My return journey from Kuron to Juba

In the time I’ve been in South Sudan I have almost always travelled by public transport, but never written about it.  Here is a description of my return journey to Juba from Kuron to give readers a flavour of why I enjoy it.

While I was at Kuron it became very clear that getting back would be more problematic than my trip there, in which I had shared Bishop Paride’s flight.  Flights are far and few between and very costly.  Sometimes Land Cruisers or other tough vehicles make the journey from Kapoeta to Kuron, but there is no public means of travel.  The nearest town with public transport is Kapoeta, around 200 kilometres away. 

While I was ruminating on this, I got the news that my contingent of deaf children were supposed to return to school at the beginning of March as part of Uganda’s gradual reopening of schools.  Before going back to Nimule to collect them all together, I needed to renew my South Sudan resident’s permit, so I realized that I needed to leave earlier than planned.

The road from Kuron to Kapoeta, while it was
still daylight.

Various trucks were arriving at Kuron with building materials for school renovations and for work on a new bridge, which was to replace one which had been swept away by floods last year.  I spoke to the driver of a tip-up truck who was about to leave on his return journey to Juba and he agreed to take me in the passenger seat.  The truck was a modern one with air conditioning, which made the drive relatively comfortable although it was still an extremely bumpy and painstakingly slow drive for the most part because of the state of the track.  We left at around 3 pm, which I was pleased about because it gave me a chance to see the surroundings before night fell.

The driver was a very young and friendly Ethiopian.  He spoke a small amount of English and I spoke a small amount of Arabic, so we were able communicate in a very basic way.  He was an excellent driver and very experienced in negotiating sudden drops from the track into dried up river beds.  I really admired his skill.

For the first part of the journey we passed Toposa villages, surrounded by thorny fences.  Their homes were built on stilts, dome shaped and completely made of long grass.  They were really works of art.  As the residents heard the approach of our truck, children came running to the roadside to wave at us as we passed.  Most people, both adults and children, wore bead necklaces and a cloth around their shoulders.  Women wore short pleated skirts in a traditional design as well.  Many women had lip piercings and exposed tattooed bodies. 

Children who had rushed to the
roadside to see the vehicle, close
to a feeding centre.

Outside one village I saw the remains of a bonfire surrounded by log benches with a tall homemade cross at one end.  This was very similar to the place where I attended the baptisms described in my last post.  It is the nearest thing to a church that I saw in the whole journey as far as Kapoeta.

I saw quite a lot of donkeys, which I know were imported by the Peace Village to provide agricultural help and beasts of burden for the locals, who have no tradition of using animals for work.   There were no towns, no shops or any other signs of outside civilization except for a very occasional sign marked ‘Nutrition Centre’. 

Then we passed along a valley path which wound through mountains.  By the time we had got to the end of the mountains night was falling.  As we drove on in the dark, various small animals scooted across the road in the light of the truck’s headlights.  I saw three hyenas, a couple of dik-diks (a very small type of antelope), an animal resembling a mongoose and lots of rabbits.  The driver was clearly an animal lover; he was extremely careful not to run them over. 

We continued driving in pitch darkness until 10.30 pm when we finally arrived at Kapoeta, which is the state capital for the whole area.  We stopped at a large but slightly grotty hotel which clearly catered for truck drivers. 

As we parted for the night I asked the driver what time he wanted to leave for Juba the next day.  He said he wanted to leave at 11 am.  He must have been terribly tired, as he had driven all the way from Kapoeta to Kuron earlier the same day – sixteen hours of concentrated, careful driving.  However, such a late start did not suit me at all, knowing that the driving time to Juba might be a similar length.  I wanted to arrive in daylight and not too exhausted, so we parted with many thanks from me for his willingness to help me.  I slept like a log, not surprisingly.

The next day I went to the transport hub for taxis to Juba.  ‘Taxi’ in an African context is the word used for a minibus.  As I went through the town, it was obvious that Kapoeta is in the Toposa tribal area as quite a lot of people were wearing tribal dress.  The Toposa are either a big tribe, or simply well scattered over a huge area.  I doubt if there are reliable statistics as their villages can be very remote indeed, mostly without outside access.  There are many international NGO offices in Kapoeta, but apart from the signs for nutrition centres, there seemed little evidence that they had a presence in rural areas. 

