Exploring the Lui Area (Wed., 1 March)

With the truck dead, and the realization we weren’t going anywhere for a while, we got a little “stir-crazy,” and happily took the Lui women’s invitation to walk around the areas surrounding Lui. We went roughly east toward a village they called ”Lwan-JEE-nee”. Sandy & Deborah were off working at Samaritan’s Purse. The rest of us (Archdeacon Robert, Father Bob, Rick, and I) went, accompanied by Mama Margaret, Mama Janifa, Rebekah, and Lois.

One of the first sights that caught my attention was these guys. We did not know them. Never met them. But they were heading off to their farm work, with their tools. They had no tools more sophisticated than a hoe and pickaxe. There is a local blacksmith who – when he can get metals to work with – can fashion primitive implements. And this is what they have to work with. This is all they have to work with. There are no fancy farm implements, and there are no farm animals. Just hoes and axes.

As we walked through the desert scrubland, there were some marvelous sights. The mountain in the background is called Mount Ordu.

These granite outcroppings are all over the place in Lui. And this one brought out the he-man in my brother Rick!

As we walked down the road, we saw all sorts of signs of life. One was this sight off to the north, of people putting the roof on a tukal. I don’t fully understand how much time and skill and money is required to put the grass roof on a tukal, but I have begun to understand it’s much more complex than I imagined. These fellows saw us admiring their work, and they stopped to wave back to us.

I’ve written many times here about how rough and primitive the roads were. I tried taking photos several times, in hopes that one of the photos would communicate the roughness of those “roads.” None of them really did it, but I’ll post these here, in hopes they might serve as an indicator. These were among the better, smoother roads. That’s Rick in the frame.