Is it S.Sudan or is it Haiti?

In some ways, South Sudan and Haiti are alike. Towns are dusty, filled with small shops and open-air kiosks selling everything from cooking oil to fresh goat meat. In both countries women balance heavy loads on their head. In both countries significant portions of the population have been displaced by war or natural disaster. In both countries females are severely disadvantaged in terms of education. In both countries the majority of the people live in extreme poverty (less than $1.25/day).

Yet there are clear differences, too.  In Haiti, work seems shared almost equally between men and women, whereas in S.Sudan it falls almost entirely on women. In Haiti, there is a functioning (albeit minimal) infastructure: there are paved roads, bridges, cell phone networks. There is electricity for those who can afford it. There are schools with trained teachers. Very little of that exists yet in South Sudan.  Some day. Some day.

PS:  This picture was taken in Haiti last month.

Global connections

QUESTION:  What do YOU have in common with 22 people in India, 16 in Ukraine, 482 in the US, 6 in Romania and 36 others around the globe?

OK, here's a hint: it has something to do with Mercy Beyond Borders....

ANSWER:  All 562 of you clicked on and read last week's MBB blog. That's right. In fact, you might have been reading it at the very moment a supporter in Italy or Australia or Canada or Germany was doing the same.  Somehow that's a wonderful possibility--that individuals so disparate in geography and culture can all come together through their shared concern for displaced women and girls. It's a whole new world!

Rebuilding South Sudan

Students in Marial Bai build a new fence.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SOUTH SUDAN:  July 9th marked the 1-year anniversary of independence for the country of South Sudan.  A week earlier the US celebrated its 236th birthday, and I couldn't help but wonder what South Sudan will be like after 235 more years....For now, along with the hope and joy that independence brought, there is still considerable struggle.  Inflation rages. Border bombings from the North claim lives. Tribal differences flare into violence.  Trained teachers, doctors and other professionals are few and far between.  Nevertheless, the people sing and rebuild.  Here we see the students at Valentino Achak Deng Secondary School--where Mercy Beyond Borders supports 10 girls on full scholarship--hefting heavy logs to build a fence for the school.  Everyone pitches in. After all, they're building a new country from scratch!

Home Sweet Home in Haiti

This is a typical Haitian home in the rural northern region of Gros Morne. It's common for 5 or 6 persons to share a one room dwelling. Some families own the land and cultivate corn, bananas, watermelon, peppers, squash and mangoes. Others work on larger farms. There is usually sufficient rain, but water conservation is minimal and erosion is a huge problem, made worse by the deforestation during the Duvaliers' dictatorship era. In these mountains, elementary schools often have only a half dozen students per grade level and the teachers are not well-qualified. The students, however, seem eager to learn--and the 6th grade girls each year are now eagerly vying for MBB scholarships.

A long way to school

Several of the Haitian young women on MBB scholarship walk 3 hours or more each way from their homes in the mountains to reach the town of Gros Morne, where they attend school.  En route, they climb up and down the steep mountains in the predawn darkness and wade across several rivers on foot. And they have to get to school by 7:00a.m.!

Because of such hardships, MBB has decided to lease a home in town that can be transformed into a boarding place for the girls who live at a distance and have no relatives to stay with in town. These girls deserve a safe place with time for study...

Summer internship

Mercyhurst University (Erie, PA) undergrad Caitlin Handerhan, left,  pauses while hiking in the mountains of Haiti for a photo with Sr Marilyn. Both spent 8 days in Gros Morne, Haiti, visiting the homes of the Mercy Beyond Borders' scholarship women during June as part of Caitlin's 3-wk internship with Mercy Beyond Borders.  MBB will add 34 more young women to its scholarship rolls in the Gros Morne region later this summer.

Chicago hosts MBB Founder

The founder and exec director of Mercy Beyond Borders, Marilyn Lacey, RSM (left), gave the undergrad commencement address at St Xavier University in Chicago on May 13th, receiving her 3rd honorary doctorate in the process.  She urged the new grads to translate their passion into compassion and to use their talents for making the world a more welcoming place for strangers.

Marilyn is pictured here with University President Christine Wiseman. This was Marilyn's 3rd commencement speech since founding MBB; she says it's an excellent way to awaken young adult audiences to the mission of MBB. 

