Dear All,
Well as you will know Keren is with you in the UK so instead of her normal lucid accounts I thought you might like to hear of my rather longer than expected trips to two of the new school sites. Please excuse somewhat factual account to tired to make proper prose.
As I said we had a hell of a journey, at one point it felt as if I might never return!
The initial journey to Kodok went ok (Kodok under normal circumstances should be about 2 hours by fast boat north of malakal on the Nile), apart from setting off late and the fact they were all so badly organised we made good progress up the river and the boat was roomy enough to sit comfortable and take tea and sandwiches.
After about 4 hours we ran into problems with the engine and ended up drifting with the current towards Kodok for about 30 minutes or so as we had no tools to fix the engine. The Bishop had insisted we take their new boat rather than the usually overcrowded local river boats, it turned out our driver knew nothing about boats or engines. Thankfully a very nice driver of a passenger boat stopped and fixed the engine and then after our driver failed to work it properly jumped back aboard and decided to drive us all the way to Kodok leaving his boat to be driven by his assistant. Turns out the driver was from Nigeria.
When we arrived in Kodok we stopped only briefly before crossing the river and walking to Riang. It was about 4 at this point and the walk to Riang took about an hour through very beautiful forests and countryside very reminiscent of the UK with grazing cattle lush green fields. The path took us south running alongside the river although we were further inland as it is swampy near the river, we had crossed the swamp in a canoe at a very small village further north.
Riang is surprisingly a very lovely place. The word means an area with no trees and that is what it is, an area of slightly higher land in the middle of the forest on which no trees grow. The school looked good and was just being finished when we arrived (photo attached). We left after only about 30mins as light was fading and we had a long walk. Arrived safely to back to Kodok and stayed overnight in the commissioners guest house which was just like Mellut.
On Saturday morning we saw the school at Kodok which just needs the plastering finishing (photo attached) and although a little delayed left at about 1 for home having acquired 4 extra passengers (including the former commissioner of the county and his SPLA bodyguards) and some wooden poles.
After about 3 hours of rain and a few engine problems we arrived at Lul an old catholic mission station and stopped to try and fix the boat and dry off a little (photo attached). The mission is now deserted as the fathers and sisters of the mission were driven out by the Northern army during the war.
The army left when the peace agreement was signed however it seems unlikely that the Catholics will return as Malakal has become the centre of the region. After about 30 mins we left again, the rain had stopped and the boat was surprisingly working again.
However the engine was not working well and we only got about an hour from Lul going very slowly before it stopped altogether and wouldn't work. We managed to get to shore but it wouldn't restart. I made a fire and we tried to dry off as it was getting cold and had been raining solidly. By now it was about 6 o'clock and starting to get dark. We decided to drift back to Lul to try and find shelter. The current and a little rowing with the wooden planks we had been sitting on carried us to lul in the dark of night. At about 9 we arrived at Lul, it was pitch back and we could barely see we were there. A very kind family living in the old mission station (built in 1901) took us in housing us in some school rooms in the right wing of the building. We managed to make a fire and we cooked the fish that had be brought from Kodok with us. We tried to dry off and warm up huddled around the fire. This very poor family were so kind giving me a blanket to sleep on and even some of there food.
We slept the night on the concrete floor (me and the bishop under the same mosquito net!), I slept surprisingly well although I was by this point very sun burnt from the boat and bitten all over from the evening in the open.
The next morning the people of Lul provided us with lovely fresh bread (much better than the stuff you get in town) and we managed to find some tea by cooking up water at the police station (a small hut near to the mission), with some walking to the near market for sugar and milk. Again the family shared food with us and by 11 we were fed and dry as the sun had come out.
We then walked to the waters edge to await a boat which might be able to help us fix ours.
By about 12.30 a boat arrived from Malakal and the driver fixed our boat and we were ready to leave. We left having acquired 3 more passengers and a goat as a gift from the chief! By this point the boat was very full and travelling very slowly. We managed to travel on for about 3 hours when we started to run low on fuel. We stopped a couple of boats but they had no petrol only diesel. Eventually a boat stopped and gave us some petrol for free.
After about another hour we managed to get to Wau Shillock which is only about 30 mins from Malakal by fast boat. We managed to get bottled water there and had some more tea. We then set out again. We got only about 1 hour further before the engine cut out again, we had run out of fuel and were in the middle of the river. Thankfully it started one last time and took us to shore.
However it wasn't land merely an island so we had to wade through the marsh (the water was up to my chin) to dry land. We saw a plane going in and realised we were on the flight path to the airport. We managed to walk up to the road and followed it in towards the airport. We walked for about 2 hours until we had passed the UN log base and the airport, it must have been about
3 miles we walked. I then managed to get a taxi from malakia to home.
