On the way to Africa!

I'm leaving tonight for Ethiopia and South Sudan--a trip one year in the works! Our church has a large group of South Sudanese refugees, and when South Sudan held a vote in January 2011 to decide independence, we started making plans to help rapatirate refugees from an internationally-displaced-persons camp.  If you want to follow along, we'll have people posting updates that we phone in at www.facebook.com/klcsouthsudan or www.klcsouthsudan.blogspot.com

I fly tonight to DC, and then DC to Addis Ababa Ethiopia, and we'll spend a few days there adjusting to time and recovering from the flight, and then on March 2nd I'll fly to Gambella, Ethiopia and over-land (4x4) to a town called Malual, inside the South Sudan border. 

There's fourteen of us on this trip, seven people of Sudanese descent, and seven "American-born folks" and we range in age from 20 to 70!  

I'm planning to be back around March 25-26, somewhere in there. We'll be building biosand water filters, establishing a temporary school (the first one in this community) and teaching microenterprise. 

Once I get back to Addis Ababa Ethiopia after a few weeks in South Sudan, I have a couple of days of down-time, where I may have the opportunity to meet Melat's birthmother. We tried to meet in 2008 when I was in Addis, but she was too sick to meet. I'm very excited and nervous about this. (There aren't really words to say in a situation like that, but I really want to meet her learn more about her, and hopefully fill in some gaps in Melat's life story). 

Rob is staying home with the girls--initaly, we had all planned to go, but the kids' online school requirements changed a lot and we couldn't travle and keep up with all of the requirements. Pat has kindly volunteered to stay with them and keep them up to speed with school (I have an awesome mother-in-law!) 

This is an area still in conflict and which poses a lot of environmental hazards (Malaria, etc), though we are not aware of any imminent political hazards in this town, it's still an area in some conflict and South Sudan hasn't stabalized as smoothly as we would have hoped.  Prayers for safety would be greatly appreciated!  

Comments

[Kathleen & Stephen]

Jessica - our prayers with you and all the group as you travel to do such good in an area that can certainly benefit from your generosity. Prayers for Rob and the girls and Pat as well as they attempt to keep things running without you at home.

[Malinda]

Break a leg! Will definitely keep you in my thoughts and prayers. What a great opportunity. Will love to hear about it when you get back.

[Terrie]

Congrats, Jessica! Safe journeys!!! Maybe we'll cross in the air and can wave hello to each other.

[Dad]

Ditto on our prayers being with you. I trust you will have another outstanding experience with memories for a lifetime. You can get out of Africa, but you can never get Africa out of you.

[Jessica]

Trip is going ok--I've got a little more than another week scheduled, though may come back early if I'm able to complete my tasks. There's been a lot of highs and lows I'm still sort of processing. Will post more later.