Greetings!  Last night I experienced the most brilliant thunder storm that I’ve ever seen in my life.  And I’m a guy who totally loves watching lightning crash in a storm, so this was right down my alley!  Even more down my alley was the fact that the thunderstorm was some miles away, so we could watch it, while sitting outside without even being rained on.  It was a really marvelous natural occurrence, with bolts in lightning tearing the sky apart every 5-10 seconds.  And the land here is so flat that you can see for miles and miles and miles. I just sat outside in the bed of a pickup truck watching for about an hour in the company of my twin brother John, the clinical director Caleb, and the pharmacist Pritty (who are the handsome gents featured in the attached photo).  It was a real great time, filled with God’s natural beauty and some fun company.  Toward the end of the storm, the light-hearted police man, Dut, who keeps us safe around here came over and gave us an informal Dinka lesson (which was sort of hard because we speak just about no Dinka and he speaks just about no English).  Despite the language barrier, we learned some new words, we taught him some English ones, and we were able to enjoy each other’s company even if we didn’t speak the same language.

This afternoon, John and I went for a jog around the village, which we try to do 3 or 4 times a week.  As the two of the only white people around, our presence usually generates quite a bit of attention.  We’re used to being greeted (and greeting) probably more than half the people that we come across.  Small children commonly run out of their huts along the roadside and wave to us as we go by.  And I’ll tell you what, this sure is an endearing sight to behold.  We’ll be leaving in a week, but the image of a half-naked 3-year-old waving curiously at us from his house is a sight that won’t soon (if ever) leave my mind.  The simplicity and the poverty and the austerity and the humanity of this whole experience are all somehow captured succinctly in this image.  During our jog today, we chanced upon another really cool experience.  We usually run from the compound here to the Catholic Mission school and back again.  Today, we were on our return leg of the journey just after school had let out, so children were walking along the road in the direction that we were running.  At some point, a few of the children began running alongside of us.  When we came to the next group of children walking along, they tagged along.  Same with the next group.  And as a few of the children became tired and dropped off, we approached and collected another few to compensate.  So for a kilometer or so, we had an escort of little school children running along with us.  And that sure was a great feeling!  There was laughter and smiling and good feelings abounding.