A container full of supplies needed to build a house for a Tauranga family volunteering in Sudan has less than a month to make it to the town where they are living before the rainy season starts, blocking the roads for weeks.
Bryan Archer has never set foot in Africa but the 67-year-old is about to make the epic 15,297km journey to South Sudan to build his daughter a home.
Tauranga woman Destinee Macleod has been living in Tonj, South Sudan, since last September with her husband, Jono, and two small girls, Zoe, 3, and Ellisha, 1.
Read about their volunteering journey here.
The couple, both doctors, have been volunteering with In Deed and Truth (IDAT) and living in a house with a makeshift ceiling and cracks in the windows and doors, giving easy access to scorpions and snakes at night.
On March 28, an 18,500kg container left the Port of Tauranga carrying everything Mr Archer needs to build the house.
He said he had been fundraising by word of mouth since the Bay of Plenty Times published its first story about the Macleods in November. He estimates he has sent $170,000 worth of materials to Sudan, with the family putting in about $40,000 themselves.
Mr Archer will leave New Zealand on May 29 with fellow builder Richard Welch, 54, to fly to Kenya, where they will organise visas before making the perilous journey to South Sudan.
Already the mission has had it fair share of problems. "Everything is in that container. It made its way to Kenya in just over a month but, once there, they couldn't get it off the ship because the crane was broken.
"Eventually, they got it on the wharf, where Customs were insisting on inspecting and unloading it. But we knew if they did that, they would never be able to pack it all back in again, because it is so tightly packed."
The inspection was waived for a US$400 ($530) fee.
The container is now on its way from Mombasa to Nairobi and, from there, will head to Uganda where it will travel up to the South Sudanese border town of Nimule.
An army officer in charge of the border crossing has promised the family he will look after the container.
An armed guard will also travel with the container from Nimule to Tonj.
"Every town they go through, there is a roadblock and people want something.
"This is why they are going to have an armed guard on board to protect everything."
The container should arrive in Nimule, 750km from Tonj, this weekend but that was where the roads got really rough, Mr Archer said.
"The container's average travel time will be 16km/h. If they don't get it there before the heavy rains start in the beginning of June, the roads will be shut until September.
"It's raining now but the real rains come in the first few days of June. The rains are there, the ground is getting wet, but it's soaking it up. But it gets to a point where it can't soak it up any more. Destinee says it just becomes a sea of water."
Once in Sudan, Mr Archer will stay there until the house has been finished.
He said the house Destinee and her family were living in now was mud brick with a corrugated iron roof, where the purlins for the roof were tree branches.
"There are a couple of openings for windows with a cloth over them for curtains and a door with a big gap underneath it.
"This is the main reason why I am doing all of this. Destinee has found a poisonous snake curled up under little Ellisha's bed, they have had scorpions in the house too.
"The house I am building for them will be insect-proof. We won't have glass on the windows but we will have security measures, insect screens on them and, of course, the doors will shut.
"There is level of apprehension in Destinee and Jono, I know that, because of the two little girls.
"This home will mean they have a place they will be able to call their own. It will be a retreat for them and they will have a house that is safe from snakes and scorpions, the girls will be able to sleep well. They will be able to block out the malaria mosquitoes at night.
"They will have their own toilet and a shower, rather than having to go outside at night."
The couple are hoping to set up a maternity ward with operating theatre, clinic and a waiting room, and have committed to living in South Sudan for 10 years.
In Tonj, population about 20,000, they see patients from as faraway as people can walk, some taking three to four days to get there.
"On the ratio of doctors to population, it would mean Tauranga would have three and half doctors for its population."
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•To follow the Macleods and their stories on Facebook like their page; facebook.com/macleodsonamission
•To support their cause, please donate to their Givealittle page; givealittle.co.nz/org/KFSS