Murle kids in front of a traditional tukul.

Murle kids in front of a traditional tukul.
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

Apparently the weave is so tight that mosquitos can’t get through into the house at night

Murle girl and boy

Murle girl and boy
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

they were pretty shy, took a while to convince them to come and greet me.

Traditional Murle homestead

Traditional Murle homestead
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

Gumuruk town water source

the town water source
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

also a great place to cool off apparently!

Prized Dinka bull.

Prized Dinka bull.
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

This bull is one of a couple hundred cattle that were abducted by Murle from Dinka. The Peace Committee in Gumuruk rounded them up and are holding them to return them to their rightful owners in Bor, once the Peace Committee in Bor reciprocates with cattle that have been stolen from the Murle. Apparently the owner of this bull was killed in the fighting because he held on to the bulls horns and would not let them go, so highly did he prize the bull.

Apparently the grass in Murle is not as good as in Dinka Bor, and so the cattle are not very healthy - quite skinny actually.

Good snake

Good snake
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

… this guy hung out in the roof the whole time I was there. I got up the courage to pet him on my last day… he wasn’t too impressed, but only flicked its tongue at me.

bad snake

bad snake
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

apparently a black mamba. not very friendly. was on Kolbich's bed when they found it. it was dispatched pretty quick by Tabitha and Kolbich

My ride to Gumuruk

My ride to Gumuruk
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

loved the panther on the side. An the russian pilot had Java House coffee for me! I could have hugged him (but didn't).

when we arrived in Gumuruk, the pilot didn't want to stop the engine, so we were dumped rather uncermoniously with all our gear in the middle of the airstrip. He would have had to wait another 20 minutes for the engine to cool down, and didn't want to have to wait. It was a little frantic arrival to say the least.

Nuer girl with clay rooster

Nuer girl with clay rooster
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

there were lots of clay chickens and clay airplanes, which reflects what are important in their lives I guess. No cars or trucks in the area to model.

Murle girl in town

Murle girl in town
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

fiesty little one, she started throwing rocks at me and laughing like it was the funniest thing she has ever seen. She had a bell on her right ankle, when I asked why, I was told its because she is "stubborn".

Murle Grandmother

Murle Grandmother
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

Lekwongole Presbyterian Church

Lekwongole Presbyterian Church
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

Murle grandmother with pipe

Murle grandmother with pipe
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

she asked me for some tobacco, but didn't have any for her.

Plane ride to Lekwongole

Plane ride to Lekwongole
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

everything haphazerdly in the plane, at least I was strapped in!

Murle girl and younger sibling with generational beads

Murle girl and younger sibling with generational beads
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

May 30, 2006
Well, I’m now sitting in Gumuruk hoping and praying that it doesn’t rain in the next three hours and our plane can land. MSF just had a charter land, we asked if we could have a ride back to Loki, but they refused – it is not “procedural” (I found out later they offered someone else a ride… so I guess their policy is flexible if they feel like it). On the whole I’m pretty unimpressed with what I have seen of them here. We tried to interview them – but their staff were pretty arrogant, they said are too busy to spend even a few minutes and talk to us about their experience here, even when we offered to come in the evening they refused, that they prefer to rest and not visit. This in spite of the fact that the community says that they are here only because Pact paved the way and helped to create the stability and peace that enables them to operate. The community is pretty frustrated with them too, even through they are providing vital live-saving services, they would prefer another organization that is more “friendly” and less what they call “greedy” be here – in fact they almost kicked them out a few months ago over an incident, but the Pact person here, Kolbich, convinced the community to let them stay until another organization can come and offer the same services.

Ok, enough of a rant about MSF. But I have to say, if they would collaborate a bit more, it would vastly reduce the expenses of operating in S. Sudan. If every organization charters their own flight, then what a waste of resources – fortunately, other organizations are willing to share their charters – COOPI in Lekwongole was much more willing to share with us – they really went out of their way to give us a hand when we were stranded because our flight didn’t come. But, because MSF refused to let us fly today, another plane has to divert its course and come and pick us up – costing more money and fuel – if it doesn’t rain that is!

