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
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