Bad News With the Good, and Vice Versa

Tuesday night we had a wonderful time at dinner with the administrator of the college and some of our friends--yay we have friends! We forgot the camera, just as we did last week when we went out with several other coworkers and people passing through Juba, but I swear, we really do have friends.  Compared to what many people feared, things in Southern Sudan are going extraordinarily well.

However, as one of our friends reminded us on Tuesday, the press releases don't tell the whole story. She had traveled with the Episcopal Archbishop of Sudan to Abyei a couple weeks ago. Abyei is a disputed border area between the North and South, and there is a little bit of fighting, a lot of tension, and a little bit of oil to fuel the fire. In addition to assessing the levels of conflict and comforting church members in the area, the Archbishop and his team spent a chunk of their time waiting at a bus depot for a baby. The baby's father is already handicapped, and was recently beaten so badly that he was unable to travel, so his mom took him on a bus trip south through Abyei.  On their way, the mother was killed by a militia preying on travelers.  The Bishop of Aweil, who has jurisdiction over Abyei, is distantly related to the baby, and decided to take him in. But even hearing the story of the mother's death was traumatic for the group, not to speak of the baby.

And yesterday, my coworker came back into the office looking really shaken. A government minister had been killed.   It has now been established that the murder was a personal beef, but there were several rumors floating around at the time.  The Minister was my coworker's uncle; he had taken care of my coworker's mom as she grew up. 

So please pray for my coworker and his family.  And the baby.  And many others.  Being in Southern Sudan as it emerges into a new country is a once in a lifetime experience--and then only if you're lucky. I'm happy about being here, and I know every Southern Sudanese person can say the same and more. But I'm sad to report that I have established a policy of not asking students why they're wearing suits. Often enough it's a funeral. There is no shortage of good news or bad news.