Other than the frustration with MSF, our time here in Gumuruk has been great. We are staying at the compound of the Peace Committee, which Pact supported to start – I have set up my tent in the tukul they provided because the first day a black mamba was found in Kolbich’s tukul… it was quickly disposed of. There is another snake, a harmless one, that hangs out in the roof of the cooking rakuba next to me. Its been there for the whole time we’ve been here, just shifts position once in a while. We had good meetings, the community has been really appreciative of the programs that Pact ran here and have gone out of their way to take care of us. Unfortunatly we can’t make it some of the other towns that were on our agenda because the road is so bad. Apparently it takes two days to walk to Pibor town, which is only about 31 km away, because there is so much water and the river crossings are so bad. The community here is quite organized and now that that there is peace and stability they have some big dreams and ideas for their community – and I think in a couple of years this place will be very different. The two huge needs here are water – everyone uses a swampy pond for their water – fortunately I brought enough bottled water to last if we fly out today – and education. I have had so many requests for sponsorship – the thirst for education is huge and there are so few opportunities. The only school here is run by the Presbyterian church, one of the members, Peter Mama, who is physically disabled but has had a bit of education, runs classes for the child soldiers (there are many, they have not yet been released, I keep asking about when they will be sent home, but I haven’t gotten a clear answer), plus for the other kids in the community. He also has adult literacy courses. All the little girls I have met don’t go to school.

Murle culture is fascinating. Everyone wears beads that indicate what generation they are part of. I am of the Titi generation, which is divided into Zigri – the color of the donkey – and Kuruma, which is a wild dog. I’m Zigri apparently, unless I get married, then I become part of the generation of my husband. Speaking of which, I had an offer Dad, I'm worth quite a number of cattle to you did you know? I turned him down, didn't want to be wife number five.

Cattle are really very important, Kolbich was telling me that different colored bulls belong to different people in the family, he owns all the black bulls in his family. If his sister marries someone with black bulls, they then belongs to him. Apparently they decorate their bulls with beads, elephant tusks etc. Unfortunately, all the cattle (with the exception of some cattle that were raided from the Dinka and have been collected by the peace committee to return them to their rightful owners) are in the grazing lands still, so I have not been able to see the Murle cattle.

Apparently, the Murle worshipped a goddess named Nyandit, who actually was a Nuer woman who moved to Murle land. There is some connection between her and goats (have not figured it out) and so goats are sacred here. Apparently there was a Christian convert named Logocho who rounded up all the goats years ago and made those who worship Nyandit very angry – Kolbich sang us a song about the story which I videoed, I’ll see if I can put it on my Blogg as its pretty funny.

Blogg May 24, 2006

Well, I’m still in Lekwongole. We were suppose to fly out on Tuesday at noon, but the plane didn’t come by until 3pm, and of course, it started to rain at 2pm… the plane didn’t even circle, just flew off. So then we were told that we were on an OLS flight today, but no luck it seems, now they are saying nothing until Saturday. It’s pretty frustrating as we were suppose to visit 4 towns, and have only been to one.

Have had some good meetings, but the usual frustrations, poor organization on the ground and even worse communication. Found out that a group of youth waited for us from 2:30 until 4 yesterday, of course I found out at 4:30, and when I rushed there, they had gone. Such is the way of things here, I feel bad that I wasted their time.

The rains are bringing out the snakes and the scorpions… Tom, from Uganda had a snake in his tukul when he woke up yesterday… gave him a pretty good scare, and two others have had scorpion stings. I have to dump out my boots before I put them on, and make sure my tent is tightly sealed always.

