Friday, March 26, 2010

Transitions



This is our third morning since getting back on Tuesday. So far, it seems that adjusting to the 8-9 nine hour difference seems a little more difficult here, but I ended up getting up earlier than normal in Africa also. I was up at 2 this morning, and went back to bed until 4:30.




One of the biggest changes since getting back is the experience of driving a car. We didn't drive at all in Africa, so I hadn't driven from March 4 until March 22. Driving in Kenya and Juba (riding with someone else who was driving) was such an experience. First, the only way you know where you are going, is if your mental road map is up to speed. No road signs, so right angles, few lane markers, and continual pushing into your desired lane of traffic. It seemed that once the road opened up to less traffic, there were large pot-holes to dodge, and many people walking along the shoulder of the narrow road. Driving on March 23 here in America was like getting on a race car track. Smooth, traffic flowing, high speeds, and getting there much faster. Just to drive this point home, when we went to the Safari, it was about a 220 kilometers trip, (136 Miles) and it took us 5 hours to get there!! That is an average of 27.2 Miles per hour!! The roads were so rough at times, you didn't know if you were going to leave major suspension parts of the vehicle behind after hitting a bump, or nearly scraping the bottom of the vehicle. Here, it is smooth, much faster, and like driving a Formula 1 race car. Just to make it interesting, driving in Kenya was on the left side of the road (note to self, not how we drive here in the U.S.), and the right side in Juba. After taking all those turns in Kenya into the left lane(we drove much more in Kenya than Sudan), it starts to rub off on the old driving brain.


Spiritually and emotionally, I am sorting through quite a bit, and am confident that God has sown this experience in our lives to impact us on having more influence in our family, and in our world. It was a time of rest on one hand from all our responsibilities here, and allowed us to experience a very deep sowing of seeing the way another part of the world makes it through a day.
This second picture is a typical shot seen while driving down the road. This is where people live. It isn't much larger than tents use when camping. In many ways, their lives are as primitive as we experience when tent camping. Garbage is burned, water brought in by the jug, maybe some electricity for lights. They probably don't own the land they are built on, and in many instances, the government can come in and level a housing area with little or no notice. Let's get perspective on what we call a bad day.

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