The school year draws to a close

Dear friends,

The children are now sitting their end of year exams, which I hope will continue to show an upward trend.  At the end of next week it will all be over, bar the distribution of report cards and marked exam papers. 

On Thursday 6^th December we celebrated a belated World AIDS Day, in which some of our children recited a poem which they had worked on together.  World AIDS Day is a major feature of our school year because HIV/AIDS is the main reason for admission to Cece Primary School.  Nimule is a major hotspot for HIV/AIDS in South Sudan, with a shocking 1 in every 25 people testing positive.  The children wore their smart new uniforms for the first time at that event.  They led the audience in singing the National Anthem.   It was a very small event this year due to poor organization by the NGOs responsible, but those who attended were full of praise of our children’s contribution.  The poem goes as follows:

HIV, HIV, HIV
You came to Africa
You spread to many parts of Africa
You affect many groups of people
Young, elders, families
HIV, you kill many people and still continue killing
Now you have left us to be orphans, widows and sick
Because of HIV.

View of pre-primary class PE lesson with
un-roofed classrooms in the background.

The school closes on 21^st December for the Christmas holidays.  We will begin registration for the new school year, in mid-January.  Last year, we were snowed under with desperate families wanting places and had to turn many away.  It was horrendous.  Most of the applicants who were rejected were for the pre-primary class.  Next year, we really hope to have two pre-primary classes, to try to avoid this situation.  We will also have a new class at the top of the school, as our Primary 4 class will graduate to Primary 5.  This is an ongoing process until we reach the exalted heights of Primary 8, which is the end of primary education in South Sudan.  A secondary school on the same site is a distinct possibility, but is still at the pipe dream stage.

In order for us to house our two new classes, we need to finish the construction work on our two remaining classrooms.  All that is needed is roofing and a small amount extra for creating blackboards in the classrooms.  The cost of roofing two classrooms will be around $3,300 or £2,586. I know this is a large amount of money. If you are able to contribute something towards the roofing of the two, very necessary, classrooms, it will be a very great help to us.

Children complete their planting task.

Mango seedlings in the rubbish heap.

Still on the subject of the development of our school compound, our watchman has found around sixty (60!) self-seeded mango seedlings growing in our rubbish tip, clearly sprouted from the children’s discarded mango stones.  We very recently planted five neem tree seedlings, so a couple of days ago the children were set to work before going into their exam rooms planting ten of the baby mango trees.  The only problem is freely roaming goats and cows, which will eat any saplings they find, so we have surrounded each seedling with brick walls to keep the animals at bay.  The dry season is almost here, so it will be necessary, at least for the first few months, to mulch and regularly water the seedlings, otherwise they will not survive.  We are living in a very fertile area, so we are fairly confident that the mango trees will be bearing fruit in five years time.  Both the neem and mango trees will give very welcome shade for children and teachers and stop our compound from looking so desert-like.  The remaining mango trees will be planted around the edge of the compound.  We already have a self-seeded pawpaw sapling, which we are hoping will prove to be a female and produce fruit.  We are planning to plant some more.  A pawpaw is about the size of a honeydew melon so each one will feed several children. There is also a lemon tree sapling.   If we can end up with several types of fruit which ripen at different times of year, it will be very good for our children’s general health.  In spite of the fertility of the soil here, very few people eat fruit regularly.

Last week I went to Uganda to fetch the deaf children and bring them back to South Sudan for their first Christmas holiday.  It is the first time they have seen their families for ten months.  Some of the parents have come to thank me for their children’s schooling.  They were very impressed by how well-fed their children look and how much more disciplined they are.  All are now communicating in Ugandan sign language.  The children’s report cards show how much progress they have made academically. 

A big thank you to those who responded to my last appeal for help with sponsorship.  This will enable me to pay the children’s school fees and get them back to school next year.  There is another deaf child who is currently in our school called Paul.  Depending on his exam results this term and on his family’s wishes, I may well take him to join the others next year.  He is a very bright 12 year old, who communicates incredibly well with his own version of sign language.  He is completely mute.  In spite of his communication difficulties he is very sociable and particularly keen on football.  Our problem is lack of expertise in communicating all the school subjects to him.

