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A Loveless Society

It is almost ten years since I arrived in South Sudan, specifically Nimule, a small town close to the border with Uganda.  Life has been very challenging but rewarding as well.  I have done things I never dreamt I could do, such as founding a school, fundraising for the school to the extent that we have always been able to keep going, even if the school is basic.  I have also managed to take a growing number of deaf children to special schools in Uganda.  All this, completely independently of any organisation.  It seems like a miracle to me. I have always found the way children are treated abhorrent.  They are beaten for the smallest thing, with no love shown to them at all.  Children are dragged up by fellow siblings, while their mothers do nothing for their children.  Their fathers are generally completely out of the picture.  Children are expected to do all sorts of heavy household chores, leaving them tired at school and with no time to do homework.  This is especially a problem fo
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Blighted hopes

For two years before starting Cece Primary School, I worked as a volunteer at an orphanage in Nimule.  I got to know, and became very attached to, quite a few of the children there.  Amongst these was Anzo.  When I knew him, Anzo was a bright young boy who was doing very well at primary school and was keen to work with livestock when he grew up.  Occasionally people gave him animals to care for, which he did very carefully.  I particularly remember the time when he was given some rabbits, which quickly became a large number of rabbits.  I was reminded of a certain episode of Father Ted.  He built housing for them out of bricks and mud and did his best to look after them properly.  He had no adult assistance and within a few months they all caught some disease and died. In 2016 the orphanage moved to Uganda due to the spread of the civil war in the direction of Nimule and I lost contact until recently.  Anzo came back to Nimule at 18 years old, having been discharged from the orphanage,
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25 August 2022

Today there has been the trial for the young man who shot the local chief in Nimule.  Another young man took photos at the scene and was also on trial.  The incident happened in broad daylight, right next to the local police station, in front of a meeting of many people from many different tribes who had come to resolve local unrest.  There was no shortage of witnesses for the prosecution. What can have been in their minds?   Were they intent on being arrested?   Did they consider the likelihood that they would be executed?   Most importantly, did they consider the state of their souls?   The only question I can think of which might have given mitigating circumstances is, are they both insane and completely incompetent to stand trial?   I am sure many other questions could also be asked. My colleagues feel sorry for the defence lawyer, who would not be able to find any way to defend the actions of these two young men.   I doubt if there was any chance of a plea of insanity as there
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3rd May 2022

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This week was an increasingly busy one, which is one reason why I haven’t written anything.  Additionally there was no internet because my colleague in HUMAES was attending a workshop in Juba and took the Wifi with him. The situation in Nimule has calmed right down, thank God.   Families are returning from Uganda and schools are functioning.   Each day this week a further twenty pupils reappeared, building up to a total of 130 on Friday.   This is still well below our normal attendance, but at least formal teaching was able to start.   We have been operating only in the mornings in case of security issues, which have tended to happen later in the day.   Workmen have been busy plastering one block of classrooms, which left us with half the normal number of rooms.   That meant that there were only four available classrooms for eight classes.   We had to ‘budge up’ and put two classes in each room.   As a result our normal timetable could not operate, but at least the pupils were taug
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20th May 2022

The past few days I have been going to school, preparing materials for the children for a restart of school.  I have been joined by four to five teachers each day, which is encouraging.  We have sorted out coloured pencils and crayons, jigsaws, dominos, recorders and various literacy and numeracy games.  I have brought powdered paints from home.   Unfortunately the only paint brushes available are much too big for any delicate work.   I envisage that we will be doing finger or hand painting and maybe making stencils.   We have a ridiculously large number of sports team tabards given to us by Plan International and UNICEF over the years (we are never consulted about what is actually needed by these big NGOs).   Some of the tabards will be used as aprons while painting.   Painting is a real innovation here, so we will see how it goes. My major concern is the pupils in the highest classes, because they are getting closer to the end of primary school and they cannot afford to miss less
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18th May 2022

After a day in which nothing seemed to happen yesterday I decided to text all teachers and ask them to come back to school today.  There was very little response.  It seems that most have run away to Uganda.  However, I went to the school this morning.  I found our school guard busy digging a long trench in order to plant trees around the school perimeter.   We have attempted to plant trees many times in the past, with almost no success largely because of the cattle who sweep through the compound.   However, if all is carried out according to the State Governor’s instructions, this may be a thing of the past.   Who knows? A few pupils were arriving at our neighbouring school, which is a good sign, although none came to Cece.   Three teachers came, for which I am very grateful.   We have decided to keep coming to school each morning.   Hopefully we will be seen by local families and word will spread that the teachers are waiting for their pupils to return.   We also decided that an
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16th May 2022

Today the meeting mentioned yesterday finally happened.  I went along, but it consisted of numerous, lengthy speeches from large numbers of those in authority in each community.  All the speeches were in Arabic and I was left completely in the dark.  In the end I gave up and went home.  Finally the meeting ended and Charles, my partner in the school was able to enlighten me.  It seems that the final version of events (which I reported on 15 th ) is the closest to the truth. People from Mugali were asked to go back to their homes and were told that there will be enhanced security for them in future.   The Dinkas were given a deadline of July to remove all their cattle and return them to their home areas around Bor.   It was emphasized that this does not mean that all Dinkas have to leave.   They are (as individuals) free to live anywhere in their home country.   What is not acceptable is to move to another tribal area as a whole community.   It was not possible to say anything about t
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