I paid my taxi fare and then sat and waited with everyone else.  As I was waiting, the local police chief introduced himself to me and we chatted.  He told me that the taxi drivers were discussing me and were very happy to have a white person taking a taxi.  They said that it was a sign that peace was coming.  If only ……  Anyway it was a nice thought.

Altogether there were ten passengers plus a baby and toddler and the driver in our taxi, crowded four to a row on seats intended for three people.  Two people shared the passenger seat.  As we left the town we waited for another taxi to catch up so we could drive in convoy in case of emergency, either of breakdown or banditry.  Our small convoy finally set off at around 9 am.

I sat squeezed between a young woman with her baby and a Dinka man with facial scarrings.  As with all public transport in South Sudan and elsewhere in Africa, people do not maintain a stony silence and avoid each other’s eyes as they do in the UK.  We all talk to our neighbours.  To me this is one of the pleasures of public transport in South Sudan.  I found that my Dinka fellow passenger was a refugee living in Kenya.  His sister was mentally ill, but their family could not afford medical care for her in Kenya.  He was therefore taking her to Juba in the hope that she could be helped.  I did not comment as I doubt very much that there is much help to be had for mental illness in Juba.  He had made a terribly long journey with her and I didn’t want to discourage him so close to the end of the trip.

Me in a rumpled and dusty state, having
just crossed the river.

As we continued our journey we passed through many checkpoints where our unfortunate driver had to keep paying the traffic police and soldiers.  I was asked for my ID twice, but there were no problems and the officials were friendly.  Until recently the road between Kapoeta and Torit was infamous for the roughness of the track (very bad even by South Sudanese standards) but it has been recently smoothed, so the ride was not bad at all, apart from one place where we had to cross a river and no bridge had yet been built.  There was an articulated lorry with an equally long trailer stuck in the mud, leaving little room for other vehicles to pass except through deeper water.  We all had to get out of the taxi and cross using very uneven stepping stones, so that the taxi would not get stuck

After leaving Kapoeta I noticed that the villages were the more usual grass-thatched mud huts, as they are in Nimule.  We passed through the Lotuku tribal area, centred on Torit (the state capital for Eastern Equatoria).  Juba is in yet another tribal area, the Bari.

We stopped for lunch at a small town called Liria, where we had a proper restaurant meal with soda before continuing our journey.

Soon after leaving Liria we had to negotiate our way through several large herds of cattle, which were being taken to market in Juba on foot.  Then we came to a large area where there were serious bush fires, purposefully lit.  There is a tradition of setting fire to the bush every dry season, which causes a lot of environmental damage.  It was very sad to see.

The main problem of that day’s travel was that our taxi was very old and we had to have the windows open all the way because the ventilation was not working.  Huge amounts of dust blew through the windows.  Some of us put our masks on which helped a bit.  We were covered with dust from head to foot, inside as well as outside our clothes.

We arrived in Juba at about 4 pm.  I took a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) to the guesthouse where I always stay when in Juba.  I had booked by phone early in the day but I found that my booking had not been communicated by the lady I spoke to, and they were not expecting me.  They had to hurriedly clear out a room while I waited, covered in dust and desperate to bathe.  Anyhow, it was a good trip and I was surprisingly untired by it.

The last leg of my journey was by taxi from Juba to Nimule, along a familiar tarmacked road.  It passes through Nimule National Park and across part of the Imatong Mountains.  I have described the road in a previous blog written when I had just arrived in South Sudan seven years ago.

I keep thinking of the happy reaction of the taxi drivers to having a white passenger.  I suspect that if only more foreigners would use the local public transport system, rather than private vehicles or light aircraft, it might even help to bring security and lasting peace.  It would certainly raise demand for improved road conditions.

A visit to the Peace Village at Kuron

It has been nearly a year without any travel for me since Covid broke out and during that time I have hardly left Nimule.  This has left me with a great desire for a change and a rest.  Travel to Uganda needs a Covid certificate and a $50 Ugandan visa, so I prefer not to go there until I am able to take the deaf children back to school. 

Around five or six years ago I met a very remarkable retired bishop called Bishop Paride Taban for the first time.  Even though he is over eighty years old, it is not really true that he is retired.  Instead he has been working for peace in South Sudan by any means that he can find.  This includes arbitrating between rival army generals, the government and outside agencies.  His attempts sometimes involve talking to some very violent and murderous characters, so he is a very brave man. 

