Today Sabet and Albino took us to the cattle camp, which was about a thirty minute drive up from the In Deed and Truth compound. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by lovely dark children with big smiling faces many of which were just babies holding babies. They all loved having their pictures taken and then being able to see them on the camera. Laughing hysterically they would point to their images on the screen. We actually had to limit our camera time because of what we called the ‘reverse paparazzi’ effect of being almost swarmed by the children.

As we walked through the camp the dairy cows were all around us, tied to a short rope which was then staked in the ground. Most were laying down, as the sun beat down on them. Big long horns protruded from their heads and our group kept joking about not ever wanting to be on the ‘business end’ of those. We paraded through the grounds like the pied piper, our following growing ever larger. We started seeing more adolescents and adults at this point, in addition to the babies group. A couple of young men even demonstrated to us their fighting technique with short thick sticks in hand. I loved how they would laugh and then hug each other after a bout. The single woman among us got many offers for marriage in exchange for a number of their cows. Usually they would ask the man standing closest to her if he would accept the offer.

Eventually even the older workers wanted their pictures taken and we obliged as much as we could without disturbing the peace. We were able to buy a couple of spears from the men and we’ll have a great story to share about their origin. No marketplace purchase here! As we left, one of the guys donated a shirt to a young boy and we watched as he proudly put it on. It was much too big for him but his face was beaming. As we pulled away we saw he and his friends around him pulling the fabric up to their noses and taking in deep breaths. Amongst the dung filled cattle field I guess a fresh clean shirt with the smell of laundry soap was pretty amazing. Ah, the things we take for granted…

What a lovely morning this was, and what incredible, resourceful and hard working people are the Sudanese.

We’ve been blessed to have a team from Eastgate Christian Fellowship in Panama City, FL serving with us in Tonj for the last week.

Take a look at the sketch Pastor Rob made after their visit to a local cattle camp.

I can’t help it like to laugh and have fun. The Dinkas I believe are learning to enjoy my crazy humor. I tell them I can talk baby talk as I speak jibberous to the little ones and they smile. Nothing gives me more joy then the smile of a baby. Today I took a Ground nut (peanut) out of child”s nose. I am getting pretty good at it . I can almost take them out with my eyes closed and I still jump for joy when they pop out. I have added picking up the nut I got out of the nose and pretending to eat it. They look at me crazy then I show them the nut and we all laugh.

Tonight at our prayer nite around the camp fire a snake happened to wander through the group and was spotted by Dennis and Pritty. They in no time cut it in half with a shovel . We were having troubles listening to the prayer while this was going on. You do not want to be a snake on this compound. There is zero tolerance for snakes.

We have quite a few sick little ones admitted  but thank God they appear to be doing well. A infant 5 days old was rushed into my room  today  having troubles breathing it was on it’s last gasps. I got my tube out sucked out it’s airway and beat it a bit and she started breathing better. A shot of ceftriaxone then we placed  her on oxygen and prayed. She made it to the 2nd shot of Ceftriaxone  tonight and is breathing and breast feeding well (a thut putt). PTL.

Sunday after church we had a woman with a gun shot wound to the lower leg. Small wound in but then the bullet hit bone and bone and bullet coming out making a terrible exit wound and the leg will need to be amputated. It was a sad domestic quarrel. Love, Tom

We had the privilege to host Dave and Forest Mueller in March/April for 3 weeks, they have come out to help us with the Clinic building, David have blessed us with welding windows and doors frames and most importantly building the wall for the clinic which we are using special type of brick that interlock Hydroform, half of the building wall is finish.

Dave has build a hospital in a South Sudan in the past and here he was sharing his expertise with us, though it’s difficult with the heat and the process of starting things from scratch and doing things manually what a blessing to see his heart to help and put his best for the Clinic to be the best and strong building standing around.

Many people are blessed to see a father son and the heart they have for the kingdom and mission, for them it was more than building walls, they were building living stone, Dave shared some messages in our daily devotion and in our Sunday service, what a blessing that was specially for our staff.

The crew that was helping Dave and Forest were young men, the beauty of having them working with experience people like Dave Mueller is they are learning some skill, and picking trade like to be precise or diligent in what you do and not cutting corners, I was very grateful to see that what they were picking up. They are far from perfect but in this part of the world they are closer to perfection more than ever.

Much gratitude for the Mueller’s (specially for Joy Mueller for arranging and putting the trip together) and the great time we had with them and looking forward more opportunities to work with them in the near future.

Learned a new trick today, If you wrap a wet sock around your water bottle the evaporation of the water in sock cools your water. No more drinking hot water. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This year I have learned to pull teeth did three more teeth Saturday, repair hernias and now I have learned how to cool water without a refrigerator.

People have asked me to tell them about the Dinkas and how they live. Dinkas are a proud people they fought many years to be free and have succeeded. They are the tallest darkest Africans. They live in grass huts many have cell phones and some have small motorcycles 100-160 cc. More have bikes and a few have cars but most walk long distances. Tonj is sorta urban. As there are many homes in area and cell phone towers and a market where you can buy some things.

Probably most folk have 2-3 sets of cloths and 1-2 pairs of sandals. Some have more and some have none as in all places there are have and have nots. Most people tend cattle and do subsistence farming.Cows are wealth and men try to amass a bunch of cows they do not tend to sell them but amass them like people keep money in the bank. When a great need for money arises they sell cows .

One of the biggest uses of cows is to buy a wife from the father. Daughters bring their dads cows but fathers like sons also  for pride and I am sure protection. Families often help their sons get the cows to buy a bride. I am sure the females take pride in having a high bride price. Men in this society can have more then one wife. I believe each wife and her children tend to have their own hut and the husband visits his wives. Often wives view each other as sisters and the old wives must give their OK to a new wife being brought into the family. The  older wives make the newer wives do more of the work which is their payback. Dinka women love to have babies and love their children. The infant mortality rate is about 50%only 50% of children reach age 5 years.Often we meet women who have had 8 pregnancies and  only have one child.

Women have no sex during pregnancy and till child is weaned at about 2 years which is one reason men feel they need more then one wife. I am told only the mother tends to hold the babies but I do not know if this is true . When the mother with triplets comes in grandma and the mother’s sister each had one. I seem to be getting along well with the Dinkas I see smiling faces constantly. As in America the 16 year old female believes she knows everything. I sometimes laugh because the 16 year old with a baby thinks she knows everything about children.I have fun with the babies I see everyday when they are not sick I play with them. Sometimes I think mothers bring in the children just so I can confirm they are OK but we take care of a lot of sick kids and they scare me. I remember the first Christmas I was here the children would die of malaria and it would kill me and the parents would try to encourage me.

One thing is where ever you go people are people we all have emotions of love, hate, frustration , fear, jealousy, generosity etc. We all have good days and bad days and we all have a tendency to goof up. We all have to learn to forgive each others faults and leave rest in God’s hands.  Tom