Yesterday we visited a village of Nuer who have been displaced here into Murle-land. They told us the story of their displacement. Apparently they had a spiritual leader, a prophet, who they were following, but then a militia group, who wanted to capture their spiritual leader, attacked them. They resisted and he was killed, and they escaped to Murle-land. When they arrived here, the Murle attacked them first, but when they didn’t fight back, the Murle disarmed them, took some of their girls and let them settle in the area. The girls were returned later, and some of them have married Murle. The community is pretty poor compared to their neighbors; they have no cattle (which is difficult for Nuer!) COOPI has provided them with some chickens, which are thriving well, and some seeds and tools, so they are becoming agriculturalists. But life is quite a struggle. But the children seem relatively healthy, if somewhat slim. None of the children go to the school in the town, but they say they plan to soon.

I have to admit, I’m getting frustrated with the daily changing travel plans, and have to keep reminding myself, this is normal, and I just have to do what I can while I can.

I am looking into walking to Pibor, which is about 35 km away, but I’m a bit concerned about my co-worker James, he’s not very used to field work it seems and our little foray to the village yesterday (we did have to cross two streams with water mid-thigh) did him in and he has not been feeling well since then. I don’t think he could handle a long walk with all our gear. But we need to get to the other towns if we are to get an accurate picture of the situation.

Lekwongole, Pibor County.

Well, we made it here! But now it looks like we may not get out. After a rather crazy plane ride (we almost landed on the drop zone which the pilot confused with the landing strip) we arrived to the heat of Lekwongole. I found out that a good friend from Khartoum, Rebecca, was based here in 2003/2004 with Medair, until she was evacuated in 2004. It is a small world indeed. We are staying at the compound of an organization called COOPI, and there is a team of Kenyans, Ugandans and Sudanese working on agriculture, water and sanitation.

Pact gave me a tent, but when I tried to set it up, found that it has no fly! Fortunately COOPI had an extra one – especially as there was a huge rain storm our first night here – Lekwongole has turned into one huge mud pit – they also lent me rubber boots and so I’m keeping relatively dry. Now, if I could do something about the flies I’d be content.

Went to the local AIC church on Sunday morning, this is the church my parents worked within Kenya, so it was interesting to attend here – of course was in Murle, so didn’t understand much, but the singing and dancing was very lively! Met with the local administrators and the chiefs in the afternoon (in between rain showers) and then tried to drain the water from around my tent. Today (Tuesday) we have a whole slate of meetings with youth, women and the local peace committee. We are going to walk to one of the villages in the afternoon.

The Murle are interesting people, related to the Kalengin (I grew up in Kalengin area in Kenya) of Kenya, they are mainly pastoralist, but do some agriculture. They are a small group, but many were displaced in neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The young people in particular speak good English learnt in the refugee camps. Many are coming back to the area. However, the traditional way of life is still quite strong. People still dress quite traditionally; many of the kids wear only beads, or nothing. I’ve been told that unlike some of the other groups (the Nuer to the north for example) the traditional respect for elders is still pretty strong, and that the “age mate” or generational groups are also strong. This is key in the peace work, as it is predominantly the youth who are continuing to do the cattle raiding between the tribes, and possibly the ones will resist the disarmament exercise that should happen in the next little while. The Chiefs have all agreed to comply with the disarmament process, but the key is whether the youth will obey them and indeed give up their arms. The Murle have been given a pretty bad rap by their neighbours, of being very fierce, and also have a reputation for abducting children, who are then adopted into the community. They admit that this has happened, but mainly in the past. On the whole they have proved to be extremely friendly and welcoming, and eager to talk about the peace process and their appreciation of what Pact has done in the community to help them re-establish relations with their neighboring tribes.

Things shut down when it rains here – we have been told that the road is impassable between here and Pibor town, our next stop which is just about 34 km away, and that there is a stream (Lilibok) that probably won’t go down for a couple of weeks. We have arranged for a vehicle to come up from Pibor and meet us on the other side of Lilibok tomorrow, and team here will take us to it by motorbike… however they are saying its chest deep, so not sure if that is an option – not sure I want to lug my laptop and camera across a river. It also rained in Pibor this morning, so I’m thinking that the road between Pibor and the river is going to be pretty bad, if its anything like up here. So we are effectively cut off by road, our options may be to walk or to fly – if the landing strip dries.