That's gotta hurt...

Guinea worm, an incredibly painful water-borne parasite that grows inside the human body and then exits through a skin lesion, has been eradicated everywhere in the world except in S.Sudan. Once the worm begins to extrude from the skin, the caregiver must gently twirl it around a stick without breaking it until it has completely emerged. The process can take 3 days and is always accompanied by extreme pain.  Here a stoic Sudanese endures without flinching as Sr Angela eases the worm out.

On the Road

There is some truth to the ol' "Flying Nun" image: over the past 6 months I have visited South Sudan and Haiti, and represented Mercy Beyond Borders by giving numerous presentations in Canada, Australia and throughout the United States: Illinois,  Georgia, Pennsylvania, California, Kentucky and Indiana, to name a few!  Always in the hope of raising awareness about our Mercy Beyond Borders mission and of raising funds where feasible. Each audience is unique. One day it's hundreds of healthcare execs and the next day it's a parish book club.  Sometimes it's a university commencement speech in front of thousands, and sometimes it's a girls' leadership club comprised of a few dozen 4th and 5th graders in an elementary school.  It's all good!  Though I am still waiting for Oprah to call (apparently she doesn't yet realize she needs to meet me!), I am always energized by the willingness of listeners to become involved in our work.  In this pix I am speaking to 450 high school teachers and administrators in Melbourne; and as you read this I am  meeting our young MBB Scholars in Haiti....

Almost Stranded High and Dry

If Sr Edvine, Principal of St Bakhita School ever writes a memoir it would read like an adventure novel:

--Murder on the school grounds: yes, an intruder was shot to death attempting to steal the school’s goats;

--Marooned by floods: yes, when the river between the school and the diocesan compound rises during the rainy season, she cannot get home at night and has to sleep at the school; and

--Stranded in the desert:  As you can see in this photo, the vehicle Edvine was using to visit scholarship girls in another town became hopelessly stuck in the shifting sands of a dry wadi (riverbed).  She and the driver spent hours in the punishing heat attempting to free the car. 

What a pioneer!  Despite all the drama in her life, 3 of her students placed in the top 5 among all 8^th grade students in the first-ever statewide exams in South Sudan.  

Net loss?

Officials at the World Health Org would cringe to see this picture: a mosquito net being used by an enterprising young boy in the dusty outskirts of Narus, South Sudan, for his soccer game. One can only hope that at sundown the net will be reinstated over the child’s bed to fend off malaria. 

This Little Light of Mine

In Haiti we’ve discovered an unfortunate correlation between the distance a student must walk to get to school and her marks in the classroom: the greater the distance, the lower the marks. Some of the MBB scholarship recipients in Gros Morne, Haiti, walk several hours to and from school each day. By the time they reach home and finish their domestic chores, daylight is gone. Lacking electricity, the girls could not study.   MBB recently delivered solar lamps to each of the scholars so that now they have a decent chance to do well in school.  Here a grateful MBB Scholar poses for a photo holding her lamps.  

One Precious Life

These days there isn’t too much to smile about in S.Sudan. Its neighbor to the north (Khartoum) is once again sending Antonov planes to drop bombs on South Sudan villages.  President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum has warned that the people of South Sudanese are “vermin who don’t deserve to live.”  Free translation: “We need to destroy the South Sudanese living on the oil-rich land that I want.” 
But this precious young child is smiling as she leaves Mapuordit Hospital, cured of malaria.  And for the moment, that is news good enough for her Mother.

And the winner is.....

Mercy Beyond Borders is now 4 years young!  And we've just reached another milestone as well: our one-millionth dollar donated since the day we were born!  Thanks to you, our generous supporters, we hit that mark this past month.  The donation that tipped us over the top was $100 from Marie Ziobro in Baltimore.  We'll be sending Marie an MBB coffee mug as our tiny way of saying THANK YOU.  We only wish we could do the same for ALL of you!

Healing or Harm?

During March and April the government of Sudan (Khartoum) resumed its deadly aerial bombing into South Sudanese territory, further destabilizing the fragile new nation.  Bombs have targeted UN offices and also hit civilian villages.

