It is an age since I wrote a blog post. An absolute age. Right now, I am sat on my terrace at the Mahogany Springs Lodge, just on the edge of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. I have just had the most amazing experience, spending time with gorillas in their true natural environment. This is what I came on my R&R to do. The more I come to Uganda, the more I love the place. I think this is my fifth visit now. The timing was perfect today, having just arrived back a storm has broken out, the sun has disappeared and it is pouring with rain.
Having just emerged from what felt like a dense fog of work. It is lovely now to be able to sit and do some personal things; load pictures, surf the net, catch up on personal emails, call people. Last night I enjoyed a hot toddy by an open fire. Yes, I will be turning 40 later this year! This lodge I am staying in is idyllic, perched up in the hills above a village called Ntungamo, it is the creation of a British guy called Barry, from London. There are references to John Ruskin, as well as poignant sayings dotting the walls. Once again, I am reminded of the luxury and beauty that you can find in Africa. I am not going to pretend that it was not a lengthy and bumpy car ride to get here, but the views as we climbed higher and higher were breath taking. Now as the rain pours down, I am nicely reminded of home.
So, many East African citizens, when I am travelling in the region, ask me how things are in South Sudan and I can’t bring myself to say anything other than that “they are bad”! Through the last few months of 2017, I had felt things were moving in a more positive direction, but as we close in on the final round of peace talks, scheduled now for the middle of May, the country seems to be destabilising again. Fighting is intensifying in parts of the country and there is great uncertainty over the current, transitional government, whose term is due to expire very soon. The economic situation continues to be dire. Government workers often do not receive salaries and there are regular fuel shortages across the country.
Caught up in all of this is South Sudan’s people, just over 11 million of them. The country has seen a record amount of citizens flee its borders, with speculation that the number of South Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries will surpass three million by the end of 2018. This will represent one of the largest refugee populations in the World. Yet the crisis continues, largely beyond the view of the World’s major powers and their populations. These societies remain caught up in Europe’s immigration crisis, Brexit, the travails of the Trump administration and the stand-off with North Korea, to name a few. While millions of the people in South Sudan continue to face chronic food insecurity and the highest out of school statistics in the World, we seem unable to keep this crisis in the headlines. How much of this advocacy challenge is about a political crisis that is showing no obvious sign of resolution and how much of it is because the plight of the South Sudanese simply has very little impact on global affairs, is hard to say. If Isis were here, if barrel bombs were fallen from the sky, if the country descended into full scale famine, people’s heads might turn.
I can look forward to another three days in this lush and seemingly plentiful country. The politics in Uganda as far from perfect, democracy is an aspiration. But, as I pass the dozens of children walking to school each morning in their school uniforms I will continue to think of the children I meet in Juba, in the Protection of Civilians sites and at the airport, and imagine that they too will soon go to school unhindered, like every other child the world over, and study and dream of future jobs.