Our supporting charity Opportunity through Education has registered us through a website called Give as You Live.  This website acts as a portal through which to shop online.  Each time you use it, a percentage goes to the charity of your choice.  Christmas is coming!  It would be lovely if you could to do at least some of your Christmas shopping through Give as You Live.

Please note that Give as You Live cannot be used for donations.  However, Opportunity through Education is currently applying to join another site called MyDonate, which will allow donors to donate online.  Once this has been activated, overseas donors will also be able to help our school.

I would be very grateful if you could share this post widely with anyone who might be able to help us with donations.  Please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education.  Rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk . 

Everything has changed! shouted the children

Since I last wrote, all the promised work has been done on the school within a remarkably short time.  This is a fantastic achievement and we are all very thankful to those who have donated to make this possible.

I appealed in my last post for sponsors for the deaf children at school in Uganda.  One person has very kindly responded and agreed to sponsor one of the children, Assumpta.  There are still three more.  The new sponsor recommended that I put a figure of how much it will cost for one year.  The amount I paid for each child last year was £623 including school fees, uniform, living expenses and travel.  I know this is a lot.  It is too much for me in the long term too.  If people would like to contribute something smaller on a regular basis, that is fine and will help.a

Doors and windows being put in place

Doors and windows have been put in three more classrooms so that we now have five lockable rooms.  This is a fantastic achievement.  It will enable desks to be put in them securely, and avoid the constant necessity of removing everything to the storeroom at the end of each day. 

To give you a side view of why this is necessary, there are huge problems with organized gangs of thieves in Nimule.  Anything not welded down, goes.  A few nights ago, there was a jointly planned robbery of many homes all over the town.  One of our neighbours is a policeman.  Not knowing this, he jumped out of bed and chased the thieves who were attacking his home.  He followed them to the local football ground, where he was set upon by many more thieves, who were all working together there.  He was severely injured. 

View of the new classroom block including
the newly roofed classroom - worker perched on top

This time last year, we built a new block of four classrooms, but were unable to roof them due to lack of funds.  Earlier in the year, one classroom was roofed and fitted with door and windows and desks.  This classroom is now used by Primary 4.

Over the past few weeks we have roofed a second classroom, which now houses our Primary 3 class, who were previously in our storeroom.  It is lovely for them not to have people constantly coming in and out, disturbing their lessons as they fetch textbooks, cooking pots and other things.  This is particularly important as all our children are hyper-inquisitive and very easily distracted!  Their new classroom does not as yet have a door or windows or desks, but they are at least in a better position to learn.

We still need to roof the other two classrooms, ready for next year’s intake.  One classroom will be for our first Primary 5 class.  The other classroom will make it possible for us to divide the pre-primary class in two according to level.  This is important because the current class size is far too big (49 children).  Based on past experience, there is always a big demand for the pre-primary class, which we were totally unable to meet this academic year.  We ended up being forced to eliminate all 5 year olds at registration time, which was a great shame as we expect our school to cater for children from 5 year old upwards.  Many desperately needy families were so desperate for their children to come, hence the over-large current class.

These new classrooms will also need doors and windows, but more urgently, blackboards to be made, as we only have five blackboards.  We are intending to make the blackboards by plastering a section of wall and painting with blackboard paint.  We did this in our old school building very effectively.

The London Oratory has paid for twelve more desks, making a total of twenty four.  The desks were made and are being used by our Primary 2 class in their newly secure classroom.  The London Oratory has very kindly agreed to continue to fundraise for desks in the other classes.

School shirts being made on Singer machines

Pencils for All fundraised during the year for school uniforms for all the children.  The children have all been measured and are waiting with bated breath for their uniforms.  Some children who were absent on the measuring day were told to go directly to the tailors.  They came back to school excitedly clutching off-cuts of the school shirt material, running around the compound shouting, “Our kitenge!  Our kitenge!”  Kitenge is the local word for cloth.  Uniform is going to make a huge difference to the children.  Most of them have very few, and very ragged, clothes.  To have something new is a huge experience for them and will really boost their morale.  All the other schools have uniform, and our children are often taunted on their way for the lack of uniform.  Shamefully, it has on one occasion led to discrimination against our school by the local personnel of an international NGO who were running a schools’ event.  Our children, although they had prepared a lovely poem, were not allowed on the stage.  Parents have pointed out that uniform will also make our children identifiable outside school, so that if there is any incident involving them, passers-by can contact the school. 