South Sudan, in response, moved troops to the shared border and briefly captured a town inside Sudan, later withdrawing at the behest of the UN.  Both sides claim the oil fields in the poorly demarcated border areas.

Now there are rallies and urgent campaigns throughout South Sudan to recruit youth into the military to "defend the homeland."  South Sudan has also instituted austerity measures that cut funding for education and healthcare in order to conserve resources for the conflict many fear is now inevitable.   Whether South Sudan heads for healing (symbolized by the MBB pre-nursing interns bringing polio vaccinations to this remote village) or for harm (a return to the days when every male carried an AK-47), no one knows.

Paradise, anyone?

Volunteer Sylvie ponders whether Paradise Lodge in Rumbek (the 3rd largest town in South Sudan) might be a good choice for her next vacation. Let's see: it's within walking distance of the open market and the local prison; it is located on a tree-lined street; it probably isn't too expensive.... It has a restaurant and bar... but probably no running water or colorful postcards to send home saying, "Wish YOU were here, too."  Best of all, it's guaranteed, like every place in South Sudan, to have wonderful, welcoming people. And that's the truth!

Isn't she lovely?

I snapped this photo back in 1998 in Kakuma Refugee Camp--a barren, dusty corner of northern Kenya desert that was the artificial home for 82,000 refugees.  On this particular day a small dark cloud swept across the sky, bringing a sudden welcome downpour.  Everyone ran out from their mud-and-thatch huts, lifted their faces to this gift from the heavens, and began dancing in the rain.

This young girl, perhaps 4 yrs old, appeared at my side, wearing only a gunny sack. With her sweet smile and her skin glistening from the fresh rain, she was as beautiful as a queen.

That was 14 yrs ago. Where she is now, I do not know. But I dearly hope she has had a chance for education.  That is my hope for all young girls around the world, but especially in places like South Sudan where primary education is only now becoming a real possibility for females.  Mercy Beyond Borders is happy to be part of that change--as welcome as unexpected rain in a desert place.

G'Day, Mates!

Meet Natalie, Amy, Laura, (me), Johanna, Erin, and Thea, pictured here on the campus of  "The Academy of Mary Immaculate" secondary school in the heart of beautiful Melbourne.  I spent a delightful week in Australia speaking to these talented young women leaders and hundreds of their peers now enthused about the mission of Mercy Beyond Borders. After they finish university, they're all coming to S.Sudan as volunteers!!

The patient in bed # 71

Among Christians it is traditional to re-enact during Holy Week the foot-washing done by Jesus for his disciples on the night before his death.  In the village of Mapuordit, South Sudan, the local young adults have started the practice of  washing and massaging with lotion the feet of the patients at the local hospital. Here Sr Philippa, who accompanies the young adults, tends to the weary feet of the patient in bed #71. Such acts of service communicate respect and great tenderness and the hope for healing.

As you read this blog, I am "down under" in Melbourne, Australia, speaking to a number of schools about the mission and work of Mercy Beyond Borders.  I'll be sharing the stories of  resilient women like Anna (shown in this photo) who have used micro-enterprise loans from MBB to start or expand small businesses in South Sudan.  Here Anna shows the packaged charcoal she will sell in the open market of Narus. Every little bit of extra income helps her family, especially since rising inflation this year has added new hardships to already-struggling families.

Any room at the inn?

The lack of safe, adequate housing remains a huge problem in Haiti since the earthquake that devastated much of Port-au-Prince in 2010. Here you see shaky buildings still stacked on the steep hillsides of the capital, vulnerable to collapsing from mudslides and worse. What is less visible, however, is the overcrowding that has become commonplace in very rural areas of Haiti since  thousands of Haitians fled Port-au-Prince after the quake and migrated to more distant regions to live with relatives or friends.  The result?  A mismatch between the hundreds of nonprofits that rushed to the capital city to  rebuild(which of course needs to be done) and the tens of thousands of ordinary Haitians now living in remote areas where there never were many resources and where there is now serious overcrowding of homes and overburdening of infrastructure.  That is one of the main reasons that Mercy Beyond Borders has chosen to work in rural, mountainous Gros Morne, 5 hrs north of Port-au-Prince.

