we’ve spent the last week in the city of bor. desolate two years ago, the city is now one of the economic centers of southern sudan as the refugees return. everywhere we look, we see remnants of a displaced people - people who have survived a civil war but have been stripped of all of their possessions in the process. there is no waste for there is nothing to discard. there are no luxuries for the essentials are rarely provided. there is no permanence for everyone awaits what will happen next. but there is hope. there is a hope that the sudanese people will rise again out of the rubble and reclaim their culture. there is a hope that those displaced will return to empower their people to create a future for the next generation. and there is a hope that the past 50 years were not endured in vain but fueled a fire for freedom. in some ways, i feel completely out of touch with reality in this place so far away from the world i know. yet in other ways, i feel as if i’ve never known life to be more real.

we’ve updated our website so check out http://rebuildsudan.wordpress.org for more info on our trip!

michael kuany [rebuild sudan] and dave gerber [mosaic]

little ones [juba, sudan]

soccer game [juba, sudan]

ethiopian sunset [addis ababa, ethiopia]

waiting… lots of waiting [addis ababa, ethiopia]

i really cannot believe it… am i seriously going to africa? yes… four days of travel to get there, by sunday night i’ll be hearing the story of the lost boys of sudan while sitting in an african hut. wow. i am humbled at the chance to go. thank you all who have been apart of sending me there.

a quick recap of our schedule is as follows…

may 21-23 – team departs
San Francisco, CA to
Boston, MA to
Frankfurt, Germany to
Addis, Ethiopia to
finally… we arrive in Juba, Sudan

may 24 – drive to Bor, Sudan
visioning meeting with michael

may 25-30 – project
project programming/site investigation
site surveying
visit nearby schools
utility investigations
final design presentation

may 31 – transit to Uganda

june 1-3 – african safari

june 4 – review project with eMi Uganda office
kevin and dave depart

june 5, 6, 7 – sarah/aryn/jill in Uganda
aryn departs the 7th

june 8-12 – photography/graphic design workshop
sarah & jill teach workshop for school from 11-1 for high schoolers and 1-3 for elementary students

june 14-17 – Lyra project
sarah and jill travel to Lyra with eMi to design an orphanage in central Uganda

june 18 – sarah & jill leave for home

the scenery isn’t unique… drive anywhere away from the mountains, the ocean, the city and the scene will be the same. wide expanses of openness fill the horizon as far as the eye can see, fields of grain wave to the ever present wind, and the playful clouds hang suspended above my head. i’ve seen the same views around the world, but it feels different here. the kansas plains connect to a core of who i am and remind me i am home.

the kansas plains are unassuming and unpretentious. they host roads which don’t ask me to drive faster nor contain traffic which requires me to drive slower. they grant me to permission to weave between their boundaries and live within their presence without question. they simply exist in the stillness of those who’ve come before me and those who will follow. i am but a dot in their history and recognize my smallness in their humble expanse. no place else have i been given so much yet expected nothing in return. without intending to, the plains of kansas have taught me to be still… i’ve learned from them what it means to simply be and what it feels like to come home.

i’m selling my photos online to support our trip to sudan! it’s much easier this year to purchase a photograph… order anything you want online, pay with credit card and have it shipped to you directly!!

check out my online gallery here: 3see.zenfolio.com

if there are photos you’ve seen that aren’t online, just email me.
if you want a size that is not there, just email me.
if i can do anything else to help you out, you guessed it, just email me.

prices are cheaper this time as well, woot woot! economic times hit everyone and i want to be sure all of my work is affordable so you can purchase one and help us rebuild sudan. prices are as follows:
4×6 - $12
5×7 - $15
8×10 - $20
11×14 - $40
16×24 - $60
so please purchase a photograph at 3see.zenfolio.com to adorn your wall, give as a gift, or sit on your desk!

if you want to wait to buy one of my photographs after i return from sudan, i totally understand! just let me know by sending me an email (jsornson@gmail.com) so i can begin estimating how much funding i still need to raise!

thank you much!

an update on me from Jill Sornson on Vimeo.

when you’re a survivor, you see differently. you’ve been plagued by sideways glances and awkward questions. you’ve come to know the best and worst sides of what it means to be human. you cannot help but see people differently.

when you’re a survivor, you live differently. you’ve had a chance to look death in the face and turn the other way. you’ve stood on the edge of what could have been but will not be. you cannot help but live life differently.

when you’re a survivor, you smile differently. you’ve valued the color of a flower more than before and the taste of food. you’ve been stripped of beauty but given a chance to reclaim it. you cannot help but smile at each day differently.

to read maggie’s story, see HERE
to see the other photos i took of maggie, see HERE*

*note: more to come… just have to find the time to edit them and get them up!

no matter where i live or where i roam,
wheat will always remind me of home.
whether growing green or glowing golden,
their fingers wave at me in wonted.

i live in a place known for what it believes, not for what it is. the chapters in our history contain men and women who have fought for equal rights, free love, and environmental preservation. they have chained themselves to fences, lived in trees, and marched down avenues.

today, i joined their story.

if a child goes abducted or missing in the united states, the national news is called, the amber alert is issued, and all ears are perked. the police scour through fields, wade through water, and fly through storms until answers are found.

however, in africa, the story is different. the war in northern uganda has been called the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today. for the past 23 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the government of uganda (GoU) have been waging a war that has left nearly two million innocent civilians caught in the middle. over 20,000 children have been abducted by the joseph kony’s LRA yet the world remains silent, the children remain invisible.

but not any longer. today, i symbolically abducted myself to take a stand for children who the world ignores. please take a moment and acknowledge the battle being waged and help us make these children visible once more.

search and rescue
invisible children
my photo set

there is so much more to see outside of our cul-de-sac neighborhoods and our starbucks outings… so much more to experience than our reality TV culture and our walmart shopping.

i love being in places i am forced to rethink my perspective and view of life… to be challenged to walk in the shoes of another and to see the world through their eyes.

i was 21 years old when i left the country for the first time. since then, i’ve tried to escape the borders at least once a year. it’s important to keep things in perspective.