The downside is that from now on, there will be a need for new uniforms as the children grow and as new children are accepted.  Help!  However, I think you will see that the positives far outweigh the negatives, regarding school uniform.

We have a new nursery teacher, to help with our over-large class.  She is a young, lively and very well qualified Ugandan called Nataleen.  Very shortly afterwards one of our primary teachers resigned, which will leave an unfortunate gap, which we are not planning to fill until next year’s new recruitment.  We also have engaged two watchmen to look after the school after hours and also do any handyman jobs around the compound.  Next year as we will have a Primary 5 class for the first time, there will also be a need for more teachers. 

When the children arrived at school on Monday two weeks ago, they were stunned.  "Everything has changed!" they shouted.

I mentioned the problem of feeding in my last post.  This problem is ongoing as the World Food Programme, who are supposed to be taking over from Far Reaching Ministries, have still done nothing for any of the schools.  In the meantime, we have been supplying maize porridge to the children.  This is not as substantial as oatmeal, but is at least better than nothing.  The problem is made worse by the fact that under the South Sudan education system, although children up to Primary 3 have lessons only up to lunchtime, Primary 4 and upwards are supposed to remain in school up to 4pm.  Both teachers and Primary 4 are really struggling.  Bear in mind that our children are the poorest and most vulnerable in Nimule who cannot rely on being fed at home.

To sum up, things are moving on very well indeed at the school at the moment, with the exception of the food situation.  We need to continue fundraising for the roofing of two more classrooms, for staff salaries, for uniforms for next year’s intake, and for the various small items needed in the running of the school, such as chalk, pencils and pens etc.  We also need to fundraise for doors and windows for the newly roofed classroom and the two classrooms which should (I hope) be roofed this term. 

Please don't forget our deaf children.  Sponsorship is very important so that they can continue their education.

I would be very grateful if you could share this post widely to anyone who might be able to help us.  Please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education.  rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk . 

Challenges!

Apologies for the length of time since I last updated the blog.

The end of term examination results were an improvement on last year’s, so we are on course (unless we rest on our laurels) for a very successful year academically.  In August 2017 48% of students passed, this year 54% passed.  This is in spite of a very large intake of new students at the beginning of the year, many of whom had never attended school before or had been out of school for a very long time.

Financially things have been tough for several months, due to the handover from Sean Devereux Children’s Fund to Opportunity Through Education.  This resulted in serious delays in receiving funds, made considerably worse by the bank problems of TSB (the bank used by SDCF).  It has been a very difficult patch, making it hard even to pay staff salaries, let alone do anything else.  In spite of all this, the school kept going and the children are doing well.

However, money is finally coming through and we are going to be able to do the various things for which donors have been so generous.  These include installing doors and windows and roofing the unfinished classrooms as well as paying for day-to-day school necessities.  We are also soon going to order school uniforms through the fundraising efforts of Pencils for All.We are also now able to order desks for another classroom through the fundraising project of the London Oratory.

Another challenge is that Far Reaching Ministries, who I have mentioned in previous posts have been providing school meals for the children, announced very late in the term that they were unable to continue to help.  They have been so good and reliable for the last two years so this is going to be very difficult.  A major international NGO who shall be nameless is supposed to be taking over, but based on their poor record on their feeding programme at the hospital, we can expect a very unreliable service.  This will be very detrimental to the children’s well-being, and may even mean that parents remove their children and send them to the refugee camps.  In the meantime we are going to try to provide at least porridge each day.