Water-Wheels

Getting water daily is women's work in Africa.  Most girls and women carry the heavy jerry-cans on their heads, a graceful balancing act that defies gravity. This enterprising young girl has found another means of transport: she pushes a wheelbarrow holding several jerry-cans (each one weighing 55 lbs). That's one way to build up your biceps!

You start with dirt...

There are no Home Depots in S.Sudan. If you want to build a house, first you make the bricks.  Then you let them bake in the sun (kilns are rare). Then you haul them to your chosen site. Then you build.  

Faculty lunchroom

All of you teachers out there, be honest: have you ever complained about the state of your faculty lunchroom? Too crowded. Too messy. Too noisy. Too stuffy.  Next time you're tempted, refer back to this photo of the teacher "lounge" at St Bakhita School. One small room in a cinderblock row, with no window pane to keep out the fierce dust storms and no air-conditioning to temper the searing heat and no microwave for preparing your lunch and no sink for washing your coffee mug (and no coffee, either!).  Just one rough plank table and a few plastic chairs. No four-star amenities in sight!

Mr. Cool

Looking like an ad either for teeth whitener or the latest mod sunglasses, this Toposa youth proudly flashes a grin while wearing a pair of shades borrowed from an MBB volunteer. Some things need no translation!

What Is Her Future?

Look at the face of this young girl whose picture I took in Narus, South Sudan, two months ago.  Wearing a cotton cloth and plastic beads, she is as beautiful as a queen arrayed in gold and silk. Undoubtedly she lives in a hut made of sticks and mud, with a dirt floor and surrounded by a ring of thorny branches to keep out the wild animals at night.  Her ethnic group, the Toposa, are semi-nomadic. They travel widely with their goats and cattle. They rarely allow any of their daughters to enroll in school.

But this girl is in Narus town today, where she sees other girls enrolled at St Bakhita School--girls learning to read, playing in the school yard, having a meal every day.  So, what is she thinking? And what is her future?

Mercy Beyond Borders hopes the day will come soon when EVERY girl in South Sudan can go to school, can develop her gifts, can contribute to the new country as an educated woman.  Thanks to you, we now have Toposa girls on full academic scholarships. Thanks to you, they have hope!

Rainy Day

Photo by Kathleen Connolly, RSM

The rains finally came. And came. And came!  South Sudan has been drenched in rain these past few months. Everything is green. But as you can see in this photo, the children get their water from the same ponds where their animals drink.  It is not hygienic.  Mercy Beyond Borders taught basic health workshops for 2 years in a number of villages, urging women to boil the water to make it safer for cooking and drinking.  Cultural habits, however, do not change easily.  We believe that, in the long run, the education of girls will be the most critical factor for improving the general health of the whole population.

Lunch for 500, anyone?

Not being very adept in the kitchen, I can attest to the anxiety that grips me whenever we host a houseful of guests for a meal here in California. 12 friends coming for Christmas dinner?  How ever will I manage?

The women who cook for the girls at St Bakhita's have my complete admiration. They prepare a meal every day for the school's 500 girls.  They don't do it by hopping in a car and driving to the nearest grocery store. They don't do it with a microwave or a self-cleaning oven. They don't do it with electricity or any of the other conveniences that I take for granted and that make my feeble cooking complaints pitifully hollow.

They do it by winnowing the grain, then sorting it by hand to toss out stones or bugs. They haul the water, prepare the firewood, cook in huge pots that need to be scrubbed and re-scrubbed. They do it bent over from the waist for hours; they tend the fire that fills their eyes with dangerous smoke.  And they do it singing, happy to have a paying job. Lunch for 500, anyone? Step right up!

Rebuilding in Haiti

St.Gabriel Primary School, the only all-girls school in Gros Morne, Haiti, is getting a new look.  Thanks to a $5,000 grant from Mercy Beyond Borders, it has begun some reconstruction of its campus. The outhouses, which were literally tilting at a dangerous angle, ready to collapse, are being replaced.  The main building, over 100 years old, also has considerable "deferred maintenance," as all available funding had been going toward education of the 500 girls rather than upkeep on the facility.  Mercy Beyond Borders rejoices that we can play a small part in the rebuilding of Haiti's educational options for girls! By funding this construction, we provide jobs for Haitians as well as more safe and sanitary bathrooms for the girls.