His pet project has been the establishment of a peace village in a very remote area of South Sudan called Holy Trinity Peace Village at Kuron, not far from the border with Ethiopia.  It is an area virtually untouched by outside influences.  He established a primary school and a clinic (which has saved many lives).  A secondary school is under construction.  There is a newly established vocational training college run by the St Martin de Porres brothers, two of whom live in the peace village.  The Bishop lobbied outside agencies for road construction, a bridge over a local river and an air strip so that Kuron is becoming more accessible than previously, although at the moment only privately chartered flights land there. 

Agriculture is being taught to the local tribe, the Toposa, for the first time.  Up until learning agricultural skills they totally lived off their cattle herds.  The Toposa are traditionally semi-nomadic, following their cattle from place to place, but with an upsurge in cattle raiding by other tribes, they are now sticking close to home.  Due to Bishop Paride’s motivation for peace-building, a lot of work is being done to help the Toposa to become a more peaceful tribe.  There is a whole department at the Peace Village devoted to this task.

Arrival at Kuron by light aircraft

The flight to Kuron takes a bit over one hour from Juba.  There is no real alternative as the roads in that direction are rough tracks through very remote areas and would have taken days.  Planes fly very low so that it is possible to see the ground all the time.  For most of the journey I stayed glued to the window.

It is very different from Nimule, where people have become pan-African in their dress, the women mostly wearing beautiful African print long dresses and head scarves or elaborately braided hair.  Men in Nimule wear shirts or t-shirts and trousers.  I have been given a Toposa name, Natabu, which means a shady place where people can gather.  It is a tradition here to rename people coming from outside in the Toposa language.

Toposa women

For my first week I simply relaxed.  It is very peaceful.  The compound nestles under a steep, rocky but wooded hill.  The area is far greener than Nimule, even though it is the dry season, but just as hot.  Birds sing day and night, which adds to the peaceful atmosphere.  I am woken by cocks crowing.  I sleep in a slightly more modern version of a traditional round hut, with a metal roof rather than thatch. 

The Toposa of the local area are pretty much untouched by all the wars and political problems that have beset most of the country.  They did not become refugees, but have stayed behind, continuing their normal lives throughout.  This makes it a far more stable area than many in the country.  People do not have the same dependency on outside aid, which makes a refreshing change.

The local catechist speaks to the villagers.

A few days ago, I went with the Kuron director, Father Henry, and the two St Martin de Porres brothers to an even more remote area to carry out baptisms.  It was wonderful.  We went after dark because it is almost impossible to get people together in the daytime, when they are out herding their cattle.  It was a long bumpy ride across dried out riverbeds; when it is the rainy season the road must be impassable.  We arrived to find a large bonfire lighting up the night.  We were greeted by a large crowd of excited villagers, with many children.  All still wear traditional tribal dress or, in the case of some children, nothing at all.  Many have multiple piercings and beaded necklaces. 

The catechist for the village we visited is completely illiterate but knows his teachings very well indeed, to the extent that when tested by the brothers prior to our visit, the candidates for baptism were far better informed than many Catholics in western countries.  He has also taught the people a large repertoire of hymns in the Toposa language.  We were greeted with beautiful singing as a result.  Around 160 people were baptized, ranging from five year olds upwards.  The team will come back to carry out infant baptisms but are concentrating on the older residents who need instruction first.

Children waiting for baptism by the light of a bonfire.

Many of the children had grossly distended bellies due to worms.  The place is far too far from the clinic, but Doctors without Borders recently visited the clinic at Kuron and have agreed to fund a mobile clinic, so hopefully this situation will soon change.

The general atmosphere of joy and excitement over the baptism visit was palpable.  It was a very happy occasion indeed.

Last week was final exam time for primary school leavers across South Sudan and the school in Kuron was no exception.  There were twenty exam candidates, only three of whom are girls, because of traditional gender values.  Hopefully, as the Toposa become more influenced from outside, they will allow their girls to attend school.  Girls here are usually married at puberty to much older men.  I feel very fortunate that we have a far more gender-balanced school in Nimule.  The school here is a boarding school as it caters for a very wide area.  Some pupils come from as much as 100 kilometres away.

