Jesus loves me when I Die

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South Sudan is a very friendly place, but as many of you know this is just a recent development. For many decades Sudan was committing genocide, and in the Darfur region today the genocide continues. We flew into Juba in South Sudan. Because there is so much UN money in Southern Sudan it is very expensive. We stayed in a hotel that costed 180 dollars for one room. It was extremely basic, and the place was not nice. It was located on the Nile which was very cool. We left early in the morning to do some shopping in the market for the village we would be visiting. We bought 15 bicycles, cookware, and lots of other stuff Craig brought along from Seattle. After shopping we took a 4 hour car ride to Bor. The road was dirt and the car was extremely cramped. It was a bit unnerving knowing that some of the areas we passed still had mines off of the road. There were two abandoned tanks from the war as well wasting away by vines and tall grass. We spent the night in Bor and then took off again in the morning for Wangulei (our final destination). The road was solid dirt and covered in potholes as deep as your knee. The first hour was a very bumpy and slow going road. The second hour of the road was ponds and mud. Luckily we were in a toyota Cruiser with all off road capabilities. The street was littered with cars that did not make it through the deep mud and slush. People were outside of the cars pushing and pulling trying to budge massive trucks fully loaded with cargo. Our car was full of prayers and god smiled down on this day towards us. Because there were sevetral times were we just about got stuck in thigh deep mud in the middle of a large pond, or once just about rolled the car when we pitched ourselves at a 45 degree angle going off of a large ditch. Once we lost the road and in the middle of nowhere had to get out and look for clues on which way to go. The Sudanese women riding along with us would get out at large ponds and wade across to see if the car could make it. Our driver was a champion he listened to two Sudanese tapes over and over, one of our favorite songs had lyrics singing Jesus loves me when I die, over and over and over. This tune was our favorite. We finally arrived in wangulei with soar bums. It was a very enjoyable experience hopefully after ten days of hot sun the road on our way back will be a little bit dryer.

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