The ice age has come to Sudan. We woke up Monday morning to the chilling temperature of 70° Fahrenheit. The locals brought out their beanies and ski clothes (I wish I was exaggerating) to take on the coldest weather of the year. Roles were reversed and suddenly it was my thick North American blood that was helping me to adjust to the local weather.

Monday brought us a full load of patients to the clinic here in Tonj as well. We saw a total of 130 patients. We’re all settling into our roles in the clinic much more comfortably this week. I’ve been manning the registration table with my Sudanese partner Marco. I’ve become the lord of the thermometer and have about five different strategies for determining the weight of a screaming baby. I’m even learning some basic triage.

Outside of the clinic, we had our first weekend in Tonj. Sunday was a great day of attending church here on the compound with the entire staff and many of the other NGO workers here in Tonj. Sunday afternoon we had a picnic out on the river valley. I snapped the shot below of my roommate Daniel having some fun with Dut, our resident security guard. Lots of football to be watched too – we’ve got six different nationalities represented here and national pride was high during the Germany vs. England and USA vs. Ghana matches.

Last Friday, Africa got the best of me for a day. I woke up at 5 am and unfortunately proceeded to vomit the entire contents of my stomach back into the world. But a day full of sleeping and a little bit of the wonderful antibiotic known as Cipro and I was back on my feet the next day.

Saturday I had a lot of fun filming some commercials featuring the Sudanese guys to show during halftime at our upcoming World Cup public viewing outreaches this week. We did two skits and Sebit interviewed Donato, a boy here who has an amazing testimony.

Some prayer requests for this week:

One – for the health of my teammates Missy and Daniel – they’re both recovering from bugs they picked up earlier this week.

Two – for our World Cup and Malony village mobile clinic outreaches this week – that we would use these as an opportunity to bless the communities and reach out to them tangibly with the love of Christ.

Three – that I would believe not just in my mind, but in my heart in the power of God and his desire to work in fresh and new ways in and through my life during my time here and that any barriers I put up to Him working in and through me would be torn down.