The three children at St Philomena's Primary School
from left to right, Alice, Assumpta and Aluma

At the beginning of September, I left for Uganda to see the deaf children at school there and to pay their school fees.  They are all making progress.  The oldest, Alau, is in the first year at secondary school.  He passed his end of term exams with flying colours and the teachers were very complimentary about him.  Those at primary school are now becoming very competent at sign language, which will greatly enhance their lives and school performance.  Alice, the oldest of those at primary school, who is 16 years old, is radiantly happy as she is able to communicate with those around her for the first time in her life.  It was lovely to see her signing with a great smile on her face.  She has been moved up two classes because of her excellent progress.  The younger two (both 12 years old) are also getting to grips with sign language and are making some progress, although more slowly than Alau and Alice.  As yet, I have no sponsorship for any of them and have been paying their fees and living necessities out of my own pocket.  I do not have a salary and am relying on diminishing savings.  If anyone feels moved to help these children, I would be very grateful if you would email me.  There are no resources in South Sudan for disabled children, which is why it was necessary to find schools in Uganda for them.

This week we go back to school for the final term of this academic year.  I look forward very much to a less difficult term now that the final transfer between Sean Devereux to Opportunity Through Education has been made.  If you are able to support either the school or the deaf children, it will be a very great help.

Please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send you a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education.  Rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk . 

Desks lead to the need for doors and windows

Since we started the school construction work in 2016, we have been putting the children in class in incomplete classrooms, without doors, windows or plastering and sitting on mats for their lessons.  This has been necessary because of the rapid expansion of the school and the huge and urgent need for the education of children who would otherwise have no hope for the future.  Our needs always outstrip our fundraising.

To reassure you all, this is not unusual here in South Sudan.  In fact our school is luxurious compared to some schools, in which children simply sit under a tree for lessons.

In my last post I mentioned that the London Oratory is currently fundraising for desks and chairs for Cece Primary School.  This is a big step forward for us.  The intention is to have all our children off the floor and sitting at proper desks so that they can work in a better physical position.  Up until now, as mentioned, our children have been sitting on mats on the floor, which is not good either for their posture or for their handwriting.

Primary 4 at their new desks.

The first batch of desks was ordered after receiving the first installment of funds.  The desks arrived this week and are in the Primary 4 classroom.  As you will see from the photos, they are very good quality.  The locally available wood is mahogany, so we have desks that will last.  Everybody is delighted with them.

Our new desks with a view of the empty doorway and window.

However we realized rather belatedly that there is now an urgent need to keep the classroom where the desks are placed secure against the huge number of thieves in the Nimule area.  We therefore also needed to order and put in place a door and windows to protect the desks.  Then we will need to fairly rapidly put in doors and windows in all the other classrooms ready for their desks to arrive.  This is a big problem for us.  

Our construction work on the new classroom block has absorbed a lot of our money and there is, of course, the ongoing need to pay salaries to the teachers and cooks and buy any necessary teaching materials.  

Coupled with these regular needs, Far Reaching Ministries (who supply our food free of charge each week) have been delayed in bringing food for the first few weeks of term due to a sudden and unexpected demand for meals from other schools who were previously fed by an NGO which has now stopped its feeding programme.  Most other schools gave up completely and did not reopen for lessons after the school holidays.  However, because of the extreme poverty of our children and their need for education, we decided to do our best to keep the children fed and in class.  This has meant that we have had to provide food for nearly 200 children for three weeks which has been an unexpected expense for the school.  We have been told that the FRM feeding programme will restart next week, which will be a great relief to us.

I am asking for your help to enhance our funds so that we can install doors and windows in all classrooms and continue our building work.  At the moment, construction on the new block of classrooms has had to be put on hold due to the factors mentioned above.  We need to finish the work.  As you will see from the photos, there isn’t far to go.

If you are unable to help yourself, maybe you could circulate this blog post to all your friends.  I can assure you that the money sent is always well used, for the benefit of the most needy children in the community.  Our school criteria is for children from families with HIV/AIDS, disabilities and orphans.  The children are from many different tribes, local and national.  Many are from families displaced from other areas of South Sudan by the ongoing civil war.  Other schools in the area are all fee-paying, which makes it impossible for these children to receive an education elsewhere, leaving them doomed to a life of grinding poverty and lack of education.

Please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send you a gift aid form.  Rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk . 

A very big thank you to all our supporters

I do apologise for the length of time since I last wrote.  I have hardly paused for breath since returning from the UK at the end of March.  I ended up collapsing with chronic fatigue, quite literally unable to move.  However, I am much better now, just in time for the new term at school!

