yesterday it was saturday, so there was no school. our driver simple took us on a safari. we left at 6 in the morning. we saw giraffes, flamingoes, zebras, wildebeasts, rhinosauruses, gazelles antelopes and even a lion! the roof of our van lifted up so that we could stand up and see out the top. it was really fun. we had p.b. and j. sandwiches (which were made by marijke and wil) for lunch. it rained for half the day and was beautiful for the rest. we got back at about 9 at night. the whole ride home we listened to some r&b cd that simple had.
today is sunday, so we went to church. the headmaster, ojok bosco, took us to his church. it was a small tin building in kamiguarra (the market/slum area near sud academy). they put us in the seats of honour at the front. we introduced our selves. the whole service was in english and translated into dinka. they had the sunday school sing and dance, some teens did a drama about believing in God not in witch craft. then they asked mr. minnesma to preach. he was not prepared to preach but he pulled it off quite well. after the service, we went to the chair lady's church and a group of mothers sang and danced for us. it was beautiful.
after lunch, we went to kibera, the second largest slum in africa. it was a little scary. before we went in we prayed, but we were with a woman named susan who showed us around. we were pretty on edge at first. there were no other white people in the slum the whole time we were there. as we walked through, all the little kids smiled and waved at us and called out 'how are you?'. we could hear the whispers of 'mzungu' everywhere. mzungu is kiswahili for white person. it was scarier for the girls because we got shouted at or just stared at. the slum itself was filled with garbage. every building was half house, half shop. i have never seen anything like it. the ground was pretty muddy because it's rained a bit here. there was garbage everywhere. it smelled like food, and garbage and sewage and people. there were really skinny dogs and goats running in between the people and the piles of garbage. when we got to the top of a hill, we could see down over the slum. the shanties looked like piles of tin piled together with people walking between them. it hasn't really sunken in yet, but it will when we are on our way home.
tomorrow is our last day. we are doing an assembly in the morning for them, then spending the rest of the day saying our goodbyes (which will take forever and lots of tears). our plane leaves at midnight. the airline we are flying with is on strike right now. only 60% of the flights are flying out, but our flights are 2 of that 60%. the schedules are going to be all messed up, so we could be in london for 2 hours, or 2 days. we will get home eventually.
thank you for your support everyone!
asante sana and nakupenda!
Saturday pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/SUDtrip/SaturdayAmazingAfrica#
Sunday pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/SUDtrip/SundaySudanaseChurchKibera#
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