Happy Teachers in Juba

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 23^rd was the anniversary of the outbreak of fighting last year in the area where our SSS community then lived. Our people stayed. In fact ‘the Church’ in the form of the priests and religious stayed with the people during the war years and did not retreat. It is one of the reasons there is real esteem for Priests, Brothers and Nuns.  

I was at the Education Ministry recently with Sr Ninet. We were told by a ‘Kawadja’ (white) advisor that for the week before and after the April elections they were being ordered to evacuate. She said; ‘But of course, I suppose you will be staying.’ Yes, we will be staying to stand in solidarity with people who live each day with the pain of anxiety and uncertainty.  

We will heed the warning by the UN to avoid all election rallies. We will stay in the relative safety of our compound. But to evacuate for no real reason other than the possibility that something might happen would be to compromise our solidarity with the people of South Sudan. Indian motivational speaker, Keshavan Nair, asserts:

‘With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity.’  

At mass last Sunday as I went forward to receive communion, I found myself standing behind a young man who was wearing a T-shirt on which was printed: ‘SOFTBALL, Pain is temporary…… pride is forever’. 

There are at least two kinds of pride, I thought, one good and one bad. There is arrogant pride where one treats others as inferior. And there is wise pride where one knows that one has gifts to be used well, to ‘dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate’ – and, recognising the advantages I enjoy have come from God – “and the wisdom to be humble’.  

The pride of arrogance, of treating others as inferior and less deserving, is reprehensible. It is the opposite of humility.

The pride of integrity, of being true to who we are and using our gifts, our talents, to help others, of ‘attributing all to God’ as urged by St John Baptist de La Salle, sits well with humility. The humble person recognises all the gifts he, or she, has come from God but takes pride in using those gifts well. Such is the pride that lasts forever.

Br Bill