May 2012
2 posts
Teachers and the Toic
As I write, four Kenyan teachers are waiting for the boarding call in Nairobi’s international airport to send them to South Sudan and onto Marol Academy. The rains have now started, so they will be welcomed by the growing green of the fields. As the wet season appears, the cattle are starting to return from pasture and the numbers at school swell further as more people return to the drier...
The North and New Things
Continuing North-South Contests
The North and South of Sudan continue to compete with words and bombs as old tensions are brought back to the surface. A new UN resolution is a firm attempt to try to bring the two sides to the negotiating table and prevent full-scale war, yet it is still unclear what the next days will bring. In the village the main concern is the escalating food prices. A sack...
April 2012
2 posts
Waiting and War
As yesterday drew to a close, I sat in the shade of my friend (Bol)’s tukal listening to his radio and the news from Kuajok (the state capital). The news started with the reading out of primary exam results for each school. Post lots of labour by a handful of very dedicated teachers, Marol Academy stood out as one of the best in the state. Yet, the radio’s news quickly turned to...
Travels and the Toic
Under the gapping tree, sixty people sat at the feet of the chief waiting for his judgement over their case. One-by-one they would tell their story. The chief, with his elders’ support, would decide the outcome. One case involved a small girl whose father I knew. Biologically the daughter of another man, she had been born in her father ’s house. Her mum and father were now...
March 2012
1 post
Peace and Prayers
Any reluctance has now passed, and the sun is streaming down on South Sudan with its full dry-season heat. March and April always bring uncontrollable, defeating weather. The afternoons are spent beneath the nearest tree and even the mornings fail to bring a moment of cold. There is comfort in knowing that the pounding heat must come before it passes to the cooler days of the early rain.
This...
February 2012
3 posts
Exams, Empty Tummies, A Snake and Wisdom
South Sudan changes quickly. It had been only six months away from Wau but things were different: Kenyan Commercial Bank had finally opened the first secure bank in Wau; the Ugandan shop that sells soap had doubled in size; a girl from the village had bought a new phone (even if there is no phone signal). In the village, a few more brick buildings had appeared and rare houses have new bamboo...
Teachers, Travel and Talks
If you turn left through the gates and right at the road’s end, having avoided the swerving cars as they avoid the potholes, you come to a little row of ladies selling fruit. For a few pence, they will give you a bowl of fruit salad cut from fresh bananas, mangoes and such sweet avocados that are unknown in the UK. Kenya gives many treats to enjoy. This week, as I wait to return to South...
Snow to Sun
The floor is covered in pieces of paper and piles of clothes. The suitcase was hauled from the attic a couple of days ago and the familiar, final preparations for returning to South Sudan are nearly complete. However many times I pack, I can never finish before the last minute hurry.
Yet, despite its familiarity the return journey still seems daunting. Having been away from the village for many...
December 2011
1 post
Graduation, Growing and Safely Home
I hope the run up to has filled your hearts with warm whispers of waiting and that these colder days have found you cosy inside.As the year comes to a close, it is a perfect to moment to be thankful for all that has been given to us this year. In particular:
Safe Arrivals Home
Now, finally, Gordon, Joyce, Loice, Rachel and Emma are all safely back in their homes. Some are now in the Lydney and...
November 2011
3 posts
The Joys of Juba
Just before the thatched roof bar in our hotel is a small bridge that leads over a little stream that gushes down to the Nile. When it rains, the little flow becomes a torrent to carry Juba’s rain fall down stream. Over this bridge, as you walk out of the hotel and into the rest of Juba, the roads run red with mud and small boys, whose play was interrupted by the rain, shelter beneath thin...
Governance, Grain and Research
The euphoria of the new nation has already been stiffled by the tough circumstances that this new land faces. Due to a blockade by Northern Sudan on trade coming to the South, prices have rocketed especially in cities nearer the Northern border (such as Wau).
Grain is beyond the few pounds that families can gather together. With no secondary schools in the villages (except for Marol’s...
October 2011
2 posts
Teachers, Tiredness and A New Term
Glistening in the sun, and interrupted by the occasional tuft of grass or tree, the road to Marol now closer resembles a river than the dry track of the dry season. Yet, with shoe-less feet, the children will wade through the water tomorrow morning to return to Marol. They have just had a week’s holiday and will return to a new term at Marol Academy. It is now only a month and a half until...
