First weekend in the children's home

The children's home, photo taken from the school.
My bedroom is on the far right.

I woke, much refreshed at about 6am on my first full day in South Sudan.  People were already getting up, doing their teeth at the water pump, and generally getting ready for the day.  I ate breakfast with Brenda, my fellow volunteer and her daughter and was joined by pastors Richard and Juma.  We ate some samosas, papaya and doughnuts with tea. I discussed the practical aspects of my stay with Juma and explained that my money situation was poor.  Juma told me that they have two types of volunteer, those who stay a short time and pay for their keep, and those who are long term and don’t pay.  I will definitely be the second sort.  Juma’s worry, based on past experience, is that westerners can’t cope with the local living conditions without extras.  I assured him that I am a very flexible person and was capable of fitting in, as I did in Sudan.

Children fill containers with water at the bore hole.
The cow waits for surplus water.

It was a peaceful day as it was Saturday.  The children did their chores such as water pumping, farming, minding smaller children, but have a lot of time to themselves as well for play.  They are expected to be very responsible from a tiny age.  Even three year olds wash their own clothes, although I notice that sometimes they are later re-washed!  Goats and a beautiful African cow with a calf wander the grounds. 

I was keen to go to the local Catholic church for Mass and asked Pastor Richard the day before about Mass times and for directions to the church.  He told me it was a long way away and I would need to take a ‘boda boda’ (motorbike taxi on which customers ride pillion).  The second Mass of the day was at 8am, which seemed early enough for me.  He agreed to help me get there.  On the day, Pastor Richard flagged down a boda boda and paid him to take me to the church.  

The church is called St Patrick’s.  It was packed inside and lots of people were outside as well. Somebody brought me a plastic chair.  Mass hadn’t started, but the choir was already singing and there were about twenty little girls, dressed alike who danced in unison with the music.  Both music and dancing were a very high standard.  The congregation joined in with enthusiasm, doing actions to the music and singing in harmony.  The music went on for about half an hour, and then the priest gave a short speech and everyone came outside.  As the priest walked out I introduced myself and he explained that the bishop was coming at short notice and they were going to have an outside Mass with him.  A temporary altar, lecterns and microphones were set up under a canopy.  The pews were taken out of the church and put under the trees.  It was much nicer outside under the trees where it wasn’t so crowded and everyone had a good view.  As before, the choir, dancers and musicians played while we waited for the bishop to arrive.  I was very interested in the musical instruments, which are different from anything I have seen.  There were several local wooden harps of various sizes.  Like modern western harps they have sound boxes and are a similar shape.  They have fewer strings and are all of a portable size ranging from 2 – 4 foot long.  There was a metal shaker for rhythm which was played very expertly.

Mass itself was tri-lingual as the Mass was substituted for two which used different languages.  The languages were Madi, Juba Arabic and English.  This was very good for me, as I was able to understand the readings and the sermon.  It did make a very long Mass though, especially as the sermon was about an hour long.  Everyone sitting near me was very welcoming, shaking my hand and smiling at me. 

After Mass I very rapidly found a boda boda and went back to the orphanage.  Agnes, the matron, had been very worried about me as I had taken so long and was thinking of going to look for me when I arrived. 

After lunch (bean stew and rice) Brenda took me to see the local market, where I exchanged some of my US dollars for local currency and bought some mobile credit.  This was much needed as I had exhausted my first mobile top up card (scratch card) on day one, texting the UK and Sudan to let people know I was safely arrived.  It is going to be easy to exchange money here as there is a supermarket which acts as a bureau de change within minutes of the orphanage.  Scratch cards can be bought everywhere.

The rest of Sunday followed a similar pattern to Saturday.