Nothing is as we plan

I better get another blog post written before people start wondering where we are:)

I think it is time to catch you all up on how things finally worked out for Lynn leaving Pochalla and the 4 students getting home to Pochalla. Lynn did get out of Pochalla   on Monday the 14th - the day we were supposed to leave for Kenya. He sat at the airport pretty much all day waiting to see if any plane would come in that maybe he could get a ride on. A plane did come in and thanks to the help of Othow, our friend who lives in Pochalla, Lynn got a spot on the plane. You see, when planes come in like that it is pretty much every man for himself getting a spot on the plane so there is lots of pushing and shoving going on. I had not heard from Lynn and it was getting towards 5:30 pm and I was feeling like I did not want to look at my phone or turn the computer on and see a message from him. About that time Lynn walks in the door! I had been able to change our flights to Thursday the 17th with only a minor cost so we were set to go.
The students from Pochalla arrived in Pochalla on Christmas Eve! I have never been so thankful to hear about people getting on flights.
The week we left Juba the President had changed the bank rate to a free market rate which means that the bank rate was now able to try and keep up with the black market rate. The bank rate had been around 3 and the black market around 19 so you can see that this was a problem. Now the problem is that goods and fuel have tripled in price and some things are no longer available.  It has been a challenge to get money ( US dollars) out of the bank even from our Dollar account so this has really put a road block up for getting things done.
We had planned to leave for Kenya on the 14th and those plans changed to the 17th.
We had planned for the students to be home on the 9th and that changed to the 23rd.
We had planned to start getting things ready to send to Pochalla for building but with the cost of things those plans are changing.
We had planned to get money from the bank but those plans have changed.
God does not change!
I was asked recently what we do on a regular day. I am not sure we have a regular day but the day I was asked that had been an interesting day. We met with the Moderator to get a check to see if we could get some dollars from the bank. We were at the bank for 1 1/2 hours spending most of the time talking with a manager of some sort. We talked about the war, his being in a displaced persons camp, people who come to help versus those who come to see what they can get and about Lynn and I meeting in Juba. It was a nice time of visiting and hearing someone else's ideas and then on top of that we were able to get some money!
So, here we are again, waiting for the office people to come back from the month long Christmas break. We need to be getting supplies bought for Pochalla and are looking forward to a visit from Michael Weller in February.
Oh, and Lynn's frozen shoulder is starting to thaw:)