September 2011
13 posts
Life and Death
As I sit on a friend’s spare bed, having spent the day exploring with another, I am reminded again of the richness of having gracious and patient friends back here in England. The last weeks have been steeped in trying to settle back into this homeland, and have been reminded of the blessings of friends. I am grateful and, slowly, starting to feel rested.
Back in Sudan, the teachers at...
Mums and Marol
Sitting on the border between North and South Sudan, adjacent to rich oil fields, Abyei has been the site of some of the heaviest fighting. Regina had left just a few months before with her little son to join her husband in Luonyaker. Yet, in May she watched with anxiety and fear for her family. Now, heavily pregnant, she also waits with uncertainty for her baby. With little midwifery available,...
September 2011
As you walk the dusty tracks or turn through the fields of Sorghum, you see even the smallest children tearing apart the tough sugar cane poles. With smiles on their faces, they munch the first, sweet fruits of the harvest. At Marol, the small school garden is now sprouting with greens to feed hungry tummies. No one is sure that there will be enough to eat until the next harvest but, for now, they...
Happy Independence Day from the villages of South...
The dawn chorus on this independence day witnessed a splattering of guns across the horizon, shooting into the air in celebration. If they had not been given their South Sudan, they would have fired in anger. Instead, they fired with joy. From the pops of the Ak47s to the tutterings of the machine guns, they declared their freedom. As the sun climbed higher, women started singing, the drum started...
Four days until Independence....
In just four days time, South Sudan will become the newest nation on earth. Children are practicing the new national anthem and flag poles are being raised in the county offices. Schools have started their two week holiday but still practices of singing and marching continue. The Nuba Mountains sit north of the North-South border, in the terrain governed from Khartoum. However, resisting...
New things in South Sudan
With the first months of rain the land is painted the richest green and the dry, barren world of South Sudan seems a memory. While the crops have still not grown beyond seedlings, your eyes can trace the horizon for its fresh beauty. At this time of year, there seems to be new life in everything. It seems as if even nature is responding to the promise that South Sudan will soon be the newest...
Current needs at the Academy
1) A Soap Sponsor Most families in the village of Marol have no person amongst them employed and, therefore, no income of money. They grow what they eat but there is never enough, let alone enough to sell. Therefore, they cannot buy items such as soap. The volunteer mum’s of Marol, who cook the school lunch, have one request: they have asked for soap to keep them clean. More than enough soap...
A message on Marol - June 2011
In all the movement and restlessness of South Sudan as it approaches independence, it is easy to forget to share the stories of daily life at Marol Academy. Before the dawn rises, many pupils set out from their tukals (mud huts) to pace the hours of journeying to school. By 8.30am, crumpled lines of students fill the dusty compound, waiting for the teachers to ring the bell and for assembly to...
April 2011
2 posts
The night before school starts
Just above my knee in height, in her red, dust covered dress, Nyandut has kept appearing at my side today. She was on the branch at the front of church when I introduced Joyce and Gordon to the gathered, Luonyaker crowd. She was at the borehole when I was pumping some water to wash my clothes. She had been sent to the market to fetch something and she walked with me, hand in hand, on the way...
March 2011
3 posts
Exams and Teachers
This morning we woke to a covering of sand. The wind had swept the particles into the air, forming a yellowish cloud in this meandering sand storm. The floating sand hides some of the sun’s intensity but it has also left all my belongings covered in a fine film of dust. I never quite know what South Sudan will bring next but a day of cooler weather was a blessing. Our first final-year...
Safely to my home
Finally, the WFP (World Food Programme) plane lowered us down onto the dusty airstrip in Wau. We had hopped around South Sudan on the way, dropping other passengers off at different strips of dust along the way. So, after a long journey, I am safely tucked away back in the village.
Often when I walk the streets of Wau, I come across street boys. They have a mix of stories of their own. They...
February 2011
2 posts
Teachers
Teachers really are the most precious thing to bring hope that South Sudan can be a strong, new nation. Without them, schools will be nothing more than days withered away beneath the trees on branch benches. There is just one functioning, pre-service Teacher Training College in South Sudan, three days’ journey from Marol Academy. They run a two year course to improve the skills and...
"The world's newest country has been born....
…with confirmation that southern Sudan voted almost unanimously for independence from the north”.
Yesterday, the results of the South Sudan referendum were formally announced and accepted by Bashir - the President of Sudan. Nearly 99% of Southerns voted for independence and the South has been swamped with a sea of celebrations. My friends report that the streets are lined with...
