Sudan weekly Standard - 2

Welcome to Sudan,
welcome to the most beautiful nature,
welcome to more stars than you ever imagined,
welcome to trees bigger than a church,
welcome to malnutrition,
welcome to Leper,
welcome to the most absurd place on this planet!



Welcome to the Dinkas,
they let you know:
"Brother I'm very much suffering -
Bring food!"

Ok, first of all, sorry to all those of you to whom I haven’t answered – yet. I know it is not entirely fair, first to call on you to write and than not answering. But … well, there is no but – I could say something about being busy or that we only have a satellite-modem, but that would be excuses and I’m beginning to hate excuses - , except my usual laziness and maybe that I couldn’t always think of what to say. Which in a way is not cause by not having something to say, but simply by the amount - I don’t know where and with what to start. I could tell you something about being busy, because I’m working as a teacher in the local secondary school now for three days a week. Today I wrote an exam for them for next week – interesting experience. Writing an exam for some students I hardly know, and whose level of knowledge I have most definitely no clue about. It’s either going to be a 100% exam for all (which would surprise me) or a 0% for all (which would horrify me – but I followed along the guidelines I got). To be honest what these guys are doing in school is a bit of a surprise to me. They don’t have any books. I as a teacher am the only one who got one and as I figured out by now am supposed to write every single chapter word for word to the blackboard (that seems to have been the method they used so far) and then, I assume, they are supposed to learn it by hart. Now having said that, the stuff in the book is pretty absurd! They are learning more details about glaciers than I ever heard of – and I actually had the advantage of having seen a couple of them in my lifetime – having seen Ice, they haven’t. What-for they should learn the exact definition of: Bergschrund crevasse, Roche mountanee, Erratics, Drumlines or Eskers – to name just a few of them – is beyond my comprehension. Just as it is beyond their comprehension what they are learning. School here means learning details by hart – no understanding, nor transfer, no application required! If you do cut deeper you find that this is to them like for me learning the Koran in Arabic without translation – pointless. And I still think these guys (including the one female student) could be among the best students any teacher could ever have, despite having a constant fluctuation of them coming and going throughout the lesson and other lacks of discipline – that is what the teachers here complain about ‘no discipline’ – such as spitting in class, not turning up regularly (I still don’t know how many students my classes actually have) ect. But what do you expect of a 27 year old who spent most of his childhood as soldier in a bloody war? However if you gave them the chance – they really wanted to know something! Well, in any case they have exam next week and then the holidays start – for how long? Who knows – time is a very relative phrase in Africa!

The remaining days I either work in some IDP camps, drive out 30km – 4 wheel driving on these roads is incredible fun - to a Leper station to screw together some benches for their school – actually I’m supervising the work of our local employees and fixing the drilling machine if it stops working (now I finally know how one looks from the inside and that it actually contains graphite-contacts that can be finished – and that you can temporarily fix them with a bit of wire) – which have been donated and dropped of there a couple of month ago. Since they were lying around there happily rotting in the rain! Reading and writing. I never knew how much I enjoy writing – if my former teachers knew that! Writing about all kinds of things – time makes creative!

Well, and every now and then, when I find a new camp of people who live under some leaves, finding food in the jungle, I try to mention them to the government – yes I met the governor for southern-Sudan and pretty much the whole cabinet so far. Around twenty people, who do bugger all! But that with a relaxedness that is amazing! Apart from these 20 people there is nothing remotely resembling the workings of a state around here. Apparently we are in a bad enough situation that we will get – they should already be here – some Blue-helmets in the nearer future.

Chapter 7 mission – allowed using force, if they find a crime! That’s at least what the Canadian liaison officer said in the last UN security meeting. And I guess they will also implement the 40mph speed-limit the UN introduced, hehe.

In any case, I’m still a bit lost about what to think of all this here – maybe the next time I will be a bit less sarcastic – but for the moment that is all I can do. Laugh! Laugh - to avoid facing the full absurdity that is constantly around me.

Oh and while the people here laugh more than at home – they hardly ever seem to smile!

Have a good day!