Cattle Camp Classrooms and Dreaming of Drilling

Lɔng Lieth School (Dablual Village) and its Cattle Camp Classrooms

As you move from west to east, the ironstone plateau that covers southern South Sudan gives ways to a flat clay plain.  Rivers pour down the ironstone plateau from Uganda and the Congo border.  When they reach the flat clay plain, these rivers fan out into a maze of inland water ways.  This maze is the land of the western Nuer.  By July the rains are heavy and the rivers are full.  The water starts to overflow, pouring into the surrounding land.  To the east runs the White Nile.  This also floods its banks and adds to the vast swamp of water.  While the water is needed for people and cattle, this much water drives everyone in to small pockets of dry land with little space to survive.  Last year, due to exceptionally high flooding, snakes were also forced to join the people in the small, dry pockets.  Dozens of people died of snake bites.

Scattered on the pockets of drier land amongst this endless water, Lɔng Lieth School opened in July 2013.  To offer education to all the community, Lɔng Lieth School has one permanent classroom shelter and three 'cattle camp classrooms'.  The cattle camp classrooms are two teachers committed to teaching in the cattle camps.  While fresh pasture is often not too far away, these cattle camps form their own village-like communities that move and are often isolated from education.  Now many teachers are walking four hours a day through swamp water to find their pupils.  It is one of the toughest environments to live and teach.  People joke that it is the birth place of mosquitoes as they swarm day and night.  Yet, despite these conditions, the teachers have rallied an incredible crowd to learn.  Students include small children, mums with young babies and gun carrying youth (although guns are left outside the lessons under a neighbouring tree).  All are welcome.  Despite only being open five months, over a hundred and fifty pupils can now read the first three basic books in Nuer.

A few months ago, carrying an umbrella to shade me from the beating sun and wearing wellies for the water, we stepped into the swamp to the west.    The next day I was meant to travel from an airstrip an hour by motorbike to the east, I had promised to watch these last teachers teach before my departure.  The motorbike carried us the first few miles, but the rest of the journey was on foot.  Fighting through tall sorghum and between grazing cows, we waded through the water-drenched grass.  The muddy clay of the plain endlessly grabbed by wellies.  Too many times I was stuck in the mud, my wellies left behind.  An elderly man even offered to instruct his sons to carry me.  He proudly stated that, if he was younger, he would have been the first to offer to carry a visitor.  I gratefully declined.

Hours later, as we finally reached the classroom stretched under a tree, the sweltering mass of dark clouds burst.  The torrent of rain poured down upon us.  We ran to a small hut of a nearest home and sheltered.  My hopes of seeing teaching or flying the next day were shattered.  Yet, our company made the visit worth while.  Two women joined us in the small hut to shelter, one carrying her small child.  They were both pupils of Lɔng Lieth School.  As the rain poured down outside, they told us of their excitement of being able to learn.  As the conversation drew to an end, one of the women finally said with such pride, "Last Sunday in church my eight year old son even read the Bible for the first time.  We do not normally have someone who can read the Bible.  Now my son can".  

I made my fight in the end, after hours more walking sometimes through puddles above my waist and with some very creative motorbike riding.  The airstrip was the one dry patch of land left.

Dreaming of Drilling

Despite being swamped in water, the water of the western Nuer is crawling with parasites and bugs to make people ill.  The lack of trees make it hard to even make a fire to boil the water.  Then, in the dry season, when the sun has sapped the water, there is hardly any water to drink.  As well as education, fresh drinking water is massively needed.  Now the nearest working borehole is 3 - 4 hours walk away.  Teachers and I are reluctant to stay closer to the school for lack of clean water.

Samaritans Purse has now promised to let us use their drilling rig if we can raise the money.  It will be tricky as the good water table can be as deep as 100ft.  Plus, we need to raise the money to do it.  So, that is the challenge for the next part of the story.  PLEASE HELP US RAISE MONEY TO DRILL A BOREHOLE IN DABLUAL.

HOW TO HELP

1) Help Us Build A Well in Dablual

• To give £10 (if you're in the UK), text "Sudd56 £10" to 70070.
• Like - "www.facebook.com/Dablualwater"
• Give via:  www.justgiving.com/WellforDablual

2) Tell The Story

School Reports telling the story of Marol Academy and Lɔng Lieth School are now available.  Please help us spread the word.  If you would like one or can think of someone to give one to, e-mail me your postal address.

