The Life of a Groundnut (aka peanut) in South Sudan

 

The area in which we live is known for growing groundnuts (peanuts).  The sandy composition of the soil makes it ideal. There aren’t enough grown for export; but the Dinka grow them to eat as well as a cash crop, selling them in town to be transported to other towns in South Sudan where groundnuts are not grown.

April, May and even June are planting months.
 
As the rains began, we witnessed a dramatic increase in activity.  The soil is dug either by hand or by oxen.   Everywhere you turn folks are out clearing ground and planting seed.

 

 Following planting is a time of waiting. The groundnut is hidden under the soil and the illustration in James 5:7-8 comes to mind, “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.  You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.”

Eventually the groundnut plant appears and begins to flower.  Suddenly we again see an increase in activity as weeding begins.  As this is all done by hand, you can imagine the amount of time and effort weeding takes. We are not talking about small gardens here, but large fields. With the older children and adult members of the family actively involved, it takes on a communal air. The very young children and babies stay at home with a designated older child. 

All the hard work pays off in September, October and November when the plants are pulled from the ground and the nuts are harvested.

 

Now reward is reaped from all the previous months of work and patience.

We were blessed to watch a woman giving the first fruits of her harvest as an offering to the Lord.  What a joy to witness God’s word alive and active in a person’s life. This one who, in relation to most of us, has nothing, living in a mud hut with a dirt floor without the things that we consider essential to life such as; running water, electricity, sanitation, or furniture. Who typically only owns one or two changes of clothing; this one gives the first of her harvest to the One who causes all things to grow!   

Oh would that all God’s children be found so faithful and obedient!

Now, what do folks do in South Sudan with these raw groundnuts?

One way to use them is to make maqwanga -- aka peanut butter. Remember our maqwanga lady from the market? (see Market Re-visited post)  Now is the season to make maqwanga at home. This is made by smashing raw peanuts between two stones and rubbing them until they are mostly smooth.

Do you remember the post about our visit to Kulu , (see “Trip to Kulu” post ), when we brought stones back for Malith and his family was so happy? Well, this is what that was all about. Those stones are used to grind peanuts to make maqwanga at home. (They also grow and grind sesame seeds into a paste to use in making sauces and season the dishes they cook.)

 

We watched this small friend of ours as she recently enjoyed the efforts her mother put in making maqwanga for her family.

 

 

 

 

A bowl of groundnuts also came our way as a generous soul gave us a gift one Sunday morning. 
 

What do we do with raw groundnuts? 

Well we shelled them and roasted them with salt over a charcoal fire.  They turned out great --a bit labor intensive, but worth it!

 

 

As you pray for South Sudan, pray for a good harvest both physically and spiritually among the Dinka in South Sudan.  A good physical harvest will help sustain lives; a good spiritual harvest will reap lives everlasting!  

 

The Market Re-visited

Back in January, we wrote about our first visit to the market.  Hopefully this will give you a better feel for these people who we see quite often.

 

 

Welcome to our Walmart!  Let’s walk down some of the aisles and we’ll introduce you to some of the people who provide us with the necessities of life here in Rumbek.

 

 Let us introduce you to Saieth  (Sa-ee-th) he is from Kartoumn and is literate in Arabic, but doesn’t speak English.  However we  are able to communicate adequately enough to buy goods from him and to call him friend.   Today we are purchasing beans – chili’s a’comin’ !

Notice the scale.  Everyone uses this type of scale with weights measuring from 500gram – 2 kilogram. 

Meet our maqwanga lady. (Ma-kwa-ngah) means peanut butter! When we first arrived we went to the market looking for peanut butter and no one had any – can you imagine?    We knew ground nuts (peanuts) were a major crop of the area and couldn’t imagine that they would not have it. 

Well – we didn’t know what to ask for – you see peanut butter is imported and in truth there wasn’t any available. Joe, a young man who came out with the Fusion team  had been here before; he let us in on the secret --  ask for maqwanga.  We went the very next day and this lady has been one of our Sudanese friends ever since. This product is pure peanuts, no added sugar, salt or preservatives.   …mmmm delicious!

She is very accomodating; if you don’t bring your own container she will put your maqwanga in a used/empty soft drink can which has been cut in half. ( You can see the cans in the picture) She fills the bottom with maqwanga and sticks the top half of the can inside for the lid.  She is also diversified in her sales approach, not only does she sell maqwanga but she also sells dried fish, (bottom right corner). 

 

Here is one of the many boys from whom we buy our “Dinka” bread.  We glance at each boy’s offering as we walk by looking for the thickest ones.  Debbie came to S.Sudan ready to bake our bread, but after one piece of Dinka bread we decided there was no need – this stuff’s great!  ...slap on some maqwanga and you’ve got lunch!

 

… steak anyone? 

These men will sell any piece off of a cow that you want, from the head to the hoof, including small and large intestines or stomach!  Don’t ask for a T-bone or a rump steak however, their vocabulary doesn’t extend to specific cuts; just point at the piece you think looks good. 

 

 

If you can’t find a piece to suit you, the guy with the hatchet at the wooden stump will hack off what you want, bones and all.  Come early in the day for the best selection and the least amount of fly larvae.

We have bought meat here, but not often.  It takes quite a bit of work to wash off all the bone chips and cut away the gristle from the meat; so we are more likely to use the soy meat substitute we brought with us or go vegetarian. However, the meat we have cooked from the market is very tasty.  It has a rich almost wild flavor.


We thank God for the people we are meeting in Rumbek.    Greeting us with a friendly grin and a warm handshake; they seem genuinely happy that we are here.  Join us in praying that we would demonstrate and share the love of Christ with those we encounter.   

