Week One

Today is Friday June 2 and that ends my first full week in South Sudan. School was as enjoyable as I was hoping! Cush Christian School is divided into morning and afternoon sessions. The younger students come in the morning and the older students in the afternoon – though there are many older students who work in the morning as junior teachers or teacher helpers. The school uses the Accelerated Christian Education program for grades 2-6. First grade is spread over three years.  The first year is Dinka Literacy which is taught by local Dinka teachers. Students learn to read in Dinka as well as acclimate to the school culture and schedule. The second year of first grade is oral English. This is the class I am helping with in the mornings. The class has about 25-30 students and is split into three groups. The lead teacher is a Dinka man and the other two groups are led by junior teachers – two bright teenage girls named Akuem and Abop. The last year of first grade is spent learning to read English.

Myra is helping in this class to coach the two junior teachers who are slowly taking over leadership of the class. Second grade students also meet in the morning. The two second grade classes are led by junior teachers with the assistance of a few teacher helpers.

In the afternoon, Myra helps with third grade and I help with grades 4-6. The students are using a self-paced, self-taught curriculum, so we answer questions and grade tests. My afternoon students are such a joy to talk with. At lunch, we were talking about the practice of giving cows to a woman’s father for a dowry. They told me I would be worth 300-1,000 cows. Since most bride prices are between 30-50 cows, this was a high compliment. When I told them that we didn’t pay cows to get married in America, a lot of them boldly proclaimed that they must go to America to get a wife. One of them even wanted to marry my sister!

In the evening, we went to Joseph and Carol’s for dinner. Joseph runs the radio station, and he and Carol got married this Spring. We had a delicious dinner of rice, stew, and mendazi – a Kenyan doughnut. Right as we were leaving for the five minute drive back home, the rain started. It was pouring so hard we couldn’t see the road. When we made it back home, the rain on our tin roof was deafening. We had to stand next to each other and shout to make ourselves heard. The cool temperature the rains brought were so refreshing that I went to sleep in a long sleeve shirt.

Dinka words from this week

Ciibak – a greeting

En a pual – I am well

Baai – home

C is pronounced like English Ch