Santa Barbara Film Festival

This 20-minute documentary about Mercy Beyond Borders' work in South Sudan will be showing at the Santa Barbara, California, Film Festival at the end of this month. If you live in the area, please come on Jan 31 or Feb 4.  The film's director and producer, Chris Jenkins, will be there in person and would love to meet you and talk with you about the people of Sudan and the projects of Mercy Beyond Borders.  Details at top of poster above.

Fraud Attack on Mercy Beyond Borders

I am Sr Marilyn Lacey writing this blog with some upsetting news: This week we experienced Mercy Beyond Borders' "15 min of fraud."  Perhaps it was inevitable that someone in cyberspace would try to hijack our good reputation and fundraising base; well, it happened on Monday.  An impostor set up a fake FaceBook site using my name and photo and pretending to represent Mercy Beyond Borders, asking readers to send money via Western Union to a man in Kampala.  Anyone who responded was then sent an email purporting to be from me, giving details on sending the money. FaceBook quickly shut down the false page, but not before several good-hearted MBB supporters sent money. Aaargh.  


The impostor may try again, so beware.  I would NEVER ask you to send money to an individual.  All of our fundraising is directly to Mercy Beyond Borders.


Here is the FALSE info used by the impostor:
www.facebook.com/mariylnlacey [note the misspelling of my name]
marilynlaceysr@gmail.com  [we've asked Google to shut this down, but are not sure it will be done]


Here is the CORRECT info:
www.FaceBook.com/MercyBeyondBorders
mercybeyondborders@yahoo.com


Please write me (mercybeyondborders@yahoo.com) if you notice any further suspicious activity.  Thanks!

Investing in Haiti's Future

Haiti is rebuilding. Streets are busy, commerce is underway, day laborers pound fallen concrete walls into small pebbles suitable for repaving the streets.  All the major NGOs from the Clinton Foundation to the United Nations, are active in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Mercy Beyond Borders is also investing  in the future of Haiti--but not in bricks and mortar, and not in the capital city. We're investing in Haiti's human capital and we are doing so in the rural mountains north of Port-au-Prince.  To be more specific, we're investing in young Haitian women by giving them academic scholarships. These young women, we believe, will become Haiti's future teachers, medical personnel, law-makers, and business owners. They will value education for their families. They will help Haiti heal.

New Year: New Library

Assistant teacher Alex Akuer chats with Julie Lynch, the American librarian who worked with Mercy Beyond Borders to bring a library to St Bakhita Girls Primary School in Narus, South Sudan.  To see the spontaneous eruption of JOY among the girls at the arrival of the bookshelves and brand new story books, check out the 1-min video on our website main page: www.mercybeyondborders.org.

Natural Wonders

Sometimes it seems to me that everything in Africa is a bit larger than life. The skies are more expansive; the sunsets more spectacular; the colors more vivid; the wildlife more, well, wild.  A recent National Geographic flyover of eastern Sudan revealed huge herds of wildebeest, elephants, giraffes, and antelope that survived the long civil war.  Sudan also hosts a tremendous variety of birds.  This large bird lives in the tree behind the outhouses of the compound where I stay in Narus when I visit St Bakhita School.  Not being a “birder,” I am ignorant about its species—maybe a toucan? or a spoonbill? – but it is beautiful to behold and captivating to listen to.  May it always soar free.

Street ART in HAITI

Though Port-au-Prince was leveled by the massive quake of 2010, the resilience of the human spirit is evident even amid the rubble that remains.  This outdoor wall of original Haitian art practically shimmers with colors that jump and dazzle.  Tourists to buy these paintings, however, have long disappeared—replaced by the UN and other nonprofit organizations working to repair the capital.  

"What Lies Beneath"

A few years ago Hollywood released a scary movie entitled “What Lies Beneath.”  Though I didn’t see the film (ever since being traumatized by “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” as a youngster, I don’t do scary), the reality of “what lies beneath” is never far from my awareness in South Sudan.  What do I mean?  Take a look at this termite mound outside St Bakhita School.  These tall pillars rise everywhere in South Sudan…. Built up over the years by layer upon layer of poop deposited by termite swarms [what should one call a termite population: a swarm? a pod? a herd? a tribe?], they give ominous testimony to the nonstop activity going on constantly and invisibly beneath our feet.  But not only below the ground! Termites also eat the thick wooden branches that shore up mud huts. They gnaw through the precious books in schools. They munch. They poop. They build their skyscrapers. What a life!

