Stirrings of Hope in a Distant Place
Can you imagine a place that is so remote that you have to travel for twelve hours in a four wheel drive in order to buy something so basic as a bar of soap? If you can imagine such a scenario, then you may have some idea of the isolation of Nanyangacor mission in Southern Sudan. You may find it hard to believe that Nanyangacor lies about two hundred and twenty kilometres from the nearest shop. And what’s more you even have to cross the border into Kenya to get to that shop since it is located in Lokichoggio, an unplanned sprawl of corrugated huts strung haphazardly along a stretch of badly broken tarred road. The journey to that shop takes you through terrain which is bare, barren, bleak, and inhospitable but which has its own rugged beauty and is the homeland of the Toposa people. Let me take you, in your minds eye, to Nanyangacor.
The rocky road
Having left behind the “bright lights” of Lokichoggio you begin the hazardous twenty kilometre journey through “no man’s land” to the border crossing at Nadapal. This part of the expedition has to be done with a UN convoy. It is a treacherous stretch which is home to armed gangs and disgruntled soldiers and is a sniper’s paradise. When you have successfully negotiated this obstacle course you have reached the Sudanese border. You are now at the mercy of the immigration and customs officials. The length of your stay at the make-shift clearance post can depend on their whim. When you finally get the all-clear you are officially in Sudan and ready for the twenty five kilometre safari to Narus. This part is pure luxury. It is the best non-tarred road you are likely to find on your travels through Africa. The only discomfort is the red dust which blows in your hair and makes your clothes look as if you have been working in a saw mill. But you won’t complain. The prize at the end is a cold drink and a welcome meal at Narus mission.
Oasis in the desert
Narus mission is a little oasis. It was built about ten years ago by the late Fr Leo Traynor, one of the great pioneers of the St Patrick Fathers’ mission in the Sudan. It plays host to many a weary traveller and since the fall of Torit has become the headquarters of the local bishop, Paride Taban. It has 8 African style huts to accommodate its many visitors and is a real source of renewal – both spiritual and physical- for all who pass through its welcoming gates. It is also the place where the Maryknoll Missionaries have set up a house of prayer which is staffed by Srs Theresa and Madeleine. From their simple chapel they make their daily plea that God would bless humankind with peace and love and give success to the work of all missionary hands.
Refreshed in body and soul you are now ready for the nine hour odyssey to Nanyangacor. There is no road. There are no maps. I am not joking! It is impossible to give directions to the traveller. The journey can only be made under the tutelage of a seasoned campaigner. My guides were Frs Tim Galvin and Sean Cremin, the two St Patrick Fathers based at Nanyangacor. They know this stretch like the backs of their hands. They have learned through experience where a river bed can be crossed, what areas have to be avoided, how to navigate through black cotton soil in the rainy season. They make this trip once a month as they go to Lokichoggio to buy their provisions. On more than one occasion they have had to spend the night in their land-cruiser waiting for a river to subside. There is never a dull moment. The driver has to be ever on the watch for a stone or a shrub that could puncture a tyre or worse still damage the oil sump. You go on and on, kilometre after kilometre, over some of the harshest terrain in sub Saharan Africa. Once in a while you skirt a Toposa settlement and may get a glimpse of sheep and goats being led safely home after another long day underneath the scorching desert sun.
Home sweet home
If you have been lucky on the way you will be arriving at Nanyangacor around nine hours after setting out from Narus. A warm welcome is sure to await you and revive your drooping spirits after the stresses and strains of your travels. Nanyangacor (it means “yellow waters” in the Taposa language) is the most isolated mission in which the St Patrick Fathers work. Seven years ago it was a deserted and arid patch of Southern Sudan. Today it is a thriving little community with a church, a health clinic, a bore hole and a primary school with boarding facilities for over one hundred pupils.
The mission is staffed by Frs Tim Galvin and Sean Cremin of the St Patrick Fathers and Fr Aleardo Lokoro, a member of the Toposa people and a priest of the diocese of Torit. Tim has spent more than twenty one years in Southern Sudan. Sean arrived in 1999 after having spent some years among the neighbouring Turkana people of Northern Kenya. Aleardo has been working Southern Sudan since his ordination in 1966. Their focus is primary evangelisation. They have opened several Mass centres and small basic Christian communities in the countryside round about. They have encouraged people to work together and have helped to get bore-holes dug so that clean water – that scarcest of commodities in an arid land- is available to this nomadic people. A tractor has been purchased to construct roads into the vast hinterland. Two American Maryknoll Missionaries, Srs Joan and Marilyn, have been invited to open a health centre to offer primary health care to the people. The Sisters have been blessed with great co-workers like Dr Susan Nagele from USA and recently they have been joined by a very experienced couple from Holland, Mark and Herma. One of Tim and Sean’s most ambitious plans is the expansion of The Good Shepherd Primary School which has American Maryknoll Missionary, Mary Ellen, as its principal. It is the first school to be opened within a radius of two hundred and twenty kilometres.
Hope
Tim and Sean continue to do what they were ordained to do: preach the gospel. They do this primarily by the witness of their lives. Who would want to live with such deprivation? Only someone who is totally committed to Christ and to the establishment of God’s reign could live in such an isolated and forgotten place. Tim was asked recently about what kept him going over the past 21 years in such difficult circumstances. In reply he quoted a line from Patrick Kavanagh’s poem The One
“A humble scene in a backward place where no one important ever looked….
That beautiful, beautiful God was breathing his love by a cutaway bog.”
A civil war has been raging in Southern Sudan for the last 19 years. It has left a devastating legacy of pain, suffering, hunger and hopelessness in its wake. It has forced the St Patrick Fathers to move camp many times. In recent months there are hopeful signs that the longest conflict in Africa may be in its end phase. The talks between the warring factions held in January 2004 have given grounds for optimism. The people of Nanyangacor are looking forward to better days. God is certainly breathing his love in this “cutaway bog”. Maybe the next time you visit Sean and Tim the journey will only take six hours!
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