Where in the world is Kerrie?

Maybe many of you remember the "Where in the World is Waldo?" series of books and games. Well, I think many of you may be asking where in the world is Kerrie? That's a good question that I find I have to ask myself sometimes. You see, just 6 short days ago I was in South Sudan living in a tent. I had made a decision on July 2nd to return to Australia to see how I could help my parents who are experiencing failing health. My mother recently had a stroke and although her speech and limb mobility were not affected she has suffered some setbacks.
Decisions are often hard to make and when you are living in a remote location it takes a lot for that decision to become a reality. I put the plan in motion by emailing a travel agent who helps with Every Village travel. Internet speed and connections were very difficult so I could not use any search engines myself. Then there was the problem of how to get out of S. Sudan. God already knew what I was going to need and all the timing was clearly in his hands. I was able to join a scheduled flight that was going to pick up two Every Village interns in the north eastern part of the country. On the outset it seemed like a simple pick up and take off that would take a few hours and then would deposit me in Kampala for 2 nights so I could prepare for departure to Australia. It would prove to be anything but simple.
When I got out of the plane in Nasir this is what I saw.

This was not a good sight. We were stuck in the mud in the middle of the airstrip. It got worse. While trying to dig out the tires, the right side tire was accidentally punctured. As the tire sank deeper into the mud, my heart sank also.
We had to move the plane and now we needed a new tire. I was counting how many hours until I was supposed to take off from Kampala. To say I was concerned would be an understatement. Oh my gosh, please God help.


And help he did. I am always so amazed at who God sends and how he does it.
This time he sent the Indian army who are part of the U.N forces serving in Nasir. We had to inflate the tire and quickly pull the plane out of the mud and turn it around so it could taxi back down the airstrip to a safer and firmer location. It was an odd sight to see the plane being pulled by the U.N. truck.

We all breathed a sigh of relief and clapped as the plane moved. This however was not nearly the end of the story. Since there is absolutely nothing available in this remote location to help in repair, our wonderful pilot was able to speak to home base and another plane was dispatched from Kampala with a new tire. They would fly in the next day.
This was good news but we were still not breathing easy yet.
Other factors needed to be considered.

This time of year is wet season and it's not uncommon to have daily showers or violent thunderstorms. As we stood on the airstrip we were aware of gathering clouds and storm cells in 5 directions. We prayed often and hard. Please God hold back the rain. You see the ground all around  us was already soaked and we knew that more rain overnight would prevent another plane from landing.
We got up early next morning and checked the skies. Yay God, the sky was clear.

This was a tense but exhilarating moment. Here comes the new tire! Will they land successfully? We all held our breath.
And then touchdown :-)

Not only did we have a skillful pilot to bring the tire but we had a mechanical engineer to put it on and do the necessary checks to make it airworthy so as to  fulfill aviation requirements.

You can only imagine the joy as we lifted off. The distance we had to taxi and take off was very short and if we had failed I don't know how or when we would have gotten out. I have been told the airstrip is now closed.
We arrived back in Kampala around 5pm on Thursday the 5th. I had less than 24 hours to get it together and be ready to head out. It might sound easy but let me tell you a few things I had to tackle.
I had just been in the bush living in a tent eating beans and rice twice a day and now I had some incredible food waiting for me prepared by my southern belle hostess, Neltia. Oh to just sit and enjoy, but I had a case to pack, reservations to make and loose end to tie up before bed at midnight. Anyway thankfully it all came together and I boarded my Emirates flight Friday afternoon.

It's all kind of surreal as I sit here in my woolies to combat the Tasmanian winter,sporting my tan from several hours standing in the hot sun on the airstrip and bug bites on my legs due to life in the wet season of South Sudan.

As I get settled here I hope to post blogs about my time in Akot that I was not able to do because of poor and sporadic internet. Please stay tuned and feel free to comment with any questions you may have.