Some bon mots ...

Les enfants vont pisser sur les examens Last year trying to get exams out to the refugees camps in Chad my man told me we could not put the exams in the public lorries which all carry mountains of passengers on top of the freight, ‘parce ce que ‘les enfants vont pisser sur les examens’

In a workshop I co-facilitated in Accra we there was a session on women and other disabled.  Quickly corrected I may say!

On the upside there were only two examples of the term ‘girl-child’ being used. The girl-child may at last be dead, though I heard it several times last week in Kajo-kaji which seems in some ways to be several years behind in its jargon.   

 

Don't register if you don't intend to vote.

My first spotting in Africa of a ‘Don’t register to vote’ message … on the Voice of Kajo Kaji FM last week … I think.  Though it might have been on Miraya FM (which would be a startling breach of neutrality for a UN station); I was only half-listening.   

 

Registering and then not voting means you have made it more difficult for the  60% of registered voters required for independence to be reached.   

 

It’s odd to listen in KK to Miraya (UN station out of Juba) with its ‘simple Arabic’ and bilingual programmes as  I hardly heard a word of any kind of Arabic in KK for a week.  It’s Kuku/Bari or English there.

 

By the way, KK has developed astoundingly since I was last there in 2004 – quite good roads, excellent school buildings, generators and solar in well-equipped offices in the Boma, computers widespread in offices, textbooks in schools (even if they are for the new, rather poor, S Sudan syllabus), solar everywhere, bustling trading centre in Wudu, smart border posts on the way to Uganda and the ‘Taban Lo Liyong road’ very smooth up to the Kaya river where there is a rope ferry when the river is full.  

 

I contributed to that road (as did Diana, I remember, probably George too) and drove the whole way once.

 

There are at least six different ways to call on mobile (MTN Uganda, MTN, Sudan, Zain Uganda, Zain Sudan, Sudani, Warid …  depending on which side of the county you are or on which hill).

 

The downside was massive teacher absence from the schools (however good they look) partly because teacher’s salaries are low and good people can get better jobs, but mainly because they are, as ever, not paid on time.   

 

Recently of the 900 government paid teachers in KK, 200 were dropped from the salary list at once.  Everyone now knows the word ‘downsizing’ (though the government in Juba was trying to use the word ‘rightsizing’ under pressure from the donors).  

 

Wonderful also was the hop in MAF’s small plane from an equally fast-growing Nimule, over the bend in the Nile,  the Fula rapids, the sharp ridge/valley section which prevents east-west access to KK (and why the Nile has to bend) and then into KK itself.   You can do a whole geography lesson in 15 minutes.

 

The road from Nimule to Juba is being tarmacked and the blockage now is between Gulu and the border with overloaded lorries and the endless rains this region is experiencing – good for agriculture – KK was blossoming with food crops – but not good for the roads.

 

I wonder why the English-speaking countries never adopted the ‘barriere de pluie’ approach, like in Cameroon, where traffic was stopped until the roads dried, then light vehicles only were allowed to proceed. Heavy vehicle had to wait even longer. After all, it is sensible, the rain does not of itself damage a well made road; it is the vehicles that do the damage.  

 

Barry

 

This is the first time I was in Hargeisa. UNESCO-PEER Hargeisa office was established in February 1994. At that time the country was in a state of anarchy and it was almost impossible to conduct any educational activity.

The office was opened in Hargeisa to run emergency education activities. In early 1997, Mr. Barry Sesnan assumed office and within a couple of months, revitalized the office and established a good relationship with MOEYS (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports) as well as the international agencies operating in NW Somalia [Somaliland].

He used his professional experience to organize educational activities and prepare projects to seek funds from international agencies in Hargeisa, such as UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP and UNOPS.

Apart from conducting refresher courses in English to the Secondary school teachers, he established a mini resource centre at the EDC for the secondary level out-of-school youth. He also established monthly education co-ordination meetings between the international agencies and MOEYS. In this way Mr. Sesnan built confidence in all the quarters of MOEYS and improved the image of the UNESCO-PEER Hargeisa office.

Getting to London without a plane

Dear Sir,

 

In view of the current flight disruptions we should remember that in the sixties it was possible to buy a single train – boat – bus ticket from Kampala Station to London Victoria by (EARH) East African Railways and Harbours. You could buy the ticket anywhere on the EARH network.

 

Until the floods of the early sixties the route was:

 

In Uganda: Kampala to Namasagali by train via Jinja; Namasagali to Masindi Port by boat; Masindi Port to Butiaba by bus with a night in Masindi (it was a railway hotel, and railway station but it never had any rails); Butiaba by boat along Lake Albert and down the Nile to Nimule.  Later this became Kampala –Gulu by train then bus from Gulu to Juba.

 

In Sudan: Nimule to Juba by bus; Juba to Kosti (N Sudan) by river steamer – between 5 and 8 days; Kosti – Khartoum by train - Wadi Halfa by train; Wadi Halfa to Aswan (Egypt by lake steamer).

 

Aswan – Cairo – Alexandria by train.

 

Alexandria to Italy or Greece or Turkey by Mediterranean steamer; then train across Europe.

 

Does any of your readers remember this or travel any part of it?  Over the years I have travelled most of the route, but not all at once. You can still see the remains of the Lake Albert steamer at Butiaba.

 

 

 

Barry Sesnan