Green Galore

I got back to Parot last week after a month of R&R. What a delight to see how green and lush everything had become during my absence. Rains have been plentiful, crops are flourishing and we're rejoicing in this answer to prayer.

Here are some pictures of the contrast between the dry season and now:

Dry season view (taken late March) from front of my house towards the Wards' house

Current view towards Wards' house

Dry season view back of house

Current view back of house

Outdoor Kitchen

Yesterday when I went by my friend Adut's house, she was cooking under a tree outside her hut. (By the way, you can see in the photo that we've had rain this past month and crops are growing well. :-)  )

Adut doesn't have a separate cooking hut, she just has one hut. Sometimes she cooks inside, sometimes outside.

The basic equipment Dinka women need for cooking is all very portable: three stones on which to set a pot; a pot or two; a stirring stick; and a mortar and pestle.

Yesterday Adut was making a sauce. She had some pieces of dried sardine simmering to get all nice and mushy. 

She was pounding peanuts in a mortar to make a paste that she would add to the sauce.

She said she was also going to add some chopped up leaves from one of the plants in her garden and some salt.

After making the sauce, Adut would make "kuin" to eat it with. 

Monkey Business

When many people think of Africa, one thing that comes to mind is wild animals. We really don't have many of those where I live, but we do have one kind: monkeys. One morning recently I spotted movement in one of the big trees in my backyard. I realized it was monkeys eating the fruit that the tree produces this time of year--the same fruit that I wrote about kids climbing trees to pick.

I shot some video from my kitchen window looking out at the tree, and then I went outside to be closer. What fun to watch their antics. And a real treat to see a mama with her little one clinging to her belly. After they'd had their fill, they dropped down one by one, scrambled over our fence and scampered off to find their next meal.

Harmful Hands

This billboard in Aweil Town highlights the violence against women that is common and unfortunately all too well accepted in this culture. It is considered normal for a man to beat his wife.

One of the exacerbating factors is alcohol. My village is close to a market town where there are countless bars as well as stores selling beer and other kinds of liquor. Men come home drunk and are quick to become angry and violent with their wives and sometimes their children too.

I’ve become friends with a neighbour whose husband is like this, and there are many others in our village. In addition to physical violence, these men harm their families by drinking away whatever money they have and not providing food and other basic necessities.

Who knows how much good a billboard can do, but I was encouraged to see that this situation is being addressed. What I do know will transform these men is God’s grace giving them a new heart and the power to change. May hands that harm become hands that cherish and protect, comfort and provide.

High Climbers

One of my recent discoveries is that many girls here are amazing tree climbers. I'll be out walking and hear someone greeting me. Sometimes it takes me a few seconds to figure out where the greeting is coming from--up in a tree!

The girls in the tree above were picking a small grape-like fruit. I tried one and didn't think it had much taste, but it's very popular among kids.

Multi-Purpose Hut

A Dinka home usually includes several huts: a sleeping hut or two, a stable, a raised storage hut and a cooking hut. If there's no cooking hut the women often cook in the stable. Sometimes it also serves as an extra bedroom and a workroom.

My friend Anon (pronounced "an-own") has one of these multi-purpose stables. The video below shows the inside of it. Anon is doing some cooking.  Her neighbor Awek is making flour from rice she pounded several times in a big wooden mortar. A few of Anon's children are there, very excited, particularly at the end when their baby goats are being filmed. You'll see a few beds in the stable, as it is also used for sleeping.

One of my favourite things about Dinka huts is the beams on the inside of the roof. The way they are joined together and the pattern they make is quite the work of art. You'll get a glimpse of this in the video.

I don't have a picture of the outside of the hut but it's very similar to the one below.

Clay School

One of the pastimes that Dinka children, particularly boys, enjoy is making small figurines and objects with clay. No plasticine or play dough available, but clay abounds. I've often seen boys making clay cows (cows are the main source of wealth and prestige in Dinka culture). There's a large tree near our radio station under which a group of boys often plays. One day they had a whole battlefield set up, with clay soldiers, tanks, airplanes, guns, etc. Unfortunately I didn't have time that day to take pictures. The other day I did--they were making a model of a teacher training school located nearby.

Overview of the school (which was still a work in progress). The room on the bottom right contains mattresses. Teachers from the area come and stay at this school for one or two week training courses.

Classroom. Those are books on the tables.

Teachers relaxing

Bowls, cups & other dishes in kitchen

Latrines (can't forget that!)

Teacher arriving on a motorcycle