The Rocky Road to Riimenze

Each year in January an anniversary celebration is held in a selected city in honour of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. This year it was held in Yambio. The President, from the north, Omar Al-Bashir, flew in for his first ever visit to Yambio. So too did the Vice-president, who is also the President of the South, Salva Kiir. Al-Bashir made an encouraging speech that the north would accept the results of the 2011 referendum on southern secession. All went well with the 19th January celebrations which were enhanced with various song and dance performances by many well-practised children.

At 6:00am the next morning, four of us set out to drive from Juba, the capital, to Riimenze near Yambio, just over 400kms away. The route was not well sign-posted but one of our team, Justin, who is Sudanese, was able to converse with people on the way to check we had not deviated from the right route. All except a few kilometres of our journey was on unsealed roads, some parts very good but many sections simply a series of jarring potholes and craters. The journey in our Toyota Land Cruiser took us ten hours. Along the way we passed through five or six road blocks.

We saw many people and countless tukuls along the way. Most of them were probably not more than a few kilometres from their simple homes. This was their whole world, built around personal relationships, food and water, and making full use of natural resources for shelter and commerce. There were many [...]

Curries, Cricket and Much More

After a two week break in Brisbane and Sydney over Christmas I flew out to Colombo, Sri Lanka on 4th January.  It was my first visit there, but I had been told to prepare for many curries and much cricket talk!

Upon my arrival, I was surprised by the presence of the military along the streets. Soldiers were carrying guns patrolling the streets. On our drive from the airport we were stopped twice at military checkpoints to have our IDs scrutinised. Considering that an end to hostilities had been declared I was taken aback by the level of military presence. It was quite unexpected.

The first few days were spent at Mutwal in Colombo.  It is a beautiful spot right on the water.  I was able to visit the school here.  There wasn’t much of a chance to speak with the students as I could not speak the local language.

I then headed to Wattala which is the venue for the Brothers’ training program.  They made the most of my visit there by organising a four day program with me speaking to 26 young religious from different groups of Brothers and Sisters. 

Wattala is infamous in Colombo as the mosquito capital!  Once the sun went down the mosquitoes came out. 

I was fortunate to meet up with a Sri Lankan Brother who I had met in Rome ten years ago.  He made the seven hour trip down form Mannar in the north to see me.  Mannar was in the heart of the fighting between the government and the LTTE (Tamil [...]

The Mighty Nile

Herodotus, the Greek philosopher, who is sometimes called the “Father of History,” writing around 450BC, said of the Nile: ‘The river rises of itself, waters the fields, and then sinks back again; thereupon each man sows his field and waits for the harvest.’ Herodotus called Egypt ‘the gift of the Nile’.

Although it has been debated, the Nile at approximately 6695 kms long, is usually described as the longest River in the world, just a little longer than the Amazon at 6280 kms. The Amazon however, at any one point in time has the highest amount of water flowing down it. No other river, including the Nile, even comes close.

While the Nile River is often associated with Egypt, more of its length is in Sudan than any other country. I doubt that the much-travelled Herodotus visited the region that today is called Sudan. He was describing the floodplain of the Nile valley as it passes through Egypt. The waters of the Nile are, in fact, a great gift to Sudan as well as Egypt.

Here in Juba we have the ‘White Nile’ flowing from Lake Victoria. The Blue Nile from Ethiopia meets the White Nile at Khartoum before flowing into Egypt. The water is precious. Some would say that Egypt wants to see a united Sudan – principally because it would remain one country to negotiate with over water, rather than two. People drink the Nile water, wash in it, irrigate from it and empty all manner of waste material into it. Crocodiles, hippos, fish and snakes [...]

D-Day for Denis

On Sunday, Fr Joseph, Sr Jenny and I went to the airport to welcome Br Denis Loft arriving in Sudan for the first time from Australia. This was D-Day, destination day for Denis. The fortifications were not quite as formidable as on June 6th 1944, but the airport terminal was cordoned off and the normal car park was out of use. Armed patrolmen were in clear view. ‘I have never seen it like this.’ remarked Fr Joseph. People stood 80 metres from the terminal watching disembarking passengers emerge from the arrivals hall. Welcome to Southern Sudan, Brother Denis! Sr Jenny remarked: ‘This does not create a good first impression of Sudan!’

Fr Joseph, a remarkably persuasive and cheerful man, not to be deterred, smiled his way across ‘no man’s land’ and successively penetrated the airport terminal. A short time later he emerged with Brother Denis, the third De La Salle Brother to arrive to join the ‘Solidarity with Southern Sudan’ initiative in Southern Sudan. Seven months ago, Denis and I were working in the same College in Melbourne. It was great to see him now in Southern Sudan. ‘You have trimmed down’, he said. Wonderfully perceptive, kindly man!

Thank God I have finally found a place where it is easy to lose weight. Yesterday while waiting for Sr Jenny, I jumped on the airport baggage scales. Ninety-four kilos. Not exactly anorexic! I was 107 at my ‘peak’ and 100 when I arrived.

Father Joseph, one might think, was related to the ‘Pied Piper’. He has a remarkable ability [...]

Facing a New Year

So far into the New Year I have had no power failures and all three phases working. Not that it is perfect. If I turn the big fan on or the electric jug, the added drain on the supply turns the fridge off. But it is manageable. I cooked a New Year’s lunch for the Sisters next door, to repay some of their hospitality, and much like the Sisters, am now enjoying ‘left-overs’ from the fridge. Sharing is a very commendable way of life in Sudan.

Many people see in the New Year in big crowds. So did I but with a difference. Yes, I attended another midnight mass with about 4000 people inside the Church compound and more outside in the street! Actually we started at 11:50pm so that New Year came in at the Gloria when all bells rang and one hymn went for 10 minutes – with bells ringing.

A long energetic, political homily was delivered by a young priest, Fr Onesimo, partly in English and partly in Arabic, about the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and declaring 2010 a year of peace. It seemed to be well received by the people but I regretted all the humorous parts were in Arabic. The Sudanese clergy generally seem to be well-practiced orators with homilies delivered forcefully, emphatically and with some humour.

One of the communion hymns seemed to me to go to the tune of ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm’ – I couldn’t understand the words but I presume they were changed! Mass finished at 2:00am but it took [...]