Wednesday 26 October

Yesterday afternoon I was given an education  by Chol Mike, the secretary of the church and a senior education official, in world history from an African perspective. He asked me what I thought of the death of Gaddafi . After I had communicated that the world was better off without him, Chol informed me that Gaddafi, a Muslim, had provided great help to the Southern Sudanese in their struggles with the Muslim north. Fortunately I didn’t fall into the next trap about the colonisation of Africa by European countries.

Today started quietly. Warwick took a lecture at the Garang University about agricultural extension. I’ll let him fill out the details. We had an extended discussion with Tor a third year student about marriage and wives.  According to Tor, in times of great uncertainty there is need for large families. Traditionally men married at about 30 and their wife would be 16-20. It was expected that wives would provide children until their mid forties. Additional wives make more children possible. Tor has two wives and three children who live together.

After lunch at the Freedom restaurant where lunch costs 15 Sudanese pounds (AUD$5), with fans and free internet, we headed off to see the land owned by the church. The land (100m by 100m) is ideally located for future residential development. It is a shame that the walls of the new building are not structurally sound. There is no doubt the Jonglei worship centre have a building problem.  The current building is grossly inadequate. On Sunday it was packed with 300 worshippers. It was very hot, very dark with a very low ceiling. According to the church leaders many people do not stay because of the building’s limitations.  It’s an important issue for prayer.

The adventure continues.