Part 1: Depict Photos of my cousins and friends

 My cousin Longar in brown pants and his friends at a small tea and hookah shelter beside the road.

 Wau: John Paul High School students playing basketball near the rail suburb.

My Niece, Abuk Aleu lying in front of her friend on the turf grass that adjacent to the Jur River

Wau Bridge: built in  1976 by former Sudanese president  “Nummier”. This bridge provides access for local villagers from the other side of Jur River to transport their goods to market, especially during the rainy seasons. But this year in 2009, the area was hit badly by climate changes. The level of water dropped fast; these marks on the bridge pillars have remained to show where the  level of water was.

These people in photograph above are, my friends from the neighbouring state of Warrap, studying in Nairobi. Some are sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE). Others are form two and form three students. The one close to the guy wearing the Ronaldinho T Shirt is my cousin Majok Awar.  

My nephew: Majok Achingath walking  outside along the street  of university of Bhar el Ghazal fence in Wau.

 

My friend  Manyang Athian pose for a photo in front of the corner inside the new shop that still under construction

Near an estuary of the river: on the other of the river bank, stand a group of four men watching the hippo in the water, it is amazing as it emerges blowing water noisely from its nose to warn people not to come any closer and goes under the water every now and then. It needs to come out for grazing as the sun is setting.

Seen above a pic of traditional wedding: members from the groom's family arrived singing the song of praise for the girl with her family, and the clan. The woman wearing the black conical shaped hat made of ostrich feathers, is the groom's brother’s first wife. The guy next to her in the green robe with the white hat, is stepbrother to the groom. And the one in front of  the group is the groom’s senior uncle who is the leader for the whole marriage process, mainly on negotiation of the dowry with the bride’s family elders. The woman in the middle of the men in the red dress is hiding herself from camera, because of her dwarf status among the group. The building behind them has a roof torn apart by bullets during the war.

This is a Sorghum field at Maluil village outside Wau Town; the rain is always indispensable here like many other parts of South Sudan,  local peasants grow this kind of product just as a subsistence crops for family consumption only. When they  ripe men do the harvesting to the already plastered family compound. Where women thresh and winnowed them after they dried to separate the chaff from the grains, and finally they taken  to the family granary. 

 My cousin Majok Ngor on the left, in the middle is my nephew Majok, and uncle Chandit's brother in law. they are having their photo taken in front the portrait of John Bosco in Wau,  Vocational Training Centre.(VTC)

Jur River: a local fisherman on his small boat made of palm truck with its front part torn out, checking his net early in the morning to see if there are some fish in the net. 'Unfortunately  there is no fish', he said to me. Two years ago, this net would have been full of fish, now the net stays in water for more than two days without catching a single fish. 'Things are changing drastically' he said. The sizes of fish such as tilapia, tiger fish, catfish, nile perch and even the puffer fish has changed. Even people still cross the river on foot due to low level of water in the river ' perhaps our ancestors are unhappy with us, he said, we need to appease them by offering and asking them to  help us with enought rain to fill up the river.



In this pic seen above: are Wau-Alve and Mayo primary school students. They are marching to their position in Wau stadium during the late John Garang’s Memorial Day. These are not Muslim schoolgirls, they are Christians, but some schools under Sudanese government funding were forced to wear an Islamic dress code. Behind them on the right side are the Sudanese People Liberation Army (SPLA) and police standing in the parade.

Me: standing at the estuary of the Jur River.

Part 2: Depict pictures of crusading

Pastor Mark Davy preaching at Freedom Square in Wau, many people attended this preaching session, most of them came to see the miracle cure Pastor Mark performs, while other came to look for healings, like disabled persons

Huge crowd gathered to witness the rekindled performances by Pastor Mark Davy

 Choir performs  sublimely on the stage before the Pastor arrives to the platform

The crusading had enticed many people as the Crowd continue swelling at Freedom Square for crusading prayers

At the peripheral of the Freedom Square, young boys who can not look far enough due to their short height, climbed up on the frame that looks like scaffolding in the foreground to have a clear view of the pastor Mark on the rostrum, others on the ground who have no chance to see the Pastor tried to peep through the throng of people

A blind man in the blue dress sees things around him after long and essence prayers, at the same time Pastor Mark caveats people against their adherent to superstition paraphernalia practices and asked them to grasp Jesus in their heart  

Me chatting with friends that I caught up with at the crusading, while leaning my back against metal pole

Part 3: Depict Pictures of my welcoming ceremony

The next day was Saturday, a day for my welcoming ceremony preparation, this cow is for my welcoming ceremony

My cousin Longar, known  as "Awelmac" his arm resting on his nephew Majok's shoulder,next Majok Adhel, Majok Ngor, their  friend in the black shirt, and Mathuc who all posed for the photo

In this photo above seen my uncle Yel from right, me standing next him, Anyar, Bol Majok, Mariak Tong, Longar Chan and Yak Akol Tiit squatting on the ground.

