Chapter 2 Trampled Grass

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A word from Curt

Our upcoming ebook,  Trampled Grass, will be released in late September.  It contains forty stories about the amazing people of South Sudan and northern Uganda.

The purpose of Trampled Grass is two fold:

1. To share stories that put a face on what is happening in a country we’ve come to love,  South Sudan.

2. To encourage Americans to get involved by praying, giving, sending, and going.  Trampled Grass will retail for $1.99 and proceeds will go to our organisation’s mission fund,  The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

Get your passport out.

Pack your bags and load your camera.

You’re going to an Amazing place.

Africa.

Enjoy the journey.

 

PoppaPipe

Chapter  2   Trampled Grass

 

“When two elephants fight, it’s the grass that gets trampled.”

African Proverb

 

This collection of stories is not about the two elephants that have destroyed our adopted country of South Sudan. We’ll leave that to the political experts. As we say back home, I don’t have a dog (or elephant) in this fight.

 

My concern, as well as stories, is about the trampled grass: the innocent everyday citizens of South Sudan.

 

Young Dinka men in Ulua 2 Camp   Uganda
Young Dinka men in Ulua 2 Camp Uganda

“This war took away something we must have: our opportunity at education.” -Ulua Camp School Boys

 

 

They are personally paying the price for the civil war that has gripped South Sudan since mid-December 2013.

 

We’ve met these brave people in the refugee camps and settlements along the border of South Sudan and it’s neighbor, Uganda. These are their stories.

South Sudan: where the challenges are endless and the opportunities are unlimited.
South Sudan: where the challenges are endless and the opportunities are unlimited.

 

 

The history and background of the current situation is complex and long. Here’s how it’s playing out presently:

 

A power struggle exists between the two strongest men in South Sudan, President Salva Kiir and former Vice President Riek Machar. Their sharing of power broke in July 2013 when President Kiir fired his entire cabinet, including Machar.

 

Kiir is from the Dinka tribe, South Sudan’s largest tribe.

 

Machar is from its second largest, the Nuer.

 

The fighting and violence is not all about ethnic allegiance, but the people you’ll meet in the following stories—Nuer, Dinka, Shilluk, or Zande— were trampled by soldiers, rebels, even neighbors who viewed them as the enemy.

 

Many lost family members.

 

Some fled south to the Ugandan border. That’s where we met them in the refugee camps and villages.

 

They are the trampled grass.

 

And these are their stories and the stories of the heroes who’ve reached out to them.

 

jessicaJoseph

Joseph and Jessica Anyovi, refugees as children, have used their past experiences to help others.

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