News from our parishioner Larry Duffee who was just here visiting with his wife Suzi. Their return home to Juba in South Sudan was delayed because of war breaking out. Larry works for a not for profit organization helping the people of the Sudan.
“We’re still in Nairobi along with half the ex-pat population of Juba. My co-workers and I have rented some office space and are getting together regularly to keep our project going. Amazingly enough, a lot of our partners on the ground are continuing to work where they can, and teachers and headmasters are opening schools as they are able, so determined that the children should get an education. We’re able still to pump some money into schools to pay teacher salaries and fund repairs, and hopefully by the end of the month to begin making annual payments to make it possible for the girls to stay in school. Education is the only hope for the future of South Sudan.
“I am planning to return to Juba this Friday, though it is not certain, it is still dependent upon getting final clearance. South Sudan?? It’s a complete mess, and getting worse. It used to be that the main fighting was confined to a few areas, but now low-level fighting seems to be spreading everywhere, making it seem that no one is really in control. There are still a lot of robberies and looting in Juba, a lot of night-time disappearances of people. I’m thankful our residence compound has armed as well as unarmed guards, though I hate to think that way. Two concerns I have are one, that there is an increasingly anti-western attitude being propagated by the nation’s leaders as western governments increasingly criticize the leaders for their failures resulting in some minor assaults on westerners in Juba, and two, it is hard to see where the country is going, how they are going to resolve the current crisis since to do so basically means one side or the other achieving total victory since they do not seem capable of sharing power. Like I said, it’s a mess.”
To find out how the Episcopal Church is helping, click here: http://www.episcopalrelief.org/where-we-work/country/south-sudan-and-sudan
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