Chapter 9: Nature un convention on the rights of the child article 29: Education with the purpose of developing respect for the natural environment.

9:1 9: Nature article 29 Education with the purpose of developing respect for the natural environment. bukala, 6 years old says: Today I, my brother Taban and his see the monkeys. We get very Lui, we pass the durra fields. Durra is the friend Lillibeth are going to pick grass. happy to see them, but the most common plant here. Earlier there were It may sound strange that we are going monkeys get scared and run peanuts in this field. We harvested them a to pick grass, but we make bundles of it and away. How lucky it was a while ago. My mum made peanut butter to bring them to school. The grass in our area can mango-tree. We can see that sell in the market. That tastes very good. grow to be almost two metres (7 ft) high. The the mangos are ripe, so we When we come home our dog barks, he roofs on our huts are made of grass. To get some climb up the tree. On the top of has waited for us. We put the bundles of grass extra money to our school, we pick grass in the tree we sit and enjoy one by the hen-house. The dog and the hens are bundles and sell them at school. mango each. Mmmm, it tastes our domestic animals. Tomorrow we will Now Lillibeth is coming and we can leave. really good! Lillibeth says bring the bundles of grass to school. Lillibeth says that she is worried there may be that sitting this high up in a dangerous animals in the bush. We have been tree reminds her of when her taught there may be wild animals like lions and family had to escape during leopards that may hurt us. Really we know there the war. The whole family are none, but it is somewhat uncomfortable ran through the woods and anyway. Snakes, scorpions and spiders we know high up on to the mountains. there are, and that they can easily hide in the She says that they had to grass, so we must check very carefully. During stay there for several weeks. the war all the animals disappeared, but now It is not nice for Lillibeth to they are coming back again and we are actually remember how scared she was, very happy about that. The birds are already so we decide to climb down back. And we have heard that a hippopotamus the tree and keep walking to has been seen in the river. So you never know the grass. what can happen. Eventually we reach the Sniff, sniff. I smell fire. I hope it is not a fire place where the grass grows that has spread! We find a man burning grass. high. We gather the grass in It is called burn-beating. It is done to make the bundles and on our way back earth better for growing. Luckily the man is home, Lillibeth shows which trees watching the fire. are good for fire-wood. Her mum Suddenly something is rustling in a fruit-tree. has taught her that. We jump because we are scared, but then we When we come back to

