I sat today and wondered to myself: What have I seen in my time here in Akot, Southern Sudan?
There have certainly been the obvious things. Weather. Bugs. Birds.
All these are changing as the season shifts slowly from dry season to rainy season. We are in the “in between” right now, and it has been interesting to watch the shift. Each day, the insects, the migrating birds, the winds and clouds – all have indicated an impending transition of the weather, with the resulting transformation of the land.
Some of the insects we were seeing are no longer in evidence. New ones – lots of new ones, including many and varied kinds of moths – have taken their place.
As soon as it rained – perhaps even before the rain started – the dime-sized velvet-red “rain bugs” appeared in their dozens, everywhere, wandering harmlessly and doing nothing in particular except to bumble about, bumping gently into things. No one here seems to know anything about these tiny creatures, nor where they hide in the dry season, but everyone knows that when they appear, the rain is surely coming.
Last night, the flying phases of both the driver ants and the termites were out in great force, fluttering their way from and to who-knows-where. This morning I found piles of once-used wings where last night’s owners discarded them to reenter their subterranean refuges.
The termites will emerge from their tunnels to eat any wood, straw, leaf, cardboard or cloth left in contact with the ground. Any, that is, except the few types of wood that are either too hard or otherwise unpalatable to them. As they sneak from their holes under cover of darkness, they build arched passageways of fast-drying mud to protect them from the coming heat and predators. Then, one finds that those dirt coverings engulf each piece of edible cellulose in turn and reduce it to a hollow shell, or to nothing.
The driver ants do not sneak out of their holes. When they are ready, they emerge with the boldness and ferocity of a barbarian hoard on the attack. They march out in a disciplined stream, perhaps an inch-and-a-half wide. They go where they will. Almost nothing, except piles of wood ash, or certain chemicals, or wide waterways, or fire, will deter them. They move with one identity and purpose, and they overcome most obstacles by a remarkable self-sacrificing teamwork.
Sometimes, if their number is really large – and one may see a column of ants passing by for several days without break, and numbering well into the millions – one will notice that as they pass, they have moved pebbles from their pathway and smoothed the trail for following troops. As they travel the same trail, over time, they slowly excavate the trail into the ground, and the entire way is lined with tiny stones and the bodies of dead ants.
Driver ants may pass in their line-of-march like this, not molesting anything along the way. However, if their scouts , which range ahead of the main body and sometimes out to the flanks, encounter either a potential food source or threat, the message is passed in an instant, and the entire hoard will swarm over the target, whether it is a hapless insect, rodent or snake, or whether it is a cage full of chickens or other animals. Or a human.
Driver ants knows nothing of pity or selectivity. They bury their jaws into their prey and do not let go, even if they die in the act, and even if their bodies are torn from their heads. If one is so bitten, relief only begins when each head is painfully and painstakingly pulled loose.
If one is unable to move away from the swarming jaws, one will die – slowly eaten alive. When the ants finally leave, nothing but starkly cleaned bones will remain. There are stories – probably true – of prisoners so caught by the swarming jaws and unable to escape….
To those who know, usually from painful experience, driver ants have a distinctive smell that can be detected from at least ten feet away. Once learned, that smell is never forgotten, and it instantly engenders a combination of loathing and fear, and even hatred. On the basis of such a smell, I have on occasion announced to the disbelieving that driver ants are about – and I have very shortly been able to point to the horrible seething column that is the source of the smell.
In fairness, it must be added that sometimes, driver ants can actually provide a valuable cleaning service. If they take over a house and drive out its residents for a period, they will also clean it not only of unprotected edibles but also of infestations of other vermin, including termites.
The heavy rain of yesterday morning is already having other observable effects. Immediately after the rain yesterday, everyone who could be was in the fields, turning the softened ground to receive seed. Today, the oxen are out, pulling plows in larger plots. The seed will be planted in hope that more, and predictable, rain is not long off.
Last year, the rains never came properly, and the drought left many hungry people in its wake. There has been fear that this year might be like it. The rain we had yesterday was a good one, but one rain does not make a season. That one should be followed by more rains, at shortening intervals, until by around September there may be several days of hard, constant rain. For right now, one steady, solid rain every five-to-seven days would be considered good.
But if the rains do not come on schedule – if some whim of a current in the Indian or Pacific Ocean should interfere with winds and cloud formations – then another drought will come, and people in South Sudan will die, for there are no more food reserves. The international community will try to send aid, but that aid is never enough, and it is never quick enough.
Even if the rains are good, there will still probably be a “hungry time” in June and July as the farmers wait for the crops now being planted to mature to harvest.
Meanwhile, the rain did drop the temperature a few degrees for awhile, even as it raised the humidity. Still, the ground shows a good penetration of moisture, and farmers always plant in hope.
On Wednesday, we held a gathering of pastors to discuss various issues and to pray together. One of the major prayer requests was for rain, and we prayed so. The people around know that we prayed, and they know that the Lord answered with a good, hard, steady rain that came without damaging winds. We are grateful.
And as we have seen the rain soften the rock-hard dirt of South Sudan, so we are seeing the Holy Spirit soften hearts to receive the Love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.
The rain, and the transition to the rainy season, are easily observable. The work of God in the lives of the people here that has been going on since long before I arrived and will continue long after I leave – that is harder to see, sometimes, but it is also far more exciting than even the rarest insect or most beautiful bird.