For the past two days I have been teaching the teachers the same literacy method that I have taught the teachers at Cece Primary School, to enable them to improve their literacy teaching.  As literacy is not part of the South Sudan Curriculum, this will, I hope, be a good way to say thank you for my stay here to everybody working here.

Time for school in Uganda, but we have hold-ups

 Dear all,

It is time to take the deaf children back to school in Uganda, but unfortunately there are problems.

The Ugandan Government announced that schools should reopen on 18^th January.  However, the information they gave to schools was confusing so that some schools were expecting all students to resume, while others believed it was only candidate classes (the final exam year groups).  To make matters worse, elections were due to be held in Uganda on 14^th January.  Right across the country there has been a lot of violence during the campaigning period.  Colleagues who went to visit relatives in Uganda for Christmas and the New Year said that the situation is extremely tense.

As far as the schools attended by our children are concerned, the school in Budaderi, which has the largest number of children, is still very unsure about which children should return, whether it should be only those in the primary leaving year, or all children.  Both the secondary school in Mbale and the school in Gulu were expecting all children to return on 18^th January.  This makes it difficult for me.  If I take all the children on that mammoth bus journey, only to find that I have to bring some of them home again would be very costly and also very disappointing for the children.

The unstable political situation and also the uncertainty over exactly which children should return prompted me to call a meeting of all the children’s parents.  The unanimous decision was not to take risks.  We are going to wait until the situation has become calm and for the schools to give us definite information before travelling.  It is very unfortunate that the children are still delayed in getting back to school after such a long time away.

At the meeting, parents updated me on their children’s time away from school.  It has been a major struggle due to lack of communication and the inability of families to help with home studies.  Several children have been working to assist their families, but others have had completely nothing to do.  To give just one example of the difficulties faced, one girl who tried to play with some other local children, was beaten by them because of her lack of communication.

I believe that transport costs have gone up as have learning materials and other items, although the schools have all said that they are not increasing their school fees.  Once we have made the journey I will be able to let sponsors know how much costs have gone up, or not, as the case may be.

The biggest Covid lesson for me regarding these deaf children is the need to help their families to learn sign language.  Our children have spent nearly a year in great loneliness due to inability to communicate with their families.  I suggested to the parents that I look for a sign language instructor to run a course for families.  The families all agree wholeheartedly.  I am now looking for a Ugandan sign language instructor who might be willing to come to Nimule.  I also intend to learn!

Our new child, Okumu Vibrant

Once we are ready to go back to school, I will be taking a new child called Okumu Vibrant to the school in Budaderi.  Okumu is nine years old and has been completely deaf since he was nine months old, as a result of being overdosed on quinine which was given for malaria.  He lives in the state capital, Torit, but has relatives in Nimule.  He attended nursery school in Torit where he seems to have done well, but (like all the others) has been out of school for nearly a year.  If you would like to sponsor him, please email me for details.  

Why is it so important to help these children?  South Sudan only has one deaf school, which is a day nursery in Juba.  They use South Sudan sign language, which is very new and only has a 200 word dictionary – far too few words for any real conversation or studies.  SEN training is very rare in South Sudan, so schools (including Cece) do not have anyone with specialism in sign language.  All other deaf provision is in other countries, the nearest to Nimule being Uganda.  Under Ugandan anti-discrimination law deaf students can even go to university with a sign language interpreter provided free-of-charge. 

All the parents told me how very grateful they were for the chance their children have to go to school.  I am passing these thanks on to you, as it would not be possible to help them without your sponsorships.  You are so important to the futures of these children.

Let us pray that Covid will not again create havoc with our children’s education during 2021.

 

Rebecca the Walking Wallet

 At no point in my life have I ever been rich, nor have I ever wanted to be rich.

A 'sides-to-middled' sheet

I lived for years as a single parent on benefits with insecure housing.  While my children were young and growing fast, I took pleasure in the challenge of budgeting for the expensive school shoes required by their school.  At that time, benefits were collected weekly from a local post office.  I would purposefully make a week’s money last for eight days and then collect the next installment.  By that means, every seven weeks I could cash a whole extra week’s benefits which could then be used for school shoes.  There was a great sense of triumph in this.

