Inter School Athletics Carnival

On Monday I joined a group of students and staff from Harvesters Christian School to attend the Inter Primary Schools Athletics Carnival. It turned out to be a much bigger event than I expected, with about 2000 students present. It is only going for three days this year, not an entire week like last year. We are one of the few schools that are still having classes and only let participating students attend.

Though who is allowed to participate is very difficult in a country with no birth certificates and in which you must pass an exam before you can go to the next grade and many parents cannot afford to send their children to school every year. So last week after school each day there had been weighing, measuring, photographing and face examining sessions. I was surprised to be told many students had been declared too old by the officials based on examining their face. There were no age groups, just one single category for students to compete in.

Our day began after assembly with the distribution of shirts and sports shorts to the participants. There were not enough shorts which meant some girls participated wearing their school skirts. This was quite common amongst all the participants, while most had a school t-shirt, that was their only sporting gear. Most students raced in bare feet or with socks on.

The warm up was the one hour walk into Yei, to the oval where the competition was held. Some students walk this way to school each day, so we meandered into town quite casually. It was extremely interesting to walk through the "suburbs" of Yei. Though the memory of the huge numbers of jerry cans and women lined up at the water pumps if still vivid. I hope I don't ever forget how lucky I am to have running water in my house.

In typical African style the day ran behind schedule, racing finally started about 12:30pm. There were about 40 schools represented and for the 100m they each entered two boys and two girls, so there was race after race as they went through all the heats. Apparently semi finals were to happen on Tuesday and then the final on Wednesday. There was javelin about to start when I left and the sawdust had been put out ready for the high jump participants to land on. There was also to be long and triple jump, shot put and races up to 5000m.

Lunch was also interesting, as some schools include lunch in their fees it had to be provided on location. Our beans and porcho (ground rice cooked with water into a solid mass) was sent on a motorbike from Harvesters, but other schools bought along pots and cooked on location. There were also local entrepreneurs taking advantage of the day by selling snacks such as popcorn and icey poles/popsicles.

Around 2:30pm I found out it looked like the activities would be going on until at least 5pm so combined with the lack of seating and toilets I decided it was time for me to leave. One of the teachers was kind enough to help me find a boda, a motorbike taxi, to come home on as I would have gotten lost if I had tried to walk back to Harvesters alone.

It certainly gave me a new appreciation of all the resources we have for our carnivals at St Patrick's College.




Lunch is served. I wondered what all the home owners thought of their homes being lent against by our students. We also sheltered against the house during a rainstorm.

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Rainy Season is Here!

Thankfully it was dry for our shopping trip to town but during lunch, Ethiopian bbq, we had to move inside a hut to finish eating as the rain started. It was a very wet run to the car from lunch and a very slow drive back to Harvesters. Thankfully there were was only one other car on the road coming back, also foreigners! I wish I had gotten a photo of the street we turned into as we left the restaurant, it could have been described as a river. At times the water running down the drains had quite large waves. And they tell me there will be much heavier rain to come.

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The Last Week

I'm constantly amazed at the wide range of tasks and people I get the privilege to be involved with, or at least observe. No two days are ever the same.



The kids are obsessed with finding green mangoes the moment they drop onto the ground. They're too sour for me but even Baby Eve at 18 months loves them.


Before school chores for the school kids happen at 8:15 each morning. This week they included slashing the grass behind our house.

Everyone came running to assist to put out a grass fire behind our house last Sunday.



The aftermath of the fire.

The pre schoolers love it when I  have a free afternoon and do some drawing with them.

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A Very Special Blood Donation

I donated blood at the hospital today because there was a need for my blood type for immediate transfusion. It was amazing to donate, then fifteen minutes later (after the lab had tested it), we went down to the ward and the transfusion began.


The recipient of my blood, receiving it. The bundle in the corner is her baby son, born on Saturday.



The lab staff insisted I have a Coke, as everyone gets a soft drink after donation. I laughed when I got home and realised it had my name on it.

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Cooking in Goli

The cooking staff in Goli were kind enough to give me a lesson in how to cook the pea leaf greens that were my favourite side dish there. The majority of cooking in South Sudan appears to be done over charcoal fires, so it was interesting to see how they managed the cooking.

