Hopscotch

A local version of hopscotch is quite the rage these days on the Cush Christian School playground. As soon as kids arrive in the morning they're at it until the bell rings for assembly, and for many it's their preferred way to spend recess--they have trouble tearing themselves away from it when the end-of-recess bell sounds! It's mostly girls who play, but a few boys do, too.

Plastic Bags

Most yards in Parot tend to be quite tidy; they are swept regularly by the women and girls of the house. However, there are no "official" places to dump garbage, and many public spaces are littered with a variety of objects, including plastic bottles, cans, glass bottles, paper, and plastic bags.





The plastic bags are easily blown by the wind and end up all over. They are not only an eyesore, but a health hazard for animals that eat them and for humans--rainwater collects on them and becomes a breeding place for mosquitoes.


The plastic bag problem is not unique to my area or to South Sudan. It's a problem in many countries, including the one where I used to live in West Africa.

I was encouraged to read last month on the Radio Tamazuj website that one of the states next to ours, Warrap, has banned the use of plastic bags.

I saw how this kind of legal measure can make a difference when I visited the country of Rwanda a few years ago. There, not only plastic bags are banned, but littering is as well. Rwanda is the cleanest African country I've seen, and it's also cleaner than many Western countries. I didn't see any litter at all when I was there.

Note: The pictures in this post were taken last month during one of the many times when the air was full of dust, which often happens during the first months of the year. The dust makes the sky very hazy.

Cows on the Path

One morning recently while walking to school I came up to some cows who were comfortably settled in on the path ahead of me. Although there are a lot of cows around, I've not seen them lying right on the path like before.

They didn't make any attempt to move as I grew closer, so I walked around them, feeling somewhat uneasy and slightly intimidated about walking amidst them on the path.








I looked behind and saw a group of kids from the school.

Without missing a beat, they came right on ahead on the path, stepping among the cows as if they were used to seeing them there every day--almost as if they weren't even there. (Sorry, I didn't get a picture.) These kids have grown up with cows and are so used to them--unlike city-girl me!

Local Fruit: Tuk

We have quite a few African fan palm trees (Borassus aethiopum) in our village. The Dinka name for this tree is "tuk" (rhymes with "kook").

This kind of palm doesn't produce well-known fruit like coconuts or dates, but it does produce a fruit that is greatly appreciated by folks here, especially children.

The tuk fruit is ripe this time of year and kids at Cush Christian School often bring it to eat before school or at recess.

The fruit is very fibrous and has a large pit in the middle. It eaten by chewing and sucking on the fibres until all the flavour is out of them, then spitting them out.

I haven't tried tuk, partly because it has a strong odour that I find quite unpleasant. The students are not supposed to bring a tuk into the classroom because of this.

If a child has snuck one in and hidden it in his or her desk, the odour gives it away. As soon as I smell it, I'm on the hunt to find it and have it taken out ASAP!