Abuk carrying her jerrycan to the well.

    Thirteen-year-old Abuk Deng squats in the smoky cooking hut and pokes at the fire made from damp wood she collected the day before. Smoke seeps out of every crack and hole in the roof and curls up into the early morning sunlight.

    Abuk adds sugar, milk powder, and salt to the fermented base made from flour and water two days ago. After it boils, she takes a cup of this "medida" (porridge) to her mother, Agau, who sits in the sun weaving a grass mat that she will try to sell in the market later this week. With her husband at cattle camp most months, Agau is left to care for and provide for their four children and her sister's orphaned daughter. The thin petite woman shares her food with her three-year-old son, Tong, who plays next to her with a stick tapping out a rhythm on an empty soda bottle.

    Abuk, her little sister Acol (6) and cousin, Amuna (9), squat and sit in the sun drinking from the second cup of porridge. It is the first time in several days that they have had enough food for breakfast. But a glance at the sun makes Abuk jump up. They will be in trouble with their teachers if they are late. She and Amuna grab their two plastic jerrycans and begin the twenty-five minute walk to Cush Christian School (CCS).

    As they approach the center of Parot village they can hear the rhythmic throb of the well pump. A group of girls and women chat together while they take turns throwing their whole body into the up-down-up-down motion of the pump handle. The two girls leave their cans in the long line of similar empty yellow jerrycans.

    Along the way, they break small sticks from the "bel" tree that grows along the path, peel the end, and brush their teeth as they walk. When they arrive, Abuk sees all seven teachers sitting inside a classroom where they meet every morning to pray for their students. She and Amuna join the students who are playing games in the sandy schoolyard.

    Many things have changed since Lualdit (Scott Brinkerhoff) began CCS three years ago. What started with 26 students in the shergania (grass mass) church building in Parot, now continues with 78 students in a large school building made with cement blocks and a metal roof. Lualdit and teacher-in-training, John Alou, were the only teachers that first year. Now John Alou and another Dinka man are full-fledged teachers, and there are also three Dinka teachers-in-training and two "kawaja" (foreigner) teachers. Of these five Dinka men, two are ordained pastors and two are elders-in-training with the South Sudan Community Church (SSCC-the denomination started by the Cush4Christ team).

Abuk and her siblings: Kur, Acol and Tong

    At 8 a.m. the bell rings and the students gather for assembly. After a song accompanied by rhythmic clapping, teacher-in-training, Kuan Kuan, prays and the students file into one of the three classrooms.

    Abuk's kawaja teacher, Miss Laurie, asks her if her brother, Kur, is still sick with malaria. Abuk thinks so though she has not seen him for several days. Like many Dinka children, nine-year-old Kur often lives at the compound of his father's other wife.

    In the first period, teacher-in-training Kerubino Hol and Miss Laurie take turns teaching the Bible lesson in Dinka and in English. Abuk's favorite Bible lessons are the Old Testament stories because they do not have the Old Testament translated into their Dinka dialect.

    Throughout the morning, Kerubino translates the difficult concepts and meanings of English words that Miss Laurie teaches. He, with the other two teachers-in-training, receive classroom training every morning. Three afternoons a week, all five Dinka men receive teacher training from either Lualdit or Miss Laurie.

    Before coming to CCS, Abuk attended a government school where the average class size was 125 students. It was a struggle to learn with no personal help. Many of the teachers were

poorly trained, some would randomly not show up, and others sometimes arrived to class drunk. Like many students, Abuk still could not read Dinka even after three years of schooling.

    In her first year at CCS, Abuk learned to read Dinka. Now she has been in Miss Laurie's class for two years and she is learning to speak, read and write English in subjects like science, socials, English and math.

    Last year, Abuk did not know how to write the alphabet on a line, place spaces between words, or have any concept of punctuation. Now she writes the weekly Scripture memory verse with beautiful handwriting that she has worked hard to perfect. She has also learned the sounds of the English alphabet though several of the vowel sounds are hard to pronounce because they do not exist in the Dinka alphabet. Speaking or writing an "s" at the end of words is a new concept and her determined teacher often stops the students to reread or speak them correctly.

Acol Kenyang (Laurie Filson) and Agau

    At 12 p.m. school is finished and Abuk and her friends walk back to Parot. The air is thick with humidity. They pass a compound with a fresh grave in it and talk about the fifteen-year-old woman who gave birth to her first child several days ago. While the baby girl lived, the young mother bled to death because she did not receive immediate medical help.

    Marrying young is not uncommon in South Sudan. When Abuk's mother, Agau, was in her early teens, she was forced to marry a much older man whom she did not know. Her first daughter died suddenly at the age of five, and in the years that followed she was often depressed and would get drunk on the local alcohol. Now with a heart transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, Agau is known for a joyful spirit. She often witnesses to strangers and neighbors about Christ, and prays for, comforts, and helps those who are sick. 

    For two years, Agau has been part of Agomdit's (Jan Buchanan) health group. This group of seven ladies from the Parot Community Church (SSCC's first church) have learned things as varied as the importance of washing hands, how to make and administer a basic re-hydration drink, the amazing anatomy of a woman's body and the growth of a baby in the womb. 

    Abuk arrives at the kawaja compound and takes the wheelbarrow to the Parot well where her mother left Miss Laurie's three jerrycans that morning. Abuk and Agau are employed by Agomdit and Miss Laurie to wash clothes, get water from the well, and clear grasses and weeds from their dirt yards and paths. Several hours later, Abuk pushes the heavy wheelbarrow back to Miss Laurie's house, unloads the jerrycans onto the porch, and waits for Miss Laurie to return home from administering the two-hour teacher training session at the school.

Abuk Deng reading her Science exercise book at school

    While Abuk sits in the wheelbarrow and waits, she hears the six ladies on Agomdit's porch singing and clapping as they end their literacy class. Agomdit began this literacy class last year after seeing that many women were eager to learn to read and write Dinka. In a country with a literacy rate of 30 percent, Agau is among the many who received no schooling because they grew up during the years of civil war in what was then southern Sudan. The women in the class faithfully come four afternoons a week for two hours.

    Finally Miss Laurie arrives, and she and Abuk sit on the porch, drinking chai and chatting. Miss Laurie tells her that her English is "apath apei" (very good) and Abuk's face breaks into a big smile. It's true--when her teacher first came, she knew only a few English sentences and vocabulary words; now she can converse on a broad range of topics.

    Before she returns home, Abuk takes the money Miss Laurie pays her and stops at a classmate's small compound shop where she buys flour, tomato paste, and salt. She stops by the well where a girl helps her put her own full jerrycan on her head, and gracefully walks home.

    The evening air is warm and a blue haze settles over the compound when Abuk begins to cook the evening meal. At 7 p.m. Amuna turns on the little blue solar-battery-powered radio and the theme music of Weer Bei's evening broadcast fills the air. Weer Bei is a Christian radio station started by the Cush4Christ team.

     When Abuk finishes cooking it is dark out, and she and Amuna carry the two beds out of their sleeping hut to sit on. Agau prays and they pull steaming bites of "kuin" (a thick congealed porridge made from flour and water) and dip it into the "kadang" (a sauce made from onions and tomato paste). By now it is dark and the voice of Pastor Karlo on the radio is accompanied by a chorus of croaking frogs, barking dogs, and the occasional whirl of bat wings.

    When the radio signs off at 10 p.m., it is time for bed. Inside the warm hut, Abuk shares a bed with Amuna while her mother sleeps with her two youngest on the other bed.   

** This story based on true facts about Abuk Deng's daily life **