Sustaining Agriculture

This Thanksgiving, I (Mary) have much to be thankful for. Particularly, this year I will remember all of those who have helped Abukloi Secondary School thrive thus far. This celebration will be tempered, however, as I sit down for our family feast and remember our friends at Abukloi who have never had the experience of abundance.

Over the next few years, it is our goal to develop a program in Rumbek that will address one of the core issues weighing on South Sudan and our students:  food insecurity. One of the main goals of Abukloi Secondary is to not only give students a formal education, but also teach them real life skills they can use to create employment. As we all learned during the Arab Spring uprisings, an educated citizenry may indeed be essential to a free state, but if those educated citizens don’t have employment it eventually leads to unrest.

Road into Rumbek

There is no employment more self-sustaining than food production. Agriculture is a largely undeveloped sector of the South Sudan economy. Almost all of Rumbek, if not all of Lakes State, experiences malnutrition at some level. Hunger is pervasive among our students. They eat one meal a day. The meal consists of vegetables and grains, as meat consumption is extremely rare. Students sleep very little, are up around 5:30am, and many must walk at least an hour to school exacerbating the effects of low caloric intake.

Purchasing food in the market to feed students is cost prohibitive. South Sudan’s small agriculture sector means food is virtually non-existent in the large Rumbek Town market. What is available is relatively expensive.  As most families in the Dinka areas are pastoralists, very little area is used for agriculture besides the small household garden. Fuel shortages and security issues also contribute to high prices by making the transportation of products from food production areas to town very expensive.

Eggplant Bed

So this year, Abukloi Secondary added agriculture to the school’s curriculum. Although not a compulsory subject in the national exam, the subject is mandatory for all students at our school. The intent is to teach the students proper application of agricultural practices that they can apply at home and share with their communities.

Okra

Students and teachers worked on designing beds, planting seeds, watering and weeding. In addition to students working on the garden for class work, an agricultural club was created for students especially interested in the project. In June, an ox-plough was hired and one-third of our school’s 12 acres was tilled for crops. Crops were sown using the “scientific method” (rows and mounds) and traditional method (casting seeds over raked earth) so the students could compare the results.

Several crops were chosen for this first garden. A majority of the grounds were planted with ground nuts, while other beds were planted with okra, kale, pumpkins, tomatoes, and eggplant. When it was time to harvest, the students came to bring in the crops. Some of this crop will be consumed by the students and teachers, but most will be saved and sold at market when prices rise. The proceeds will be used to expand the garden and train area residents how to grow their own food. Slowly, the school’s garden will sustain not only itself, but the surrounding community.

Pumpkins and Ground nuts

Ground nuts ready for mar

As one our students, David, said, “Without education people cannot be in life. And life is dependent on agriculture. If there is no agriculture, there is no life.” 

Be thankful for life this season.

Bev: Change Agents

Our Abukloi trip was a wonderful experience. I, Bev, spent most of my time working with the students on how to implement the new peace agreement. The students are excited about being change agents in their communities. Their slogan is "forgive and forget". They see themselves as being good Samaritans and stepping out to love their neighbors as they love themselves. They want to be true Christ followers. 

We made prayer beads to carry reminding each of us to pray for the two warring tribes (Dinka and Neur) of which our students are Dinka. We had a great debate between the Dinka's and the Neur's which really laid out the disagreements. They are great actors and enjoyed representing both sides. 



Students all prayed that peace will begin with each of them as they begin the road to compromise. There country can pull out of poverty and begin using their wealth. Of resources as they begin to love one another and look out for one another there scripture is We can do all things through Christ who gives its strength.

Beverly Nelan

Sewing Lessons

We are all back home in Virginia - glad to be home. The transition was sudden, from 100 degrees to 50 - but welcomed. Because we had so little internet while in South Sudan, we all agreed that we would each contribute at least one more post. I (Marg) agreed to write one on the sewing project. This will be more interesting to some than to others :)

I had lots of valuable advice concerning the sewing project before I left. It proved very beneficial. Abukloi Secondary School has 5 classes with around 35 per class. In order to fit everything in the time schedule, classes were combined so there were 3 sewing classes comprised of 70, 70 and 35. Fortunately, there was not 100% attendance so I had closer to 60 in a class rather than 70. Each day I had some vocabulary on the board and then taught a hands on sewing skill. I did those for 3 days. Then on days 4 and 5 I taught a much smaller group of 10 how to use a pattern and sew a wrap around skirt.



