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!