A Day in the Life of a Logistics Coordinator

Next week Aid Sudan is building a radio tower in Tonj, South Sudan. I am managing the project and all of the logistics for it. Everything was going along well until two days ago. I had booked the construction team of five on a commercial flight from Nairobi to Rumbek, South Sudan. In addition to the five guys, we also had over 100 kg of cargo. As I was giving the details of the cargo to carrier, they informed me that they could not carry one very important tool called a hangman pulley. This tool is a long pipe with hooks that breaks down into two 3 meter long pieces. Certain restrictions prevented the airline from carrying these pieces in the cabin and they would not fit in the baggage area. So I began exploring other options with some of the charter organizations, praying that something might turn up. Many times they have flights that have space available on flights that have been chartered by other organizations to carry people and cargo. As of this morning, I had not been able to turn up any possibilities. I was about to give up and charter a full plane. The problem with this was that it would cost $7000 instead of $3000 and put me way over-budget for this part of the project. I hated to spend an extra four grand just because of two pieces of pipe, but it seemed I had no choice. I had prayed it through and contacted everyone I could think of, and God hadn’t opened any doors. Then late this afternoon I got a call from AIM Air. They would be able to carry the hangman pulley to Tonj! But to make things even better, the plane would also be going up to Malualkon where I have another 100 kg of cargo that I have been trying to get to Tonj for some time. So this plane can also take my cargo from there to Tonj, which will save money and complications later. I love it when God not only answers a prayer, but also takes care of another problem that you weren’t even asking about!

Car Accident

The other day I got a call from Suzy at about 4:30 in the afternoon. She’d been involved in a small car accident in one of the roundabouts coming out of the city. In this particular roundabout, four or five lines of cars jockey for position as the road narrows to a place that only one car can pass through at a time. This is huge bottleneck that is difficult to navigate. Cars are inches away from each other; motorcycles and bicycles are also trying to squeeze their way through the maze of traffic. It seems like total chaos, but there is actually some order to things that you learn over time as you drive here. Suzy was in line to make it onto the one-lane road when a guy whipped around her on the outside requiring him to drive up onto the curb. Her front bumper touched his rear door and left a surface scratch. These things are fairly common and can usually be dealt with pretty easily. But Suzy was mad and in no mood to compromise (can’t say I blame her). The guy she “hit” was demanding enough money from her to repaint his whole rear door. Suzy only had 4000 shillings on her (about $2). She had tried to negotiate with the guy, but he was not giving in. So she called me. I decided the best strategy might be to wait him out. So I told her to tell him that I was across town and that it would take me an hour at least to get there. After about 30 minutes, I called Suzy back. The guy was still quite content to wait and was showing no signs of giving in. The traffic police had gotten involved and taken both of their driving permits. I asked Suzy to let me talk to the guy. He explained what he was demanding. I again told him I was far away and that it would take some time for me to get there. He explained that his mechanic was coming to give him a quote for re-painting the door. I told him I would come as soon as I could to resolve everything. Then I called a friend to find out what it would cost to repaint a car door. He told me around 40,000 shillings (less than $20). Armed with this piece of information I made my way to the scene on a boda boda. When I got there, I talked with the guy and with his mechanic. His mechanic said it would cost 60,000 to repaint the door. I told him I would give him 40,000. If he didn’t want to accept that, I would take it to my mechanic to have it done for that price. Seeing that my price was firm, he accepted, and then we asked the traffic cop to come back to release their driving permits. He gave back the guy’s permit, but then said he was not releasing Suzy’s because he needed to write her a ticket for “careless driving.” It was all I could do to not burst out laughing, but I kept my cool and reasoned with him reminding him that we had resolved the situation with the person she hit (who was really the one driving carelessly) and that there was no reason to give her a ticket. Even the guy Suzy hit came to her defense asking the cop not to write the ticket. He finally agreed and gave back Suzy’s license. With that drama finished, we headed home for a nice dinner. I drove.

