I arrive in South Sudan

After a very difficult few months in the UK trying to go back to Sudan independently and failing to get a visa, I was back to the drawing board.  After a search on the internet, and several enquiries to educational charities working in South Sudan, I received an email out of the blue from a South Sudanese pastor called Samuel Juma, currently living in the US, who has founded a US based charity called Fulaa Lifeline International to support an orphanage and school in his home town of Nimule in South Sudan.  He was very eager for me to go as soon as possible and pulled out all the stops to get my visa processed quickly and efficiently.  The day-to-day running of the school is done by his brother, a pastor called John Juma, aka Juma John and another pastor called Richard.  I arrived at Juba Airport on 20^th September.  

It was sunny with light clouds and very humid.  The airport is very small and the visa and passport sections are in the same place as the baggage area.  People can walk in casually. A man with an ID badge came up to me as I was queuing to show my passport and hand in my entry form.  He said he would get my baggage for me while I queued.  Possibly rather trustingly (my mind was asleep after the flight) I said ‘yes please’ and off he went.  I spent the next ten minutes having severe misgivings and worrying that he could have been an opportunist thief from the outside street and I would never see my luggage again.  Thankfully my fears were misplaced and he came back complete with luggage within ten minutes. 

Then, also while I was standing in the queue, a very smartly dressed man came up to me, bearing a piece of paper with my name on it.  He turned out to be Juma John, the director of the orphanage.  As soon as I had finished queuing, we took all my baggage and headed for the car, a taxi from Nimule.  My first impressions of Juba were of a town very like those I had seen in the north, the only difference being an absence of rickshaws and donkeys and that the signs were in English.  Also, nobody was wearing Islamic dress.  We passed a market very reminiscent of the market in Atbara.  We stopped briefly to buy me a SIM card, some credit and a few bottles of water. 

The road from Juba to Nimule is tarmacked and largely empty, so we had no hold-ups.  The road is used by large lorries bringing goods from Uganda.  Every so often we would pass one of these lorries overturned by the road, or the wreck of crashed and burnt out cars.  Juma told me that there are buses from Uganda which it is possible to take to Juba but that all transport stops after 6pm because of the risk of bandits. I saw frequent villages with traditional African round thatched huts beside the road and occasional small buildings with corrugated iron roofs.  The landscape looked very natural, with low trees and long grasses.  Although it looked uncultivated, this is clearly not the case as people subsist on the land.  Again there were no donkeys, but plenty of goats, often in the middle of the road.  The road was slightly elevated so that there were excellent views much of the way, with mountains in the distance. 

Village huts next to the road

Towards the end of the journey, the road went through the Nimule National Park.  The only real difference I could see to the rest of the countryside was the absence of villages.  According to my internet research, a herd of 100 elephants migrate between this park and Uganda.  I look forward to seeing them.  To our left was a range of mountains which forms a border with Uganda.  The road went up into the mountains and then I saw Nimule for the first time.  It is on the lower slopes with views of the Nile.

We arrived and I met a bewildering number of people both adult and child.  It will take me ages to sort them all out.  I also met the outgoing volunteer teacher, Brenda, and her two teenage children, who she has been home educating while here.  They leave in October, so I will get time to have a handover with her.

A lot of trouble had been taken to make western volunteers comfortable.  I have the luxury of my own room with a key.  There are lovely views for miles around as we are on the slopes of the mountain above the town.  There is an electric point in the room which is operational for a few hours when the generator runs at night.  Clothes hangers are provided along with toilet tissue.  They have even provided a new pair of flip flops and a basin and soap for my own use.  A mosquito net and bedding were also set up ready for me. 

We had supper in the staff dining room.  This was my first South Sudanese meal.  It was very good.  The staple is a type of mash made from sweetcorn flour (maize) called posha.  The other dishes were fish and chicken drumsticks and fried sliced potato. 

View of the school from the children's home

Water is pumped a from a bore hole a short distance from the building.  When I want to shower I take my basin to the pump to get water, then carry it to the shower room, so I can douche myself.  The toilet is next door to the shower.  Again water must be carried into the toilet to flush it.  The water is drunk as it is by the locals, but Juma warned that I might need to buy bottled water.  To save on expense I am using my purification tablets.  Hopefully I will acclimatise gradually and no longer need them after a while.

After supper I had a shower before going to bed early, exhausted after the long journey from London.  I was warned that the evening service in the on-site church would be very noisy and keep me awake, but in fact I slept well, only waking briefly in need of a drink of water, which I had close to hand.