Life in Torit continues....

Life here is very different from back home as you will have picked up from earlier postings on my blog.  In contrast to the weather in Bedford at the moment it is the dry season and it is hot about 35 degrees (apparently it is also 35 degrees at home “Fahrenheit”!).  This is due to rise possibly to 40 degrees in January, February and March.

The biggest difference here is the lack of infrastructure - the roads are appalling with only 150K of tarmac roads in the country. The natural resources are numerous but the difficulty is farming the land and getting the produce, oil and minerals out. The good news is that a contract has been signed to build a tarmac road from Juba through Torit and Kapoeta to the Kenyan border.  Hopefully the construction will start in January 2013 and will be completed within 2 years.  The cost of building a road here is something like $2.5 million per kilometer.

The honeymoon period for the new government is over with many complaints about the lack of progress.  Currently there is an austerity programme because oil production ceased due to the conflict on the north / south border and has yet to restart.   The result is very much more restrictive on spending than at home.  Teachers and other public servants often don't get paid and often there isn't money for fuel for ministry vehicles!

On the positive side the people are very friendly to visitors if not to each other! Tribal rivalries and cattle rustling are very common.  Things we take for granted like the NHS and pensions etc. are very poor.  Death and illness occur frequently and have a big impact on the workplace (I didn't stay positive very long!).  Absenteeism often for legitimate reasons really affects continuity at work.

My job is to advise, support and capacity build in the Eastern Equatoria State Ministry of Education.  I’m a counterpart to the 5 Education Directors.  It has been slow progress, building relationships and trust.  Capacity is low and often the targets set by central government are overambitious.  The work I've been doing on strategic planning, statistical analysis and job descriptions will lead on to revising the State Strategic Plan and putting a Performance Management System in place.  

I’ve recently been to Juba on two occasions, firstly to support the new group of VSO volunteers on their In-country training and then to attend a UNESCO Conference on strategic planning, and statistical analysis and target settings.  The two journeys were a complete contrast. The first was by road taking 3 and half hours to get there and just 3 to get back via Magwi, a town to the south, the roads are much narrow but in better condition.  The second was by UN helicopter, just 45 minutes each way.  Juba is developing at rapid rate with new buildings springing up everywhere including a new terminal at the airport.  The traffic in Juba is chaotic, reminiscent of Delhi.  The way we get around is by motorbike taxi (boda boda).  VSO volunteers are very recognizable with their white crash helmets (very Stiglike!). The first trip was my first ride on a motorbike for over 40 years!

The UNESCO Conference was a bit disappointing but the food was very good!  I had my counterpart from Western Equatoria, Keith with me at the conference and we stayed together at the same accommodation, Sunrise.  Keith and I had much in common to talk about, education, football and walking!  

South Sudan is introducing an Ofsted style inspection system for schools.  This is a very ambitious undertaking and having seen a copy of the draft criteria it is difficult to see how many schools will be rated much higher than inadequate.

Other happenings / highlights from Torit:

On 30 October we attended a meeting with the UN Assistant Deputy Secretary General for South Sudan, the top man here.  It was an energizing meeting, just what is needed here in Torit.

Prior to the VSO In-country training I spent the weekend at Acacia Village, thanks to a kind invitation by Alan, one of our British Police Advisers working here.  I stayed in real luxury (relative I know!) in a lovely cottage style room with 24 hour power and aircon, TV, a comfortable bed and warm clean water to shower in.  The only downside was watching Man City beating Spurs whilst lying in bed!

The helicopter flight to and from Juba was great.  We followed the Juba – Torit Road, there are some photos below.

Food at Curry and Hurry and local Ethiopian restaurants in Juba, we also went to Juba University Film Festival and saw a British film called “Submarine”.  We had a pleasant evening sitting in a field watching the film.

World Aids Day was commemorated in Torit on Saturday 1 December with a big parade and speeches at Freedom Square football pitch.

Also on Saturday 1 December we went the UN Christmas Party at the UN Base.  There was one Christmas decoration and I didn’t feel very Christmassy!  However, the BBQ and the company was great with about 200 guests.

Some photos

Torit to Juba and back by air

Torit airstrip

Birds on the airstrip for Dave

Adventure in Magwi County

Recently I went with the Ministry Team to undertake an “Assessment” of schools in Magwi County.  Magwi is 36 miles southwest and a 2 hour journey from Torit.  After the humdrum life of Torit this was quite an adventure.  The Assessment was led by the State Minister of Education both he and the Director General were very supportive as we were camping in tents mostly at school sites and sometimes sleeping without mattresses. It was quite an expedition with four vehicles and over 20 Ministry staff including cooks.   

