BoppWeBlog

2008

January 25th - January 26

• Fly from Grand Rapids to Detroit
• Fly from Detroit to Amsterdam
• Fly from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya

January 27

• Stay at Mayfield House in Nairobi. Try to get acclimated to the time and weather.

January 28

• Fly from NAIROBI to LOKICHOGGIO via ALS flight ALS881
• Fly from Loki to Werkok via AIM Caravan and AIM Cessna 206

January 28 - February 5

• Work in Werkok, Sudan.

February 5

• Fly from Werkok to Loki
• Fly from Loki to Nairobi

February 6 - February 10

• Visit Masi area in Rift Valley area of Kenya.
• More details to come. Plans have not yet been made.

February 10 (evening) - February 11

• Fly from Nairobi to Amsterdam
• Fly from Amsterdam to Detroit and finally Grand Rapids.
• Will be flying home with at least my cousin David. My brother Aaron and Uncle Tim may head back to Sudan if supplies arrive.

February 11 - February 12

• Recover.

In late January 2008 I will be traveling to Kenya and Sudan for a few weeks. My uncle is part of a missions organization that is responsible for building a small hospital in south Sudan. So a good chunk of my time in Africa will be assisting in that mission. For more follow the link… http://www.pccsudan.org . Southern Sudan, like most of Sudan has been raveged by civil war. While areas north such as Darfur continue to be pretty unstable, southern Sudan remains quite calm, and is much like its out country run by the SPLA.

Outside of this mission we will also be in Kenya, attempting to find my ‘nephew’ my brother Aaron’s sponsored child. We believe he lives in the Masi area, which is supposed to be quite beautiful. This should make for a fun little adventure at the end of our trip that may last a few days.  We will be flying to this area on a small plane as it is difficult to travel by road in Kenya. The Masi area is in the rift valley, and is only about 100 miles from Nairobi where we will be staying. Although most likely we will be staying at least one night in the Masi area.

Sudan will be extremely remote. We will be taking a number of small planes to get to Werkok, Sudan. Near Bor along the Nile river. I’m looking forward to this adventure, and hope to accomplish much work on the hospital while I’m there. The people of southern Sudan are the Dinka. And it was in this area that many of the ‘Lost Boys’ came from.

Kenya, which is known for being a hub of westernized culture in east Africa, and is usually quite safe is experiencing some turmoil following the recent election. Here is an article from the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7167363.stm. So we will see what happens.

I’ve been getting my immunizations. Seven in all so far. So hopefully I’ll be able to resist getting too sick while over there. Although I think getting at least a little sick is probably inevitable. I will also be on a strict regimine of antibiotics and malaria medication while I’m traveling.

Basically I’m treating this an extreme camping trip in my preperation. And I really like camping rustic, so I’m pretty excited.  This will be by far the longest I will have been away from my wife Kelly. So that is going to be difficult. We have decided that to keep her busy while I’m gone, she will be remodeling the bathroom at our house. Something which she has been wanting to do for a long time. With the trip and the remodeling we will be spending a tremendous amount of money. But I’m very grateful that we have the resources to be able to do this.

More to come… I’ll keep you posted.