Cattle Raid!

Lohutok, Sudan

This morning all the younger men were running north with their weapons in a long, spread-out string.  Drums had sounded in the village to our northeast.  I found out later that the Taposa had stolen some cattle from a Lotuko village during the night.  The Lotuko got their cattle back, but one man was wounded in the process.  I hope this sort of thing comes to an end.

Photo: Warriors on their way to recover stolen cattle.

I did some more welding today.  We passed the half-way mark in building rafters.  We also made fairly firm arrangements to have some men start building my hut.  They should begin tomorrow.  I think housing will become tight here soon.  When the Yonkers get back, Samuel and Christine will have to move into a tent.  I hope the living space crunch does not cause too much tension.

I poked around in the ground today and noticed that the onions I planted have sprouted.  At least one of the three things I have planted should do okay.  I hope the carrots grow too.  I do not have much hope for the lettuce.

Michael is talking of going to Juba to get grain.  At Torit, sorghum costs 36.50 Sudanese pounds per bag, but only 15.00 in Juba.  We may have the plane go to Torit to get sorghum from Norwegian Church Aid.  We have heard they have some sort of cooperative.

More Information About the Doum Palm

Lohutok, Sudan

I wrote about the doum palm yesterday.  Here is a little more information from Tropical Crops, Monocotyledons by J. W. Purseglove, published by Longman Group Ltd., 1979.  Purseglove's two-volume set (this book and its companion volume, Dicotyledons) is the premier English language reference about tropical crops.

Doum or Dum Palm [Hyphaene thebaica (L.) Mart.] grows wild throughout drier regions of tropical Africa to 600 meters altitude, the Middle East and western India.  It is fire-resistant and may form dense stands in hot dry valleys.  It is distributed by nomadic tribes as well as elephants and baboons which eat the seeds.  I found it interesting that the seeds are among the most common objects found in tombs in ancient Egypt.  I am not surprised that the seeds can last that long given how hard they are.  The ancient Egyptians cultivated it and considered it sacred because it was connected with the god Thout and his sacred animal, the baboon.  I will not go into Purseglove's technical descriptions beyond saying the doum palm is a fan palm that can grow to 15 meters and is the only palm with a branched stem.  He says the mesocarp (husk) smells and tastes of gingerbread.  The husk was already removed from the nut or seed pictured in my preceding post.    In appearance, the nut is similar to a miniature coconut but is much harder than a coconut.  The endocarp (shell) is hard and thin.  The endosperm is white, very hard and has a hollow center.  The endosperm was so hard I needed a hack saw to cut through it.  I cannot understand how a seed with such a hard endosperm could possibly germinate.

As for uses, Purseglove says the husk is edible and diuretic (tends to increase the discharge of urine).  It can be made into syrup or ground to a meal for making cakes and sweetmeats.  Seeds are used as "vegetable ivory" for making buttons, beads, etc.  The unripe kernels are edible.  The shell can be used for small containers such as snuff boxes.  The cabbage and cotyledon stalk can be eaten.  Maybe this is a plant which has helped people here survive through times of drought and war.  I doubt that it is a highly desired food.  Purseglove says the young unexpanded leaves are plaited in strips for making baskets, mats, hats, etc.  I have seen Lotuho hats made from doum palm leaves.  These hats are hard enough to serve as helmets which protect against traditional weapons.

Photo: Lotuho hat made from doum palm leaves

First Visit to a Medical Clinic

Lohutok, Sudan

I went to the clinic at Lalanga with Martha (a nurse) and Daniel (Lohutok's chief).  The road was very bad in places.  We had to climb a few rock covered banks and dodge ditches with the Land Rover.  There were many sick and malnourished children at the clinic.  Each child has a card that he / she is to bring to the clinic.  It contains a graph which is supposed to indicate whether the child is at or below normal weight.  Most were below normal weight, especially those who had measles.  They are weighed each month.  The weights could be a good source of data about existence of a "hungry season".  However, weekly frequency of disease may also be an indicator.  Much of the weight loss seems to be the result of disease which in turn may result from malnutrition.  By going through the daily records, I could get data for a longer time period and more complete data.  The weight data might be a good supplement to this if I could collect it.

Above: Weighing a baby at the clinic in Lalanga.

Below: Martha giving an injection to a child.

As we were returning to Lohutok, we saw a man carrying an automatic, military type rifle.  Daniel motioned me to stop.  Daniel chewed the man out for having the gun.  Daniel said that two Lotuko people had been killed in their gardens by people from another tribe (Taposa, I think).  The Lotuko found those who did the killing and killed them.  Sickness and death seem to be just a part of daily life here.  I guess they do not even sound drums for a child below a certain age who dies.  I guess there are too many of them who die.

Daniel apparently has a big responsibility as chief.  He has to try many cases.  There is a jail up in the village.  Once, each of the villages was supposed to build one of the shelters at the school.  The people in the village just northeast of us did not do theirs.  Daniel put all the men in jail every night for a month.  On the morning of the last night, they all gave a big shout when they got out.  It could be heard all the way to church where the Sunday service was in progress.  That must be over one-quarter mile away.

Today I wrote to Bob Kempf, a friend from Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at Cornell University.

Welding and Learning About Gender Roles in Farming

Lohutok, Sudan

I wrote to Pastor John and Ruth Wilkens of Brantford Covenant Church in Kansas.  I asked them to show their letter to Delbert and Pearl Anderson.  I also wrote to Dave Ettestadt, a grad student in Physics at Cornell.

Last night, my stomach was rather uneasy and I had some diarrhea.  It was minor and seems to be gone now.  Samuel is still fighting something he came down with yesterday.  It may be malaria.  Malaria used to be a frightening word.  With modern medicine, it is not much different than the flu (except that it can recur).

I saw a guy walk past this morning with an automatic rifle.  Interesting!  A hold-over from the latest civil war I suppose.  Or perhaps it came out of Uganda.

I helped Samuel do some welding this afternoon.  It was a bit frustrating as the welder quit working part way through.  Its habit is to quit when it gets warmed up.

A guy named Ernes (spelling?) stopped to see what we were doing.  He said he was finished planting today.  He said weeding will start next week.  He said the women do the weeding.  "Men cannot weed", he said.  I tried to ask what the men do.  I think I understood him to say that men sit around and / or they will dig or plant cassava.  This opens up a whole new set of questions about who does what and will complicate any labor use studies.  Oh well, farming systems in less developed countries are supposed to be complicated.  I also see I have not gotten complete answers about what crops are grown.  I wonder if cassava is used as a famine reserve crop?