3rd May 2022

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 taught all subjects – not necessarily at their usual level.  By Friday there was great overcrowding in the lower classes.  The first of the plastered classrooms will be ready for use next week, which will be a great relief.  

I held a meeting with our teachers at the end of school on Friday and we decided that as the security situation seems fine now, we will start to hold school in two shifts (lower school in the mornings and upper school in the afternoons) from next week, so that there will be a classroom for each class and the school timetable can be used. 

In addition to our old pupils returning, every day new families have been appearing asking for places in the school.  Some have arrived from Uganda after being refugees there, others are from Mugali, where the cattle trouble erupted a few weeks ago.  Clearly they have decided to remain in Nimule.  I made some decisions to take children who seemed in particularly difficult circumstances, but am generally being a bit cautious because I don’t know how many of our old pupils are coming back, or if some have decided to stay in Uganda.  This is very typical of life in Nimule.  There have been so many upheavals due to lack of security that it is impossible to know if we are coming or going.  It is not good educationally to have classes which are too big but it can also be very hard to turn people away.  It is of course very bad for the children to be constantly uprooted and moved from place to place through fear, with less and less likelihood of ever finishing their education, but I have no way of stopping that from happening.

After I came back home, a pastor came to visit me, who I know well.  We often sit and talk together.  He is passionate about the Bible and full of prayer.  He is quite elderly and is a retired secondary school teacher as well as being a pastor in an evangelical church.  Whenever I see him, he tells me he is really struggling to live.  He still officially gets a teacher salary in lieu of a pension as there is no pension system here.  As mentioned previously, the government does not pay its civil servants, so his pay is notional and he is in a very bad state.  I sometimes help him out by sharing a meal with him, or buying something he needs such as sugar or soap.  I don’t have much money myself, so I can’t do much.  I know that other people do the same.  He has been wanting to show me his home, but this is the first time I have been free to visit.  He lives in a very dilapidated grass-thatched shack in the compound of the church where he occasionally still preaches.  Somebody kindly gave him a tarpaulin which he has used to keep the worst of the rain out, but it doesn’t completely cover the roof.  The concrete floor is cracked and full of large holes.  What he really needs is either new thatch or a sheet metal roof, both of which are very expensive.  A metal roof would last for longer.

What a way to spend his old age.

We sat and talked.  He told me his life story, which is very similar to that of many other people here.  His father died when he was still a baby and his mother died when he was nine years old.  There was no money for school fees and he spent his life up until thirteen years old helping his family grow vegetables.  Every day he watched his neighbours’ children going to school with great envy.  Then, at thirteen years old, an uncle managed to scrape together the money for school fees and uniform, minus about a third of the required amount.  The uncle told him to speak to one of the teachers, who owed the uncle money and ask him to pay the balance.  He followed his uncle’s instructions, saw the teacher, knelt on the ground at his feet and begged for his help.  Thankfully the teacher helped him.  He described how extremely happy he was to at last be able to attend school.  He remained in school, progressing every year without any more school fee problems.  Then he was accepted to go to a Catholic seminary in Uganda.  He dropped out as he wanted to marry.  Later on he got an opportunity to do a BA in Education in Kenya, with a full scholarship.  After that he became a secondary school teacher.  He said that as a result of his experiences, he was always willing to help his pupils to find means to pay their school fees.

I know so many people here who have struggled to get an education in much the same way.  This pastor is remarkable in that he got so far, even to tertiary education.  No progress has been made in South Sudan between the 1960s, when he started school, and now.  Many children even now have very similar experiences, often with no possibility of school fees being paid at all.  Together with the problems of constant fleeing this is one of the major reasons why so few South Sudanese get the chance to go to school.  That is why Cece Primary School is so important. 

I am thinking of ways to help this friend.  One way which has occurred to me is to speak to the current pastor of his church and ask if they can fundraise for roofing materials.  After all, he lives in their compound and preaches in their church.  Then, I can ask some of our older pupils to volunteer for a bit of community service to fix the roof properly.  I told one of the teachers who is willing to supervise.