Funny thing here, when you ask people how far something is, they tell you in terms of flying time, not road – that is how non-existent roads are in S. Sudan. You really have to be able to afford to fly, or walk.

But, unbelievable, there is Internet access (minimal, can’t send files, so no pictures – although I have some fantastic ones), and I’m relatively dry, and its quite cool. When it rains we all sit around in the eating tukul and discuss politics. The atmosphere reminds me a bit of treeplanting days.

kids in Loki

kids in Loki
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

Mumkin boukra, inshallah…
(possibly tomorrow, if God wills).

Got up bright and early this morning to a beautiful blue sky, and assumed we were flying, but then at about 9 am was told that the charter we were on was suppose to fly to Ayod (and drop us off in Lekwongole en route). But someone told the charter company that Ayod is now level 4 security risk, so the whole flight is off.

So we are booked on a 748 flight tomorrow, lets hope the weather holds!

For the security conscious, where I’m going is level 2 (normal for Sudan) which I’m told is same as Loki. I’m told that Nairobi should be considered level 3… its all so arbitrary really. But, having said all that, Ayod is very close to where the fighting between the white army and the spla is happening, so I’m not surprised – yesterday there was some pretty heavy fighting.

I am getting lots of reading done. Good recent books on Africa:
Tropical Fish (by Doreen Baingana)– Story of three young Ugandan girls growing up in Entebbe Uganda and the directions their lives take.

Purple Hibiscus (by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)– this is a story about a young girl growing up in post-colonial Nigeria to a very restrictive and abusive catholic father.

The Devil that Danced on Water (by Aminatta Forna)– a biography about Mohammed Forna, Finance Minister of Sierra Leone, who was hanged on false charges, by his daughter, fascinating story about the early years of carnage in Sierra Leone through the eyes of a young biracial girl.

I’ve leant my copy of Acts of Faith to Martin, who says its pretty interesting take on the south Sudan war… he would know as he used to work for 748 Air Services. I thought I’d read it when I finish my contract so that it doesn’t color my views right now.

Discussing Nuer issues.JPG

Discussing Nuer issues

Rev. Both, James Both Gadet and Koang Puk (Akobo CDO) discussing situation in Upper Nile.

turkana kid.JPG

turkana kid
Originally uploaded by joodmc.

Kid hanging out at the Acha camp gate.

Well, its looking rather unlikely that we will get out today... dark skies and reports of flights not being able to land in Sudan.

So, I'm trying out my new camera... pictures of Loki... not very exciting.


Anyone who has ever been here will tell you its a pretty bizarre place... at least I can find good coffee at 748 Air services!

So, some views of around the office and where I'm staying, ACHA and some of the very patient Pact staff trying to get me on a flight outta here. I havn't figured out how to put comments next to the pictures...

Well, I've finally done it, set up a blog.

I'm stuck in Lokichogio, northern Kenya, trying to get into Upper Nile, southern Sudan. I was originally suppose to go to Ayod to do an evaluation of the Duk Triangle peace initiative (covering Nyirol, Duk, and Uror Counties), but this was changed due to confrontations between the Sudan army and the "white army" (armed civilians) who are not appreciating the way that they are being "disarmed". The fighting between the two forces has resulted in loss of almost half of the white army's livestock as well as loss of hundreds of human lives.

So, they thought it best I don't go up there, might not be the best time to do "monitoring and evaluation" of the peace processes in that area.

So then I was re-directed to evaluate some of the Murle peace processes in Pibor county (both Murle-Murle as well as Murle with other ethnic groups in the area) - see the map of Pibor County.

I flew up from Nairobi on Sunday, and have been waiting for a flight to either Lekawngole or Pibor. The team here has been wonderful trying all kinds of options... problem is the airstrip in Pibor is under water and there arn't regular flights to Lekawngole. I'm not even trying to think about getting out when the evaluation is done!

Inshallah will leave tomorrow.