Juba’s busy international airport is also the place to catch your Cessna 2088, a one-prop 10-seater chartered from Mission Air Fellowship. Archbishop Justin Badi Arama came to see us off on Thursday, February 5th. Our flight started with a prayer. Flying northwest for two and a half hours at a maximum altitude of 12,00 feet, we landed at the city-sized United Nations refugee camp of Yida, located just south of the South Sudan-Sudan border. I was accompanying Andudu Adam el-Nail, the bishop of the Diocese of Kadugli, whose territory lies inside the boundaries of Sudan. The other passengers included John Inglis-Jones of the Australian Relay Trust charity, the Rev. Jim Tomkins of Hope Light Mission, and the North Carolinian Anglican priest Jared Wensyel, director of the charity Sudan Church Partners.
After eating a breakfast of ful (beans), bread, and excellent strong ginger coffee, sheltered by a wood framework draped with a dingy tarpaulin, we boarded a slightly overloaded air-conditioned SUV marked with an emblem of the Diocese of Kadugli in English and Arabic. Breezing through a half-dozen checkpoints, we arrived three hours later at Jao. The border crossing into Sudan consisted of a string across the road. Entering the Nuba Mountains, we arrived after another hour or so at the bishop’s compound – a long afternoon.
While the air cooled and it got dark, we met and chatted with Assistant Bishop Hassan and other clergy. Inside the bishop’s home, we ate chicken, chicken soup, salad, more ful, and slices of mango. Eventually I retired to my hot separate room with a computer and powerful fan, but no working light, or pillow.