Last Days...

I'm so grateful I got to stay in the nurses quarters, with these lovely ladies and Nurse Dawn. But so many people from all over the campus I'm missing.


I had breakfast with the kids my last morning, tea, bread and a boiled egg. I love how Maria ate hers.


Selifie with Mama and Bendita.


The girls love to play with our hair, they thought it particularly great when Nurse Lindsay came over with her long hair.



I'm always amazed to see how the local women can carry a child on their back and a load on their head. Lona walks about 30 minutes to work each day, with Moses on her back. When the kids are big enough they hold on by putting their arms under your underarms, rather than around your neck, which seemed to make them lighter. Though the afternoon the kids had me practise with them I kept choosing the smallest kids.


Pre School "Closing Ceremony", ie end of term assembly, I was asked to give an impromptu speech, as well as the opening prayer.


The guards got new uniforms, this is Moses proudly showing off his. The kids think they look like policemen, especially as most tuck their trousers into their boots. I think the berets and boots would be too hot but they claim they aren't.


Many of the kids like to do group skipping/jump rope.


One of the cleaners, Lona Kola. She was the keenest to practise English with me.

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Around Campus

There always seems to be something different happening around the campus. My last Sunday afternoon word quickly got around that there was a monkey over at the tractor. Turns out a mechanic came to work on the tractor and bought his pet monkey with him. Apparently he normally spends his day hanging out at the garage. Not sure what he thought of having a large group of kids watch his every move, though they did get him a dish of water.


This bicycle rim kept many children occupied and their skill at moving it long distances with a stick impressed me. This is Aaron with it.


The grade one and five students I worked with in small groups were keen to do some drawing one day at the end of exam week. Turns out they all created cards for me :-)


My Primary Five girls, Charity, Loyce and Dunea.


Jackie and I ended up spending almost three days sewing in the school library (the only place in the school with electricity), repairing school uniforms. Even the principal of the school had never seen an electric sewing machine before, so we had many staff visit to see it in action and kids watching through the windows.



Angelina, a beautiful lady and one of the hospital cleaners.


The pre schoolers love painting with water but actually liked to clean with a rag even more. Though I did take away all supplies after they started cleaning each other!


Given and Clinger her pet chameleon. The day after this photo he was made a jacket and a cardboard house. Unfortunately he is no longer with us but her family now has a pet porcupine.


Love this hammock made from a bag and some string.

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Nehemiah High School

On Thursday afternoon I finally got the opportunity to visit Nehemiah High School. It is a co-educational grade nine to twelve school, a mixture of orphans and fee paying students. 23 Harvesters children currently make the three minute walk there each day.

In South Sudan high school is only for those who have done academically well in grades one to eight and are able to afford the fees and lost income that further schooling entails.

Given the school is only about four years old in its current incarnation and has a repudiation for being the high school that gets the best results in all of Yei, I expected it to be much bigger and more developed, with specialist learning spaces. There essentially just four sandy bottomed classrooms, one for each grade level. All the other buildings I'd seen when waking past are student dorms.

Grades nine and ten have about 130 students in each year level and all students study the same ten subjects for five 45 minute lessons each week. The grades eleven and twelve classes are a bit smaller but will eventually be bigger. Those students choose an Arts or Business stream and study eight subjects from a possible twelve. The four subjects they don't choose are their study lines. I guess timetabling is easier when you only have four classes!

It was interesting talking to the vice principal, who told me that while they know the optimum class size is 45, they'd like to aim for 65, by building four new classrooms, cutting current classes in half. However he expected that when they build the new classrooms they will need to let more students in, as there is such a desperate need for high school spots.

The derelict building was their dining room until the roof was destroyed, now students eat anywhere they can find a spot. The building was originally built buy the UN, hence the colour scheme. This sight had been used for many different purposes over the years.

For my Science teacher friends there is a photo of the one specialist teaching space, a Science lab. It didn't seem to have any equipment. The library consists of a few books for teacher reference in the admin office.

This visit made me feel even more spoilt with all that we have in our schools in Australia.

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The Last Twenty Four Hours

In the last twenty four hours or so I have been able to take some interesting photos.

The house mothers playing pairs/memory to practise colours during their English lesson this morning.


The toddlers, Esther, Abigail and Gloria, counting with an older girl, Helen. .


Lonna bathing her son Moses. This is how all the toddlers are bathed, several times a day.


Workers remodelling a building.


Men going off to hunt with bows and arrows, they just randomly walked past when I was at the gate practising English with a guard.


This boy walked past the gate pulling his truck behind him. He told me had made it himself.



This was taken from one of the girls' dorms looking towards their kitchen/dining room during yesterday's storm. The water was ankle deep!


The pre schoolers carrying water so they can do some water painting on the dorm walls.



Toddlers making music.

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The Last Few Weeks

Thanks to the recent donation of an electric sewing machine (from Australia), I've spent lots of time sewing lately; repairing orphan and hospital clothes and sundry items, sewing labels on baby blankets, making skirts and hospital scrubs. The only other sewing machines around are treadle  ones that only do a straight stitch, so it's great to be able to zigzag. I've still been doing some adult English teaching and tutoring at risk students.

I'm constantly amazed at the strength of the local women. And they're amazed I can't carry anything on my head.

Joyce

Yatta

These are the beans we eat twice a day, they're dark red by the time they've been cooked for two hours.


Pre-schoolers painting the church with water, they loved it!



Playing physical therapist to a three year old with severe burns to half his body.



Mango season. The kids run as soon as they hear a mango drop!




Teaching English and computers at the vocational school.



Loom bands donated by Zoe and Mia.



High school kids off to church


Easter Sunday afternoon treats


Easter egg hunt for the missionary kids.



Charcoal irons, I don't iron my clothes!



My Easter break project, every child wrote/drew two letters to their sponsors. Even the babies had their hands traced and added some scribbles.

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