 

HOW TO PRAY

1) Streams of Living Water

Pray that God would give the resources and the logistics to drill a borehole at Lɔng Lieth School.

2) Pupils and teachers of Lɔng Lieth School.

Pray that the 150 pupils, 10 teachers and Gatkuoth Mut (the church elder supervising this work) will have strength and courage to keep going. 

3) My Travel and A Season To Seek the Lord

I will soon return to South Sudan after a while away.  Please pray for logistics, safe travel and peace of heart.  And health.  I managed to collect a parasite in those hot, swamp waters.

It has been a very hard few weeks personally, and maybe a reminder of the cost of having a heart for South Sudan and having prioritised time there.  It seems to be a season to seek the Lord and trust him for the shifting paths ahead.  Some doors are closing.  That can be really painful.  But other exciting things seem to be falling in my path with new opportunities to advocate and think at a policy level.  Please pray that I would fully trust in God's loving sovereignty.  Pray that I would hear God's whisper.  And pray that those who are opening and closing doors for my life also have their hearts guided by God whether they know Him or not.

Thank you

Naomi

Not Quite So Simple

AThousand Returnees on the Nile

Through growing lengths of grass and footprints in the swamps, the cattle move west towards Thor Village to find pasture.  Herded by Nuer young men and children, they all have guns slung over their shoulders for fear of raids from the Dinka.  In February, when I first visited, Thor was a hive of activity surrounding Nyachol - the tribal prophetess.  Youths walked for days to seek her blessing believing cattle dung from her would make them immune to bullets.  With cow dung in their hands, many of these Nuer youth launched a massive attack against the Dinka of Warrap.  Now fearing revenge, and living on the edge of the no man's land between the Dinka and Nuer, the prophetess retreated to a safer village in the heart of the southern Nuerlands.  Many of the youth fled with her.

Our Boat Along The Nile (Shambe to Adok)

Yet, this left a dilemma.  My translator and I found unusual favour with Nyachol when we initially visited. While she let no other foreigners or government visit her, she allowed us to support the church to build a school adjacent to her home in Thor.  It would be called Long Lieth ("No More Killing").  Yet, the displacement from Thor meant the village was now too insecure for the school's construction.  The suggestion was to move it ten minutes walk away to the nearest occupied village of Dablual.  Protecting their village's interests, disagreement quickly erupted between the elders of Thor and Dablual.  Both wanted the school on their land.  

Riding the bike, we sped out to meet them.  The Commissioner (head government official of the county) had sanctioned the meeting to decide on the school's location.  Some of the elders had walked five hours to reach the school's site to argue for it to be theirs.  After many hours of waiting and eating walwal (milk on sorghum), we had all gathered.  Our small cohort made its way to the start of the flood plain between Thor and Dablual.  Despite weeks of arguing at a distance, in a few moments of grace the decision was made. The Long Lieth Primary School will now be placed in Dablual and the story continues. 
The school will reach out to both villages.

Thank God For:

1) The Initial School Construction

The poles were brought by the men of the community and the iron sheets have been secured on top.  Now the walls are to be mudded.  Thank God for these resources.

Nuer Literacy Training

2) Ten Trained Teachers

Beneath the warming iron sheets of the mud walled church, the ten teachers gather for the training.  All have previously served as volunteer teachers and were eager to learn more about how to serve better. They spent a week being trained on how to teach Nuer literacy using newly printed Nuer books.  Only four of the ten teachers trained will be based at the school.  The other six are heading out to the cattle camps, to teach adults and children as they dwell amongst the cattle.

Please pray for: 

1) Gatkuoth and His Family

Gatkuoth, The Bike and The Children

After sweet, early evening tea in the market, we wander home to his circle of thatched huts and the promise of fresh milk for dinner.  His children are usually sleeping but their presence carries the promise of a curious waking in the morning.  Mut, his youngest, two-year old son (and late father's namesake) is usually found peering in my tent when I wake.  They are my family when I'm in the Nuerlands, and Gatkuoth is my translator, chauffer (on a motorbike), security guard, advisor and friend.  He's also an elder in the local church.  Please pray for this family - that we'd grow in love for each other and for God.

