BACK!

 We are back in Yei! I am going to show some pictures to tell about Terekeka.  It was a great time.  The kids were much different, being from another tribe called the Mandari.  This tribe is known for being warriors and they have orange hair because they literally bathe in cow urine to keep mosquitoes away.  I'm impressed with this.  They also have some sick V-shaped scars across their foreheads. Once again, impressed.  But, me and Ben found the Mandari very kind, always smiling at us and saying hello, or sometimes "good morning" even if it was 5 o'clock pm. 

The first picture above is from July 9th (independence day) where we went to town in Terekeka (this is a small town) and  watched the celebration.  The cow that you see in the picture was soon after sacrificed.  The Mandari are also vehement cow herders.  Its funny because they really don't eat their cows either, they just keep them to pay bride prices.  Lance, Momma Lilly's son who runs Terekeka with his wife Kim, told me that it is really sad because people will let their children starve while they have these cows.  So, instead of killing a cow to save a life, they let the kid die.

 This pic is of the church at Terekeka.  They meet in the "dining hall" on the compound and this is the part where all of the kids gather into an open area and dance as they sing songs.  These kids are still young (12 or under)  so most of the time they yell more than they sing.  In any case, me and Ben learned some great new songs.  One that they sing at school (which is a series of benches and a chalkboard under some mango trees) goes "Good morning good morning Teacher, Teacher, How are you? Good morning Teacher, Teacher"  I'm just going to let you know that it is incredibly catchy.  A rap artist could take this melody and make millions, literally.

 This pic is of a walk that we took to the spanish mission that they set up a long time ago.  It's abandoned now but still a cool site to see, and its right on the Nile.  The walk was fun.  Saw a monkey, lots of naked people, and the mission (which was just a bunch of mud huts or tukals).

 One day we finished work early and took the middle aged (8-10 yrs) kids to go fishing.  Some village kids were there who fished up in those reeds that you see and caught like 5 small fish.  This pic is of Phillip, if you look close you can see some V-shaped scars.

 This is Mary, he's hard not to love.  The kids were so fun because their attention span was for ~5 seconds so when I handed them a fishing pole, they watched the cork for a very short period of time before staring off in another direction.  They really enjoyed fishing though, which made it quite fun for me as well.

 This is a pic of the compound, left building is boys dorm, right for girls, middle for dining hall/church/multipurpose center.  Also you can see the well where all the kids get their water for bathing/drinking and two posts of wood for the soccer field.  I should add that Terekeka was much hotter than Yei.  Who would've thought that 140 miles north the weather could be so much different.  It being by the Nile also ups the amount of mosquitoes.  So, in a lot of ways, Terekeka is harder to live in.    Also, this compound has to buy all of its supplies from Juba, so it doesn't get as much variety in food.  We ate oatmeal for breakfast every day and beans and rice every other meal.  Its what all the kids eat, so I felt a little more African doing this.

This is the road we took.  140 miles, 6.5 hours on the way back.  It took longer on the way up as we had a flat tire.  When I ride on roads like this and my butt feels like it is literally going to fall off, I become very thankful for the interstates at home.  Its amazing how much land we can cover in one day in a car in America.