Journey...

On Friday, I was treated to the privelige of a road trip across the wide open spaces of Upper Nile State, South Sudan, from Malakal to Mabaan County with one of the NGO's who work there. For those of you, like me, who are interested in these kind of details, here is a picture of my vehicle of choice (well, there wasn't really all that much choice):

The road varied from the very wide:

To the very narrow and windy:
...and was, for the most part, very very bumpy. It was good to see a bit more of the country though, we stopped off in a couple of towns en-route and managed to complete the journey in a timely 5 and a half hours (about 140 miles). And so it was that I came to be here, in Doro. Exactly one week ago today.

Since then there's been a lot of settling in, and beginning to get to grips with the construction project, as well as moving in to my new mud hut (pictures to follow). I finally got round to that yesterday, having had to replace the ceiling and clean it out, aided in no small amount by some of the other missionaries here. We then celebrated with dinner together under the stars...Then, things took another turn for the better when my ipod started working again. I'm sure you find this news as exciting as I do.

Also, while I've got your attention, a little lesson about Sudanese culture for those of you who have never been. It is supremely important to greet people here (I was told by one of the Sudanese staff here), if you walk past people without saying hello, even if you dont know them, then you will be considered rude, "people will say, that is a bad man". It takes a bit of getting used to when you've lived in a Scottish city for so long.