The Basin and the Towel

On the last Saturday of each month, the priests and religious of Malakal come together for a morning of prayerful reflection. I think this is the practice in several Southern Sudan dioceses. The reflection in Malakal this month was led by an elderly– meaning that he is older than I am – Mill Hill Missionary priest, born in the USA, Fr Peter Major. 

In his presentation, Peter several times referred to the danger of becoming ‘puffed up’ with our own importance. He described it as a special danger for priests, and others in positions of leadership, that people treat us too well with too much reverence and we begin to have an exaggerated sense of our own importance. Peter’s words brought to my mind the beautiful hymn by Michael Card on his ‘Poiema’ Album, ‘The Basin and the Towel’. He sings:

While they bicker about who’s best… their saviour-servant must show them how…
Day after day we must take up the basin and the towel’ 

As we enter Holy Week, it is worth thinking not only about the suffering Christ but the servant Christ, the Christ who washed the feet of his disciples at the last Supper. We shall commemorate this as part of the Holy Thursday liturgy. Day after day, in being a follower of Christ, we must set out to serve others, not to be masters over them.   

In an interesting comment, Fr Peter described many mothers as being better ‘models’ of priesthood than many men who are actually priests. A mother gives all her energy to looking [...]

Wonderful Water

The overall goal of World Water Day is to raise the profile, at the political level, of water quality so that water quality considerations are given weight alongside those of water quantity. The theme chosen for World Water Day 2010 was Clean Water for a Healthy World.  

On Monday, 22nd, World Water Day, I was returning by road from Yambio to Juba, a journey of just under nine hours, with Solidarity with Southern Sudan (SSS) members. At Mundrie we were delayed briefly while the president of the South, Salva Kiir, and his entourage, drove past travelling from the airport into the town – part of his election campaigning. There were some soldiers around and there was some evident excitement among the people but it was a pleasantly calm and peaceful atmosphere.

When we had driven out on Friday from Juba to Yambio, there had been rain during the previous couple of days. In fact the puddles on the road and the slippery surface were evidence of extensive rain in this region. We were grateful for the lack of dust. Much of the countryside was dry and arid and some had been burned. The rain had brought forth many small green shoots. By Monday, the transformation was extraordinary as a strong green layer then obscured our vision of the parched or burned earth. Water, wonderful water, had initiated stunning new growth! 

During our trip we passed several pumps and noted the long line of jerry cans lined up to be filled with this life-giving liquid. Brother Jorge spoke [...]

The Donkey Vote

I suspect the most abused creature in Malakal is the Donkey. Hitched up to trailers carrying water, branches, reeds or other cargo, there are hundreds of these strong animals in this city. To drive a vehicle we have to be licensed but there is possibly more danger on our roads from the hazards created by the donkey carts, often whipped along by boys as young as ten, than by motorised vehicles.

Elections are scheduled in Sudan for the week beginning April 11th. People sometimes refer to the advantage enjoyed by the first-listed candidates on the ballot papers because they receive ‘the donkey votes’, the votes by unthinking people who simply vote down the page. They vote because they are compelled, in Australia, to vote, not because they have a preference to express. In this instance it is the donkey whose acumen is under question when the term ‘donkey vote’ is used. 

Some people are reputed to have sold their voter registration – worse than donkey voting! In theory, elections are a step forward in the democratic process. In practice, it appears unlikely the elections will be free and fair.

The elections may bring violence. Elections produce winners and losers. The real question is how will the candidates react after the election is over? There are ten candidates for the position of Governor of this Upper Nile State. So after the election, one will be happy and nine less than happy! 

Now there is a shortage of diesel in Malakal. We have had virtually no town power the past four [...]

Near Enough Not Enough

During this past week, Sister Ninet and I visited the relatively remote town of Leer in Unity State, a region in which there are close to 20,000 people, mostly of the Nuer tribe. In this area, one is close to the ‘The Sudd’, the world’s largest marsh covering an area of 30,000 km2 in the dry season and 130,000km2 in the wet. This is the dry season and, in fact, very dry. Father Francis, the parish priest of Leer, pointed out several areas that he had never seen dry – until this year! 

Sisters, Adriana from Ecuador and Myriam from Mexico, had urged us to come to Leer. Only two teachers in this large town have had any form of teacher training. Brother Nichola met us at the airport in Thar Jath and then transported us to Leer. Thar Jath is oil territory. Flying into Thar Jath, one cannot but notice the network of towers and power cables that rise above the long grass of the swampy landscape. The roads in this region and the airport at Thar Jath have been improved greatly to service the oil industry.  

As we drove away from Thar Jath, we saw some people walking – and many more fishing, washing, playing or collecting water from the pools and ponds in among the long grass and reeds beside the road. Several times we stopped or slowed to negotiate our way around cattle herded along the road. Was this an example of an idyllic, rural, subsistence for the Nuer people?

When oil was [...]

Pain and Pride

In the capital of South Sudan, Juba, there is a significant network of approximately seventeen Catholic schools. Here in Malakal, no Juba-like network of Catholic schools exists. Historically, the Catholics in this part of Southern Sudan were on the other side of the Nile to Malakal.

The spirit among the Malakal group of training teachers is less cohesive and attendance is not as good as the programme in Juba. Life in Malakal is more of a struggle as many teachers need to do other things to supplement their income. It is an extra to be going to a teacher training programme. One woman last week came apologetically to say that she would be absent because her 25 year old brother had died. Another man said his brother had been knifed and killed in a domestic dispute. Behind the warm handshakes and the smiling eyes, one glimpses every now and then, a lot of pain among the people of this ravaged country.  

An evacuation exercise had been scheduled for Saturday. Conducted by the UN, it was to utilise the Nile as the means of transport out. A practice for evacuation by road had already been done. The exercise was cancelled because a candidate for President of the South was coming to town. No trouble was expected but the practice could create misunderstanding. Even before the cancellation, some of us were wondering what message having such a practice sends out to the Sudanese people. 

February 23rd was the anniversary of the outbreak of fighting last year in the area [...]