From Ammunition to Art

If there's one thing that South Sudan has toooo much of, it's bullets.  In remote areas where money is not yet common, people use bullets as a form of payment.
At the medical clinic in Kuron, for example, patients will pay for services by handing over a handful of bullets. The clinic director, Sr Angela, is quite happy to accept them and lock them into a cabinet, taking them out of circulation.
Women have now begun to melt down bullet casings to make jewelry such as the anklets shown in this picture.  In a small but significant way, it's a swords-into-plowshares moment.

Standing Up for Peace

One of the heroes of South Sudan is a quiet man named Paride Taban. He happens to be the Catholic Bishop through whose diocese trekked hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and refugees during the long civil war.  After being on BBC speaking out for reconciliation and peace, his home was bombed by Khartoum.  He was imprisoned underground for 100 days by the rebels. He stayed with the people throughout the conflict.  When the war finally ended, he "retired" in order to found a Peace Village in the remote Kuron Valley, not far from the Sudan-Ethiopia border.
Bishop Taban is the person who first invited me to Sudan in 1992, during the war. "Come and see," he said.  I did, and it changed my life.

Gone with the Wind

Aid workers in South Sudan wryly admit that "whatever can go wrong usually will go wrong." To wit, look at this photo: fierce winds ripped the roof from a newly built primary school in Yirol--crumpling the corrugated iron as if it were paper--even before the school had officially opened.   The accompanying rains flooded the storage room, ruining the books and the food supplies.

Educators in Sudanese must cope with more than their share of challenges: roads that are impassable much of the year, fellow teachers who are not yet trained, termites that eat the books, bandits who steal the stores, mosquitoes that bring malaria, scorpions that sting the unwary, weather that is either too hot or too wet (or both).... And yet the thirst for learning remains incredibly strong among girls and women in South Sudan, and Mercy Beyond Borders considers it a privilege to support efforts that provide for their formal education.

Lining up for Education in Haiti

Scholarship winners in Haiti--each of them the top academic girl in her respective school on the 6th grade national exams-- line up in crisp new uniforms for their first day of class at their new junior-high in the town of Gros Morne.  The anxiety and importance of moving up to this next level of education shows on the solemn expressions on their young faces.  Mercy Beyond Borders intends to support this cohort of girls through secondary school, and to add a new cohort of graduating 6th graders each year as well.

Telling My Story

Radio Reporter interviews Susan Nunu at her home in South Sudan

What's it like to be 27 yrs old, the over-worked mother of 3 young children and not yet a school graduate?  Just ask Susan Nunu.  She juggles the never-ending chores of a busy household (without, of course, any running water or electric appliances or local grocery store or place to study or light to study by).  Family obligations sometimes keep her away from class for days at a time, but she always returns. She has told her story on Good News Radio in Rumbek, South Sudan, urging other families to permit their daughters to go to school and encouraging all young women who have the chance for formal education to persevere no matter what the obstacles.

For All the Saints

Throughout the world, Christian denominations celebrate November 1st as the Feast of All Saints.  [In fact, this was the origin of Halloween, literally the "eve of the hallowed," when children dressed as various holy men and women.] Today I salute all the holy and hardworking women and girls of Haiti and South Sudan who, despite great burdens of poverty and oppression, press ahead with their lives and dream of better futures for their own children.

Most will never see this blog, for they cannot read--or, if they can read, lack access to the internet--but they should know that their lives, like the saints of old, inspire us to live in the present moment, to share generously whatever little we have, and to be grateful for all of life's blessings, from the greatest to the smallest.

Not a toy

Land Mines are one of the more insidious and long-lasting legacies of war.  Ridiculously cheap to purchase and plant; horrifically expensive and dangerous to remove, they render many parts of South Sudan uninhabitable because of their lingering presence.  Children are often the victims because the mines are small, plastic, and look very much like toys. The UN brings highly-specialized landmine removal teams from places like South Africa, using trained dogs to sniff them out, but their work is painstakingly slow.  It could literally take hundreds of years to clear the fertile farmlands of South Sudan.

