Joseph's sadness

My good friend Joseph was not at the teacher training because he was in Lui, about an hour farther up the road to Mundri. His mother is very sick and we are scheduled to take him to Lui tomorrow when we go to take Chief Celement back to the hospital in Mundri. We were surprised to see that his was not there for the training and that he already went to Lui. Just as the training was over, Joseph showed up. I asked him how his mother was and he said she just died!

I feel so bad for my friend. Joseph asked if we could take him to Lui and transport his mother back to Buagyi. Even though the team is expecting us back and we have the big celebration in Kalalayi, I said we would do whatever we could to help. He has no casket and our vehicle only has seats so the option is to put her in a seat or tie her to the luggage rack. This must sound so strange to all of you back home but this is real life in South Sudan.

Our driver does not like the idea of the body in a seat (Jessi and I agree) so the luggage rack is the only option. There us no casket so the best we can do is probably a mattress. There are no boards or other materials available and I can't stress how bad the roads are. If she is too lose she will work loose and fall off. If we tie her tight enough she will probably be broken. Joseph said her will tie her tight and that it is ok, it is only a body, not his mother.

We are on our way now.