At first I hesitated and sat in the truck like an idiot. But then everyone was walking around and I was seeing some really sweet picture opportunities… so I decided to “get out of the boat” so to speak and go for it. Well, the moral of the story is that none of us saw any snakes, and we had some totally cool moments out there, just standing in this unspoiled, picturesque area of Sudan. We got some great pictures of our team… some funny pics of Tim and Mike (you have to wait till we get home for those!) and just had this amazing time.

My motto for life lately has been, “When else am I going to be able to… (fill in the blank)”. And boy, I’ve been able to put that into practice here! So far I’ve used that line to justify getting kissed on the lips by a giraffe, sleeping with frogs, lizards and spiders in our room, and now walking out into tall African grass. I know that there is more (and there will be more!) coming this week… and that’s exciting to me! Life is meant to be lived!

Well, I better sign off for now (it’s my turn for the shower)! Oh one more thing. We got to experience our first African thunderstorm tonight! Probably 1 hour after returning from our trip around Tonj, it started raining! So while we were enjoying a fabulous dinner of lentil burritos, we watched the lighting flash in the distance and heard the rain on the tin roofs. Then, as dinner was dying down, so did the storm!! That was a cool God thing! Anyway… we so appreciate your prayers and your love. We can’t wait to get back home and share 
with you all that God is doing here in Sudan!