The Road to Duk Payuel

Joseph sent the following message to our Board of Directors. The news is great, and the quotation is so wonderful from the elder I had to share it with the world. I did ask for Joseph's permission first.

Team,
I just spoke to people at Duk. They are very happy that Philip Thon, Minister for roads and transportation has developed the road from Poktap to Duk. It is only 8 minutes to ride the car from Poktap to Duk and it was one hour by car the time I came with Kevin, Matt, Deb. The road development is proceeding to North Sudan which might give us chance of buying building Material from Malakal(Town).

Internet, good road among others attracted several NGOS to Duk. International Rescue Service(IRS) began to establish their compound at Duk. Many will follow them.

John Dau Library just arrived at Duk. The books were shifted in container from America to Duk, very exciting.

One old man I spoke to said "It is not a development but Mircles because our village never seen such things since the creation." He went on, on, on, and on thanking American people, and lastly he said Bin Laden is a pig who wanted to kill Americans who love the whole world.

Thanks,
Joseph

ASAH Updates

I've been too busy to keep up to date with ASAH happenings and future events, but here is a quick run-down.

The DVD of ASAH is now available for purchase from our website, Amazon, and probably a few other locations. Great bonus features, especially a collection of Deb Dawson's stunning photos set to a beautiful original composition.

ASAH was invited to screen at the Fargo Film Festival Wed. March 4th. We don't get to play the movie on the really big screen often; it looked great, we had a nice crowd, and got good questions. If only we would remember to take photos!

The film was just accepted into the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival, and will screen either Friday night or sometime Saturday, April 4. I knew those 4 years at Iowa State would pay off some day.

We hope the film will screen on the 4th, because that will give Joseph and I a chance to get there. We have a wild 9 days of presentations lined up, stretching from March 31 to April 7. We have 3 screenings in Mankato planned before heading down for 4 screenings in Cedar Rapids, one in Iowa City, and two in Clinton Iowa.

International Relief and Development and John Dau

ASAH's good friend John Dau signed an agreement with the International Relief and Development organization yesterday that should keep the Duk Payuel Lost Boy Clinic funded and operational for another year and half. The clinic has added cold storage so they can do vaccinations; they are distributing 14,000 mosquito nets to try and prevent malaria, and they are undertaking a massive de-worming campaign.

The building itself has added solar panels and a wind turbine, which should help all of us trying to build in Duk Payuel.

My Sister's Keeper: School Built!

The organization, My Sister's Keeper, reports on the successful completion of the 900 student school in Akon, southern Sudan. Looks like it was a 3 year project with many, many challenges.

Joseph on tour

Joseph had 3 presentations in 5 days in the middle of January: at Riverside Place in Fargo on January 14, at Carberry United Church of Canada in Carberry Manitoba, Jan. 18th, and Westworth United Church in Winnipeg on January 19th. All three events were well attended and well received, but the Carberry event was one of the most successful fundraisers we have run, and Joseph's presentation got a tremendous write up in the Carberry New Express.

Library Project Money Bomb!

A Library Project for Southern Sudan is dropping a money bomb on Dec. 14; please visit their site and donate what you can. But first, check out their video.

Lost Boy visits Minneapolis Area

The MPLS Star Tribune just ran a story about Benjamin Ajak visiting North Lake Academy in Forest Lake, MN. Benjamin is a co-author of They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky; looks like the visit made quite an impact on the students.