There have certainly been the obvious things. Weather. Bugs. Birds.
All these are changing as the season shifts slowly from dry season to rainy season. We are in the “in between” right now, and it has been interesting to watch the shift. Each day, the insects, the migrating birds, the winds and clouds – all have indicated an impending transition of the weather, with the resulting transformation of the land.
Some of the insects we were seeing are no longer in evidence. New ones – lots of new ones, including many and varied kinds of moths – have taken their place.
As soon as it rained – perhaps even before the rain started – the dime-sized velvet-red “rain bugs” appeared in their dozens, everywhere, wandering harmlessly and doing nothing in particular except to bumble about, bumping gently into things. No one here seems to know anything about these tiny creatures, nor where they hide in the dry season, but everyone knows that when they appear, the rain is surely coming.Last night, the flying phases of both the driver ants and the termites were out in great force, fluttering their way from and to who-knows-where. This morning I found piles of once-used wings where last night’s owners discarded them to reenter their subterranean refuges.
The termites will emerge from their tunnels to eat any wood, straw, leaf, cardboard or cloth left in contact with the ground. Any, that is, except the few types of wood that are either too hard or otherwise unpalatable to them. As they sneak from their holes under cover of darkness, they build arched passageways of fast-drying mud to protect them from the coming heat and predators. Then, one finds that those dirt coverings engulf each piece of edible cellulose in turn and reduce it to a hollow shell, or to nothing.
The driver ants do not sneak out of their holes. When they are ready, they emerge with the boldness and ferocity of a barbarian hoard on the attack. They march out in a disciplined stream, perhaps an inch-and-a-half wide. They go where they will. Almost nothing, except piles of wood ash, or certain chemicals, or wide waterways, or fire, will deter them. They move with one identity and purpose, and they overcome most obstacles by a remarkable self-sacrificing teamwork.
Sometimes, if their number is really large – and one may see a column of ants passing by for several days without break, and numbering well into the millions – one will notice that as they pass, they have moved pebbles from their pathway and smoothed the trail for following troops. As they travel the same trail, over time, they slowly excavate the trail into the ground, and the entire way is lined with tiny stones and the bodies of dead ants.
Driver ants may pass in their line-of-march like this, not molesting anything along the way. However, if their scouts , which range ahead of the main body and sometimes out to the flanks, encounter either a potential food source or threat, the message is passed in an instant, and the entire hoard will swarm over the target, whether it is a hapless insect, rodent or snake, or whether it is a cage full of chickens or other animals. Or a human.
Driver ants knows nothing of pity or selectivity. They bury their jaws into their prey and do not let go, even if they die in the act, and even if their bodies are torn from their heads. If one is so bitten, relief only begins when each head is painfully and painstakingly pulled loose.
If one is unable to move away from the swarming jaws, one will die – slowly eaten alive. When the ants finally leave, nothing but starkly cleaned bones will remain. There are stories – probably true – of prisoners so caught by the swarming jaws and unable to escape….
To those who know, usually from painful experience, driver ants have a distinctive smell that can be detected from at least ten feet away. Once learned, that smell is never forgotten, and it instantly engenders a combination of loathing and fear, and even hatred. On the basis of such a smell, I have on occasion announced to the disbelieving that driver ants are about – and I have very shortly been able to point to the horrible seething column that is the source of the smell.
In fairness, it must be added that sometimes, driver ants can actually provide a valuable cleaning service. If they take over a house and drive out its residents for a period, they will also clean it not only of unprotected edibles but also of infestations of other vermin, including termites.
The heavy rain of yesterday morning is already having other observable effects. Immediately after the rain yesterday, everyone who could be was in the fields, turning the softened ground to receive seed. Today, the oxen are out, pulling plows in larger plots. The seed will be planted in hope that more, and predictable, rain is not long off.
Last year, the rains never came properly, and the drought left many hungry people in its wake. There has been fear that this year might be like it. The rain we had yesterday was a good one, but one rain does not make a season. That one should be followed by more rains, at shortening intervals, until by around September there may be several days of hard, constant rain. For right now, one steady, solid rain every five-to-seven days would be considered good.
But if the rains do not come on schedule – if some whim of a current in the Indian or Pacific Ocean should interfere with winds and cloud formations – then another drought will come, and people in South Sudan will die, for there are no more food reserves. The international community will try to send aid, but that aid is never enough, and it is never quick enough.
Even if the rains are good, there will still probably be a “hungry time” in June and July as the farmers wait for the crops now being planted to mature to harvest.
Meanwhile, the rain did drop the temperature a few degrees for awhile, even as it raised the humidity. Still, the ground shows a good penetration of moisture, and farmers always plant in hope.
On Wednesday, we held a gathering of pastors to discuss various issues and to pray together. One of the major prayer requests was for rain, and we prayed so. The people around know that we prayed, and they know that the Lord answered with a good, hard, steady rain that came without damaging winds. We are grateful.
And as we have seen the rain soften the rock-hard dirt of South Sudan, so we are seeing the Holy Spirit soften hearts to receive the Love of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.
The rain, and the transition to the rainy season, are easily observable. The work of God in the lives of the people here that has been going on since long before I arrived and will continue long after I leave – that is harder to see, sometimes, but it is also far more exciting than even the rarest insect or most beautiful bird.
Lovely descriptions.
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