Dinka Literacy Day?

There was supposed to be a literacy celebration at the local Dinka church this morning, but when T and I, along with the Dinka translation team, showed up at the church, we found that the church was under renovations, so there was no service that morning, so there was no literacy day - it was postponed to the next day! We left some books and tables at the church, walked through the building, then headed back to the compound.

Just before lunch, we drove over to another Dinka church to drop off some books for their literacy celebration. The visit was only going to take 15 minutes ... yeah, right! Once 2 white girls showed up (and one just on a visit to Juba!), we had to be shown around the church, we had to meet the arch deacon, and he had to give an hour "sermon" on the importance of literacy, especially in the mother tongue. It was interesting to hear first hand the importance of the work being done, but I was glad when they came around with bottles of cold water for us ... sitting in a hot room full of people in a country where deodorant isn't often used can be a bit overwhelming after a while!

They had saved our lunch for us at the guest house, and once we finished, we headed with S to the Juba Bridge Hotel for a drink. The hotel is one the edge of the Nile and the Juba Bridge can be seen from the patio where we had our drinks. It's the only bridge between Khartoum and Uganda, so is pretty strategic and therefore, no pictures! It's a pretty normal looking steel bridge.

Back on the compound, I loaded up some pictures onto facebook while T baked banana bread, then it was off for pizza with all the expates from the compound to say goodbye to S (he was heading back to Canada the day after I left). We had cake and coffee back on the compound, then T and I escaped the missionary stories so that I could pack and get ready to leave the next day.