Day one we learned how to sew on a button. The first class went well with everybody getting to sew on 1 button. The second class was a bit more challenging because I didn't have enough buttons for every student. This meant I had to cut off the buttons sewn on the previous class and pull out the thread from the buttons, making them clean and ready for the next class. Fortunately, Mary was there to help me. They did a great job - with only 1 student needing to start over when her thread broke. They had those buttons sewn on tight!

The second day we learned how to measure - those donated tape measures from Chester UMC were great. The boys measured each others neck, arm, back, waist, and inseam. The girls measured each others bust, arm, back, waist, and skirt length. Then they wrote all the measurements on the board. I thought the exercise might be a bit boring, but they totally enjoyed doing this. Both the button sewing and the measuring were new practical skills for them and they could see the benefit. The third day we made cloth tote bags. I had brought fabric from my "collection". (You probably have seen the bumper sticker: "The one with the most fabric wins". At one time in my life I was in the competition so I had quite a bit of fabric appropriate for this project.) I had cut the pieces before class so each group of 6-8 got 2 pieces - one for the bag and one for the handle. They loaded up their needles and got started with a running stitch, everyone got an opportunity to sew at least one side. The handles were turned inside out and then attached to the bags. I was quite impressed with the creativity of some and the effort of all.

After three days of this I knew there was no way I could teach that many people how to use a pattern and sew a skirt so I asked the teachers to select 1 male and 1 female student from each of the 5 classes - total of 10. They did and that is the group I worked with the last 2 days. Day 1 we learned about patterns. This was an easy pattern for a wrap around skirt. We measured one of the female students, selected a size and got started. Two plastic tables were brought in from the teachers' room allowing us a clean surface to work. Only one piece had to be cut out twice as the students got off the line and cut the piece too small.

Now the sewing machine... It, of course, was a treadle machine. I had been studying it for several days but could not figure out how to make it work - there was no belt. So we went to the market in search of a belt. Director Justin took us to the "textile" section of the market where men are making clothing on treadle machines. He introduced us to one of the tailors and he made us a belt. They simply take a long piece of selvage and twist it so tight it becomes a string. They then put it tightly around the wheels and tie it. When that wears out, no need for a rubber belt, just create another one using a piece of fabric selvage. Of course, it made so much sense. This man agreed to come to our school the next day to help get the machine working. So the next day he was in the car and off we went to school. It took him more than an hour to get the machine running smoothly. We did not have any oil so he used parafin that is burned to heat water for tea for the teachers. These folks are resourceful!





Anyway, he got it going while I worked with the 10 students as they put together the skirt, using the running stitch they learned while making the tote bags. Two of our students have taken classes with "Save the Children" and already know how to make a pattern and use a machine. They will be extremely valuable. In addition, the tailor from the market has agreed to come back and teach the students more. I left patterns and fabric for 1 male and 1 female uniform. That is their goal - to make their own uniforms. The students are very excited about the sewing initiative. Everyone wants to be part of the "Pioneer Leaders of the Sewing Initiative". They were assured that all students who are interested will learn and that another 1-2 machines will be purchased. We just need to start small. At the assembly on Friday the skirt was shown to the whole school, modeled by one of our female students. A man from the local radio station was there to report on it. Another local leader was also present to witness this potential cottage industry. Currently, all schools wear uniforms and all uniforms come from Uganda. Our uniforms were ordered in the spring and have not yet arrived. Area schools would love to have local students make their uniforms so this project has the potential of becoming quite a cottage industry in South Sudan.

pictures

Hopefully, you can view these pictures or click the link to get to them. One is a picture of some of the students learning to use the school's new sewing machine - pretty exciting! The other is a picture of Bev and Mary in "row Z - seats luggage and standing". You might be able to see that Bev is seated right next to the door. Mary had to inform her that the handle she was using to steady herself was the handle for the exit door and to please not use it.