Exploring Unity State - part 5

Wrapping up - Homeward Bound

We had a great visit to Leer, but now it is time to head home.  It has rained this week, Wednesday night we had a terrific storm, so we are uncertain as to road conditions, but this is the middle of the rains and if we don't try we may be here a VERY long time.

Friday we loaded the car for the trip back. Since the sun was out in full force, we waited until the afternoon before leaving allowing time for the mud on the roads to dry as much as possible.

While we waited, this young man decided to be creative --  surrounded by all the "play dough" he needed, he decided to make good use of it by building a mud motorcycle.


He would be going with us along with his mother, his younger sister and brother and his brand new baby brother. His mother is Mathew's sister-in-law. 
They live "in the bush" around an even smaller town called Mayendit (Mah-yen-DEET). Her husband sent them, to Mathew's house several weeks ago to have the baby in town.

Mathew's house has three rooms, each the size of a small bedroom in the U.S. Mathew and his family stayed in one room, his sister-in-law and her children were in another, and Jerry and I had the remaining room.  All other aspects of life is lived outside.


Piling into the car, we said our goodbyes and were off; however it was to be a short journey.  Do you remember the place we were stuck overnight in the mud outside Leer?  Well, that was our demise.  We tried the top of the road this time but the ruts were too deep and the mire sucked us back down.  We couldn't get out.  We were only there a couple of hours before being towed out by a bus coming  from Leer to drop people off. Once out, we return  to Leer and Mathew's house for the night, it is too late to go on -- we will try again tomorrow.

Saturday morning, realizing we will need all the daylight we can get, we decide to leave early. Making it through the first mud pit (our nemesis) – it feels rather like the greatest race or something; you know there are obstacles, but you don’t know what they are or how many. So we move forward by faith, knowing that whatever happens, God is in control of our lives and circumstances. (Only we really would like to sleep in our own bed tonight!) We know people are praying for us – we texted prayer requests to folks in Kenya and we know they are praying!  

 At one juncture it looked pretty grim.  Just as we decide we must turn back, along comes God’s answer.

Two UN vehicles push by us only to get stuck in the muck ahead -- the same muck we were hesitant to go through.  These guys have a couple of things we do not have. They are two vehicles traveling together. One takes point, making the other available to tow it out and they have a Nuer/English speaker with them so they can inquire about conditions ahead. Mathew’s sister-in-law doesn’t know English.  So Jerry asked them if we could travel with them. We would have to keep up, but they agreed. (They didn’t know it, but they were an answer to prayer.) Following these two vehicles we were better able to navigate through the mire as we watched their vehicles skid and slide around.

Dropping off our passengers, we bid them farewell and push on, not wanting to fall too far behind our convoy.

After leaving Unity State we were forced to watch as our convoy drove off.  Our car was overheating.  Now what!  We sat by the side of the road waiting for it to cool down.

Long story short – God is victorious and allows us to be as well. 

After spending several hours on this desolate part of the road praying for God to fix the car; trying everything we knew and had with us, water, oil, cleaning the air filter -- every time we pulled out we could only go a couple of kilometers before overheating again. 

Finally we saw God’s hand.  We had let the engine cool down for an hour or more, night was fast approaching and envisioning a night in the car, we prayed for God’s protection, provision, and wisdom. This area is very insecure, there is no cell phone signal and we had seen many people with AK47s on the road earlier.  

We had already put water in the radiator and the overflow, but the Lord led Jerry to put in even more and finishing up all the water we had with us, we started again. Almost immediately the needle headed for H (Hot) – then a miraculous thing happened – as we watched the temperature needle on H it began to go down, just like a finger was forcing it downward – looking at each other in delighted amazement, we are convinced we saw the finger of God!

Continuing on, Jerry gradually speeds up and before you know it we are traveling at a good clip heading for Rumbek.  The return trip of 13 hours was exhausting, (a regular five hour trip); but you never saw two happier people when we pulled into our gate in the pouring rain.



Thank you for praying for us.  We know you do because we see God’s hand at work in our lives every single day.  When you pray for us you partner with us, helping to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

Exploring Unity State - part 4

 Leer (LAIR) Town and Adok (ah-DOCK)

Leer , essentially a small town,
has no electricity or running water – actually neither does Rumbek.       

There are no banks, no real restaurants or coffee houses.
There are no fuel stations -- well, actually here is Peace in the Land fuel station.  The hose is used to syphon the fuel into your vehicle. 

But in spite of everything they DON’T have, the people of Leer, at least everyone we met, had a ready smile and a warm handshake.

We wondered at the lack of permanent structures. There are few block/brick buildings in Leer and those are of recent construction.  We found the answer to our wonderings as we returned and continued researching. It seems the town of Leer was burned down during the continuing conflict in Sudan – not   once but three times in 1998.

Mathew and Sudan showed us the port area of Adok. About 30 minute drive from Leer, the port of Adok is the only transportation option during the rains when the road is out. People and goods come down the Nile on these small boats  docking here to unload, they then travel by pick-up, donkey or foot to Leer.

In the early years, before fleeing to Kenya, Mathew lived here.  His father was a merchant buying goods off  of the boats and reselling them in town. 

While at the port we took an opportunity to sit down with Mathew and Sudan, have some tea, and talk about the area and Mathew’s early life.  As he told his story  and we saw God's hand orchestrating his life, Romans 8:28 came to mind;  "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

God works, even through hardship, war, fleeing your home to another country -- this is Mathew's testimony -- not of what he endured, but the fact that God worked in his life to bring him to salvation and a life of service to Him.  Glory to God!

Pray for Mathew, Sudan, John, Kele and the other Christian young men as they live out their lives for the glory of God.  Pray that their faith would be strong and that their lives would be a witness to other Nuer of God's goodness and faithfulness.