January 2011
8 posts
The Count
We watched the count in Nyamleldit until the early hours of Sunday morning. Of the 2210 valid votes cast in this village, 2207 were for separation. There was much celebrating and dancing from the gathered people as they realised the scale of the result. The next official, national results are due in early February and then political negotiations will follow until the peace agreement expires in...
Counting
At 6pm Southern Sudanese time on Satuarday 15th January, the voting ends and the counting begins. They will post initial, local results immediately. The final, national result will wait until early February.
Expectations are so high. Today I sat on an handmade, wooden bench with an old chief just before the Darfur border. He told me stories of how, for decades, many of his people had been...
For "Pan Da" (My Homeland)
At 4am on the 9th January 2011, the beat of the drum started pounding through the windows of my hut. Eventually, at 8am, the polls opened and the tired voters started trickling through. There was much singing as each person cast their ballot and danced in excitement. By today - the third of seven days of voting - the polling stations in Northern Bahr al-Ghazal have already had over 80% turnout....
Time to Vote
Tomorrow morning, I will start my journey Nyamlell (Northern Bahr al-Ghazal) where I will be observing the referendum for the Carter Center. The vote starts this Sunday. It is hard to fathom that this dreamed of vote will finally take place in about sixty hours. One official said, “Only the end of the world can stop it now”. For years they have waited and for decades they have...
For Such A Time As This
I am now in Juba and the billboards declare that there is only 8 days to go until the referendum. There has been waiting and now there is hope that this vote will not just end a lift time of war, but free the South from centuries of occupation. People hardly dare to predict what might happen in the days, weeks and months ahead. They predict fighting by the South and between the Southerns....
December 2010
3 posts
Rescued from the Snake...
This guest visited our compound. I am grateful that the dog’s barking spotted it in time and stopped the snake snatching us first. It was hidden at the edge of a hut, a couple of foot from my door.
In the run up to the referendum...
Bashir (President of Sudan) has faced increasing international isolation this last week. His inclination will be crucial in deciding the North’s response to January’s vote and whether it will end fifty years of civil war.
Thousands of people continue to flood back to the surrounding villages in the run up to January’s referendum on independence. They are returning from the...
A Bull, Bashir, Rescue and Returnees
I hope that you are surviving the English snow. I am hidden in the shade of a tree, watching the birds dance around the borehole trying to slurp a sip of water. There is a goat watching me with curiosity and the fire has just been lit to cook dinner. Four days ago, in the centre of our four “tukals” (huts), a bull was tied to a post. The elders of the surrounding families came and...
November 2010
4 posts
Building Bookshelves and Waiting For Freedom
I step over a gun on my doorstep and greet a soldier as I emerge from my wash. The campaigns for the referendum are increasing and the Deputy Governor is visiting with all the elaborate security entourage he requires. In Wau, northern traders are returning home and streets of shops are boarded-up. People are waiting for January’s vote on independence and the promise of freedom.
The...
Bombs, Registration, Wives and Carpenters
Another hour passes as I wait for the carpenters on the sun baked airstrip. The UN control power looks inactive as a couple of UN Peace-keeping helicopters come into land. Yet, the carpenters are nowhere to be seen. One Wellington parent and two companions are traveling to Marol to build the school’s first furniture and to train six apprentices. They will be the first local carpenters amongst...
Carpentry
As the light was fading, the struggling Landcrusier finally bumped off the gravel road and started along the even rougher bush track to Marol. After a flight from Juba and a dusty afternoon in Wau, the chief’s car was slowly taking Jerry, Conrad and Jason – three carpenters – to Marol. Talk in the car was of birds and snakes and creatures and war. That night, their dinner was cooked on an open...
Aluet
If you turn right at the tyres at the crossroads (a roundabout) and walk until the village’s oldest bore-hole, Bol’s home is the third collection of little tukals. They worked hard at the harvest this year, sowing and reaping by hand, so they now have a sizeable pile of grain to last the year ahead. This is Aluet’s home.
Last Sunday, as soon as I could, I went to their home to see if little...
September 2010
2 posts
Governors and Graves
The rain has bought mosquitoes and every household seems to be burdened with malaria. The children find it the hardest to be strong enough.
With the harvest starting to be appear, I often stop in the market on the way home from school to pile a small bundle of sweet corn into my bag. The ladies sit under the tree at the fringe of the market, next to their small selection of produce, waiting the...