Chris in South Sudan

Greetings from South Sudan,

I’m sorry that these blogs don’t come at a consistent rate, I am writing them when I have enough to talk about and when the time is available. I should probably start of where I left the last one, with the medical mission. The trip to the village went smoothly (not physically) as there were no checkpoints along the way; the Government has made checkpoints illegal, yet the news doesn’t seem to have reached the guys out here. The team consisted of Dr. Hopper, Steve, my 2 housemates and myself. We stayed on the Church compound in the Village almost the whole time. Whilst Dr. Hopper would see the locals we would do the pharmacy for the medication he prescribed. The most common things we gave out were Medication for Malaria, Worms and painkillers for back and Neck problems in women. You normally see pictures in the Oxfam pamphlets and other things of women carrying stuff on their heads but I never realized how heavy it was, the stuff weighs about 35kg and they have to walk with it for miles every day. I offered to help a woman the other day on my way to school by taking her load on my head, about 200m later there was sweat pouring down my face and I couldn’t go any further, the women thought it was very funny. You’ll probably all remember that Cheryl Cole recently got Malaria and the tabloids made a big deal out of it, but sensible people said it wasn’t that serious, in light of that guess how many children died of Malaria in this village in the last year. The truth of the matter is I don’t know, but in the week I was at this village 5 children died of Malaria, a little higher than normal, but that’s still pretty crazy. The problem is that even though there are medical stations, the Malaria will develop so quickly in infants that there is no time to save them. Life for Women and children isn’t that much fun. Dr. Hopper’s work out here undoubtedly makes a big difference and he was an inspiring guy to work with. He returned to America last week, however due to new laws about flights he had to be rushed to Kenya to catch his flight. The government has imposed that all flights to and from South Sudan must go through Juba, which will make work out here a lot more difficult for all missionaries, so any prayers that the government will become more lenient would be appreciated.

Moving onto more cheerful news, I have found a new language helper, his name is Jamus. Jamus is one of the students in my third class; he is 22 and has one wife and two children. He is the smiliest guy you have ever met and holds your hand when you walk with him (it’s a sign of friendship out here). I thank you for all your prayers and hope that I will begin to improve in the language again.

It is now the last week of school and the students have exams all week before breaking up (The school year starts in January so this will be like their summer holiday). I am hopeful that there will be some improvement in their grades, but I am trying not to get my hopes up too much. We are trying to get a goat for school Christmas lunch; as long as I don’t get the brains (a delicacy) I am happy. After school finishes I have 7 weeks “off” during which I will be working for Steve doing construction work on the compound and around the place. There are now a couple of roosters on the compound and Steve reckons one of them will be fat enough for Christmas Lunch. There is some concern about how well the school will run next year, we will have another class coming in from the primary school, however we have no more classrooms and are already in need of more teachers. So any prayers that things will be sorted out would be very helpful.

As Christmas approaches the dry season is starting and the heat is now reaching the high 30’s. All of the green mountains will soon be parched, not because of the heat, but because the villagers burn the greenery for animistic reasons (they have been advised many times by missionaries not to do it). So I am making the most of the beautiful scenery whilst it lasts.

I wish you all the best wherever you are and thank you for reading,

Yours in Christ,

Chris.