Patience & Perseverance

The Sudanese are a patient people. Many waited in line for several hours, without seating nor water, to vote. Voting was not compulsory. Yet still they waited – and voted, peacefully! Yes the elections have passed without serious incident. Apart from many shops and businesses being closed, life has been pretty much as normal. Of 14 personnel from NGOs who remained in Malakal, we accounted for five of them. Most left Sudan during the elections. 

Now we hope that the announcement of results – winners and losers – will be accepted calmly. The major problem for us is that all traffic between north and south has been halted for ten days. So we are awaiting building supplies from Khartoum that normally would have arrived but have not yet been allowed through. With the wet season approaching, it is a delay we could well have done without. 

We have a huge pit, dug by machine to a depth of 4.5 metres, for a septic tank. But there it sits. The concrete blocks and bricks needed to form the walls, between which reinforced concrete will be poured, are not available anywhere in Malakal and the trucks carrying the materials ordered, have not arrived from Khartoum. The soak pit for the septic has been dug entirely by hand to a depth of 10 metres by 2 metres diameter. An incredible effort of patient perseverance by the three men who subcontracted to dig it! Now we need the bricks to line it. 

I have heard disparaging remarks about the willingness of Sudanese [...]