{"id":1484,"date":"2011-10-06T09:06:53","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T14:06:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/?p=1484"},"modified":"2011-10-06T09:09:46","modified_gmt":"2011-10-06T14:09:46","slug":"the-mud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mud!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Life in Malakal is dominated by &#8220;the mud&#8221; at this time of the year.   We are late in the rainy season and in this flat town has a loam soil that has a pretty good clay content, so there is mud everywhere.  Only part of the road from the airport is tarmac and even that is broken in spots.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1487\" style=\"width: 247px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/shops-mud-water.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1487\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1487    \" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/shops-mud-water.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"237\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/shops-mud-water.jpg 640w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/shops-mud-water-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 237px) 100vw, 237px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1487\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shops, mud, and water<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The remainder of the roads in town are flat dirt roads that turn into muddy messes with the rain and traffic.  There are larger and smaller holes, some filled with water and others with greasy mud.  The result when it dries out is that all the roads are rough and bumpy.  Our first day here we went and bought gum boots (rubber boots) to help us get around.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1486\" style=\"width: 238px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/muddy-street-before-hotel.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1486\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1486    \" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/muddy-street-before-hotel.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"228\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/muddy-street-before-hotel.jpg 640w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/muddy-street-before-hotel-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 228px) 100vw, 228px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1486\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muddy street before a hotel<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Thankfully we&#8217;ve had good sun for 3 days so it has dried out a LOT.  There has been light rain late in 2 afternoons, but not enough to really gum things up again.  We had been told that we would need to have gum boots to get to the church offices and had we gone on Monday or earlier that would have been the case.  However we went Tuesday and it was just dry enough in the bad places for us to get through with shoes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1490\" style=\"width: 471px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/stagnant-water-in-street1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1490\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1490  \" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/stagnant-water-in-street1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"461\" height=\"344\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/stagnant-water-in-street1.jpg 640w, http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/stagnant-water-in-street1-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 461px) 100vw, 461px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1490\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stagnant water in the street<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand?moderation_action=report_form&object_type=post&object_id=1484&width=250&height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Life in Malakal is dominated by &#8220;the mud&#8221; at this time of the year. We are late in the rainy season and in this flat town has a loam soil that has a pretty good clay content, so there is mud everywhere. Only part of the road from the airport is tarmac and even that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Mud! - Ekstrands in Congo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mud! - Ekstrands in Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Life in Malakal is dominated by &#8220;the mud&#8221; at this time of the year. We are late in the rainy season and in this flat town has a loam soil that has a pretty good clay content, so there is mud everywhere. Only part of the road from the airport is tarmac and even that [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ekstrands in Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-06T14:06:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-06T14:09:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/shops-mud-water.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/08990b6f91da9939c5c3b5649490a92e\"},\"headline\":\"The Mud!\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-06T14:06:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-06T14:09:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":253,\"commentCount\":0,\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Mud! - Ekstrands in Congo\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-06T14:06:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-06T14:09:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/08990b6f91da9939c5c3b5649490a92e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/2011\\\/10\\\/the-mud\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Mud!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ekstrands in Congo\",\"description\":\"Glimpses, profound and mundane, into our life\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/08990b6f91da9939c5c3b5649490a92e\",\"name\":\"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2b31b551d30c8a82b127b0ec8f1572498d62b706e89148248d8776b1d0402ecf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2b31b551d30c8a82b127b0ec8f1572498d62b706e89148248d8776b1d0402ecf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2b31b551d30c8a82b127b0ec8f1572498d62b706e89148248d8776b1d0402ecf?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand\"},\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/blogs.covchurch.org\\\/ekstrand\\\/author\\\/ekstrand\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Mud! - Ekstrands in Congo","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Mud! - Ekstrands in Congo","og_description":"Life in Malakal is dominated by &#8220;the mud&#8221; at this time of the year. We are late in the rainy season and in this flat town has a loam soil that has a pretty good clay content, so there is mud everywhere. Only part of the road from the airport is tarmac and even that [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/","og_site_name":"Ekstrands in Congo","article_published_time":"2011-10-06T14:06:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-10-06T14:09:46+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2011\/10\/shops-mud-water.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/"},"author":{"name":"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/#\/schema\/person\/08990b6f91da9939c5c3b5649490a92e"},"headline":"The Mud!","datePublished":"2011-10-06T14:06:53+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-06T14:09:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/"},"wordCount":253,"commentCount":0,"articleSection":["News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/","name":"The Mud! - Ekstrands in Congo","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-10-06T14:06:53+00:00","dateModified":"2011-10-06T14:09:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/#\/schema\/person\/08990b6f91da9939c5c3b5649490a92e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/2011\/10\/the-mud\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Mud!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/#website","url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/","name":"Ekstrands in Congo","description":"Glimpses, profound and mundane, into our life","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/#\/schema\/person\/08990b6f91da9939c5c3b5649490a92e","name":"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b31b551d30c8a82b127b0ec8f1572498d62b706e89148248d8776b1d0402ecf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b31b551d30c8a82b127b0ec8f1572498d62b706e89148248d8776b1d0402ecf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b31b551d30c8a82b127b0ec8f1572498d62b706e89148248d8776b1d0402ecf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Pete &amp; Cindy Ekstrand"},"url":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/author\/ekstrand\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1494,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions\/1494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/ekstrand\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}