Even though South Sudan does have an education database, the purpose of the visits to schools was to establish baseline data for Eastern Equatoria.  Issues include teachers being on the payroll and not turning up for work, many teachers are not qualified and at least half are volunteers who are not paid at all. Basic and accurate information is needed on the nature of school buildings, toilets, access to water, whether food is provided and if the school has a PTA.  All schools are supposed to have a PTA which in some ways operates like a school governing body.  Although education here is free, the state pays the teachers’ salaries, all schools should collect 15SSP per term per child from the parents, this pays for yearly examinations, school development and proportion goes to the County Education Office to support administration and the remainder is spent at the discretion of the PTA.  The good buildings are often provided by donors.  Sometimes a community will set up a school with whatever funds it has.

Some schools

The journey took us southeast from Magwi to Obbo, through the foothills of the moutains past Palwar and onto Labone, which incidentally used to be in Uganda. The climate in this region is much cooler due to being so close to the mountains and no mosquitoes!  The roads were shocking, often just a narrow track.  The drivers were fantastic, I’m not sure how they kept the cars on the road at times.  Driving on mud is pretty much like driving on snow and ice.  I will never moan about potholes in Bedford again!  We had to go into Uganda as there were some broken bridges on the South Sudan side before coming back into South Sudan.

Some views from school playgrounds

We were joined on our trip by two local MPs of the State Assembly.  One of them brought me back to Torit.  On the way we stayed over in his home village of Obbo and I attended the last day of a wake for an elderly relative of his.  We went right out in the “bush” as it is called.  There were about 50 people including children, sitting around three fires quietly drinking local coffee and eating breakfast.  It was a special experience, very calm and tranquil in a fertile agricultural setting.  The three of us who were guests had to address the gathering. The third guest, a friend then had to act as chairperson to both families as they made a settlement following the death.  When a married female dies her family have to agree compensation with the husband’s family.  The female in South Sudanese society has no legal rights to her husband’s assets.  Upon his death, all his assets pass to his most senior male family relative.

The roads in South Sudan and Uganda

Recent highlights include drinking Spanish Red Temparanillo one evening under the porch of a school building (very surreal), the fantastic night sky in Magwi (not quite as good as Sri Lanka but nearly), views of the mountains, sleeping with an AK47 rifle in the room (never done that before!), witnessing the slaughter of a goat at the wake, drinking ground coffee in the bush (fantastic!), the Minister of Education receiving chickens from a school, breakfast by the Nile in Juba and a royal python on the road from Juba to Torit.

Assorted other pictures

For Peter

Contrasts

We have been in Torit now for nearly 5 weeks.  The weather was very hot and dry for a few days giving us a taste of what is to come in the dry season but it is cooler again now.  We are settling into a bit more of a routine now. Working from about 08.45 until 13.00, then having lunch and returning to the office from 14.00 to 17.00.  There isn’t any power or Internet access available over the lunchtime period.  It looks as if we will have to stay in the guest house (see below) for the immediate future although basic when compared with home, it has water and electricity from 18.00 until 23.00 most evenings. 

Eastern Equatoria State Guesthouse

Torit Meeting Point (where we eat)

I’ve been mainly office based in the State Ministry of Education, my role is to provide advice on anything from leadership, management and planning to teacher training, HR and finance systems. The work I’ve done to date has mainly centred on planning and advising on job descriptions.  I made one school visit last week (see below).  The schools fall into 3 main categories, government, community or private.  This is a very new government school, only established in February this year and currently has 610 children on role in the main school and 110 in the pre-school.  The school has a number of challenges including not having enough classrooms for all the children, insufficient desks and textbooks, teachers not turning up to work, not being able to retain pupils until the end of their primary education particularly girls, the community using the toilet and water resources during the day, no electricity or boundary fence.   Sometimes there isn’t even chalk to write on the blackboard.  Teachers often have to go into the market to buy the chalk!  There is very little funding made available to the schools other than for teachers’ salaries.  Funding is generally very limited due to the austerity measures imposed by the government due to the cessation of oil exports.  Parents are able to make a small termly contribution to their children’s schools education.  Children start primary school aged 6 (Primary 1) and finish in Primary 8. Pre-school children come aged 3 years.  The system works in a similar way to the grade system in the USA with children promoted or held back at the end of the school year depending on whether or not they pass their end of year exams in November.  If a child is promoted each year they finish their primary education aged 13 years.

Dumak Primary School, Torit

We had the opportunity last Saturday to visit the new hotel that is being built in Torit.  This just gives a picture of what the future might hold.  The hotel is a short drive from where the locals get their water either from the river or from boreholes.

The old and the new

This week’s personal highlights include showering with a frog which then spent time in my room, finding a huge moth in the loo, seeing newly born kittens (minutes old) and seeing the spider below which incidentally is harmless believe it or not!  Monday was announced as a bank holiday as the Speaker of the National Assembly came to visit the town and speak to State Ministers and senior officers.  The photograph shows school children going to greet him.

School children at the Speaker’s visit

Some local wildlife