Dear All,
We have been back in Malakal for about two weeks now, we came back to find the classroom building at Malakal Basic school had begun which was great to see. However the diocese have had a few problems getting started on the building of the other two school which are out in two rural communities. All the materials have to come to Malakal by barge from a town called Kosti, they then have to be taken by boat and road to the building sites. There’s been a bit of a delay in them arriving here so the labourers in the communities have not been able to begin. The Diocese have just purchased a donkey and cart for the community in Riang as they are far from the Nile, this will help to bring water to mix with mud for the school walls and will then be used to bring river water for the school children.
There are lots of issues the diocese needs to be dealing with in order to build and run these schools and we are assisting them in managing these things which range from helping them to account for everything spent on labour and materials for the building work to making applications to the World Food programme for Food For Work (food to pay unskilled labourers to help with building) and applications for food distributions for the school children. We are in contact with UNICEF regarding school equipment distributions, Simon is putting together an accounts system for the diocese, we are also looking into starting up a boat project to enable the diocese to provide transport to some of the more remote communities in the diocese and would create some much needed income.
Malakal is in some ways almost medieval in feel – I think it’s the way the living quarters are split up. The whole family and sometimes extended family will often live in one or two rooms and then they will have a separate mud hut which is the kitchen where the women will cook often over coal, then there will be a little rukuba – grass/bamboo walled area which you can go behind with a bucket of river water to wash in. Maybe there will be a pit latrine and then one outside tap pumping river water to the compound. Babies, cows, chickens, goats, cats and rats roam freely between house and garden. The bishop has recently acquired a generator which is on after dark but many people don’t have this luxury. Power in the town is sporadic, sometimes a few hours every day sometimes days go by without any. We stayed at the bishops home for a while but decided to move out after the temperature was regularly hitting 50 degrees C and with hardly any electric and occasional water I was getting very ill with heat exhaustion. Some days here it has felt like we’re just surviving rather than getting any work done, luckily we found a room at the Oxfam guest house which we think we will stay in until our house renovations are finished.
Everyone seems to be getting ill at the moment, Cholora has hit town and 16 people have already died. People drink water from the Nile without boiling it so we’re not sure if it will turn into an endemic. Two of the bishop’s children have been ill and in hospital, poor baby David has just been diagnosed with malaria – we pray that he will be ok.
I attach some pics of Malakal and will be putting them and others onto our myspace sight when I am next in Khartoum. There is an update on the site about Renk which I did not send out as I don’t want to bombard you all. You can get onto the site through www.myspace.com/reconcileconsulting
Will be in touch again soon
Keren x
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
Wednesday, 7 March 2007
Sudan Update 3
Renk
Renk is a small town which boarders north and south Sudan and the communities here were amongst those hardest hit by civil war. Because of its geographical position it has been a gathering point for many internally displaced persons or returnees and people continue to be particularly vulnerable on account of human and food security issues.
After receiving the Bishop of Renk’s blessing to visit we went for 3 days to see the schools and facilities that currently exist in Renk town and to speak with those who work for the diocese. It is looking likely that Renk diocese will receive funding for further school building and when the project starts we hope to assist them in managing the process.
Providing schools is a priority for the church, a consequence of Sudan’s long civil war is that southern Sudanese have the lowest access to education in the world, there are so few schools that the government is struggling to build enough to meet the massive need. Gross primary enrolment is at 20% with less than 2% of people completing primary education. An estimated 60% of the Southern Sudanese population is under 18 years old.
We had a very productive time and felt we were able to identify some key needs with the people we spoke to. I think people were surprised by how young we were, we kept being referred to as ‘the boy and his madam’. We stayed in a lovely mud hut at the ECS Renk Guest house and eat some fairly unusual meals (one being packet custard and rice). Every building in Renk town centre for some reason is bright green, desertification seems to be an issue – I’ve never seen so much dust, when the wind is up you get ‘haboob’ – sandstorms and I barely managed the walk into town before breaking into a coughing fit.
You can see some pictures of Renk in the picture gallery.
We have just completed our first session which was mostly focusing on assessing keys needs for the two dioceses. We return to Malakal on Thursday for a month before travelling to Renk again, we hope to be able to move into our accommodation in Malakal soon but for now will be staying again with the Bishop and his family.
Will be in touch again soon
Best
Keren and Simon x
Renk is a small town which boarders north and south Sudan and the communities here were amongst those hardest hit by civil war. Because of its geographical position it has been a gathering point for many internally displaced persons or returnees and people continue to be particularly vulnerable on account of human and food security issues.
After receiving the Bishop of Renk’s blessing to visit we went for 3 days to see the schools and facilities that currently exist in Renk town and to speak with those who work for the diocese. It is looking likely that Renk diocese will receive funding for further school building and when the project starts we hope to assist them in managing the process.
