The main aim of my visit was to assist Ben in presenting an environmental message to schools about the importance of maintaining as much of the local environment as possible in the face of significant population pressures as people returned to the area from refugee camps in nearby countries. The bush is being cleared for the cultivation of ground nuts, maize, sweet potato and casava as well as the building of homes. Existing villages are expanding and isolated homes are morphing into enough houses to form a village. More and more tracks and roads are linking settlement areas. The natural environment is being either decimated in this process or pillaged for resources such as firewood and building materials to the extent that it is undergoing rapid and, probably, irreversible change.

Over the 3 weeks we visited 4 primary and 4 secondary schools twice each to build on the work done by previous visitors who had introduced the Roots and Shoots program to these schools. Initially we spoke to the Principals of schools and some of their key staff before addressing student groups about the interrelationship of people and the natural environment, habitats, the problems other countries have to cope with as a result of the degradation of local environments - logging and landslides, urbanisation and pollution, global warming, etc. We encouraged the formation of student environmental groups at the secondary school level and left all schools with a list of trees that could be planted within their grounds and a place to source these trees.

We also visited the District Commissioner and the Anglican Bishop, as well as other village groups, to spread a similar message. The community garden outside of the village of Kiri was a pleasant surprise and a tribute to the hard work of the cooperative members who were growing a range of vegetables for local sale as well as tree seedlings which were available for purchase.

My visit was somewhat brief but I thoroughly enjoyed Ben's company and his showing me around his part of South Sudan. People face a daunting task here, not the least being to build a viable public education system within an environment of huge classes, lack of trained teachers and the absence of critical physical resources. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done by KADI and other organisations in the areas of health, education and community empowerment and great scope for volunteers from Adelaide and across Australia to contribute their expertise in a variety of ways to the realisation of this.

It is difficult for us to comprehend how their lives are shaped by conditions that make fulfilling everyday needs so taxing. Such as having to cart water for everything-cooking, cleaning and surviving. There is no power so no fridges or air-conditioning-not even a fan! But yet they work so hard at re-building & resettling with little or no support.

Transport is almost non existent (except for the 4WD used by KADI which acts as ambulance, taxi, cartage vehicle), yet the loads people carry long distances are unbelievable. Conditions in the medical centres are poor and the staff work in complicated situations with little or no supplies. Yet I met people patiently waiting their turn to be seen.

Education opportunities are massively disadvantaged with no resources and high class numbers (I took a class of 95 year 1 students) Despite this I met delightfully happy children and proud parents.

My time in Kajo Keji was both confronting and awesome. I share Ben's dream to make a difference to the lives of the people in South Sudan.