On the other hand, I did not want my children to see myself or themselves as hard-done-by.  I made it clear to my children’s school that they must keep the fact that my children were on free school meals confidential, even from my children.  There came a time when that information was given to a church group who wanted to distribute food hampers for Christmas to the poorest in the parish.  I had spent a full six months carefully putting things aside for Christmas.  I was so angry when they came to the door, making nothing of all my efforts by producing a whole lot of things which I had already bought (which of course they were ignorant of).  I refused the hamper.  I am sorry for my attitude with hindsight, because I know they were good people trying to help those in need.  They just got the wrong person and in my opinion were using a very poor method of help.

For the last eleven years of my time in my home country I lived on a boat on the Thames, initially because I could not afford the rent of a home on land, even though I had regular work.  Over that time, I came to really appreciate the daily efforts of living in semi-third world conditions, especially in the winter; for example the necessity to carry buckets of coal onto the boat to keep warm and to put a tarpaulin over the boat to keep some of the heat inside.  There is something far more pleasurable in producing heat and comfort when it has been difficult to achieve.

I now live in South Sudan, one of the poorest countries in the world.  To do this, I sold my boat and other more valuable possessions and gave away almost everything else through a wonderful website called Freecycle.  The resulting fund sustains me in South Sudan so that I can do the work I have been called to do.  It is a call to live with the local people, sharing in their lives and helping them in any way I can.  My experiences of poverty are in action the whole time.

Although there is a huge problem of poverty, there is also a huge ignorance of how to make the most of what is there and to prioritise in order of importance.  People live hand-to-mouth but do not have the concept of resisting the goodies in favour of necessities.

For example, people struggle to pay their children’s school fees and put food on the table, but they can be found spending a whole day having their hair done and buying clothes.  There is a huge drug and drink problem, which is also a big drain on money which could be better used.

Dependency on NGOs is very high and has become a tradition lasting around 50 years due to incessant war.  People take for granted that seeds come from NGOs each year.  Staple foods come from the UN or WFP.  Mosquito nets also come from NGOs even though it is possible to buy them locally.  This stops people from thinking or planning for themselves and they lose the ability to be resourceful.

I try to set an example by mending my clothes rather than buying more, until a stage is reached when new clothes become necessary.  Then I buy secondhand if possible.  I wear the cheapest flip-flops (locally called slippers) until they break.  Then I have them mended by a local disabled shoe-mender until they are past repair.  I bought a set of sheets 5 years ago, which wore out in the middle.  I did what my mother did, and cut them in half along the broken middle area, then sewed the ends together.  My mother used to call this technique ‘sides to middling’.

I have called this post ‘Rebecca the Walking Wallet’ because this is how I am often perceived.  As I walk around the town, I am the only white person to be seen and am regarded by those who don’t know me as DOLLARS, not a fellow human being.  The common perspective is that a white person is necessarily rich and a member of a huge multi-national NGO.  This is especially a male conception, but some women also do the same.  They are in reality after me for cigarettes, drink and drugs, but claim to be hungry.  It becomes obvious (even without the give-away smell of tobacco or drink) that this is the case when I offer to buy them something to eat and it is contemptuously refused.  If I say that I have no money I am not believed.  Occasionally, a thin and wretched-looking old woman will ask for help, and she I do not refuse.

In my view South Sudan is definitely in need of support, but that support should enable people to get out of this culture of dependency and learn how to stand on their own feet.  Education is especially important for this to happen as children will (hopefully) grow to think for themselves, outside the box and find ways to help themselves. I wish very sincerely for those I come into daily contact to learn to have self-respect instead of living forever as beggars.

A recent HUMAES experience

As you may know, one of the two partner organisations who are co-founders of Cece Primary School is a local NGO called Humans Must Access Essentials (HUMAES for short). Without their practical local know-how, help and advice our school would not be possible. Everything they do for our school they do free-of-charge apart from a small charge for the costs of sharing their office facilities (electricity, internet, printer and a desk for me). This shows the level of their commitment.

Youth Peace Group in Magwi

Youth Peace Group in Pajok

HUMAES’s remit is anything which will help to bring the local people up out of poverty and deprivation. They work in the areas of health, gender-based violence, livelihood, environment, human rehabilitation, peace-building and, of course, education. Apart from their work on our school, they apply to various international NGOs for funding for projects in line with their vision. 