Providing schools is a priority for the church, a consequence of Sudan’s long civil war is that southern Sudanese have the lowest access to education in the world, there are so few schools that the government is struggling to build enough to meet the massive need. Gross primary enrolment is at 20% with less than 2% of people completing primary education. An estimated 60% of the Southern Sudanese population is under 18 years old.
We had a very productive time and felt we were able to identify some key needs with the people we spoke to. I think people were surprised by how young we were, we kept being referred to as ‘the boy and his madam’. We stayed in a lovely mud hut at the ECS Renk Guest house and eat some fairly unusual meals (one being packet custard and rice). Every building in Renk town centre for some reason is bright green, desertification seems to be an issue – I’ve never seen so much dust, when the wind is up you get ‘haboob’ – sandstorms and I barely managed the walk into town before breaking into a coughing fit.
You can see some pictures of Renk in the picture gallery.
We have just completed our first session which was mostly focusing on assessing keys needs for the two dioceses. We return to Malakal on Thursday for a month before travelling to Renk again, we hope to be able to move into our accommodation in Malakal soon but for now will be staying again with the Bishop and his family.
Will be in touch again soon
Best
Keren and Simon x
Monday, 5 March 2007
Sudan Update 2
Dear All,
Another (much shorter you’ll be glad to see) update,
Before leaving Malakal we were invited to a memorial service for a man who died one year ago in a rather nasty cattle rustling incident. We didn’t manage to work out if he was the rustler or the owner of the cattle being rustled. The service consisted of family and friends standing up and eulogising in between songs and prayers for the family left behind (sadly a wife and 5 children). We then went to the widows home; all the men (including myself) went to eat while the women served the food and then waited until we were half way through before taking some of the food for themselves and eating it away from us. Everywhere we go we are served coca cola – called ‘mobile’ in Sudan, it holds the same value as alcohol does in the UK if you were having friends around for dinner. I unfortunately hate coke but people are very insistent that you knock it back and just when you were feeling relieved and proud that you managed to get through it without feeling sick or burping you are presented with another one!
I also had an opportunity to meet with some of the members of Malakal’s Mothers Union – I explained that me and Simon were married and had come to support the churches development projects in their area and was interested in finding out what they were doing to see if I could assist them in some way. However, I made the mistake of telling the women I had been married for 5 years at which point all anyone wanted to discuss was – did I have any children? Why not after such a long period of time? Did I want children? Would I have a child this year? They would pray for me. I thanked them and hope to find out a little more at their next meeting.
After over a week back in Khartoum trying to arrange our trip to Renk, we were granted permission by the Bishop of Renk on Saturday and by Wednesday were on the bus. Our expectations of this bus journey were fairly low, however, instead of the overcrowded, hot, bumpy journey we were expecting we found ourselves on an air-conditioned coach travelling along a tarmac road. Not only this but no sooner had we boarded when breakfast and drinks started to be served and even a kung foo movie with Arabic subtitles to enjoy. I have attached a picture of the kind of views on the way as well as pics of me in Khartoum earlier this week and of Simon this morning sitting in front of the tukul we are staying in here in Renk.
Will e-mail again soon
Keren x
Another (much shorter you’ll be glad to see) update,
Before leaving Malakal we were invited to a memorial service for a man who died one year ago in a rather nasty cattle rustling incident. We didn’t manage to work out if he was the rustler or the owner of the cattle being rustled. The service consisted of family and friends standing up and eulogising in between songs and prayers for the family left behind (sadly a wife and 5 children). We then went to the widows home; all the men (including myself) went to eat while the women served the food and then waited until we were half way through before taking some of the food for themselves and eating it away from us. Everywhere we go we are served coca cola – called ‘mobile’ in Sudan, it holds the same value as alcohol does in the UK if you were having friends around for dinner. I unfortunately hate coke but people are very insistent that you knock it back and just when you were feeling relieved and proud that you managed to get through it without feeling sick or burping you are presented with another one!
I also had an opportunity to meet with some of the members of Malakal’s Mothers Union – I explained that me and Simon were married and had come to support the churches development projects in their area and was interested in finding out what they were doing to see if I could assist them in some way. However, I made the mistake of telling the women I had been married for 5 years at which point all anyone wanted to discuss was – did I have any children? Why not after such a long period of time? Did I want children? Would I have a child this year? They would pray for me. I thanked them and hope to find out a little more at their next meeting.
After over a week back in Khartoum trying to arrange our trip to Renk, we were granted permission by the Bishop of Renk on Saturday and by Wednesday were on the bus. Our expectations of this bus journey were fairly low, however, instead of the overcrowded, hot, bumpy journey we were expecting we found ourselves on an air-conditioned coach travelling along a tarmac road. Not only this but no sooner had we boarded when breakfast and drinks started to be served and even a kung foo movie with Arabic subtitles to enjoy. I have attached a picture of the kind of views on the way as well as pics of me in Khartoum earlier this week and of Simon this morning sitting in front of the tukul we are staying in here in Renk.
Will e-mail again soon
Keren x
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