Arriving back at 7.30 exhausted. I then slept for 12 hours straight.
Stupidly they had left two people with the boat and were going to try and get back to them last night. They didn't make it but did manage to get a boat to go and tow the boat back this morning although that took 3 hours.
It was quite a journey, and not one I would wish to repeat. I must confess there was a point when we were drifting in the dark on Saturday night that I thought we might never return to Malakal. I think the thing that has remained with me however is that I was never hungry or thirsty and apart from a few bites, some bad sun burn and very tired legs I feel good.
Looking forward to seeing you all over the coming weeks. Love to all
Simon
Friday, 29 June 2007
Sunday, 10 June 2007
Sudan Update 7
Dear All,
We are coming up to our last few weeks before we come home for a summer break, really looking forward to coming home and spending time with family and friends. Here are a few of the things we’ve been doing;
ECS School Building and Feeding
The building work planned for this year at Malakal Primary School is now complete, they now have 4 new classrooms bringing them to a total of 10 including the pre-school.
WFP School Feeding - Malakal diocese has received its food for this term from WFP, we went to view school feeding at Malakal Basic. (Girls between 9 and 11 years receive dry rations as an extra incentive for their parents to allow them to come to school). Unfortunately piped water in Malakal is very sporadic so if no water comes the children do not always get fed that day and the money isn’t available to pay people to fetch it from the Nile. The school needs a water tank and guttering for rain water collection to mitigate this problem – hopefully something for the future.
WFP School Feeding is usually a wheat or lentil mix, children eat this 4 or 5 to each bowl.
The ECS compound in Malakal is being planned out and gradually developed as per the Diocese’s vision, into a combination of church, school and clinic. As well as the primary school and clinic (which is a project the diocese have recently begun) they have been able to start some income generation projects for the church, such as 2 shop spaces which have now been rented out as cafés.
The new ECS school in the small town of Riang just needs its walls mudding and the pit latrine finishing off before the classrooms will be ready to receive their first intake of children. The people are reportedly very excited to have their first ever school opening up and believe that their God, called “Ayangit” (they are largely animists), brought it to them.
Kodok School is just over half way through with currently just the basic framework in place. Simon has been spending time with the Diocesan team going through the finances of the builds ready for them to write their mid-term report to Christian Aid about how the work is progressing.
Other Things
Part of our role here is to help the two diocese build relationships with other NGOs/churches/ministries etc. We have been spending time discussing with them additional projects that would help to strengthen the diocese and its facilities. One of these would be to start some school gardens which would provide supplementary food for the children and a potential extra source of income for the church. I have also been contacting and visiting other NGO’s in the area re: their community outreach programmes, I am hoping the Mother Union might be able to benefit in terms of receiving useful information through training and workshops on subjects such as water and sanitation, HIV/AIDs, Landmines etc as they have a formed network in place that they could use to distribute useful information within their groups and to their family and friends and potentially into schools.
Renk
Renk Diocese are just about to start their building work, extra classrooms at 3 already existing schools. The diocese have taken the decision to close down one of their schools in a place called Wunkur as of this term. This decision was taken as the displaced community that had fled to that area during the war and that the diocese built the school for have been moving back south to their home areas and so it is now felt that the school is no longer serving enough children. This diocese are now considering what they might do with the building.
The diocese have been making visits in the last couple of weeks to Melut, Geiger and Lathbior and have been able to set up committees in those places to speak with the communities about paying school fees. All ECS schools struggle terribly to pay their teachers, many of them are owed months in arrears. They hope these committees will be able to encourage parents to pay a little to the schools when they are able. However the reality is people will never be able to give enough even to pay incentive money to untrained teachers. The only paid teachers are those provided to the schools by the government of South Sudan so the hope is that the government will be able to continue supplying teachers in the future.
The diocese are also encouraging these committees to find the man power to support school feeding through collecting water and fire wood for the school.
Not sure if I’ll manage another e-mail before we’re back but will be in touch with many of you again soon,
Best wishes
Keren
We are coming up to our last few weeks before we come home for a summer break, really looking forward to coming home and spending time with family and friends. Here are a few of the things we’ve been doing;
ECS School Building and Feeding
The building work planned for this year at Malakal Primary School is now complete, they now have 4 new classrooms bringing them to a total of 10 including the pre-school.