 

HUMAES’s most recent venture is a peace-building project funded by UNDP. UNDP asked HUMAES to work with youth on peace-building and reconciliation in an area quite a long distance from Nimule but within the same county (Magwi County). The activities will include peace-building and conflict resolution workshops, football, cultural dancing, drama, peace marathon, supporting local youth in farming activities and art. 

 

Meeting at Opari, in Pageri

The designated area comprises several districts: Lobore, Pageri, Magwi and Pajok. Out of these, Lobore and Pajok are very hard to reach due to lack of roads and mountainous conditions, so this was a very tough assignment. The area is home to three tribes, Madi, Acholi and Langi. The program manager, Charles, is a Madi. He took with him an intern called Samuel, who is an Acholi. The Langi are related to the Acholi and speak Acholi as there have been many inter-marriages. Between Charles and Samuel all linguistic issues were covered. 

The Lobore area is so remote that they had had no communication with the outside world for many months. Covid-19 was news to them. There is no phone network or electricity. Water is fetched from the nearby river and is not very clean; one of my colleagues suffered as a result. At some point the outside framework of a school was built but without partitions between classrooms. It is doubtful if there are any teachers to teach there, and certainly no materials. A church was built but also never finished (see photo below).

 

HUMAES conducted an initial survey some time ago to find out the situation in the designated areas. Last week Charles and Samuel returned to get permission from the local authorities and start to talk to local groups. All went smoothly at first. People in Pageri, Magwi and Pajok were very happy to take part in the project, which will include team games such as football. The problems began on reaching Lobore. This could only be done on foot, crossing rivers and climbing a mountain. There they discovered that some very serious problems have developed since the initial survey. Local politicians have fomented rivalries between the Acholi and Langi villagers. Acholis have been displaced from their homes and forced to move to the foot of the mountain. Two chiefs were killed in the course of the fighting. 

 

Youth Peace Group in unfinished church in Isore

The Acholis from Lobore are now officially in Magwi County, while the Langi are still in their mountain homes in Lobore but under the administration of Ikotos County. This will mean another grueling trip for HUMAES to visit the Ikotos County Offices to get permission to work there. However, it is essential to do this if they are to fulfil their peace-building role. UNDP has agreed this extension of their work.

On their journey home, passing through Magwi Town, they saw three dead bodies including two old women, covered in blood, being transported elsewhere in the back of a rickshaw. A local youth calmly explained that he and others had stoned them to death because they had ‘poisoned’ a four year old child. The youths were still searching for a fourth person who they also intended to kill. It is most unlikely that an autopsy would have been done on the child as there is no hospital, so there is no proof of how she died.

Left to right: Charles and Samuel

Charles, the program manager for HUMAES, commented that there is clearly work to be done in Magwi too if tit-for-tat killings are not going to break out, as the stoning victims’ relatives will definitely be out for revenge. 

I should explain that in a South Sudan context, poisoning does not necessarily mean feeding poison to somebody. It can mean brewing a magic potion, but often means putting a curse on somebody in order to kill them. It is not uncommon even in Nimule for this to happen. 

In April one of our own school children was fetching water from a borehole. A storm blew up suddenly and she was struck by lightning. As in the Magwi case, a witch-hunt took place and a neighbour was blamed for her death. Fortunately, in this particular case, the woman was simply forced out of her home and made to leave the area. She is lucky to be alive. 

 

 I feel very privileged to work with HUMAES. I don’t think that that there is any other NGO in our area who would have taken their lives into their hands as they are doing. Yes, UNDP will pay them for their work, but it is real work undertaken in sometimes very dangerous conditions. Without a real heart for their country and its people I think they would have found something a little less risky to do.

The school remains closed but doors and windows are now fixed

 Dear all,

Since writing my last post, we now have a date for reopening the school.  Unfortunately, it is not until April 2021.  That means that our poor children will have been out of school for a year and one month. There have been many reports of teenage pregnancies in the community.  Most children are now working for their families (see photo). It is all very frustrating, but we are powerless to do our own thing, without sacrificing the good will of the education authorities by disobeying education directives.  We are just praying for a change of heart.

This is Pachok, who has been
at Cece Primary School since
it started in 2015.  He is now helping
to support his family.

