About Sudan

Country "Stats" :)
-Sudan is the largest country in all of Africa :)
-Capital & place of Goverment: Khartoum, found in the North
-There are 134 different Tribal Languages - the Trade Language is Arabic.
-They can experience temperatures up to 52'c (124'F) !!
-The estimated population is around 41.2 million (has to be general due to war and ongoing genocide)

The War: The most recent war in Sudan started around 1983 (the year I was born, incidentally) and lasted a devastating 21 years, and ended only in 2005 with the signing of a Peace Agreement between the North and South armies. Allow me to explain some of the tensions as I understand them...

There are 3 reasons that tension exists between the North and the South in Sudan. First of all - if you divide the country in thirds, the top 2/3's are considered "the North" and the bottom 1/3'd "the South" (just to give you some geographical understanding!). So. The 3 reasons...
a) Ethnicity: North - Arab, South - African
b) Religion: North - Muslim, South - tribal beliefs & 'Christianity'
c) Economic: North - Sahara desert, South - good farm land & oil fields

As you can see, there are enough reasons there for this great divide to make a war "justifiable"... In the process of gaining access to the vast oil fields in the south, the northern army "slashed & burned" their way through village after village. The people of the south raised up a "rebel army" to oppose the gov. army (called the Sudan People's Liberation Army - SPLA), and the 2 sides of this war were created. In the end, approximately 2,000,000 people were killed, and 4,000,000 had to flee for their lives and seek safety in neighboring African countries or abroad.

The Refugees: With the war's end in 2005, these Refugees (remaining on the African continent) started to return to their homeland... Trucks of people were brought home to villages long gone and replaced with grassy fields... Old war equipment, ammunition, land minds, and grenades strewn about were there to greet them. "Home" was not how any of them remembered. After these 21 years, as you can well imagine - there was nothing there for them to return too. Schools, hospitals, villages, water wells - all, either gone or destroyed. No infrastructure, no health care, no education system, no roads, no clean water... Welcome Home.

A New Direction

So... it's time to stop chronicling the general happenings of life, and start the information flow about Sudan!! :)

If you haven't heard yet, I'm on my way to Sudan - yep, moving... long term relocation :) I'll be Nursing in a very rural hospital in a village called Doro, on the east side of South Sudan. I am hoping to be updating my blog on a 2 month basis as well as sending out newsletters and prayer guides for all those interested... if you haven't been receiving either of those so far and would like to, please just send me an email and I'll get you on my "send too" list right away! Make sure, over the years to come, that you leave me a little note/comment to let me know you were here and if you have any questions or responses to any of the thoughts, stories, or pictures I'll be posting!

I hope you are up for the adventure along with me - this should be interesting!

Stay tuned for some pictures and information about Sudan and the work I'll be doing there in the next few weeks :) Lord willing I'll be on a plane in 4-5 weeks, so I've got lots I can tell you about between now and then!

Thanks for all your love, prayers, and support.

Meagan Monday

Yeah, I know... I'm still months behind on my blog updates... but here is the last one from my time out West in May :)

This was "Meagan Monday"... the date we took out to Elk Island - the first time either of us had ever been there.

Meagan and I were in the same tutorial group at the start of our 3rd year of Nursing... I'd just gotten back from Africa and had shared a few applicable stories with our group and, as she tells it, she decided that she'd "get the rest outta' me"! I was sort of a shy, unfriendly type... I'm thankful she got curious enough to try and crack my shell :) As little as we have in common (seriously, major opposites, from taste in shoes to our definitions of a good time! haha) I absolutely love this girl to death :) Enjoy our photos.

This was our picnic... in the rain I might add... meag lent me her mittens :)









Solo shots (looks like Africa in the background, don't you think?)

Meag trying to see if the Fairy Tale really does come true... (we're still waiting...)

Double-chin-sky-shots... my favorite :D

Thanks for your friendship Meagan...You'd better move in to the hut down the path from me in Sudan... we've gotta keep up tradition!
I love you, I really do :)

People I love...

Ohhh, after almost a whole year I was back in Alberta for 3 weeks in April/May... it was SO good for my heart! So many people I've missing being with, talking with, praying with... *sigh* So good.

Here are a bunch of Pictures of me with some of the people I love!

Sure didn't get to see enough of this one... this is my Amy :D


Kelly (a friend from U of A Nursing) and her boyfriend Jeff came to visit me at the Navs conference... they live in Medicine Hat - I was great to connect with them.

Our Girls Small Group from the conference... Wonderful group of women - we learned a lot together.

Me and Nabeel (Jabbour) - he spoke at the conference... wonderful man

Kristen and I - new friend from Ontario :D (excited for you to come visit Kristen!)

Me and my Gen :) Love you girl - praying for you this summer...

...And this is Craig :)
This was actually a hilarious day, cause we can just never get a picture of us that looks natural or good of both of us at the same time... we must have tried this about at least a dozen times... good grief :D Excited to have you home again soon!

