MT-4 Gets great approval in Juba meetings!!

Juba trip:

I now have a much greater appreciation for the fact that Southern Sudan is one of the poorest, most needy countries in the world. There was nothing along the dirt road from Yei to Juba except occasional grass huts. I am told there are no paved roads anywhere in Southern Sudan. There are none in Juba, the capital. The only electricity to be found anywhere is run by gas powered generators—not even as nice as the generator we had for emergencies like the ice storm a few years ago.

As we approached Juba, we started passing piles of garbage, some of it burning, all along the road side. I guess the city dump. The dust from the dirt roads is caked on everything. Juba is a “more developed” city in that there are some walled buildings (all singe story) instead of only grass huts and “tukils” (small cement walled houses with grass roofs) and there are more cars/trucks. But with the big city comes the dirt and filth, the flies, the garbage. It is not a pretty city. A branch of the Nile River (White Nile) flows by it. Our accommodations were by the White Nile. We were told that we stayed at the nicest accommodations to be found anywhere in Juba. The thick, green canvas army tents were laid out in an orderly fashion. Bryce and I were in tent #15; Mike and David in tent #29. We were charged $100 per tent which included dinner and breakfast. We had power to run the fan inside the tent. That helped a little. There were also single shower “stalls” for every 10 tents or so. I had the best shower of my life. Of course, if given the choice of that shower in the United States, I would definitely pass. But after a week of no showers and a day of driving in the dust and sweat of Juba (which is a good 10-15 degrees hotter than Yei), that shower was awesome. I had a little plastic shower curtain to provide some privacy. Above the shower were branches from the nearby tree, full of spider webs. I stood on some wooden planks with dirt and grass around the edges. The water was cold, the pressure was weak, but I didn’t care, it was the best shower!

Bryce and I had an added bonus. Our tent backed up to the main tent where the TV was playing on the highest volume with the bar nearby. We could lay on our cots in our tents and listen to the news from the Middle East as well as Nigerian soap operas and music. We got to listen to the TV all the way until 12:45am when I finally got out of our tent and went and turn it off. The few still awake watching were not happy but I didn’t care; earlier polite attempts to have the volume turned down or the TV turned off didn’t work. To make sure that our solitude was not excessive, the TV was turned back on at 6:30am, before my alarm went off at 7:00, so I had more awake time to start the day.

An obvious business to invest in is new housing construction for rentals/guest houses. Bishop Taban is actually a skilled builder and has a building company he started a few years ago called Tent Makers International. The profits from his company are contributed to EPC and pay the salaries of many of the rural pastors outside of Yei. We had a long discussion with Bishop Taban Monday evening about his vision for self-sustaining churches and self-sustaining communities. He is keenly interested in starting businesses in Southern Sudan that will benefit his people and strengthen the church. He either has the capacity or has people that want and are willing to learn the capacity to run a number of businesses. All that is needed is some investment in capital. An investment in building supplies with Tent Makers will net very profitable guest houses in Juba; an investment in tractors will enable some of his farmers in the church start feeding the rest of the church and expand into profitable ag-businesses; an investment in computers and some time in computer training will enable a computer training center to open in Yei and Juba that will not be able to keep up with the demand. Those are all doable businesses here that could be profitable with some investment partners.

The soil around Yei is very fertile. Water irrigation is not needed because it rains frequently enough. But there has never been any effort to farm the area beyond subsistence micro farming. Wouldn’t it bring God so much glory for the church in Yei to start producing bumper crops to the point where Sudan turns around from being the largest importer of food aid to self sufficient and eventually to a food exporter? I don’t know if that is a vision from God, but I know that for such a vision to become a reality, it starts with one tractor, one farmer.

Monday afternoon’s meetings were a bust. When we arrived in Juba the cellular service was down so we couldn’t get a hold of anyone for appointments. So we hung out at the EPC office in Juba which is really the property of the Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of Sudan, a good friend of Bishop Taban. EPC is renting the space at a special low price in exchange for Bishop Taban and his Tent Makers company to renovate the place. It needs renovation. Bryce, David and Mike had brought equipment to install a satellite system to receive the internet for the Juba EPC office. They got it all installed and ready to go but couldn’t actually get it running. The service, which is out of Uganda, has to be turned on, which will take several days. So much for e-mail access while in Juba.

After dinner, Anne Grace’s and Frances’ older sister stopped by for a visit. She is a member of the Southern Sudan Parliament and just two weeks ago was appointed the Commissioner for Human Rights. (Are you beginning to get an idea of how connected Bishop Taban is?!). She was so excited to learn about the MT4 project and insisted on us including a chapter on human rights. She said that no one understands the new constitution and the bill of rights. She is so burdened with how to get information out to the people in the bush at the grass roots. She saw immediately how the MT4 player could make a big impact.

Tuesday morning started slowly with our first venture out for meetings around 10:30. First we met with the Minister of Health for the Central Equatorial State (where we are doing the pilot project) who was extremely pleased to learn of the MT4 project. He was eager to give his assistance and authority for us to work anywhere in his state. We then moved on to the Governor of the Central Equatorial State (the one who “issued a degree as a dictator insisting that the MT4 project go forward!). He was quite busy but gave us about 15 minutes of his time. During our meeting, a reporter was present videoing our meeting. Bishop Taban said that we would be on TV that evening in Juba. He said that he would try to get a copy of the news report. The Governor reconfirmed his strong support for the project. We mentioned that we wanted to record a message from him to put at the beginning of the content. He agreed and said he would be in Yei next Monday and we could record him then. After the Governor we moved onto a meeting with the Director General of the Minister of Education (the #2 guy). The Minister was away in Uganda. This ministry is also at the Central Equatorial State level and is the ministry that is sponsoring the project. Bishop Taban has arranged for a Memorandum of Understanding between EPC and the Ministry of Education for the project. That will give our MT4 team great authority in implementing the project.

After lunch, we loaded back into the two trucks and made the dusty and bumpy 3 ½ hour trek back to Yei. While the brakes went out in one truck on the way to Juba (forgot to mention that part…), we only had a flat tire on the way back to Yei. No accidents, no other trouble, so all in all, a good trip.