All the food was prepared inside and then taken a few steps outside to the cooking fires. Charcoal was delivered in large bags and deposited right next to the kitchen. Charcoal cooked with water, then strained, was also used as a flavoring for the greens, along with bicarb (baking) soda.

Cooking greens


Cooking space for staff in Goli


Cassava drying

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International Women's Day Women's Games

This event occurred at ECC the Saturday I was in Goli, it was so much fun. My favorite event was the chicken race, the winner got to keep the chicken! I won the balloon blowing competition, first one to burst the balloon. Though I didn't go so well at putting a needle suspended on thread into an empty soft drink bottle.

Some of the games were similar to home, like tug of war, relays, egg and spoon (with real eggs) and sack race (but starting laying down). Others were new to me, like walking balancing a soft drink bottle on your head, fastest drinking competitions - for the older mothers hot tea drinking and for the younger women soft drink.

The games started at 9am but at 11am took a break until about 4pm, as it was too hot to be outside. The day finished with a football (soccer) game, followed by a prize giving ceremony with prizes for first and second in each race.

It was such a fun day. It was great to see how supportive all the women were of each other and how everyone supported the games to be a success. Particularly for the older women as culturally sports have traditionally been for men so it was great that they had a special day that encouraged them to participate. During our evening training sessions most of them trained bare foot and in regular clothes as they've never had access to the equipment I've always consisted necessary for sporting activities.

I'm so grateful to the women for so readily welcoming me to their training sessions and the games.

PS In church on the Sunday there were also special International Women's Day activities, a speech about the value of women, a special song from a group of women and then a lolly for each woman as we left church.

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Emmanuel Christian College

I spent the last fortnight about 20 miles west of Yei in the tiny village of Goli, at Emmanuel Christian College. I was assisting in teaching the Basic English course to first year student teachers. The college was established in Goli, because it was relatively safe at the time and because there was a refugee camp there. The college now also has primary and secondary schools, with a combined enrollment of 250, mostly village students.

Being at ECC was an incredible experience. Most of the class had significant teaching experience as finishing high school is currently enough of a qualification to be a primary school teacher in South Sudan. In the future the government would like all teachers to have a diploma. While the salary doubles when you have a diploma it costs $1500 in fees alone to get a diploma, plus three years of no income. Many of the students have no idea how they will pay their fees, some plan to pay the college back after graduation but on a salary of about $100 a month this will be difficult.

A significant group of the college's 250 students are from the Nuba Mountains. Because of ongoing conflict there (they don't wish to be part of Sudan but have significant amounts of gold so Sudan wouldn't give them up) most of the students have spent the last ten years in refugee camps in Kenya where they had at least been able to get an education, in addition to food and water. The stories some of the students shared had me in tears. They just want to be able to go home, see their families and open schools so their people can be educated.

The students were all in at least their twenties when they finished high school, many had also faced changing languages during their schooling. Many had been educated in Arabic, the official language of Sudan but with independence South Sudan chose English as its official language. Some of the older guys really struggled with handwriting and it was incredible to work with them as they persevered to improve their handwriting, g, k, l, p, q and s all presented particular challenges!

The gender mix was the opposite to Australian primary schools, about 10% women. Many of the women were mothers of young children. Many times each day a carer would come to the door with a crying child and a mother would slip outside to breastfeed.

I was assisting a missionary from Switzerland who has been here for just over four years. She was amazing at helping bridge the cultural gap and filling me in my misunderstandings. The funniest moment for me was setting the look on the students' faces when I told them I had worked with many of my colleagues for five years but had never shaken their hand. Here hand shaking occurs every time you see someone you know, sometimes give or six times a day!

It was such an incredible learning experience for me to interact with adults who were willing to share so much of their life and cultural experiences with me. But it has also made me realise what a need for education there is here and that only with trained teachers is there the possibility for significant change. If you're interested in supporting the training of teachers please let me me know, I'm working with the college leadership to set up a specific fund to enable student fees to be paid.

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