While in England I met up with many people, some of whom were already supporters of Cece Primary School, and some of whom are new.

I want to say an especial thank you to the Catenians in Reigate for their fundraising activities on our behalf last year, and also for their enthusiastic reception of my talk.  I was delighted that they decided to make Cece Primary School their charity for this year as well.  Some of their members have also made significant contributions towards the building work.

I also want to thank Father Rupert of the London Oratory for agreeing to ask the families taking part in this year's First Holy Communion programme to support us in a special project, to supply desks and chairs for all the children.  Up until now the children have been sitting on mats on the floor, which is far from ideal.

A big thank you to St Augustine's in Hammersmith for allowing me to speak at all Masses one weekend and also to their ABC group.  Especial thanks to Peter and Mary Hickson for their great help in organising this.  Collections were taken at both events.

Thank you to good friends of mine, one of whom has given me a laptop, another children’s reading books and another a cash donation which I used to buy some educational games.  Another friend paid for professionally produced leaflets to distribute.  I was offered other things as well, but travelling with too much baggage would have been a big problem.  Thank you anyway for the generous thoughts.

Literally the day before leaving the country I met the founder of a charity called Pencils for All, who have kindly offered to fundraise for school uniforms for all the children.  The children currently come to school in very torn and shabby clothes and have repeatedly expressed the wish for a school uniform.  From a safety point of view, parents have pointed out that if the children should have an accident on their way to or from school, a school uniform will immediately identify them to any passers-by.

I also wish to thank Sean Devereux Children's Fund, who have been kind enough to let our donors funnel their donations through their account so that we could make use of their tax status.  They also made a very generous donation at the start of our building campaign, to kick-start the work.  This arrangement will come to an end soon, as the administration required is now becoming rather too onerous for them as the needs of the school expand.

From my own point of view, I have been very conscious for some time that one fundraiser, based in South Sudan, makes the school very unstable.  It is very hard to communicate long-distance with poor network coverage and a poor supply of electricity.  More seriously, if I am knocked down by a car or become completely incapacitated in some way, that will be the end of all publicity and support for the school.  As the school is a charity school, providing education for the poorest children in the community, that would be the end of the children’s education.  Their families would not be able to pay the school fees demanded by all the other schools.  We now also have several deaf children attending school in special schools in Uganda, who would also have their education and life chances curtailed.

While in England I met a woman who is also supporting the education of some children in South Sudan, fundraising completely on her own.  As in my case, she is very concerned that the support will ‘die with her’ leaving children high and dry.  We agreed to look for a way to start a charity specifically for our projects.  If you are interested in getting involved, please contact me on rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.

The main areas currently needing financial support are:

• ·     Daily school running costs such as stationery, firewood (for cooking a meal for the children), teachers, cooks and a guard’s salaries.
• ·    Construction work on new classrooms.  The donations from the Catenians and St Augustine’s have given a significant boost, so that the new block of classrooms is now almost complete.
• ·     Sponsorships for four deaf children to go to school in Uganda.  We now also have a blind boy in the school.  We are arranging to take him for medical assessment in Uganda.  If an operation is not feasible, he will also need a school for the blind in Uganda.
• ·    The project to provide desks and chairs for all classes (through the London Oratory, as mentioned above).
• ·     School uniforms for all children (through Pencils for All, as mentioned above).

If you would like to donate to the school, please contact me on the same email address as above.

I came back to Nimule to find that work on the construction of the new block of classrooms was well underway.  The first classroom in the block is already in use by our Primary 4 class.  We look forward to using the rest of the rooms

The last day of work before the roofing begins

very soon.  The photo shows the current state of progress.  The veranda and disabled ramps were finished today.

The Quandaries of Registration time

In South Sudan, schools re-register all their students at the start of the school year.  I believe that this is because of the instability of the country.  In past years, we have lost large numbers of children as their families leave for the refugee camps either because of the war or because of hunger.  Some return, but many do not.  However last year, for the first time since we founded the school, there has been relative stability and the majority of children remained with us throughout the year.  This raised my hopes that we would be able to continue to educate the same children two years running.  My hopes have not been disappointed.

