South Sudan Travel Diary - Day 6 & 7

If you're just starting to read this blog now, you'll need to go back a couple of posts to the beginning of Marc's trip diary for a visit to Sudan that happened in November...Almost all photos are from Lloyd Hipel

DAY 6

We had a group meeting with the Sudanese water team. We brought shirts and hats which they are using as uniforms (which got them fairly excited. They have 2 t-shirts each, so every day they will wash the other shirt for the next day.
The water team (all 7 people who work 9am-3pm) earns $840/month. The problem is that this isn't enough to live on. And it's not paid on time or at all, depending on whether International Teams has money in it's account. And everyone has other responsibilities raising their siblings or kids and making more money :( But they are still better off than lots of people I guess...

We call it an "incentive" as opposed to a salary, but it was tough to hear everyone's story about how this incentive was not enough to meet their needs:
Matt has two sisters who's school fees are 80,000 each (he gets paid 150,000) so that's his contribution to the family (he also has his own wife and kid).
Pony is a mom who has to get her kids off to school, then come work on the water project before going to the market to sell clothes (she's a tailor in the late evenings) and cook for her family. I don't know how she makes enough money to supplement her 200,000 (just a big bag of flour that lasts a month costs 75,000. Obviously you need more than flour though. Also maize and sorghum for pocho - the local porridge).
Three of the guys use their own bicycles to pedal >30kms to the Revival Centre. They each leave their homes at 6am, arrive at 9am and then get home around 6pm. The catch is that they don't eat all day until they get home. They were asking if there was any chance that the water project could supply breakfast (they have no money to buy breakfast somewhere, assuming that someone would sell them breakfast). They also wondered if they could use the two bikes that are owned by the project instead of their personal bikes. None of the team members is drinking safe water at home (it costs 60,000 to get a biosand filter).

Overall, I kept wanting to jump up and make commitments that I couldn't keep. The temptation to try to find a quick-fix is_so_ strong (and a quick fix is so elusive/impossible). I'm going to do something though.

No bottling this morning - the generator was down (needed an oil change). We visited an orphanage where Christian Horizons is now sponsoring all the children due to Bruce's efforts on a previous trip (and a UK guy has setup a foundation for the babies house). Most babies are dropped off because the mom has died in childbirth and the dad can't raise the baby. At 5 years old, they ask the dad again if he can take his child back - but if not, then they stay in the orphanage until they can take care of themselves. They actually have to screen the parents who are dropping off kids pretty carefully. The orphanage has developed the reputation of having better conditions for children than in their own homes in the village... There are 85 children at the orphanage.
We held the babies and toddlers and played with the bigger kids and looked around. I miss my kids. I really want them to experience this too. There was lots of singing and dancing to welcome us. Apparently the kids busted out their best clothes to see us, and they looked pretty sharp at 10am this morning (we only arrived at 3pm though, so things were starting to fall apart :) We had 1 hour of various speeches (including some tearjerkers, like how the kids aren't orphans anymore thanks to us, they are known as children of God instead). I feel a bit worn out emotionally, and on the verge of wanting to disconnect and not think about it anymore. Or invest my life/lifestyle into this "true evangelism". Either way, the situation demands a strong response (literally - people are making us aware of both their triumphs and their many needs and demanding a response :)

Cool practice here in Sudan: at the beginning of every meal, someone comes around with a pitcher and basin for you to wash your hands. This happens again at the end (since you eat with your hands). It's a cool experience/habit and makes it feel like we're all connected in service and love.

Driving around: when you see someone you know, or someone you want to talk to, you just screech to a halt in the middle of the road (others will go around) and have a chat. It's the main method for spreading news (ie. We found out the president is now coming on Dec 1, instead of Tuesday :) a guy from Water Harvest International was driving by and wanted to meet us and say hi.
When you stop to talk to someone, it's African handshakes all around. Lots of "you are welcome", "hello", "thank you".

Other favourite habit: sitting around talking on plastic chairs. Everywhere you go, a certain times of day when people aren't working (waiting for dinner or whatever), everyone pulls out a plastic chair and sits around at the side of the road, in front of their tukuls, in front of stores, etc. I've seen very few non-plastic chairs :)

Tomorrow is church (we're going to several services, so it will be a churchy day. I'm anticpating a lot of cool music/drumming)

PS. We heard tonight that the Kajo Keji "hospital" (such as it is) is being closed. The NGO operating it has run out of money. The county dug up enough money for salaries for the staff until the end of December. But after that, it's closing for good. Nearest hospital will then by Moyo in Uganda. Not good.