This is Me and Erika - my favorite and terrifying Nursing Instructor who thinks I'm Amish :D

Me and Emily Rudd, my hilarious friend who always gets Earl Grey tea, even at Steeps where there are like 100 flavors... tisk, tisk :D

Me and my Taul Pan (real name? Paul Tan) ... (oooo, and my Mazda 3 rental in the background - yay!)

Simon and Renee (finally, a picture without me in it!). These are 2 of my favorite people. Thanks you guys for the talks, times of prayer, and encouragement. You are both such a Blessing.

Phil and Marcia Leskawich (Marica is also known to me as my Gandolf* coming to save the day on a white horse... long story, let's just say these 2 have been an advocate for me in times where I really needed one!) Love you both.

Whew... you've made it to the end... last picture... me & Paul, and Langano Skies Ethiopian food :D Mmmmm... best way to end the trip... seriously, we were on our way to the airport!... Priorities!

Feeling Loved...

Well, this post is dedicated to all the crazy people who helped plan and were a part of my dramatic 'welcome home' day in Edmonton! Our car drove right from the airport to Langano Skies, my favorite Ethiopian restaurant... this I thought might happen :) But, there were like 13 people there... that I wasn't expecting. After eating yummy food that I've been craving for like, a year, we started the drive back to "the Happy Place"... only, on the way I got blind folded and kidnapped! Again, not expecting that! Then I proceeded to try not to barf as I was driven around the city, after 7-8 hours of air travel already that day, with my eyes covered :P Then I was lead by the hand into a building that I couldn't figure out (back at the airport maybe?), up an elevator, down a dark hallway... (what the heck?), entered another room (more light in this one), and was instructed to "sit" while my blind fold was whisked off to reveal that I was in... "The Africa Room" of the Fantasy Land Hotel, in West Ed Mall! Hilarious... the girls had talked about renting the room for a night last year before I moved home, and now, there they'd gone and done it... I have hilarious and wonderful friends :D

Everyone who had been at Langano soon "re-arrived" and the rest of the evening we spent laughing, hanging out, playing Bolderdash (thanks to Pam... she ALWAYS wants to play Bolderdash), and then, Camile (who apparently organized most of it) started handing me little love notes that people had mailed or email her, from home or across Canada. This was a prayer shower for me before I went to Sudan! I felt loved :) They'd organized for Janna to phone from Ecuador, and I got to talk to Julia, Pedro, Luigi, and Coco :) My Cup Ranneth Over!

A while later the boys all left, leaving the girls to hang out in the hot tub and stay up late talking into the night :) - I died earliest though...that time change is a killer :P We had a great time, lots of laughs and I really felt loved and very blessed - which, I'm pretty sure was their goal :D

Springtime Happenings

At Peggy's Cove with My Daddy :) We saw Pilot whales that day!

Joanna's 'Bachelorette Party'!? Just kidding, restaurant error... it was just her 25th Birthday instead!

It's that time of year again... mmm, fruit :)

Next blog update... My trip out West... stay tunned!!

Paul Brandt Concert!!

I got tickets to the Paul Brandt Concert for my 25th Birthday from Mom and Dad! It was here in Halifax early February - Julia and I went and reminisced about our by-gone Alberta days and singin' along with Paul while drivin' through the Rockies :)

The Concert was Great (and I'm not even a big concert kinda girl!) and I just super enjoyed how much he interweaves his Faith in the music... probably most of the people had no clue he was quoting Scripture in almost all the songs. Good fella'.

Here's us with our brand new CD's... cracked 'em open for the drive home :)
One Song on my CD is really good... I think I'll blog it sometime cause it just really resonates with me... anyway... stay tunned :D

Miss you Jules!! Love ya ;)

Feliz Ano, 2008!!

My deepest apologies to those of you who know the meaning of this word (ano) without the ~ on the "n", when it would mean "year" ... "Happy New Year!" I do not mean to offend, I simply have an old computer and can't figure out what command or key sequence will give me an "N" with ~ on top :P

Anyway! Enough trying to dig myself out of hole ... pardon the pun...haha :)

Happy New year! This year, in keeping with our new tradition from Ecuador, we celebrated the passing of 2007 with an "Ano Viejo" (again, my apologies)... an "Old Man" to burn as a symbol of forgetting and moving on from the regrets of 2007.

Beth and Janna (although, mostly Beth) made him... his name is Ivan Malo, and the choseing of this name has a story, although, you'll have to ask my sister about it -I don't feel at liberty to publish it all over the internet :)

Here he is burning away, our old man... in Ecuador everyone lays their Ano viejo's in the middle of the street to burn (they are filled with newspaper/straw, and firecrackers!) them on the stroke of midnight. We set ours alight at 1 am in Canada, which is 12 midnight in Ecuador.

Luckily no cops came running to our house and no neighbors complained at the Roman Candles that came shooting up in our back yard from the lap of Ivan Malo !! :D