Rumbek Airport Circus

Because we did not make our flight from Rumbek to Juba yesterday on South Supreme, we went back this morning around 9:00 to try again. The plane was supposed to come yesterday evening but that did not happen. The next understanding was that it would come from Juba this morning, maybe leave early, no, now leave at 11:00, no, now not sure when or if. Picture the airport. A large group of people sitting on benches under a tin roof structure with screened sides, several other smaller groups sitting under trees drinking tea. There is one building about 20 X 20 that serves as the terminal. We did not even enter that space as we already had our boarding passes and luggage checked from yesterday. That is where luggage is processed and tickets sold. Boarding passes are laminated (for reuse) paper with no seat number printed on them. The runway is orange dirt and wind is blowing orange dust over everything, but the breeze does keep the 100 degrees a bit cooler. There is a local woman selling soft drinks and water out of a cooler.The 3 of us and one man from Australia are the only white people to be seen but many speak English so we can carry on conversations. We entertain ourselves by playing with a couple of babies and small children also waiting to fly. OK, back to the 3 ring circus. In the first ring is South Supreme and the two-day waiting. As the hours ticked by that seemed less and less a possibility. But then the spotlight turned to the center ring and the possibility of a helicopter ride. For only 1,000 SSP (really a pretty small amount) we could fly to Juba on that. I (Marg) was game! I have never ridden on a helicopter and at my age (67) one does not have many "fun firsts". The helicopter landed. It was a large military cargo transport. This was going to be a story in the making. Bev had ridden on quite a few of these so was not that thrilled but Mary and I were ready to go! Alas, the General would not allow foreigners on a South Sudan military helicopter. Go figure! A number of nationals went reducing the number of people waiting. But we were still waiting for a solution to our problem. Thus comes ring #3 - Kush Air. We had heard that Kush was not flying but Director Justin, who has a cousin who works at the Juba airport, learned that a Kush plane was on its way to Rumbek and possibly we could get a ticket on it for the return flight. He was able to buy us 3 tickets. They had other people's names on it. Mine was originally for Amau Silman. I have no idea what happened to the original customers. So much of what happens here is beyond my understanding. So Justin returned our tickets to South Supreme and we hurried over to the Kush flight. It was a small plane, seated 19 plus 2 pilots. I got the last seat. Bev and Mary sat on the luggage. (Picture will come later) Fortunately the flight is only 50 minutes, arriving around 3:00 pm. We are dusty, hot, and tired but we are in Juba. The gentleman from Australia, Cameron, was to fly out of Juba this afternoon. He watched his flight take off as we rode the shuttle to the terminal. He will likely fly out in 2 days. He is the one that referred to the situation at the Rumbek airport as a circus. Our Director Justin, was not able to get a ticket but seemed quite relieved that he had gotten his 3 Board members on their way home. With much luck he may get a flight out tomorrow and join us briefly here - we are not counting on it.

flight cancelled

Well, today did not go as planned - "welcome to South Sudan" - and we are still in Rumbek as our flight was cancelled. Fortunately our same rooms were made available to us because the people who were to use them were to be on the plane from Juba but did not arrive. Now, we are scheduled to fly out tomorrow - we will see. I (Marg) wanted to tell you about our flight here 10 days ago. For me,the worst part of any trip to Rumbek, South Sudan is the Juba airport. It is total chaos with people crammed into a tiny "terminal", no sense of order and no indication what the process is. However, Ellen, another one of our Abukloi Board members, put us onto a government person in Juba who can get us through the VIP. Even though we had to pay him, it was much worth it. So we were sitting in the VIP waiting area when they came to get us as our flight was boarding. We went outside and waited with a small group of people. Within a few minutes a pick up truck came to shuttle passengers to the plane. The one middle-age woman in the group got in the cab and everyone else just climbed up and over the sides of the back ready to go. Mary seemed game, I was considering my options, and Bev was "no way". So the truck driver considered us and then drove off. Within 5 minutes a VAN came back to pick us up. They assessed us correctly :) The plane was small. I took a picture and will try to send it later when we have better internet. The back 6 seats had luggage. There were 13 passengers and 2 pilots. Between the luggage and the passengers, all seats were taken. There was no barrier between us and the pilots - you could see and hear them. A sign on the side of the dirt runway said, "Caution Eagles". I wasn't sure if that sign was to warn the planes or the eagles. The name of this airline is "South Supreme". That is the air line we are to travel with tomorrow. So let's hope it flies tomorrow!

This is Marg here in Rumbek, South Sudan. We have been without fuel nearly the entire time we have been in Rumbek. Without diesel fuel the generators do not operate. Without that there is no electricity therefore no internet. Diesel has arrived but we are still waiting for gasoline. There are liters for sale on the black market that run about $100 for 5 liters. Tomorrow we plan to fly to Juba where we will have wifi so we will fill you in more at that time. But just to summarize - we are all well and have accomplished what we had come here to do. And, of course, we have stories to tell. More tomorrow.

Rumbek without Fuel

We have arrived in Rumbek and much to share but we are without internet. We are now using Zain Modem for the few minutes every week it seems to be up. Fuel in this entire area is gone so generators are not running. The place we are staying has some solar energy so we are surviving. Truly, we are not complaining. All is well. Bev is working with the students on the issues of peace and reconciliation. She is very impressed with their knowledge and ability to articulate it. Mary is working with the students in getting stories, filming, picture taking. She will share some probably when we get home. Marg is working with the sewing. All 170 students sewed on buttons on Friday! The sewing machine has arrived. We just have to put it together. We will probably work with a much smaller group once we get to that point - hard to have that many students on one machine. Give our best to all.