2) The Teachers

The Teachers

They are the school's heart.  Please pray for their endurance, health and safety.  When at the cattle camps, they'll live beneath the stars (and rain), feeding on just fresh milk with no clean water supply.  Even at the school, there is no clean water.  Both places take them closer to risks of raids and away from the comfort of the market villages.  They need lots of strength.

3) A Peaceful Meeting With The Nuer Tribal Prophetess

The first time I met her, our clothes had to be taken off (to beach type wear) as a sign of submission and security.  She remains coy and fearful of foreigners.  We've met another couple of times and her relationship has grown.  I hope to soon meet her again.  Yet, stories of the white girl and the prophetess quickly take on a life of their own.  The county commissioner thanked me, in front of politicians from Juba, for reducing her authority.  Yet, I suspect God's witness to her is not through me being a government agent.  Please pray for wise words and her understanding.  Pray that she'll know the authority of the lion of Judah.

The Children

4) Finances to serve the ongoing witness of this school.

The genesis of this school has been incredibly and rapidly funded by USAID.  Yet, their grants are short and the funding runs out in September.  Please pray for the resources to support these teachers in their struggles.  It's be incredible to have money to know we can at least employ a headmaster for a year.

5) My Safe and Easy Travels

On Monday (19th), I travel back to the Nuerlands.  As the months pass, the rains grow and the water pouring down the Nile billows until the banks burst and the flat flood plains are again swamped with water.  Roads are impassable even on motorbike and, after just a short shower, planes cannot land on the muddy airstrips.  To try to travel to the Nuerlands at this time of year is naive in its optimism.  Even when we travelled in July, the journey involved a day's flight (as we couldn't land due to rain), a bump car journey, a boat trip along the Nile and a lorry journey to Mayendit.  I am praying for miracles of easy journeys in and out.
I also managed to catch bilharzia last visit, so would love prays for health and strength.

Thank you.

Love,

Naomi

As It Happens...!

Sleeping with the Cattle

The day before he had been coaching the basketball team, but now, wearing the same red football outfit, his gun did not leave his shoulder.  The raid the night before on the Nuer cattle camps had prompted the whistle for war.  The young men had removed their guns from their hiding places and were now watching in case a battle found them.  Since before they can remember, the Nuer have fought and died against their neighbouring community.  Cattle were often the loot from the fighting.  Yet, with the coming of guns and the interaction of government wars, fighting and fatalities have only grown.  They fought the north, then they fought other Nuers, then they fought the southern rebels and now they fight the elites (or for the elites) who make demands on resources.  The Nuer prophetess has led the most recent raids. War is a way of life that has left the land bitter.  

Yet, God hasn't given up in despite the bitterness.

As It Happens

Life at the Swamp's Edge

As it happens, one day in these lands of South Sudan, back in February, I met a Nuer, tribal prophetess.  In the dusty, hot, sauna like luak (cattle hut) where we met, as it happens, I thought of asking if she would welcome an education project in her village.  She had refused all other interventions from outside whether from the government or others.  As it happened, she agreed to us supporting education in her village.  As it happens, the local church had long been praying for God to help them in their spiritual battle against the prophetess.  As it happens, USAID were willing to support projects in this area due to the high level of insecurity.  They were willing to give funding for a basic structure, literacy training for teachers and the printing of Nuer literacy books.  As it happens, I was staying at the guesthouse in Juba of SIL (Wycliffe Bible translators).  They had two folders of Nuer literacy books they were willing to offer us to reprint.  As it happens, last week, I was running late for church in Juba and sat at the back next to a stranger.  He happened to be experienced in literacy workshops in South Sudan and available at the beginning of July to train the teachers.  As it happens, despite the heavy rains, the showers paused for a few days just as the construction materials were bought.  Along the muddy road, the materials reached the village. As it happens......

Next Monday I travel up to the Nuerlands to see how this story continues.  I have spent a couple of weeks in Juba enjoying the abundance of fellowship and waiting to see what God will provide for this Nuerlands school.  It is really the beginning and I am praying it will become something long lasting.  We really need your prayers.  God seems to really love and be willing to provide for this distant people.  I wonder what God will let happen next.

Thank God For

1) This first funding.

2) The safe arrival of the construction materials.