WFP School Feeding - Malakal diocese has received its food for this term from WFP, we went to view school feeding at Malakal Basic. (Girls between 9 and 11 years receive dry rations as an extra incentive for their parents to allow them to come to school). Unfortunately piped water in Malakal is very sporadic so if no water comes the children do not always get fed that day and the money isn’t available to pay people to fetch it from the Nile. The school needs a water tank and guttering for rain water collection to mitigate this problem – hopefully something for the future.
WFP School Feeding is usually a wheat or lentil mix, children eat this 4 or 5 to each bowl.
The ECS compound in Malakal is being planned out and gradually developed as per the Diocese’s vision, into a combination of church, school and clinic. As well as the primary school and clinic (which is a project the diocese have recently begun) they have been able to start some income generation projects for the church, such as 2 shop spaces which have now been rented out as cafés.
The new ECS school in the small town of Riang just needs its walls mudding and the pit latrine finishing off before the classrooms will be ready to receive their first intake of children. The people are reportedly very excited to have their first ever school opening up and believe that their God, called “Ayangit” (they are largely animists), brought it to them.
Kodok School is just over half way through with currently just the basic framework in place. Simon has been spending time with the Diocesan team going through the finances of the builds ready for them to write their mid-term report to Christian Aid about how the work is progressing.
Other Things
Part of our role here is to help the two diocese build relationships with other NGOs/churches/ministries etc. We have been spending time discussing with them additional projects that would help to strengthen the diocese and its facilities. One of these would be to start some school gardens which would provide supplementary food for the children and a potential extra source of income for the church. I have also been contacting and visiting other NGO’s in the area re: their community outreach programmes, I am hoping the Mother Union might be able to benefit in terms of receiving useful information through training and workshops on subjects such as water and sanitation, HIV/AIDs, Landmines etc as they have a formed network in place that they could use to distribute useful information within their groups and to their family and friends and potentially into schools.
Renk
Renk Diocese are just about to start their building work, extra classrooms at 3 already existing schools. The diocese have taken the decision to close down one of their schools in a place called Wunkur as of this term. This decision was taken as the displaced community that had fled to that area during the war and that the diocese built the school for have been moving back south to their home areas and so it is now felt that the school is no longer serving enough children. This diocese are now considering what they might do with the building.
The diocese have been making visits in the last couple of weeks to Melut, Geiger and Lathbior and have been able to set up committees in those places to speak with the communities about paying school fees. All ECS schools struggle terribly to pay their teachers, many of them are owed months in arrears. They hope these committees will be able to encourage parents to pay a little to the schools when they are able. However the reality is people will never be able to give enough even to pay incentive money to untrained teachers. The only paid teachers are those provided to the schools by the government of South Sudan so the hope is that the government will be able to continue supplying teachers in the future.
The diocese are also encouraging these committees to find the man power to support school feeding through collecting water and fire wood for the school.
Not sure if I’ll manage another e-mail before we’re back but will be in touch with many of you again soon,
Best wishes
Keren
Friday, 11 May 2007
Sudan Update 6
Dear All,
We have been back in Malakal now for over a week and on Monday we made a trip out to one of the ECS school building sites in the town of kodok, we were luck enough to be able to tag along with a UN trip to take the British and French ambassadors there. This trip had been arranged so that the ambassadors could visit the site of the Fashoda incident – In a nut shell in case you didn’t know (I didn’t) A French force set out from Brazzaville under Major Jean-Baptiste Marchand with orders to secure the area around Fashoda as a French protectorate. After a long trek across central Africa Marchand’s expedition arrived in Fashoda (now Kodok) in 1898. However Sir Horatio Kitchener also arrived there and both sides insisted on their right to Fashoda. News of the meeting reached Paris and London, a crisis erupted and both nations began to prepare their fleets for war. It was resolved however when the French government decided they didn’t want to start a war with Britain and ordered its soldiers to withdraw. The ambassadors wanted photos where the stand off took place.
We were also able to visit the site of the new ECS school which is now in its early building stages, its taken a while to get started as the diocese prioritised the school they are building in Riang as its not accessible during the rains where Kodok is. We were able to fill the ambassadors in on the Episcopal Churches work in school building and education, I have attached a pic of the Group standing at the school site - Pic from left to right – Joseph Nding - Commissioner of Police for Fashoda County, Peter Maxwell – Head of the UN Mission in Sudan Sector 3, Zachariah – Director of Education for Fashoda County and ECS congregant member , British Ambassador Ian Cliff, Simon, Mme Robichon - French Ambassador, the next two men work for Fashoda County’s commissioner, John Chol – Episcopal Church Pastor for the area.)
I have also included a pic of Kodok Town – if you can believe it, I actually took it in the town centre.
