Patience and Flexibility

    This week was a great one. I have been getting better acquainted with my responsibilities as Base Manager. This job will be more challenging than initially thought. I have many responsibilities that include:

• Budget Manager with signing power for all Office, Housing, and Staff related items/functions 
• Housing Arrangement/Vehicle Transportation Coordinator
• Network Administrator
• Utilities Overseer for 3 Locations
• Generator Overseer for 3 units
• Lease/Contract Manager
• Office Manager
• New Housing Manager (we are looking for a new base and planning for it, had to draw initial sketches for our compound planning)

The White Nile

I'm not stating these to brag but just to say that there is never a dull moment. I feel like God is equipping me with the patience, fortitude and know-how to be quick on my feet and the flexibility to not only learn but act in these roles He has put before me to His Glory. But to be perfectly honest it is extremely stressful at times, so thanks for the much needed prayer and support.

This week I was able to go to a two day training program entitled Managing Projects in Emergencies.  It was hosted by an organization called Redr uk (Registered Engineers Disaster Recovery). It was very informative and I felt like it mapped out alot of interesting concepts. One being the reason that disasters occur because a given community's capacity is exceeded. 


This means that all disasters occur simply because the community's capacity to handle the given situation is exceeded and that NGO's and GO's are working to supply relief in the form of helping increase a community's capacity until they are able to increase their own infrastructure and capacity to a volume that can address their situation. 

Coffee Break

I was able to attend this training with my friends Patrick from Nairobi, Peter in logistics, and Lasuba in logistics. 

Peter - at training bright and early!

The training also showed us more critical ways of thinking about disasters. How to identify the roots of the situation (the main causes) so that they can be accurately addressed, instead of only addressing the fruits (effects of the disaster) because these will just reoccur. Both of these concepts were portrayed in the format of a Problem Tree, a very simple yet effective planning tool. 

The Problem Tree

Waiting for our ride after the first day of training.

The training was hosted in the Peace room at the Intra-African Hotel. Although the material was quite dry at some points, I feel the training was very beneficial. Also another benefit was that the food at the Hotel was great! This was the first time I was able to enjoy a burger since being in South Sudan ... the simple luxuries of life! lol. 

The Intra-Africa Hotel.

The Peace Room

After the two days of training were over,I spent  the rest of the week playing catch up  - addressing various budget items that were tabled in my absence. One of the joys of being the Base Budget Manager. (I think I have signed my name to more papers in the first month of being here than the entirety of my academic career.....this may be a slight exaggeration but you get my point!) 

Loading the caravan to Yida with Conor

I also helped my buddy Conor load a Caravan plane with lumber and supplies for Yida as they are preparing for the rainy season.

...keep this in your prayers..... 

In about a month rainy season will hit and it will be a struggle to get enough food into the refugee camps near the border because roads will become impassible. This is a major concern because there are essentially a ton of people with no means to provide their own food - suffering from famine, and NGO's like Samaritan's Purse have the ability to only provide a certain capacity of food. 

At the close of this week we said goodbye to our acting DCD (Deputy Country Director) Len.  He was a great help and will be missed, so we said our goodbyes and sent him off with the gift of a shirt that made him look more Sudanese. 

Len is officially South Sudanese and has the t-shirt to prove it! 

We also celebrated our Country Directors B-day by presenting him with a "Major Award". It is small things like this that remind us of our fellowship and sense of team here in South Sudan. 

The Country Director's Major Award.

We are all children of God that were called by God to act on the situation here in  different capacities, but it is nice to come together as a family to celebrate the small things. It provides a sense of unity that God wants us to share as the Body of Christ. To be a support net for each other and to build each other up.

Most of the team - and Len.

The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body--whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free--and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.- (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)