Radio Tower Foundation Completed in Tonj

Over a two week period in late January and early February, a pair of guys from a Christian non-profit organization called Diguna traveled to Tonj to lay the foundations for Aid Sudan’s next radio tower. We are building the tower on the compound of our ministry partners called In Deed & Truth Ministries. They have been doing some amazing work in Tonj for over 10 years, training pastors, planting churches, and operating the only medical clinic for miles around. In advance of the Diguna team traveling in, I had been working closely with IDAT’s compound manager Albino to make sure that cement, gravel, and sand were on site for the foundations. All of this went smoothly except for the gravel, which proved to be difficult to find. Fortunately, this didn’t delay things much as they were able to bring small truck loads in each day as the Diguna guys worked. What did cause a delay was the digging of the foundations. It hasn’t rained in Tonj in about 4 months so the ground is dry and very hard. The holes had to be 1 cubic meter, which meant that they would be over 3 feet deep. In all, seven holes needed to be dug. IDAT had hired a group of local men to do the digging. After the first two holes, the men decided that the work was too hard for them. They threatened to quit and demanded more money. Albino agreed to pay them more, but the men quit anyway. As the days went by, the digging was finally completed. Then the cement, sand, and gravel was mixed together and poured into the holes. About 700 blocks were also made that will be used for the building that will house the transmitter and other electronic equipment. The foundations now need about 3 weeks to cure. At the end of February, another team from Diguna will travel to Tonj to construct the actual tower which will be over 200 feet tall. Please give praise to the Lord for the successful completion of the foundations, and pray for everything to go smoothly with the construction of the tower. Also, please pray for us as we seek to get the radio frequency and license from Juba over the next several weeks so that broadcasting can begin in Tonj as quickly as possible.

Water Well Season

The dry season in South Sudan is prime time to drill water wells. For much of the year, many parts of the country are inaccessible by road. So once things dry out, drillers move en masse into the country to provide clean water to as many people as possible. Over the next few weeks, I will be working with 3 different drillers to drill 6 wells in the 3 different parts of the country, Nasir, Tonj, and Mvolo. The two locations in Tonj are pretty typical of areas that we look for when we consider where to drill a well. The first well will be drilled in a village called Guaria. A pastor trained by our ministry partners in Tonj, In Deed & Truth Ministries, has recently planted a church here. IDAT has also done some training with the villagers about health & hygiene. During the wet season, the women of the village have to travel there is water nearby, but that water isn’t very clean. As a result, many in the village are struggling with diseases caused by drinking impure water. In the dry season, the whole village is forced to move because there is no water. The situation is very similar in Warkar where many are sick and the villagers are displaced during the dry season. In the next 2 to 3 weeks, life-saving change will come to both villages as JB Drilling sends a rig to drill a well in each village. Please pray for these projects and for the projects I am coordinating in Nasir and Mvolo as well. Pray that as the people in these villages drink clean water for the first time in their lives that they will also come to know the One who gives them "a well of water springing up to eternal life."

Trip to Gulu

At the end of January, Suzy, Kerry & Neltia Henderson, and I traveled up to Gulu, Uganda, to check out the area for possible future work. For East African standards, Gulu is a fairly large town located in northern Uganda. It lies about 60 miles south of the South Sudan border. The Acholi tribe inhabits this area. They are culturally and linguistically similar to the Dinka, Nuer, and Luo tribes of South Sudan. We wanted to survey the area to see if it might be an ideal place for Aid Sudan to re-launch the Philip Project. This project seeks to equip and mobilize Ugandans to go into South Sudan as missionaries. It was a great trip, and God showed us great favor throughout. We were able to meet with several people already working in the area, and we learned a great deal from each of them. We also got to see a couple of really unique and interesting ministries in Gulu. One was of great interest to Suzy. There are several women who are handicapped or HIV positive who make jewelry. Suzy got to shop in the store that sells their things. We also met an American couple who runs a school in a village outside of Gulu. It’s amazing to see the work they are doing and how they are trying to bring about positive transformation of the educational system here. The next step is to pray through all that we learned while we were in Gulu. One possible scenario would be for us to move our family to Gulu to start up the Philip Project. Please pray for the Lord to guide and direct all of us in these next steps.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty- Not!