This comes at a time when cases of Covid-19 are on the rise.  Although testing is woefully inadequate, the testing at the border shows that one in twenty-three people are testing positive.  Unfortunately, most of those tested then give false contact details, so that they cannot be given their results and are free to pass the virus to all their friends and relatives.  It is not possible to detain people while awaiting results because of a lack of quarantine facilities.  The general attitude of the public is completely negative and not conducive to stopping the spread of the virus.

Schools which have final year classes are opening just for final examination classes from 5^th October.  They are going to have a six day week to try to catch up.  Their exams will be in February and March next year, which is why the decision not to reopen other classes was made.  As our school does not yet reach to Primary 8, the final year of primary education, we just have to wait. 

What the Ministry of Education seems to have ignored is the fact that there will be no possibility of Primary 8 classes in 2021, as there will be no transition from Primary 7 to Primary 8.  Another issue is that we will only have a two term school year next year, so that the whole curriculum is unlikely to be covered. 

Newly installed windows

In the meantime, the doors and windows are finally in place and the doors are securely padlocked.  Funds have just arrived to allow us to order 125 desks.  As we have taken the decision to divide the school into morning and afternoon sessions for social distancing, this should be enough.  Thank you very much to Gerard Culliford who has made the immediate purchase of these desks possible.  Now that there are doors and windows, the desks will also be secure until they can finally be put to use.

We held a one week literacy training course for our teachers last week, taught by myself.  This was a great success.  All the teachers enjoyed the course and were keen enough to be practicing on each other during our break-times.  Once school restarts, the intention is for all teachers to teach literacy and spelling through their other lessons throughout the school.  This has become necessary as our school timetable has to be condensed to allow for the two separate school sessions each day.

Teacher training in my home compound.

As we have so much time before the school reopens in April I am going to try to organize some more teacher training sessions, to keep everybody thinking forward, and hopefully raising the quality of teaching.  In the meantime, our teachers are teaching small groups of children in their immediate neighbourhoods informally.

In terms of our national campaign for literacy, we organized a local radio talk show on International Literacy Day (8^th September).  A lot of people phoned in to express their support, but also to ask for adult literacy to be included.  This has set us thinking about how this can be done.  It would be beyond our capacity to start an adult education institute.  We are considering offering Saturday classes for parents of Cece Primary School, so that they can learn using the same method as their children.  This would enable parents and children to support each other at home.  However, this does not solve the problem nationwide.  To correct the statistics in my last post: 90% of women are illiterate, but the overall figure is 67% illiteracy, which includes both men and women over 15 years old.

The Ministry of General Education invited me to attend an online meeting of partners concerned with literacy, but unfortunately our electricity was not working.  Hopefully I will be able to attend the next meeting.  Somebody from the Stromme Foundation has contacted us, and may be willing to support our campaign.  Stromme’s work in South Sudan is primarily in teacher training.  Jolly Phonics are also interested to help us.

Thank you all so much for your continued support during this difficult time.  As mentioned in my last post, without your help, we would not be able to continue paying our teachers.  They are all very grateful as they are well aware that all other schools have not been able to do this.  Please can you continue to support us.

Rebecca

News from the school

It is coming towards what should have been the last term of the school year in South Sudan.  However, there has been no move as yet towards opening schools in spite of much pressure from citizens across the country as well as the international community.  It seems likely that we will not now reopen until January, which is the beginning of the new school year. 

At a recent meeting of the Technical Working Group on Covid-19, which comprises all Health NGOs working in Nimule, including big players such as the World Health Organisation and the Red Cross as well as local NGOs and health officials, it was decided to form an Education Sub-Committee to look into ways to support schools in the Nimule area so that they are ready to reopen with precautions against Covid-19 and also to advise them on how to keep staff and children safer.  I will be taking part in this sub-committee. 

The Need for Desks

In terms of Cece Primary School, a major hurdle in getting our school ready for the post-closure reopening, is going to be seating arrangements.  As many of you will know from my descriptions of the school, most of our children sit on large mats on the floor.  We only have twenty four desks, which are long and usually seat three or four children each.  None of this will work under social distancing conditions.  Our children when sitting on mats, always crowd together and are difficult to control.  Getting them to stop doing this will be next to impossible, especially for the younger ones.  The twenty four desks should only have one child per desk.

