These Bible College students that I was teaching in Mundri sometimes eat only one meal a day. Two of the students had to bring their whole families to the college because their homes and churches had been burnt to the ground. There are only 16 beds in the college so couples share a single bed and the children sleep on the floor. There are no mosquito nets so the students and families can get very sick. While I was in Mundri, Christians, including the bishop, made huge efforts to have a reconciliation meeting between the Dinka tribe who are cattle owners and the Moru tribe who are farmers to stop the inter tribal attacks and killings. The first meeting was held in the church and the bishop’s speech was broadcast in the news.
Dr Legasse is an Ethiopian with a PhD in Agriculture. He has started a small farm in South Sudan introducing new and better varieties of crops and teaching business, marketing and cooperative skills. I formed a link between both the Bible College and the bishop of Mundri with Dr Legasse. We agreed to start to fund the training of pastors and leaders at Dr Legasse’s farm to help them with community development.
John Mono, the principal, inspecting the fruit farm we funded. This year the pineapples should start production and the fruit trees in another 3 years. We are funding John to get his MA in theology and community development to improve the quality of teaching at the College. We are also giving a little bit of support to another teacher to get his MA in the same subject. Although the referendum went very well the South still faces some very large issues. Many of the present political leaders were commanders in the bush during the war and have now been given great responsibility for large sums of money for which they have not been trained. Security also remains an issue especially with the Northern government around the disputed oil fields. Internally conflict is also happening between the different tribes. The Dinka tribe are cattle people and drive their animals through the land of the farming tribes destroying their livelihood causing great anger. In addition there is a great need for training in community development.
