Tarpaulin time

Sr Margaret visited one of the teachers from our in-service programme in his school last week and found herself in a conversation with this fine man about his personal circumstances. He is being paid SDG 279 (Sudanese pounds – about US $104) per month. To earn that, he teaches both shifts in his school which has separate morning and afternoon student cohorts. He pays SDG 100 per month to rent his tukul and budgets on feeding his wife, child and his father on SDG 5 per day. There is not much left for clothing or other expenses! He is not complaining but he does say he cannot afford another child at present! 

Another teacher on Sister Margaret’s list lives at one end of Malakal but, because he speaks good English, has been told to teach at a school several kilometres out of the town at the other end of Malakal where they need English instruction. He walks two and a half hours every morning to get there and in the evening, another two and a half hours to return home. There are taxis, relatively cheap, from my perspective, at only one pound for a ride on the set routes. If he caught those, it would reduce his trip time by at least an hour and a half.  He would need to take two of them each way on the set routes; but he can’t afford to spend SDG 4 (about $1.50) each day on taxis. So he walks! I am not sure what will happen on days of heavy rain. 

These are teachers who are well off compared with many Sudanese people. I notice that plastic tarpaulins have now appeared on sale around the market place – no doubt considered very helpful to throw over the roof of a leaking tukul. At morning mass, I usually sit next to a window where I gain the benefit of any breeze. Two days ago the floor was flooded around my preferred seat. The corrugated iron roof of the Church also leaks! I sat elsewhere. The bigger problem is finding reasonable footing as one crosses the muddy grounds. There are some people who have to walk long distances through mud to fetch water, buy food or, indeed, to go anywhere. 

As in any developing country, there are some people who are prospering but very many still in real need. Yet almost all people would say that the peace of the last few years has improved their lives significantly.

There are many problems to be overcome and mountains of difficulties to be removed before this country will offer reasonable living conditions to all. What can we do? I am reminded of the Chinese proverb that states:

“The man who removed the mountain began by carrying away small stones.” 

So it is one patient step at a time – and one thing Sudan teaches is patience. Sister Ninet and Br Denis are sitting, patiently I hope, as I write, in Leer waiting to return to Malakal. Their Saturday flight was cancelled – airport runway was too wet. The possible Monday flight, suggested on Saturday, we now know is not going to happen. So maybe Tuesday they will return here after successfully delivering part of our teacher training programme to teachers in Leer in Unity State.

Do I feel guilty if we pay SDG 12 for a kilo of beef, or SDG 6 for a tub of yoghurt, or SDG 4.5 for a can of beer? Some people here have to live on such amounts for a day. No, I don’t. We live simply, even frugally at times, and don’t have many of the things we have enjoyed all our lifetimes. We have to survive too and are not as conditioned as the Sudanese to their privations. The life expectancy in Southern Sudan is 42 years. I have long passed that – perhaps because of the better conditions I have been privileged to enjoy. A good friend wrote to me this week with another wise aphorism of Pope John XXIII, uttered at the end of a busy day: “It’s your world, Lord; and I’m going to bed.” I follow that advice very well. Sleep well. 

Br Bill