The classroom is built from a hybrid of local mud and poles, mixed with iron sheets, nails and other odds and ends.  These had to be driven from Rumbek.  In the dry season, this would be a six hour drive.  The lorry had to pass along a thin road through the swamp, covered in soggy, clay-like mud and past scattered lorries stuck in the mud.  The week before a lorry driver was also shot dead on the road by cattle keepers when he refused to stop.  Yet, amazingly, despite the rain and dangers, our materials safely arrived and the lorry safely returned to Rumbek.

3) The provision of a literacy trainer.

4) God's love for the people of the lands of the Nuer.

Pray For

1) It to be God's work.  It will be nothing without his help.

2) Teachers.

God's work here will really be lived out through the first teachers recruited.  Pray that God has already selected them and is preparing their hearts for the task now.  They will be living in the middle of a swamp, far from fresh water and the busier lives of the market villages.  Few educated people are willing to live in such primitive conditions.  Pray for passion and strength.

3) Travels

I would love your prayers for safe travels and quickly feeling at home again in the village.  There are places and people that I really miss this season.  It feels more of a sacrifice than normal to be in South Sudan, as much as I love life here too.

4) Future support in prayers and funds.

Love, Naomi

Link to Marol Academy, South Sudan

Contemplating Customs

Tightly curled on a metal hospital bed with her back to the world, Elizabeth wrestled and wriggled in pain on the dusty sheets of the village health clinic.  Her mum was perched at the foot of the bed, cradling Elizabeth's new born baby.  This small, young creature was still pale from the birth.  Elizabeth could barely spare the energy to greet me.  Having given birth three days before, by this morning the pains had become too much and her family had carried her to the small clinic.  Pains had immersed her legs until she could no longer walk and now the pains were seeping up her spine.  A complicated labour and birth is now threatening to leave Elizabeth paralysed.  Although the village health clinic could have helped with the birth, the family had refused to bring her to seek medical attention.  Local custom claims the pain of birth as the best time to hear truth from a woman.  Accusations of adultery are often discussed in these painful moments and these testimonies carry weight in the customary courts.  Members of the husband's family threaten to the woman in labour that the baby will not be born if the struggling woman does not tell the truth.  The birth acts as a natural form of torture to entice the woman to truth telling.  So, despite the labour being long and unusual, Elizabeth's husband's family had refused to take her for medical help wanting to question her until the baby came.

While local chiefs and customary judges are the main justice providers in the local community, some painful, harmful customs remain deeply rooted.  These last weeks have been spent speaking with many chiefs about how they protect their women and children through the law.  Many try.  Yet, so much wisdom is needed by them as these leaders negotiate the delicate balance between tradition and the opportunities emerging (such as health care) in the new South Sudan.

Please pray

1) Marol Academy Primary School

Unusually early in the year, the government has decided that the primary schools should be reopened.  Marol's primary school has now opened for registration with lessons starting next week.  Pray for a God given academic year ahead.

2) Elizabeth

Pray for her healing and strength of spirit.  Pray for her family as they decide whether to seek medical assistance.  Pray for wisdom for elders and customary law judges as they negotiate the old and the new.

3) Travel Safety and Ease

Over the weekend and until Tuesday, I will be moving around South Sudan a little.  Pray that it is all in God's hands.

Thank you.

Through Cairo to South Sudan

Many smartly painted taxis rushed by without stopping, until an old, rumbling, black Lada finally slowed down and curved into the pavement where I stood.  The taxi driver spoke no English and I can speak no Arabic, but we managed to negotiate a price for him to take me to drink tea with friends in the middle of the city.  As we rushed along the fast highways from the airport into Cairo, a strong smell of fuel lingered in the air of the car.  The car's windows still had protective plastic on, having recently been replaced, but the door handle mechanism was held together with a thick piece of string.  Yet, in his black Lada chariot, the grey haired, Egyptian taxi driver could have been king.  He turned up the classical Egyptian music that had been just humming in the background.  Waving his arms in dramatic gestures, he accompanied the singing voices.  Unfazed by my Arabic incompetance, he made me repeat the lyrics.  The half an hour's ride was quickly transformed into a lesson in Arabic language and Egyptian music.  It was a perfect final step through Cairo as I made my way back to the familiar bustle of Juba (South Sudan).

The next few weeks will be a muddle of tasks and God's provision, starting with a flight to Warrap (where I usually live) tomorrow. With the dry season having sucked all the water from the earth, the cattle have long been shepherded to pasture.  With this task comes the closing of the school for these long months until April or May bring rain.  Yet, in the absence of school and with the roads as dry as dust, there is much to be done in South Sudan along side the preparations for Marol.

