Pictures From Pibor

It was my last day in Pibor, and as we had stopped to visit one of the school supervisors who had been ill, I looked down the street, and just snapped: I did not even see the little naked boy until after I'd taken the picture; some of the houses show the signs of "development" in Pibor with those "iron sheet" roofs...there are women gathered at a bore-hole with their geri cans to get water...each can is about 20 liters, and they carry them on their heads; I think you can see a woman with one on her head in this picture...

I decided to take another snap when I saw the woman with the baby on her back, and that little bundle on her head...(the houses in this picture are typical of most of the houses in Pibor; there are still other typical houses that look like bird's nest, but those are not always seen in the center of town area)...

The street looked so empty because most of the people in the Pibor "town" had gone to the airstrip from early in the morning to wait for the arrival of President Salva Kiir of South Sudan, who was coming to Pibor that Friday morning as part of his re-election campaign visit...

Needless to say, after we waited at the air strip for about 2 hours (was a real disappointment we could not take any pictures of the airstrip because of the tight security! because it was quite a site there, with all the people, so colourfully dressed, waving little blue and white flags in unison each time a plane or helicopter landed, and that same strong, harsh, dry, choking us with dust wind blowing, and us taking refuges in the pickup truck), watching all the UN helicopters and other small planes landing, bringing many other Murle, and South Sudan politicians and security detail, our plane could not land when it did arrive, but instead, we just watched it circle and then take off to the north west, heading for Lekwongale, which was about 3o miles from Pibor...

So, we quickly made a SAT call to our logistics guy in Loki to tell him what happened, and asked him to please ask the plane to wait for us, as we hopped into our pick-up truck, and "rushed" to Lekwongale to make our flight...we'd told them it would take 45 mins but because the road was so so rough and bumpy, it took us well over an hour to get there...and as the driver tried to go at a fast pace to make that 45 mins a slim reality, the front bumper of the truck just came a loose; we tried to tie it back on (see other picture) and it lasted for just over a minute of bumps, then we had to stop, and this time, Lucy suggested we just take the durn thing off, so we did and put it in the back of the pick-up, on top of our luggage!

Here is another one from Pibor! 'Is of a woman and her baby boy...she was so thin and tattered looking, and he looked sickly too, but he was hungry and food was on her wasted body, so he just reached in and took her breast and began to suck...i was in the truck, parked on the street in front of this new Chemist/Pharmacy in Pibor...and I didn't want to get out to take another shot from the other side, so this is what got...

Here's the whole Chemist, with that same woman and her baby out fornt...this is one of the newest buildings in Pibor market area; it's made of the ubiquitous iron sheets that everyone has begun to use for their roofs, (and it is what most of the Darfurian traders use for to make their shops out of) instead of the thatched leaves, because these "iron sheets" last longer, obviously...and hey, this is development, though they make every single building in which they are used that much more hotter...

The women in the store with her hands on her hip is my Ugandan colleague, Lucy...she had gone in to purchase some de-worming medication for herself...I chose to wait until I got back to Nairobi for that...

Tying the front bumper back on, after it became loose as we tried to go fast on the extremely, bumby, rough road to Lekwongale to make our flight out of Pibor...

About a minute, late, it was loose and again, and so we just took it off...

In the picture is Rev Orozu, and Joseph of SALT, the local, indigenous NGO where we stayed in Pibor, and the woman is my dear colleague and friend, Lucy Aceng, who is from Uganda.

One more . . In the background are two of the bird'snest style houses I'd mentioned...notice the dry, ground, full of cow dung, as the cows move to and fro freely, and see the thorn on the branch of the tree...in this semi-acrid area, most of the trees and plants have thorns

This little girl is dressed as lot of Murle girls are dressed...I did not take this picture: it is one shared with me by Rev. Orozu, of SALT, Pibor...
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Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Feel free to leave comments.

God's All Sufficient Grace

AAAHHHHH! I am exhausted. I have come undone...

I'm now into my third week here in Pibor, and it is taking all I have and don't have to make it through each day! It is unimaginable here...as if though things have gotten harder here since last March when I was last here: our coolest day is in the high nineties; we have a constant dry, harsh wind blowing, surrounding us in gritty sand laced with cow, human and bat feces and who knows what else, so you could say we are here drinking sand, and it is causing us to have a terrible cough and breathing problems!

Then the flies, hundred hundreds, whrring whrrring, bzzzing around us, landing on any part of out bodies they please, in our ears, on our lips...yuck! pestering, billigerent buggers that we must swat at all day long, till night time, when they miraculously disappear, only to return wtih a vengence at sunrise the next day! It is wonder to type on the laptop as I swat flies from all parts of my body at the same time!!

Then there are the swarming beeesss...stinging us as we try to bathe in the bathhouse in the mornings, and the never ending swarm of scorpions at night, uncovered by the wind, out hunting any moving prey...and the nasty, stinking little brown bats all hanging in a row, high up in the roof of the class room, their droppings on out seats and desk all the time...and a lingering weariness that drains my soul ... ohhh! it's been quite an adventure, requiring more grace than even I knew was available...

I am simply exhausted...

BUT then, there is the never ending, quickening, visibly active mercy and grace of Almighty Jehovah sustaining the bare- bones lives of the Murle people, who have survived in this harsh land for much more that the mere three weeks that I am here...

AND the starry, starry starry nights in a sky that seem to have no end as I lie on my back on my bed, now outdoors, avoiding the heat of the room....and the moon, now only a quarter of it grand size, rising at about 1:00 am in the morning now, and still so bright, it seems to light up the entire community!

Pibor is a misery and a miracle every day! The children drink the stagnant river water, put into rusted drums to be used by the builders, in which animals and people bathe and drink everyday. And yet they are still up and about, running around in the scorching, afternoon sun, no shoes on their feet, as they run amidst the thorn infested bushes, collecting discarded, plastic, soda bottles they wear like special badges on the bottom of their tattetered shirts! Ay! nothing about life and living it in Pibor is easy!!

The women, mostly bone thin, babies strapped to their backs, their bodies looking like they haven't washed in weeks, carry huge loads of dried leaves, twice their weight, used for thatching roofs, walking in the heavy light of the early morning light, or else with huge bundles of fire wood on their heads, walking to the the market to make a sale so they can make some money to buy food for the one evening meal they cook per day!

Pibor! It haunts, tortures, and angers me deeply me at the same time to be here! There are times, when I wish I had wings like a dove, so I could just fly away and never ever come back, ever! And there are times, when the deep need of the people make we wish I was a Murle and could stay forever and spread my healing wings over all, and make everything better, especially for women and children...

Am I glad to have returned? Yes and no....yes, because it amazes and humbles me that God has seen fit to bring me, of all people on the face on this earth, to serve Him here amongst his people.... and no, because I feel the weakness of my physical body more than ever here, and this saddens me...

Still, I am thankful to be here, if for no other reason than to be able to assure these teachers, that even though it might seem to them "that kawajahs are more clever than Africans," this is not true in the least bit!

The kawajahs are all those not from South Sudan, whites and Westerners....with the exception of Arabs. The teachers need to realize that if kawajahs seem more clever, it is primarily for two reasons:

1) The long standing peace they have enjoyed, fostering cooperation between "tribes" who used to kill each other. This enabled them to develop and prosper, making much use of other people's resources, including Africa's.

2) The teaching methodology used in their schools to teach students, that makes learners believe in themselves, that there is nothing they can not do or achieve if they just try long and hard enough!

Training native Sudanese teachers certainly requires more than superficial learning of techniques. I'll share more about this in the future.