The new school year begins on 5 February, so we started registrations last week, beginning with last year’s pupils.  On day one of registrations, 70 children came to register, more than half of last year’s intake.  Over the rest of the week, the numbers registering went down, but we still registered almost all those who attended in 2017.

Depending on their results in the end of year exams and also on their in-class performance, children either move to the next level, stay in their former class or in some particular cases move backwards.  This is in line with the South Sudanese education system and African schools more generally.  It seems harsh, but there is nothing we can do about it.  In my own country, children move up according to age group, not by ability and are given extra help if they struggle.  Here there are no resources for individual catch-up.  Parents are completely illiterate and unable to help their children and schools have limited numbers of teachers.  To make up for this, unlike other schools, we are alert to our children’s performance during the school year and if we find children misplaced academically, they are moved to a more suitable class. 

A major issue that we have faced during the registration process this year is that a lot of the children came without their carers.  We have a registration form which we use to check that our pupils meet the school criteria as well as to collect personal information.  The school gives places firstly to those from families with HIV/AIDS or disability which hampers the families’ ability to pay for their children’s schooling, and secondly to orphans.  Some children informed us that they live with their parents and that there is no sickness or disability in the family, in spite of conflicting information from last year’s registration forms! 

It became necessary to contact the parents.  In most cases, the children had never been told by their carers that they were not their real parents, the parents having died of HIV or other causes when they were still very small.  This is because both HIV and orphanhood are stigmatized in South Sudan, in spite of the vast numbers involved. 

Next week we are inviting new applicants to come to register.  During the past week, many new families came and we asked them to come back next week.  However, there are very few places left as so many of our children of 2017 are still with us.  It is very clear that we are going to be overwhelmed.  It will be necessary to take the details of all the applicants and then categorize them by need for a place.  I hate it, but what else can we do?  In time, maybe there will be enough money to have two classes in each year, but unless we expand the number of children in each class to well beyond the current 35 per class, we will not be able to accept all the children who are in need of a place now.  If we have large classes, the standard of teaching and individual help will go down.  In the refugee camps, schools operate with over 200 children per class and the children learn nothing due to the constant noise.  In other Nimule schools classes often go up to 100, but at the end of the day few children learn even to read or write.  This must not happen to Cece Primary School.  If you look at the previous post for the end of the school year, you will see that the children did very well.  This must continue.

In the meantime, construction work on the new block of classrooms is much delayed due to lack of funding.  Some funding has now arrived, and this coming week work begins again, but the classrooms will not be on time for the new term.  The money is not enough to complete the work.  Fortunately there is a temporary classroom made with tarpaulins, which classes will take turns to use, as it is very hot and uncomfortable.  It would be very unfair to one class if they had to spend the whole school day in it every day, rather than by rotation.

If you can help us by increasing your support for the school, or organizing fundraising activities in support of us, which would have the additional benefit of spreading the word about the school more widely, it will benefit a very deprived community so that the next generation has hope for the future.  Illiteracy in South Sudan is currently at 85%.  Although there are no statistics that I am aware of specifically for the poor, judging by my own observation, illiteracy must be close to 100% because apart from our own school, it is unheard of to have a school with no school fees or other burdensome requirements.

I will be returning to the UK in February while I get a new passport and will be delighted to visit anyone who would like to hear more about Cece Primary School.

As mentioned in my previous blog post, Patrick Gore will be taking over as headteacher from me.  He is a very committed teacher who shares the ideals of the school and is already coming up with new ideas to enhance the children’s educational experience, including a potential trip to the nearby national park to bring life to their science and social studies lessons.  I will be leaving the school in good hands while I am away.  Once back, I will teach English and particularly literacy under him as well as continuing to keep contact with donors with news of the school.

To send money to the school:

For UK tax payers, please send through the Sean Devereux Children’s Fund so that we can benefit from 25% tax relief from the UK government. Please contact me by email for the gift aid form, if you are able to donate in this way.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.

It is not currently possible to donate from other parts of the world, unless donors decide to donate directly to our account in Uganda.  Clubbing together will save on individual transfer costs.  If you would like to do this, please email me on the same email address as above and I will supply the bank details.