We have been back in Malakal now for over a week and on Monday we made a trip out to one of the ECS school building sites in the town of kodok, we were luck enough to be able to tag along with a UN trip to take the British and French ambassadors there. This trip had been arranged so that the ambassadors could visit the site of the Fashoda incident – In a nut shell in case you didn’t know (I didn’t) A French force set out from Brazzaville under Major Jean-Baptiste Marchand with orders to secure the area around Fashoda as a French protectorate. After a long trek across central Africa Marchand’s expedition arrived in Fashoda (now Kodok) in 1898. However Sir Horatio Kitchener also arrived there and both sides insisted on their right to Fashoda. News of the meeting reached Paris and London, a crisis erupted and both nations began to prepare their fleets for war. It was resolved however when the French government decided they didn’t want to start a war with Britain and ordered its soldiers to withdraw. The ambassadors wanted photos where the stand off took place.
We were also able to visit the site of the new ECS school which is now in its early building stages, its taken a while to get started as the diocese prioritised the school they are building in Riang as its not accessible during the rains where Kodok is. We were able to fill the ambassadors in on the Episcopal Churches work in school building and education, I have attached a pic of the Group standing at the school site - Pic from left to right – Joseph Nding - Commissioner of Police for Fashoda County, Peter Maxwell – Head of the UN Mission in Sudan Sector 3, Zachariah – Director of Education for Fashoda County and ECS congregant member , British Ambassador Ian Cliff, Simon, Mme Robichon - French Ambassador, the next two men work for Fashoda County’s commissioner, John Chol – Episcopal Church Pastor for the area.)
I have also included a pic of Kodok Town – if you can believe it, I actually took it in the town centre.
Sudan Update 5
Dinka Christianity
Many of the people we work with in the Episcopal Church of Sudan are Bor Dinka, People of the Dinka tribe who originate from the place called Bor in Jongli State. The Dinka of Bor’s conversion to Christianity is fascinating; of all the tribal groups in South Sudan they represent the most complete religious transformation anywhere in Sudan in current times. There has been an almost total conversion of a people to a Christian identity within a 10 year period.
This seems to stem from the fact that the Bor Dinka probably suffered a more intense and complete destruction of their traditional culture and ways of life than any other people in South Sudan during the civil war. Government assaults and large scale Nuer cattle raids (Nuer are another Sudanese tribal group) in the early 90’s caused the total obliteration of the Bor Dinka cattle herds and consequently their livelihoods and very culture (cattle were fundamental to Dinka life, providing their livelihood, food and wealth). The majority of people were displaced into other areas and refugee camps where many remain today.
This experience led to a total revulsion against their traditional shrine spirits and resulted in the widespread destruction of all artefacts used for traditional religious practices. In February 94 in the town of Bor a vast number of these artefacts were collected together inside the church there and destroyed. Isaiah 18 became a key text of the Bor Dinka church’s identity as it holds a prophecy about Kush (translated ‘Sudan’ in the Good News Bible) which describes both suffering and eventual redemption and a turning to God.
We have just returned from a break in Egypt to Khartoum and plan to travel back to Malakal this week.
Will be in touch again soon
Best wishes
Keren
Many of the people we work with in the Episcopal Church of Sudan are Bor Dinka, People of the Dinka tribe who originate from the place called Bor in Jongli State. The Dinka of Bor’s conversion to Christianity is fascinating; of all the tribal groups in South Sudan they represent the most complete religious transformation anywhere in Sudan in current times. There has been an almost total conversion of a people to a Christian identity within a 10 year period.
This seems to stem from the fact that the Bor Dinka probably suffered a more intense and complete destruction of their traditional culture and ways of life than any other people in South Sudan during the civil war. Government assaults and large scale Nuer cattle raids (Nuer are another Sudanese tribal group) in the early 90’s caused the total obliteration of the Bor Dinka cattle herds and consequently their livelihoods and very culture (cattle were fundamental to Dinka life, providing their livelihood, food and wealth). The majority of people were displaced into other areas and refugee camps where many remain today.
This experience led to a total revulsion against their traditional shrine spirits and resulted in the widespread destruction of all artefacts used for traditional religious practices. In February 94 in the town of Bor a vast number of these artefacts were collected together inside the church there and destroyed. Isaiah 18 became a key text of the Bor Dinka church’s identity as it holds a prophecy about Kush (translated ‘Sudan’ in the Good News Bible) which describes both suffering and eventual redemption and a turning to God.
We have just returned from a break in Egypt to Khartoum and plan to travel back to Malakal this week.
Will be in touch again soon
Best wishes
Keren
Wednesday, 21 March 2007
Sudan Update 4
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
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, 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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