Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Reports from Renk, Sudan

Hans Arneson and Mary Schmitt of Duke have arrived at Renk Theological College in Sudan, and have begun teaching January Hebrew and Greek. The reports have been coming in from the field (mostly via Angela Teigland Arneson), and the news is good (despite the report of a shooting of a US person in Khartoum, which appears to have been an isolated incident that should not affect our program directly). Let me copy some of the recent reports here in rough chronological order:



A) From Angela: ...Good news! I just received a brief phone call from Hans and Mary. They arrived safely in Khartoum and were met by Father Joseph at the airport. Hans said that the travel went as planned despite a stop in Beirut. They will begin their journey to Renk at some point tomorrow morning (or in their case -- later this morning) and I expect I will hear from them via email or phone once they arrive at their final destination.

B) From Angela: ...I received a call from Hans at about 6am this morning and thought I would share a few updates. He and Mary have arrived at Renk and are settling in. They are staying in Father Joseph's living quarters and, according to Hans, being fed very well and enjoying the beautiful weather!

Their journey from Khartoum to Renk took about 6 hours and included 1 flat tire - but they arrived safely and in good spirits. Teaching will begin in the next day or so and Hans said they are both looking forward to it.

C) From Ellen Davis: I phoned today, and they both had a very good first day of class... Fr. Abraham...kept saying, “May we read one more verse (of Jonah)?” Hans had only 6 students, so some have not returned from the holiday, but he said 3 of the 6 are very impressive. So we have lots to rejoice about. They have not experienced any difficulty connected with the shooting in Khartoum, but there is some talk that it was following a party of heavy drinking. I told them to stay away from all such parties.

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