DAY 7

"the place of convenience is located over there" (ie. the latrine).

Whenever I think, wow, everyone should come visit South Sudan and get involved here, I am reminded that it takes a certain je ne sais quoi to use the squat latrines (those splashes on the wall are from the mortar, right?) and to "shower" with a plastic bucket of brackish water.

The smell of grass fires is has been strong for 2 days now - the air is more still in the evening, so it's a bit heavy. Any low-lying areas tend to fill up with the smoke from these fires - not very good air to breathe all night while you sleep (during the day we breathe red dust instead, kicked up by any passing vehicles (we followed a truck for an hour today, so my clothes started turning red :)

%We are proud of our school. It's best in the county%
This was part of the singing-welcome by the Jalimo community. This is where IT is hoping to build a secondary school next year if there is interest/funds. Again, the school is operating outside, and in mud huts under pretty tough conditions. They have 211 high school students. 69 are billeted with individual families since there not dormitories. There are 21 staff in total). Next year, they expect 300-400 students to register. This school took everyone in the county by surprise because they placed highest in testing, and they have the worst facilities - no one expects anything good to come from here.) The school was originally founded in 1948, despite no support from the northern govt for education of the southern population. (Churches run all the schools here as a result of this). It was demolished and rebuilt several times throughout the wars. When we walked around the falling-apart mud/grass buildings (which we were built 3 years ago), we saw lots of high school students studying for upcoming exams. Apparently lots of them disappeared into the bush to study since they knew there would be lots of distractions today). We had a big meeting, and the hope of building permanent facilities next year was the main topic of many speeches. It's impressive because everyone values education a lot, and knows that it's the only way out. But the support for education isn't coming from govt sources for now - just communities banding together and trying to make it work. They even have a science teacher and a couple of shelves of beakers and a couple chemicals. All the classrooms have wood benches that were donated by the Jesuit Refugee Service (a big upgrade from the mud benches).

As we drive around, we're seeing the Samaritan's Purse Church Reconstruction Program (CRP) churches everywhere - it's pretty cool! Jalimo just got one, and it's being consecrated by the archbishop in January. The Anglican services here are similar in form to Canada, except the prayer book is in Bari (language of the Kuku people) and the songs are a mix of Bari/English. Lots of singing and all the leaders and visitors sit up front around the table. Just a bit north from here, arabic is the trade language, along with some English.

David preached at two churches today (Wudu and Jalimo). He tried an illustration that almost backfired: he asked if everyone liked mango trees, and why. The answer: "shade!" (He was expecting "fruit"). Eventually some people also said fruit :) The mango trees have fruit in December and May here (we're just missing it - but this is definitely the place to be during mango season - there are so many trees!)

When we arrived in Jalimo, we found out again that everyone (hundreds of people) waited all day for us yesterday, and then again all morning (we finally had a service/meeting at 1pm :(
We're outdoors under 4 _giant_ mango trees (threatening us with fruit) The church in Jalimo kicked off a fundraiser after the service for a youth conference run by the Revival Movement in a couple of weeks. They were asking for donations from 50 to 2500 shillings ($0.03 to $1.80). Turns out the money is to buy a goat, so that the conference can happen. (I put in enough for a half a goat on impulse :) Poor goat. (It was good though because church offerings and this fundraiser were done in a way that the amount given is anonymous. We don't want to show up and be seen as giving away tonnes of money).
At the end of the service a weird thing happened which we haven't debriefed yet: during an alter call, someone brought up a flailing teenager, who looked like she was having a massive seizure. After some praying by the pastors/leaders. Either it was an act, or it was a medical condition, or it was spiritual. I don't know what to think - it was hard to take.

After the long service, I broke out the balloons we brought with David, and made a lot of balloon "animals" (actually, snakes - I'm not very good at these). It was pretty tough - we had a lot of balloons, but there were way way more kids. I kind of wish I hadn't done it - kids don't like to share, so there was starting to be some pushing/shoving. Lesson #1 - always bring enough gifts for everyone. I should've learned this from Daryl and Sabrina's experiences in Namibia.

Tomorrow is our last full in South Sudan. On Tuesday we fly to Kampala (4 hops on an MAF route). We'll arrive in the afternoon sometime, and then Bruce and I are catching a KLM flight home at 10:55pm.