Christmas at Nimule National Park

Patrick Gore, the new headteacher at Cece Primary School also leads the congregation of the local Africa Inland Church.  As a Christmas treat for this church’s youth group, he organized a trip to Nimule National Park.  A national park in war-torn South Sudan?  Yes, in fact it is one of several, as can be seen from this Bradt Guide article. 

In all the four years I have lived in Nimule this has been my first opportunity to visit the national park, even though it is only just outside the town.  Entrance is free of charge to locals, but has to be arranged in advance so that the rangers take groups of people together.  For foreign NGOs a charge is made.  The rationale is that local people are poor but need to be educated about their environment and particularly the harm done by thoughtless littering, tree-cutting and burning.  Foreign NGOs are rich, educated and can afford to pay something towards the sustaining of the national park.  As a local resident who they were well aware was helping the local community, I was allowed to tag along with the church group, but was asked for ‘water’.  ‘Water’ is the local jargon for a tip.  Knowing that all government employees suffer from the government’s poor record on paying them, I was happy to do so.

We were all asked to bring food and drink with us.  I brought bread rolls and peanut butter as well as three bottles of water.  What I failed to realize was that there would be a place to cook and that everyone else’s idea of ‘bringing something to eat’ was to bring cooking ingredients to be clubbed together.  My supply of water was inadequate due to the searing heat.  Live and learn.  Next time I will do it differently.  Another thing I would do differently if possible, would be to wear tough footwear.  I and most of the party only had flimsy sandals, but the way is rough and also wet and slippery right next to the river. 

Two of our group striding out.

In spite of everything the national park has remained open even though there have been very few visitors.  The wildlife rangers are a corps of the SPLA, the national army of South Sudan.  They are trained in conservation issues and facts about the many resident animals, birds and plants in the park, sometimes not very accurately.  I was told that the park began in the 1930s as a game reserve (i.e. the animals were there to be hunted).  In 1945 it was re-designated as a national park (the animals are now there to be preserved from hunters).  The national park is the smallest of South Sudan’s national parks at around 450 square kilometers in area.  This information conflicts with the information in the Bradt guide and I am not sure which is correct.  It is not fenced, so the animals wander freely according to their time-honoured migration patterns.  The eastern edge of the national park is a mountain range on the border with Uganda, so great herds of elephants migrate seasonally through South Sudan, Uganda to Kenya and Tanzania.  Around the national park itself is a buffer zone, which is intended to have the same rules as the park itself.  However, there is an ongoing problem of cattle-keepers bringing large numbers of cattle into the buffer zone.  It is now the dry season, and the cattle-keepers have burnt wide swathes of the area.  The Wildlife Division protests but as the cattle belong to high ranking generals, they are outranked and ignored.

Patrick and I next to the falls.

Our group intended to start our trip at dawn, but the South Sudanese being the poorest timekeepers I have ever met, we did not leave the rangers office until past eight in the morning, when the heat of the sun was already making itself felt.  This was a great shame because it reduced our chances of seeing the big animals, who are most active in the cool of the early morning, and particularly the elephants, which I was very keen to see. 

As we followed our armed, uniformed guides, the first place we came to was the wildlife training centre.  We were shown it with great pride, but it was quite obviously disused, not surprisingly in the current civil war situation when army resources are going towards fighting, not conservation.  Our own guides received their training in other African countries.  We then came to some ruined buildings.  These buildings were the home and army headquarters of John Garang de Mabior, who was to become the founder and first president of South Sudan, a very important figure in the war for independence.  A battle was fought at a place called Achua in 1995, which was the turning point in the struggle for independence from Sudan.  Operations were directed by John Garang and his officers from the buildings which we saw.  This is clearly a major historical site, but I had not heard anything about it until my visit. 

After leaving John Garang’s headquarters, the path took us through a wide and shallow valley between some of the Imatong Mountains.  The White Nile flows through the same valley.  As it was the dry season, everything was tinder-dry except the area immediately next to the river, which was very lush and green. 

As we walked along the valley the river was on our left and stony mountains were on our right.  There were baboons sitting on the rocks and in the bushes.  My eyesight is not as good as it used to be, so I struggled to see them unless they moved.  I was assured that there were a great many.  Looking towards the river, we saw hippos.  These were much easier to see as many of their mouths were gaping a startling pink against the green background.  I know that there are also a great many crocodiles, but they remained hidden.

