It’s about time to try to summarize my trip to South Sudan using a few key pictures of some favorite moments. For a sermon I preached recently with more details about the processing of that trip, go here for the audio version or here for the manuscript.
We were in Kenya for a day on either end of the time in Juba. Nairobi has changed a lot since I was there. But there were a few things that just reminded me I was in Africa:
Like seeing monkeys run across the wall in the morning.
And eating Ethiopian food.
And getting caught in dense traffic jams.
Walking from the mall to the guest house to meet my ride I passed by Rose Avenue…and began humming the song, “I have often walked down this street before.” We lived off of Rose Ave.
The trip from Nairobi to Juba was fairly uneventful. I had to smirk at the bag in the seat pocket of Kenya Airways (which is now a division of Delta, but back in the day used to be referred to as “Kenya Scare-ways”):
South Sudan is breathtaking from the air:
But walking around the city of Juba is a whole different story.
One thing I did enjoy was having fresh baked bread every day and eating food prepared in a solar oven.
The ‘work’ we were really there to do was help with the school that is being started there. For me that meant sorting and categorizing books.
A lunch time picnic on the edge of the Nile River: (after a precarious drive through a police check at the edge of the city):
The best part of the trip was, of course, connecting with friends from a variety of seasons of my life.
My travel companion from my church in Florida, visiting a friend from Minnesota married to a friend I grew up with in Kenya.
Coffee at Java House with a high school friend who was coming in to Nairobi the day I was leaving.
Chai with family friends who have tracked with my family for years.
And with that, I was back on the plane to Florida. Until next time…until next time…