For Marol, Please Pray for:

1) Training Teachers

Incredible people have responded to the request to finance the training of teachers.  We are now confident that we can send Dut, Donato and John to Yei to be trained for the next two years.  John will be the first qualified teacher in Panyijar County and Dut and Donato will join Nhial as the only trained teachers in Gogrial East County.  All this will be possible through your prayers and giving to Marol.

2) Recruiting Teachers

FOCUS (the Kenyan Christian Union) is starting to look for new teachers to be the 2013 Marol Family teaching in the Marol Academy Secondary School, helping with the primary school and growing the Christian witness in the village from the foundations laid over the last two years.  Pray that God is already preparing these teachers.  It's a tough year for them and they need hearts filled with faith.  Pray too for finances to come flowing to fund them.

What Else I Will Be Up To

The first weeks will be spent with the chiefs of Warrap State talking about justice and mercy.  In South Sudan, almost all the courts in the villages are presided over by the local chiefs who use the customary law to bring justice and resolve conflicts.  With the coming of the new state of South Sudan, there are questions about how this type of justice can mix with a modern justice system written from the distant capital city.  When I was a little girl, my late godmother gave me a book of Celtic Liturgy.  Inside its cover, she scribbled Micah 6:8 (What does the Lord require of you but to seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God).  I hope I will spend those weeks listening to those chiefs about what it means to show justice in South Sudan.  To have the chance to seek what justice is in this unique setting seems a perfect privilege.  I hope, in time, I can share what I find with people who make policy in Juba and elsewhere.  Please pray that God would let me seek to live these weeks as he commanded in Micah.  And let me know Him close to me.

After that, many more things might happen.  I look forward to sharing the stories with you.

Thank you

Finally Finding Home and Rest From Riots

Thank God for Finally Finding Home.
After weeks of planning, praying and help from very kind friends with logistics, the Marol family finally found their way to their homes just in time for Christmas. Two teachers' were delayed by an extra two weeks, Gordon had to travel to the distant airstrip of Aweil on his own and endless prayers were said in hope that they would find their way from Marol to Juba, Nairobi and on to the UK (for Gordon and Joyce). Sometimes the journey takes just 24 hours, yet the last month was a vast collection of delays and complications. However, now, they are all safely home to their families with the promise of rest and Christmas celebrations. Please pray that God provides graciously for their hearts and for the next steps of their journeys as they return to more familiar life. Also, pray that God will start to build the next Marol family for 2013.
Thank you too for all your prayers for these journeys.
Ask God For Rest From Riots in Wau
Along its dust covered streets, between the horse-drawn loads and the shining Land Crusiers, women and men of many languages scurry to bring their crafts and cooking to Wau's markets. Traders from northern Sudan quietly sip sweet tea in the entrances of their boxed shaped shops, peacefully dwelling in this ethnically eclectic city. Since the North-South peace agreement in 2005, Wau has defied predictable patterns of violence across South Sudan to remain a calm combination of cultures and peoples. Yet, a couple of weeks ago, protests became violent in Wau. Soldiers poured in to the city to offer protection and a display of power. Protests have again erupted in the city with more people being killed. With stories starting to be spread that the violence is one tribe against another, the fear is that the conflict will quickly escalate. Pray for a peaceful Christmas for Wau. Pray for the church leaders there to have wisdom and humble hearts as they lead their flock through these tricky times. Pray for friends from Luonyaker who are trying to study in Wau.

http://dailynewsegypt.com/2012/12/19/rioters-rampage-through-south-sudan-town/

Still trying to get home

After many logistical difficulties, the two Kenyan teachers (Elkana and Lawrence) remain at Marol. They hope to now fly to Juba tomorrow and Nairobi on Saturday. This is their last chance to make it to Nairobi in time for their graduation.

Thank God:
1) That they have been so understanding and graceful about this delay in travel. Their trust in God is great.
2) The extra few days they've had Marol. They've even been able to mark the end of term exams!

Ask God:
1) Finally for an easy, quick journey home.
2) For the homewards travel of Gordon, Joyce, Loice, Floyd and Thomas on the 10th December.

South Sudan always leaves many stories to tell.

Thank you.