Fulla Falls 3

As we walked on the guides answered my questions.  Since arriving in Nimule I have very often seen eagles wheeling over the town, but nobody had been able to tell me what species of eagle they were.  I was told that they are African Black Eagles.  However, on my return home I googled African Black Eagles only to find that they don’t exist!  I believe he meant African Fish Eagles, but I could be wrong.  I also asked about the ball-like nests I saw in some trees.  It was pointed out to me that the nests were only in the thorn trees.  They are built there by weaver-birds.  The sharp thorns protect their young from predators.  How the parent birds avoid the thorns was not explained.

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We came to several piles of fresh elephant dung right in our path.  To give an idea of the size, imagine a full wheelbarrow.  I have never seen dung like it.  It is not at all smelly and resembles large heaps of compressed grass clippings.  A guide told us that when eaten it is a traditional cure for epilepsy.  Some of the young people put handfuls of dung in their pockets to take home.

Cooking at the fishing village

After walking for around three hours, we started to hear the sound of the rapids.  The Nile is a totally natural river and sprawls in several wide, fast-moving channels around islands composed from dense patches of weeds.  The various channels come crashing together as the valley narrows very dramatically.  We were aiming for this narrow passage, which is a famous local beauty spot called the Fulla Falls.  The name is slightly misleading as really they are rapids, not waterfalls.  However, they are still well worth a visit.

There are three rapids in close succession, imaginatively named Fulla 1, Fulla 2 and Fulla 3.  In order of wildness, Fulla 1 is the mildest and 3 is the strongest.  However all are deadly if someone were to fall in.  Next to Fulla 3, the end of our long walk, is a fishing hamlet consisting of round huts made of stones and ovens where fish is smoked ready to be carried the long distance to market in Nimule.  When we arrived the girls in our party immediately started getting out cooking ingredients and preparing a meal for all of us.  Gender equality is much talked about in the abstract in South Sudan, but has yet to become a reality.  Villagers brought copious quantities of freshly caught fish for the girls to cook.  It was a lovely meal.  The only problem from my point of view was the lack of clean water for drinking.  Everyone else drank straight from the river, but I have had my experience of Nile water before.  My water bottles by that time were nearly empty and the temperatures were going up, not down.  The villagers produced a saucepan and we boiled some water for my use which I decanted into my bottles.  It was a lovely spot to eat, under a shady tree.  The village chief introduced himself and was delighted that I was inadvertently sitting on his grandfather’s grave.  A woman passing by on her way to the next fishing village came to greet us.  I remarked on what a beautiful place she lived in.  She agreed and said that they were never hungry.  It was so nice to meet such contented people.  Before we left, it was announced that it was the twentieth birthday of one of our party.  He gave a charming speech about how he had never had a birthday like it and how happy he was no longer to be a teenager.  I think our trip would be hard to beat for most twenty year olds even worldwide.

View of the fishing village with

fishermen in the foreground.

At about 3pm we packed up and started our return journey, seeing the same scenes and animals in reverse order.  This time however, some of our party spotted elephants in the distance.  I was desperate to see them, but try as I might I saw nothing.  My eyesight needs serious checking next time I go back to England.  I start to doubt if I would spot an elephant if it was in the room with me.

One of the guides returned with a large bag of aloa vera which he was going to plant at the wildlife rangers compound.  Apparently it grows wild next to the river.  We discussed the benefits of aloa vera.  He told me that he is the medical officer for the unit, and would be using it for medical treatment for his unit.

We arrived back at the start of the walk, desperately thirsty and footsore, at around 6pm.

Fortunately a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) turned up, otherwise getting back home would have been agonising.

Patrick is hoping to take a party of the older children from Cece Primary School to visit later next year.  That will be a very great excitement for them and help bring to life their science and social studies subjects.  It will also be an introduction to the history of their country to learn about John Garang.

The trip felt like a real holiday and was a great start to Christmas.  Next year, maybe more people will come and experience our lovely national park.  The wildlife rangers want the outside world to know that they are very, very keen for more visitors!