Wednesday 2nd November

Today Ruth and Penny are running a womens ministry workshop, so Greg and I have a free day, but mainly preparing for the leadership workshop on Friday.  Yesterday we visited Melek village, which has had a leper colony beside it for the last 60 years.  The church here has had a medication program that has mostly cured the leprosy, but the people are still challenged by their inability to grow their own food due to their previous injuries and the stigma still present in the community about them.  Talking with the people living around us, they still have a fear of people with leprosy and have been told since they were young that they should keep away from them.  There is a need for awareness and education of the general population.

It was a really rough road out there, the 20km took about an hour and 20 minutes.  This is the main road through the country, equivalent to the Bruce Highway, so road travel is a slow business.  They do have a lovely spot, a very neat village on the banks of the Nile river, but they get no government support.  The food we took to them (about 1500kg of grain, oil, salt, sugar should last for 2 months, and was all provided by the South Sudanese community in Toowoomba.  As well as the food, three big bags of clothing was also provided.

The local church is doing a great job supporting this community and could do much more if they had the resources to provide more food and medicine.  

As we walked the last 100m to the village, we were greeted by drumming and singing.  We all gathered under a big shade tree in the centre of the village to share stories and explain where the support had come from.  

After leaving the leper area, we walked into the main Melek village.  For many years this village had the best school in the area, run by missions.  They still have a good primary school and a Private Academy, which attracts top students from miles around.  Professor Robert, our host, went to the Melek school himself as a teenager.  We had a couple of hours sitting under a cool tree.  Comfortable plastic chairs just seemed to appear for us.  Very soon there was a large group on curious children around.  They showed us their wrestling skills as well as having a chat with us.

Warwick