Christmas Greetings

Dear all, 

 I hope you have a lovely and restful Christmas and a Happy New Year. Looking at the news, I can see that this year in the UK has been a second year of great difficulties with Covid. I do hope this improves in 2022. As far as Covid is concerned South Sudan has been probably one of the least affected countries in the world, so we have really been very fortunate. Of course, objective figures have been masked by lack of testing and general problems of poor infrastructure and logistics. However, it is still remarkable that a country with such poor health infrastructure can be so little affected compared with countries such as Britain or America which have plenty of medical resources. There are always a lot of funerals here, but this hasn’t noticeably increased. Most people are not complying with the Covid regulations, largely because of the far more pressing problems faced by South Sudanese on a daily basis – such as where to find the next meal. If people are living from hand-to-mouth, there is no way they can self-isolate. They simply must cultivate and sell their crops or starve. It is extremely rare for anyone to have the luxury of a room of their own, so isolation at home is not physically possible in any case. Another major reason for lack of compliance is that many people view Covid as ‘Satanic’. Anything to do with it is shunned – Covid testing, facemasks, handwashing, social distancing and vaccines. Some even propagate the myth that the sign of Satan (666) will appear on a person’s arm after receiving the vaccine, or that they will die soon afterwards. This is having a very serious effect on vaccine take-up in Uganda too, which will unavoidably lead to many teachers leaving the profession and stop many older pupils from finishing their education. I have personally seen young people who were mid-course, unable or unwilling to complete their courses because of the mandatory vaccine requirement. Enough about Covid! 

Private maths lesson for Alice

For me, a great highlight of the last few months has been the teaching of a few of our deaf children by the eldest, Alau, who is the only one at secondary level. The picture shows Alau teaching Alice. He has decided that he wants to become a teacher for the deaf when he leaves school. This will involve doing a teacher training course at a specialist training college. He particularly wants to teach in South Sudan because there is no help for deaf children here. I am hoping that once he is qualified we can open a deaf unit in our school and stop sending primary level deaf children to Uganda. We would be able to help more children at a smaller cost and without the long journeys and school fees. We have been paying him out of what should have been school fees for the deaf children if their schools had been open. Thankfully Alau has been vaccinated so he will be able to move ahead with his plans.

 

Foundations for a block of 4 classrooms

Another achievement was the building of foundations for a new block of classrooms. This is just a large slab of concrete right now, but hopefully we will be able to raise funds so that classrooms can be built in the not too distant future. 

Our contribution to the anti-Covid effort has been to have school in two shifts. This has had the added benefit of making the school less crowded and quieter. However, some parents of ‘afternoon’ pupils complain that their children are not attending because they dislike coming in the afternoons. Once we have more classrooms, we will be able to rethink our school day. 

Schools in South Sudan have just broken up for a two week Christmas break. On our last day, the lower school (who operate in the mornings) all did Christmas story related activities. I was teaching Primary 2. We told each other the story of the nativity and then improvised a Christmas play. There were a lot of applicants to be Mary, Joseph and the Angel Gabriel. The smallest boy in the class was the baby Jesus. The sight of some of our boys who are almost street urchins being angels with flapping wings was very funny. In the afternoon, the upper school was very poorly attended and so we played board games together. I had very recently taught some of the oldest pupils to play Scrabble. This is a huge success and very educational for them too, helping with vocabulary, spelling, spelling rules, strategic planning etc. We have three sets of Scrabble and also several of Lotto. They were donated by UNICEF. 

We go back to school straight after the New Year. However, I will be in Uganda for the first week as our school opening coincides with the post-Covid reopening in Uganda. I will need to take all the deaf children back to school. Thank you all for your support for the school during 2021. I am really so grateful, particularly at such a difficult time for all of you. 

Once again wishing you a lovely Christmas.

World AIDS Day 2021

On the first of December World AIDS Day was celebrated in Nimule. This is held every year and is very close to the hearts of many because Nimule is one of the most seriously affected places in South Sudan. The main reasons for this are that Nimule is a stopover for many truck drivers coming from Uganda, who lodge in what amount to brothels, and also because polygamy is the traditional norm in all the local tribes. As families with HIV are the main target group for our school, Cece Primary School always takes part.

Primary 5 and Primary 6, our two highest classes, took part. This year our pupils surpassed themselves. By popular request they repeated a performance of a poem and song which we composed as a class exercise several years ago on the subject of the devastation caused by HIV. This was followed by a new song called ‘AIDS you are merciless’. Our school finished the day by performing a Madi traditional dance in the lyrics of which a girl is warned not to go to the disco because she can end up with HIV. This contribution was our first performance of a traditional dance. It was taught to the children by one of our new teachers, Habiba. Afterwards we were complimented by many people on how well our children had done. I have to say that I was very proud.

You may notice from the photos that the majority of performers were girls. I am finding that as adolescence hits our pupils, the boys have become very resistant to taking part in singing, dancing or drama. I was glad to see that this wears off. One of the secondary schools which took part produced a comedy drama about a schoolboy who went off the rails and ended up with HIV. The ratio of boys to girls was roughly equal. In spite of the subject matter, it really was very funny. Thank you all for making it possible for our children to go to school in the first place. All other schools in Nimule are fee-paying, with a lot of additional financial requirements as well. Our particular children, those from families with HIV, disabilities and orphans, are the least likely to be able to attend school under normal circumstances because these problems all create destitution.