Here a warning, looking a bit like a pirate flag, is affixed above the license plate of a UN vehicle in Rumbek, South Sudan.

Braided Fish, anyone?

Though I have been in and out of South Sudan many times over the past decade, I've learned to expect something new and different every time.  On a recent trip to Rumbek in Lakes State, for example, I spied something in the central outdoor market that made me stop and stare:  long, elegant BRAIDS of FISH.  Why use a plastic carry bag when you can weave them into long strands?  Simple, ingenious, and quite practical!

Wearable Art

Continuing our blog posts highlighting beauty in South Sudan:

Just look at the bright patterns in the beaded goatskin skirt worn by this mom, her colorful vest and bracelets, and the necklaces and earrings on her young daughter.  The jewelry is painstakingly hand-made, of course, by women sitting on the ground next to their thatched huts, taking respite in the heat of the day from the harder daily tasks of cooking and washing and hauling firewood or farming.... All the while the women are telling stories and laughing and teaching their daughters, too, how to create beauty from almost nothing--wherever they are, from whatever is at hand.

Simple Beauty in Sudan's Villages

As every architect knows, simplicity is fundamental to elegant design. Though I  am willing to bet there are no trained architects among the Toposa tribe in South Sudan, just look at the inherent beauty in their simple, beehive-shaped dwellings and storage huts.

Building these huts from thatch and tree branch is hard work and it is always done by the women. Truly, the women of Sudan are artists--and perhaps would become fine architects if they ever had the chance to go to school!

Natural wonders

When Sudan makes the news, it is usually because of some conflict or famine or other disaster. While it's true that this part of the planet endures more than its share of sorrows, year after year, I can assure you that Sudan is also a place of breathtaking beauty: in nature and in its people. In the next few posts, I will highlight a few of its many natural wonders.

Here we see a banyan tree (well, not being a botanist, I am guessing it is a banyan tree--you readers can set me straight!). It's growing in a semi-arid part of South Sudan, in the town of Nimule, within the compound where I lodge when visiting. As you can see, it's a magnificent,  towering tangle of roots and trunk and branches and foliage. Almost a whole community of trees wrapped into one vital pillar of strength and provider of shade and shelter!   Doesn't it help you understand why people become huggers of trees?

Rubble in Port-au-Prince, Haiti

As of this month, Mercy Beyond Borders is now active in 2 countries where women and girls remain mired in extreme poverty: Haiti and S.Sudan.

This photo was taken in Port-au-Prince 18 months after the catastrophic January 2010 earthquake that leveled the capital city and sent thousands of families to the more rural regions of Haiti to seek shelter with distant relatives.  The city is still full of rubble from collapsed buildings. Here a furniture maker has set up shop literally in the "cave" formed by the concrete slabs of what was once a 3-story apartment.  The carpenter enjoys respite from the heat--but risks death daily if the concrete should shift or settle further.

Mercy Beyond Borders works in a mountainous region about 4 hours north of Port-au-Prince.  Though the quake did not destroy too much there, the area has been heavily impacted by tens of thousands of families fleeing from the capital.  We provide hope to the displaced families by awarding high school scholarships to the top academic female achiever in each of 16 primary schools there.

Precious Oil. Dangerous Oil

The Nile River, broad and swift-moving, cuts a wide swath through South Sudan's capital city of Juba. Barges move upriver (i.e. southward) from Khartoum, bringing passengers and all manner of cargo--except oil.  The northern Sudan government in Khartoum stopped the delivery of petrol to the South in June, causing the price of petrol to skyrocket. One gallon of gas now costs the equivalent of $8 US dollars, an impossibly high price for most of the population.  It is but one sign of worsening relations between the two halves of old Sudan.  Much more worrisome: the recent bombing and military occupation by the north of South Sudan's oil regions, displacing tens of thousands of southerners.  Where will it end?  Will the international community stand by and do nothing?

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Women's work never ends. In Sudan, the work can be hazardous to your health. Many women suffer from eye diseases. Watching the women cook over smoky charcoal fires several times daily, I wonder about the damage done to their eyes by the smoke.
Also, it is rare to see anyone wearing glasses in the villages. No one checks their eyesight. No one supplies corrective lenses.