If you read my last post, you know that we were robbed during the Super Bowl, which airs in the wee hours of the morning in this part of the world. As dawn broke and we assessed the damage (which thankfully wasn’t much!), I started to think about who could have robbed us. The week before, I had told our main night guard that he would not be working with us anymore. I immediately suspected that he could be the thief, especially because it seemed to me that the person who robbed us had a pretty good knowledge of our property. I went to the local police post and explained to them what had happened and who I thought could be behind it. They said that they wanted to pick up my former guard for questioning. Now in Uganda, very few police have cars or motorcycles. So I had to drive them over to the place where my former guard lives. Two officers armed with automatic rifles climbed into my 4WD and we were on our way. After some time, we finally found his house. He was sleeping when we arrived. One of the officers knocked on his door and told him to get dressed because he needed to answer to a charge against him. So he got dressed emerging in black pants and a black shirt (the same attire as our thief was wearing). We all piled back into my car and headed to the police station (talk about an awkward situation!). Once there the police took my statement and my former guard’s. Then I had a chance to talk with my former guard about the situation. He’s a very good liar (which is the main reason I fired him), but for some reason I believed him when he said that he had nothing to do with the robbery. He told me how scared he was and how he had never been arrested before. Then I made one of the most naïve statements I could have made. I told him that if he hadn’t done anything wrong that he didn’t have anything to worry about. He looked at me and explained that they would be taking him to jail until they had completed their investigation and that it could take days or even weeks. This was news to me. I really just wanted him questioned to see if he had anything to do with it. So I went back to the officers and asked them what would happen next. They told me exactly what my former guard had told me- that he would be held at the local jail until they could determine whether or not he had committed this crime. I told them that based on my conversation with my former guard, I no longer suspected him and that I did not want him arrested. They said that he had already been arrested and that they must take him to jail. I was shocked! The police hadn’t even been to the scene of the crime, and they were assuming his guilt simply based on my statement that he might have been the one to do it. Quite the opposite of innocent until proven guilty! I started praying because I really didn’t want to be responsible for sending an innocent man to jail. After more discussions with the police, they finally came up with a way that he could be released. I had to make a statement that I was forgiving this man for the crime he might have committed and that I wanted him to be released. I gladly made this statement which the police recorded in writing and I signed. My former guard was so relieved- he grabbed my hand and began thanking me over and over. I asked him to forgive me for having him arrested and for being so naïve. Then we went out of the police hut, and his brothers were waiting there. I explained to them all that had happened. They told me that they understood why I had suspected him and they expressed how grateful they were to me for allowing him to be released. We all shook hands and left reconciled as friends. I still don’t know who robbed our house, and I probably never will. It’s terrifying to me that it’s so easy to get someone arrested in this country. It makes me grateful for the American justice system and the rights that we have as citizens of such a great country.

Robbed!

Super Bowl Sunday is actually Super Bowl Monday here in Uganda. Kickoff is at 2:30 AM local time. I actually didn’t have much interest in watching this year’s game, but my son Brody wanted to get up and watch it with me. I figured a little father-son bonding time would be a good thing. A couple of minutes before half time, our dog started barking (not so abnormal). About 30 seconds later I heard a man shouting (very abnormal!). I went over to the window and my guard Simon frantically explained that he’d just seen someone on the compound. I unlocked the back door and went out to further assess the situation. Simon explained to me that he had heard the dog barking so he came out from his room to see why. He saw a man dressed in black walking in the back corner of the yard. He shouted at him, and the guy took off running. He disappeared in the darkness under some trees. Simon speculated that he had jumped the fence to the next compound, which didn’t make much sense to me because our neighbor is a very big man with armed guards. Going on to his compound would be suicide, and I hadn’t heard any gunshots. We looked around a bit more in the area where the man was seen and couldn’t find anything of interest. Satisfied that we were safe and that the bandit had gone, I returned to my sofa for the second half, bummed that I had missed Madonna’s half time performance.

The game ended as dawn was breaking, and I went back into our bedroom. I immediately noticed that two of the screens in our room were pushed open. February is the hottest time of the year here, so sleeping with the windows open is a must. The windows have bars over them and then a screen covering them to keep out the bugs. The screens swing open toward the inside of the room. I woke up Suzy to ask her about the screens. She had no idea how they got open. Then she noticed that the basket on her bedside table was gone. Then she thought about her purse- also gone. I checked the area around the other open screen where we keep some books and our camera. The books were there, but the camera was gone. Then I went outside and found the missing basket and Suzy’s purse on the ground and a long wooden stick. The thief had apparently reached in and grabbed the basket and camera and then used the stick to reach further into the room to get the purse. All of this happened a foot and a half from Suzy’s head as she slept peacefully. He had taken money, some jewelry, and Suzy’s mobile phone. He left the purse, the basket and all the other contents he didn’t want at the base of the house.

If you’ve been robbed before you know how unsettling it is, and we have certainly gone through those emotions this week. We’ve taken steps to increase the security of our compound by putting razor wire along the front wall. I’ve also secured the screens and windows better and given my night guard a new place to sit. We also are keenly aware that things could have been much worse. The thief didn’t get away with much. My wallet, the car keys, and some electronics were close to some other windows that the thief didn’t get into. So it’s fair to say that we’re a bit rattled by this occurrence, yet we are also very thankful that the Lord protected us physically and that the damage done was minimal.