Some officials from state government and county representatives, uncles and their friends

An aforementioned group of people eating

Cousin Adut Akol preparing meal for my welcoming ceremony. the dish is a local cuisine.

Some of my friends sitting outside shortly after their arrival before they were whisked into the verandah for the beginning of the ceremony. 

The foregoing dignitaries in conversation. 

People dining, the guy looking at camera in brown pants and light blue shirt is a local plumber.

Uncle Aniek listening to one of his friends who was narrating the horrible incident he had escaped during the war.

Women finished food preparation, served and ready to the table.

Yak Akoldit and Mariak Tong.

Part 4: Depict Pictures of my "Blessing"

Uncle Akec standing before the senior spear master Yel Machar and Longar, holding his ancestral spears

Above: meeting immediate and distant relatives during my visit to the village

Yel Machar in his red and green robe with red hat, is one of the few  an octogenarians  and prominent spear master of the clan, singing a short verse of divine before saying a word of blessing

Paramount chief Longar Makuac in his African dress

Part 5: Depict Marial Bai Primary School

This school was renovated by Morris Yel in 2009, now it  has about 240 pupils and 12 teachers, 4 pupils share one desk

These grade five students are waiting for their teacher to deliver them their first morning lesson in the classroom

Seen above are young girls from grade three

A man joking to a class of students under the tree as he passed by, telling them to pay more attention to their studies so that they will not look like him in their future

Cluster of palm trees with some stumps of palm that were cut down

Impressive savannah landscape outside Marial Bai, here you can spot some ghazels, dik-dik and rodents of different kinds. Some are nocturnal such as  aardvarks that feast on matabele ants or termites using its long snout and claws to dig them out of termite mounds, porcupines, and  hedgehogs also inhabited this area, they  appears at low evening sunset,

Part 6; depict Wau small Businesses

The market Square with roadside sellers, the shops  look like they have rusty roofs but they were painted to matches the natural earth colour of the town, with amazing products inside them, here pick-up trucks, bicycle riders, motorcycles and rickshaw drivers are waiting for their customers in market to hire their means of transportation .

People playing

An aforementioned means are available for hire to transport people

Shops like this one above are found almost lined up alongside of the streets, selling goods to pedestrians.

This young boy is a street vendor, he sells plastic bags and children's clothes on cheap price, today he made good money, while taking rest and quenching his thirst on a sprit drink that cost only two sudanese pounds.Next to him a man standing by his bicycle scanning the roadside of the market for a customer to hire his bicycle. On the other side of the road some rickshaws are waiting for customers too, here you can see the real competion, the means of transport is cheap and affordable.  

Wau, at evening take a little walk to the Jur river bank  for leisures time, here people watch beautiful sunset, and sometime Crocodiles and hippos during the rain season, these kids above are scare, especially the girl in brown skirt and white blouse is panic and nervous as the hippopotamous going under water, who knows it may emerge nearer to them, so the girl has her reason to scare, but the boys look an unperturbed

Jur River: you can see the patch of reed plants at distance of small island in the middle of the river

Close view of Marial Bai -Wau  murram road that will soon connect with tarmac road at Girirti to Wau centre

Young cousins are playing, while there were pairs of hadada birds making noise nearby 

People are cultivating the acres of land, this is a kind of traditional support network for cultivating large yards in few hours by coming as a group, the seeds are sow then cultivated using hoes attached to long wooden shafts, South Sudanese are hard working people they only buy these hoes and jembes from local blacksmith workshops to make a living with, the Khartoum government from North had been deprived the people of south Sudan for many years. This kind of broadcasting cultivation manifeste many  tasks such as hand weeding after the seeds germinated to the knee-high, later they chasing away of  animals such as goats, sheep, cattles and birds, then finally later on the harvesting task.