Abukloi School: We Can South Sudan!

Sorry it has been awhile since I have posted. School days are very full for us, often 12+ hour days. It feels like we never retired. We did some major organization over the weekend and it is paying off this week. There is still more to do but we will get there. The students are patient with us. Philip, our Director, has gone home to Kenya for two weeks so we are on our own. So far so good. Most of the students are in their 20's so we do not have a group of 15 year olds who would like to take advantage of their teachers. That is a great help! Bev is not feeling well today so please pray for her. She appears to have a fever and is taking some antibiotics she brought from home. Tomorrow is her birthday and the students made her cards. You can wish her a happy birthday as well. Tomorrow is also St Comboni Day. The Catholic School here is named for him because he was the first Catholic missionary to this area and his dream was education. It will be a big celebration! Because we are on their property we thought we should honor their day by ending school early. So we will meet for about an hour and then students can stay longer to do make up work, etc. We also plan to have a wee party for Bev - mostly just give her the cards and wish her a happy birthday. We continue to have many student absent due to malaria. I would guess out of our 50 students we have already had 10 have to leave for that reason. Some are out for a few days, others for more than a week. It is hard to help them keep up. When we know about a long absence ahead of time we may be able to take work to them or send it with another student if there is one who lives near them. Some of the students live 5 or more miles from the school. Last night the boys/men who live in our compound told us about a girl who lives just behind us. She tried to hang herself yesterday. Fortunately, the rope broke and she was spared. Her brother would not sign for her to go to school and she was so upset that she just wanted to end it all. She is 21. It is hard for us to understand the importance education plays in the lives of the people here. One student completed his work early today in one of my classes so I took the opportunity to talk to him about his own life. His father died in an accident when he was very young. His only sibling is a bother who is in the military. This student completed primary school but could not afford to go to secondary school. But after 3 years of "just doing nothing" he heard about our school, no fees, and decided to come. He believes God has done this for him. Every day we are blown away by the people here. They have nothing but are so full of joy and hope. The one subject in which they truly excell is CRE, Christian Religious Education. At some point I will share with you some of their faith stories - amazing! Enough for today. Keep us in your prayers, especially Bev. Marg