Please can I appeal for funds for desks to enable us to seat our children properly?  I would like to be able to order 250 single seater desks in time for January 2021.  We need to act quickly because it is not possible to order readymade desks here.  An order will have to be placed with a local joiner and metal worker, the joiner for wooden seats and desk surface, and the metal worker for the desk framework and legs.  The manufacturing process can be time-consuming as there is no factory production and everything is made individually.  The cost is estimated at roughly £32 per desk including transport to the school, so this is a major undertaking.  We would really appreciate as much help as possible.  In the event that more funds are given than needed for the desks, the extra money will be used for other Covid-related expenses such as facemasks, disinfectant and soap.

Literacy Campaign

HUMAES and some school staff have been having training from the Civil Society Facility on advocacy.  As a result of this, we have decided to start a lobbying campaign for a national literacy strategy.  This is sorely needed because the South Sudan Curriculum does not include literacy, even though it is mentioned in the General Education Act 2012.  Nor is there any training in literacy at teacher training colleges within South Sudan because they all follow the curriculum.  This is a very serious omission because the illiteracy rate in South Sudan is 84%.  In other words, 21 out of 25 people cannot read.  Almost all professional expertise comes from outside the country as a result, whether foreigners or returning refugees educated elsewhere.

Teaching a Primary 2 class.    We were
having a competition. No windows.  No books.

Ever since I came to South Sudan I have been struggling against this lack of literacy, but it is really not a one-woman task even in one school.  Up until now, I have been the only literacy teacher at Cece Primary School, but this is becoming less and less practical as the school grows.  I am shortly going to hold some literacy training sessions for all our teachers so that they can put literacy into all their lessons.  My own training is not great from a professional perspective, but I do have the experience of my children’s early years at primary school, in which parents were very much involved.  In 2014 I attended a short training course in JollyPhonics, which is a great method for a country almost entirely without books.  I have been teaching literacy ever since. 

Unlike any other school in Nimule, at Cece Primary School we have some early reading scheme books, which are collected for the school by one of our school’s supporters, Hazel Crossley, whenever I return to the UK.  However, they are from different reading schemes and very incomplete.  I also bring back story books to stimulate a motivation to read in the children.  Those of our children who have been in our school since we opened in 2015 without interruption are now fluent and very eager readers of anything in print.  Once a week we have ‘story time’ which is intended to stimulate interest in books, although it also is very helpful in giving the children the confidence to stand up and speak.

I am going to describe what happens in a typical South Sudanese exam room where the children cannot read.  I have witnessed this for myself and can assure you that I am not exaggerating.  The teacher reads the questions to the children.  In some cases, the teacher even writes the answers for them.  If writing by themselves the children randomly copy words from the exam paper in a frantic attempt to pass their exam.  They know that if they do not pass, they will not progress through the school.  Their parents become disheartened with the ever increasing cost of school fees as the children repeat the preceding year several times.  Eventually the parents stop paying, so that their children are forced to drop out of school.  If they are girls they will be married off.  If they are boys they might become child soldiers, criminals or do the most degrading work, such as fetching rubbish from restaurants.  Some become town drunkards and drug-addicts.  These are all common scenarios in South Sudan.  Please continue to support us so that our school and our partner HUMAES can be an instrument in bringing this nightmare situation to an end.

Other news

I am so grateful for the continued generosity of all our donors during this time.  As a result we have been enabled to continue paying our school staff, which helps to keep them on board and with a positive attitude towards our school. 

We have also been able to make doors and windows for the remaining school classrooms.  This was made possible through a large donation from R K Pryor Trust.  This is particularly important because there are a lot of roaming youths who are making use of empty and unsecured schools for their own dubious purposes.  The doors and windows will very soon be fitted and the rooms will be locked.  Securing the classrooms will also help to keep our new desks safe from thieves.

Two of our teachers have been planting fruit trees and shade trees at the school as well as flowers and bushes.  Hopefully these will survive the dry season if they are regularly watered.  The dry season usually starts around late November or early December.

If you are able to make a one-off donation towards buying desks, we would be so grateful.  There is also a need for fencing for the newly planted trees to stop them being eaten by passing cattle.  Please can you continue to support us with regular donations towards salaries. 

As already mentioned, we are deeply grateful for your continued help.  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 VirginMoney 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 Ed  ucation if you are considering sending over £1,000.