Malakal

In June, sometime between the bout of malaria and the vacation to Jordan, I took a trip to visit our project office in Malakal. Malakal is in Upper Nile State and is along the disputed north/south border of Sudan (northern Sudan vs. southern Sudan). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malakal

I'd never been to Malakal before so this was an exciting trip. There you never know what will get you first: glue-like mud, killer crickets, or stray gun fire from unexpected violence. Fortunately we made it through the trip with just the crickets.

In Malakal we visited a number of schools where our project is giving partial scholarships to orphaned girls and boys. Here is a staff member from the central ministry of education speaking with students from one of the schools we sponsor.

Here is one scholar we're sponsoring. Check out the scarification on this Nuer boy's forehead.

Here is a photo of one section of a once-famous teacher training institute. Many great Sudanese teachers were trained here before the second civil war. At it's peak, it turned out 1000 teachers a year. Now it is grazing land for goats and squatters homes.

Here is another view of the training center.

Our project is supposed to support this institution, but we can't because it isn't operating due to a lack of resources for the boarding facilities (food, water, power). The government should be paying for these things but there is no political will do do so. There's a lot of work to do here!