Monday, April 16, 2007, 06:52
500 miles. . .
What would it be like to walk 500 miles?
What would it be like to walk 500 miles when you are 7 years old?
What would it be like to survive on roots and leaves and see war all around you and people being killed and villages destroyed while you are walking 500 miles at 7 years of age?
That's what August Mayai experienced. He is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan. He walked 500 miles at the age of 7 to escape the war.
August is a graduate student now at UW-Madison working on his Ph.D. I interviewed him on Friday and will be writing a story for the newspaper. He was at the local university talking to students to tell them his story.
That's the interesting thing about newspaper work. I get to talk to people I would never talk to otherwise.
August says the United States has helped bring peace to southern Sudan. But he also says the United States is indirectly funding the war in northern Sudan, where more than 90 percent of the villages have been destroyed. State governments and universities have been doing business with companies that extract oil and minerals from Sudan. The Sudanese government uses the money it gets from these companies to fund the war against its own people. Many universities have divested their investments with these companies. Many state governments are following suit. So far, about 20 states have divested their interests with foreign companies in Sudan. Many of those companies operate out of China. Divestment -- cutting off the funding -- is the best way, August says, to stop the killing.
One of our state senators who was accompanying August on his speaking tour says no United States companies are doing business in Sudan. The very idea that we might be helping to fund such atrocities makes me feel sick, no matter how indirect the funding.
August goes back to Sudan during the summer to help his people. He is working on raising money to dig wells in Sudan. He says his people are dying from cholera and dysentery because they do not have fresh water to drink.
Those of us who have lived in the United States our entire lives cannot even begin to imagine what August has been through. He said when he first came to the United States, he got a ticket for crossing the street against a red light. He could not figure out why a policeman should care if he got killed on the street. Considering everything August has been through, traffic probably seemed like a minor hazard, at best. At least the people driving the cars were not trying to kill him on purpose.
I cannot begin to imagine, either, what it must be like for the people in Darfur not to have fresh water available.Every time I turn on the tap to get a glass of water to drink or to fill the coffee pot or to wash the dishes or to brush my teeth -- I think about August's people in Sudan who have no fresh water.
There's a possibility, maybe a remote possibility at this point, that the well project in Sudan could become our Foods Resource Bank project for the year. I asked August if he had heard of the Foods Resource Bank. Digging wells would be just the kind of project FRB would fund. August had not heard of FRB. My husband e-mailed our contact at FRB to see if it might be a possibility for a project. So we shall see. It would be really something if our efforts at raising corn here in Wisconsin could be used to help people in Sudan who so desperately need water.
If you would like to learn more about August Mayai and his work to raise funds to dig wells in Sudan visit his website.
And the next time you turn on the tap to get a drink of water or to wash your hands or to brush your teeth, think of August and all of the people in Sudan who need help.
I know I will.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Sunday, April 15, 2007, 03:32
Spring Again
It's starting to seem a little more like spring again! The snow has melted, and the cold, bitter wind out of the north has died down.
Today, the high was in the mid-50s and it was sunny. Not a tremendously warm day, but compared to the weather of last week, it seemed downright warm and balmy outside.
I can see the barest hint of a couple of red bumps poking out of the dirt down by the barn where the rhubarb grows. So it would appear that the rhubarb thinks it is spring.
The meadowlarks are singing again, too, now that there's been more sunshine and it's a little warmer.
The daylilies by the house are looking tough, though. They made the mistake of growing 4 to 6 inches when it was so warm in March. Now they are frozen and withered. They will come back, I think. The daylilies by the house always sprout earlier than the other daylilies, and most years they do get frozen off before they can really start their growing season. This year they grew a lot bigger than they normally do, however, before they got frozen.
So, we shall see. Perhaps spring is here at last. I don't mind a slow, gradual warm up. But I would rather not have any more below zero windchills.
LeAnn R. Ralph