Pochalla Trip

                                                               December 23, 2014

For those of you who were doubters I "Lynn" a soon to be 60 year old am actually making a blog entry (I can't believe it either)

An MAF plane arrives in Pochalla, South Sudan with a bunch of westerners hoping to some day make a small difference in a small village. A choir is singing and probably 200 people show up to welcome the long awaited arrival of these people. Maybe Pochalla will some day have a school ! Pochalla is so remote that change is almost unimaginable. Sandwiched between two rivers access is very difficult. Plane, funny as it may seem is one of the few ways to get to Pochalla. By foot is the other sure way. Trucks, pretty much impossible unless you have a 6 wheel drive army truck and it's the dry season so the river will only be 4' feet deep.

 The use of the building shown above has been promised to our fellow mission co-worker Lisa to use for teacher training purposes. Much better than under a tree which happens at some places. Pochalla will likely be one of the first places that we'll be helping to build a school building. The local people will be responsible for doing the actual building and our partners in the US will supply money for a roof , transport of materials, and some cement. My job will be to help with the logistics of doing all of the above mentioned. Some materials will likely be flown to the site. Maybe someone has an army truck I can borrow. That sounds like a risky proposition in an area where there was a war going on recently.

 The building above is the local Presbyterian Church building. Although a humble building I'm sure there is a lot of enthusiasm on Sunday even so. Very few are the worship services in Africa that I've been to that don't have clapping , dancing, and praising of God in many different forms.

The river in the photo below is the Akobo River . The land on the opposite side is actually Ethiopia. Pochalla is a beautiful town and I wouldn't mind living there but the area also presents many challenges. Peaceful and quiet yes. Also no schools, medical care, internet service, phones, etc.

It will likely be the end of this year before much of anything will be happening in Pochalla, but we hope to make a difference there with time.

Prayer concerns for the Kandels:
Language learning
Continued good health
Smooth transition to our new roles once we finish language learning.