Chicken and New Clothes for Christmas

I want to share my lovely South Sudanese Christmas.  All is not doom and gloom here. 

Every year it’s the same.  Clothes are the big thing at Christmas in Nimule.  Food also, but clothes reign supreme.  Unfortunately, due to my plastered arm I was unable to compete.  I wore the best of my kitenges (African print dresses) which would fit over my arm.  The dress I had intended to wear was made for me by a girl whose tailoring classes I paid for.  I know she was disappointed that I couldn’t wear it.  As soon as the plaster comes off, I will post a photo on Facebook.

Cooking the chicken

My day started with Mass.  As I was leaving for church I saw Concy, who is a member of Cece Primary School and lives with us, cooking our Christmas dinner – a chicken which had been squawking in our compound the day before.  Chicken is a major luxury here.  It costs half a teacher’s monthly salary, so we only eat it on high days and holidays here.  However, I am luckier than most.  I usually manage to eat chicken when I visit Uganda.

The church was packed with at least a thousand people all dressed to the nines.  By way of celebration the priest had decided to perform forty-five baptisms.  He didn’t cut any corners with the sermon and the choir was unstoppable too.  The Mass was therefore nearly four hours long.  That’s the way everyone likes it here - the longer the better, particularly on a special occasion such as Christmas.  I have to admit that I find it trying, but hey, I am in a minority of one.

After Mass I walked back home.  Pascalina was finishing the cooking.  In addition to chicken, there was goat meat.  In celebration of Christmas, there were no vegetables.  This is in complete contrast to our normal diet in which we rarely see meat. 

Pascalina’s grandchildren were visiting from Moyo, a small town in Uganda.  They had brought with them a large quantity of rice harvested from their own smallholding.  This is the very first time I have ever eaten rice grown by people I know.  I found that rather exciting.  It may be pure imagination, but it seemed particularly delicious to me.

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Children eat together

fter eating, the large herd of Pascalina’s grandchildren and great-nieces and nephews played happily all afternoon, before a second round of eating the remaining food.  Two days later, as I write, they are still playing.  Although they are all related, they live far from each other.  Some have never met before, but you would never know it.

We adults sat on the veranda facing the road and watched the world go by.  This has become my favourite part of Christmas.  Children and teenagers divide themselves by age and sex and parade up and down wearing their swanky new clothes.  The teenagers are hilarious.  This year they are all wearing identical black stretch jeans, covered in white patterns and sometimes adorned with handkerchiefs which they tie around their knees to complete the effect.  One young man stood out, dressed in bright yellow from head to foot, and I mean ‘from head’ – he was wearing a bright yellow wig!  I think they all thought they were looking ‘cool’.  I love teenagers.

Children pose in their new clothes

A lot of the younger children came up to us to say ‘Happy Christmas’.  They were given handfuls of sweets.  On past Christmases, Pascalina has handed out homemade shortbread, but this year she wasn’t up to it.  Her health has been poor and baking without a real oven is a major struggle.

Late in the afternoon we heard drums and Dinka singing.  One of the Dinka churches came through the town in procession, led by people dressed as Joseph and Mary, with Jesus in Mary’s arms.  The major festivals of Christmas and Easter are always marked in this way by the Dinka community.  The procession was a reminder of the tribal divisions in South Sudan.  Some churches segregate themselves.  Many of the local Madi community are deeply suspicious of the Dinka, justifiably when it comes to the many atrocities perpetrated by the Dinka army.  However, the Dinka residents of Nimule are mainly women and children who have fled genocide in their own tribal areas.  The feelings aroused remind me of the Northern Irish Catholic distrust of the Orangemen parades in Belfast.  Thankfully, those are becoming history.  Hopefully the same will be the case here too, in the not too distant future.

I hope you also had an enjoyable and restful Christmas and that 2020 will be a good year.

End of the school year

We wish all our supporters a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

My trip to England is now over and I have been back in South Sudan for a few months.  I apologise for the silence since then.  I have been overwhelmed with work and even now am struggling with a broken arm.

I want to remind readers that South Sudan is one of the very poorest countries in the world.  In addition to poverty, the level of ignorance is extreme and there are constant upheavals due to war.  Many things taken for granted even in other developing countries are unknown here.  I have lived in South Sudan for six years and have therefore acclimatized and now take a lot of these problems for granted.  For this reason I have seldom written about them.  My omission has been highlighted by a recent visitor.  South Sudan really is bottom of all the league tables, whether in poverty, education, morality, health, sanitation, livelihood – you name it.

Our children are from very neglectful and often abusive families.  Theirs is not a Disney-style, rose-tinted glasses type of poverty.  It is full on.  Behaviour is a huge problem, copied from the behaviour all around them, even from their families.  There are no social services to step in.  The police are untrained, corrupt and are as violent as everyone else.  They often confuse traditional and statutory law.

Even the teachers, who are all South Sudanese, are often a problem because their own life experiences are the same as those of the rest of society. 

Time management is a big challenge as people here lack the concept of time, apart from the obvious rising and setting of the sun. If it is a cloudy day everyone is late.

We work on what we can, but it is a slow process and often resisted.  For example, when children fight we listen to their reasons for fighting, warn them not to repeat, ask them to forgive each other, then if the matter is still not resolved, we send for their parents.  As often as not, the parents then accuse us of not beating their children.  Some have removed their children from the school for that reason.

We have several pieces of good news.

A small charity in the UK called Pencils for All has provided us with a playground consisting of swings, a roundabout, see-saw and slide.  Due to the situation here it has had to be surrounded by a fence which looks more suited to a prison.  Metal is very much coveted, and so the playground has to be well protected if it is to remain ours.  It is lovely for the children to have this play area.  They are so excited.  Watching them is very uplifting.  There are very few playgrounds in Nimule, so this the first time for many of them to experience one.  The same charity has also provided much needed learning aids and stationery.  They have been so generous and we are all deeply grateful.

The girls football team

Our school took part in its first football match against another school.  We did not have football kits and had to borrow from another school, who charged us for the privilege.  Pencils for All has donated money to buy two sets of football kits for future use.  Our girls’ team won the match 1:0 and the boys drew 0:0, so we are off to a good start in our football career.

The final exam results showed that 67% of children passed.    We have now closed for the end of year holidays and start again with a new Primary 6 class in February. 

Please can I ask for regular donations through Opportunity through Education.   We are in great need of a boost in our regular income as we need to employ new teachers next year to cater for an increase in the number of classes as we will have our first Primary 6 class.  We also need to feed the children. 

We also urgently need to start building work on a new block of classrooms for 2021.  I know this seems very early, but building work is costly and we need to start fund-raising now.

I am happy to send gift aid forms to anyone interested.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.  It is also now possible to make donations online through Virgin Money Giving.  Please be aware that it is necessary to put ‘Cece Primary School’ in the comments box, as Opportunity through Education also collects funds for other causes.  Virgin Giving charges a hefty admin fee on large donations, so please send direct to Opportunity through Education if you are considering sending over £1,000.