Encouraging Reunion

The trip to Juba took two hours - not too bad.  The Juba to Terekeka road is under going repairs - parts are in pretty good shape, other sections are still very slow going.  It is a requirement now to register as an alien at the Department of Interior.  Jan, James, Mike, and I got this checked off our "to do" list first thing with the help of Sameh, who has guided other HRTN visitors through the process.

 

Next stop - check in at the YOM hotel in Juba, really nice but apparently no web site.  There was a lunch buffet which I enjoyed - lettuce salad with lots of avocado (I can't remember the last salad I had), green beans & carrots, roasted potatoes, chicken, and fresh papaya - satisfying and a nice change.

 

The Yom Hotel

I knew that three Abukloi board members were staying at another hotel close by waiting for a flight to Rumbek tomorrow morning.  What I did not know was that Tom Prichard, Executive Director of Sudan Sunrise, was at the YOM and planning dinner with the Abukloi gals tonight.  Tom and I spotted each other at lunch and arranged to car pool tonight for dinner.

I am struck by the changes occurring in Juba.  When I first started coming to the capital city in 2011, I described it as a "frontier town trying to become a modern city."  Piles of garbage on city streets; cars, bicycles, boda bodas, and pedestrians vying for space on congested streets with no traffic direction;  no running water or power source; no modern buildings;  one paved section of road.  Today more and more streets are paved;  there are street lights and traffic lights; street signs; modern buildings cropping up everywhere;  and this morning an army of men and women wearing yellow vests were sweeping the streets and picking up garbage.  Juba still has a long way to go, but considering how far it has come in such a short time - it's impressive!

 

As Tom Prichard and I walked outside this evening to get a taxi, we couldn't help but notice the rainbow.  That photo is attached.  Our friends were waiting in the outdoor area of the restaurant and we had such a nice visit and meal.  It's always heartening and encouraging to meet with friends involved in similar work, to share stories and encourage each other.  Around the table left to right are Abukloi board members Margaret Kutz, Beverly Nelan, Mary Anger;  yours truly, Tom Prichard, and Tom's in-country contact, Zekia Ahmed from Ethiopia.

 

With Tom Prichard. Can you see the rainbow?

 

 

Check in for flight to Yei, South Sudan is 9:00am tomorrow.  Three more days -

 

Blessings!

Ellen

 

 

 

Second Day in Juba

We slept in a bit this morning, still trying to catch up with sleep lost flying and jet lag. Breakfast was very good - omelettes to order. We talked with some other non-profit folks staying here, had lunch from the left over pizza last night, made a list of things we want to do while in Rumbek, went to the market to pick up electrical adapters and to try to get our shared phone to work (no luck, system is down). The driver even took us by the Nile River. Mary had not seen it before. Tonight we had dinner with Ellen Cummings, another member of the Abukloi Board who has been here for nearly 2 months, and Tom Pritchard, Director of Sudan Sunrise. Two other volunteers came later and we talked until they closed down the restaurant. Tomorrow our plan is to fly to Rumbek and begin our work. Exciting!

Arrived in South Sudan

Bev, Mary, and Marg arrived safely in Juba, South Sudan on Monday morning. Time in the air is about 15 hours. We were referred to a local hotel near the airport called Shamrock. By South Sudan standards, it is very nice, even hot water. We had pizza last night! Because we could not get a flight until Wednesday, we are going to use today to check on the price of fabric, availability of chemicals for the science lab, and connect with some other non-profits. Ellen Cummings, another member of our Abukloi Board, is arriving in Juba today and flying back to the US tomorrow so we will have an opportunity to meet with her this evening (like 2 ships passing in the night). (from Marg) - The part of the trip that causes me the most anxiety is arriving in the airport at Juba - normally total chaos, in my estimation. Because the terminal is basically one room, there is no clear signs of what to do, what lines lead to what end, etc. But yesterday, Justin, our Director in Rumbek, had arranged for a man named Angelo to meet us. He did meet us, escorted us to the VIP section of the airport and got us through with great ease. I believe this is a new section of the airport, at least it appeared new and I had never seen it before. We try hard not to experience "special treatment" but I was very grateful to have that part of the trip go so smoothly. On our way to the hotel, he was able to get some of our money exchanged and get a SIM card and minutes for a phone. Knowing who to trust is key and I am grateful for the connection that got us safely to the hotel, money exchanged, and phone working.