9:2 Facts types of nature the Sudd and the White Nile loses North America and the pampas common. In a young stage durra is South Sudan is a flat land with much water in that way. in South America. The vegetation poisonous. higher mountains in the south The savannah, a type of is dominated by perennial grass, Durra can grow on quite meagre eastern part of the country. vegetation in tropical and but also onion- and tuber-plants soil and can stand quite high The environment consists mainly subtropical areas with distinct dry and annual herbs. In the past the temperatures, but is sensitive to of grass land, high-situated plateaus and rainy seasons. Grass savannah steppes were grazed by enormous frost. and slopes, wood-covered and usually consists of high growing herds of animals, for example, The plant can stand floods. grass-grown savannahs, river plains grass and areas sparsely covered buffalo and antelope, but nowadays Cultivation of durra is work- and wetlands. with bushes and trees, in Africa big areas are cultivated and are consuming. A lot of weeding is White Nile is a big river flows mainly acacia, and here and there among the most important areas on demanded in the beginning of the through South Sudan. In Sudan baobab trees. In South America the earth for producing food. growing season and when the seed it merges with the Blue Nile and trees are often palms and cactuses is mature, it must be protected becomes the Nile. Along the White and in Australia different kinds of huts and grass against birds. The small seeds are Nile there are river plains. South eucalyptus. If the vegetation is more See Fact in chapter 2, At home. picked and ground into flour used Sudan includes one of the biggest like a forest, like in the miomb (dry To get extra income for the for porridge and bread. Durra wetlands in the world, the Sudd. wood) in Africa you usually talk school, the pupils can be asked is sown is May and harvested The White Nile, one of the main about tree- or sometimes bush- during a period of 2 – 3 weeks to in January. Some kinds can be arms of the longest river in the savannah. Towards drier areas the pick the long grass and collect it in harvested twice a year. The seeds world, flows through South Sudan savannah turns into bush-steppe bundles. Each bundle is sold for 5 for sowing are dried in a special from the south to the north. It and towards more rainy areas into SSP. The grass is used to build and basket (mundro). One kind of durra enters South Sudan from Uganda in rainforest. Along the rivers through mend roofs. is called Njarangu. the south. North of the capital of the savannah there are evergreen South Sudan, Juba, which is quite forests. During the dry season when common plants and fruits Cassava, actually manioc, is a far south, the White Nile spreads the trees in the savannah lose their Durra (Arabic for grain of corn) is half-bush in the family of spurge- into an enormously big papyrus- leaves and the grass withers, fires a kind of grass, sometimes called plants and the root-tuber belongs swamp, the Sudd. often occur, sometimes started by sorghum. Durra is a 1 – 5 metre to the most important basic food The Sudd (Arabic for obstacle) the people with the purpose of high annual grass, usually with a on earth. The plant can become is a big swamp in South Sudan. getting better pasture. very big and voluminous panicle up to 5 metres high and it blooms The swamp consists of thick loads The steppe, landscape with grass with a variety of shapes and colours in September – November with of grass, half-grass and floating and no trees in rather dry areas on like yellow, red, brown and black. small pink-red flowers. Each plant water-plants. The river Nile flows earth. The steppe is the original The small ears grow in pairs: develops several spool-shaped through the Sudd. When flooded, type of vegetation on approx. one with no stem and a bisexual root-tubers, which can become 20 islands of vegetation can be pulled one fifth of the mainland on the flower, the other one with a stem to 60 centimetres (8 – 24 inches) loose and hinder the traffic on the earth with different names like the and a male flower. Self- pollination long with a weight up to 10 kg river. Evaporation is considerable in puszta in Hungary, the prairie in and self-fertilization is the most (20 lb). They are rich in starch

9:3 Facts but poor in protein. They are very Corn (maize) is a plant in the grass thus the fruits are pushed down round. The flowers are bell-shaped starch-rich and are poisonous when family. It is an annual, up to 6 into the earth, where they mature. to funnel-shaped, white to pink or fresh, depending of its content of a metres (20 ft) high straw plant with The fruit is yellow-gray, rounded, purple. glycoside producing prussic acid. pith filled straw and wide lancet- net- veined and pulled together in That can however be removed like and often shining leaves. The the middle. It usually contains two leguminous through grating, boiling or roasting flowers are unisexual with male cylindrical red or brown seeds. Beans occur in two main kinds, after which they are edible. The and female flowers on the same It is eaten roasted or salted and called bush-beans or pole-beans root-tubers can, through washing, plant. The male flowers are placed is an important raw material for depending on the way they grow. be processed into flour or grain. in spikes on the top, gathered in producing peanut-oil and peanut- There are also many different The starch-rich cassava can be used a panicle, and the female flowers paste. groups with different look and for for thickening in different dishes. It are placed in thick spikes, called a different use. All kinds have green is often sold in the shape of round spadix in the lower leaf-fold. Sweet-potato or batat has its origin or purple leaves, parted into three grains with the same use as sago. There are many different kinds in South America and is despite oval small leaves. They have white, of corn. It can stand dryness pretty the name not related to potato, it pink or purple, approx. 1 cm (0,4 Okra is probably a word of West- well. It is popular because it is is bindweed. The tubers are oval in) long. The bean pods are 8-20 African origin and a plant in the resistant to diseases, it is hardly and irregularly shaped like baking cm (3-8 in) long and green, yellow, mallow family. It is an annual ever attacked by birds, it is easy potatoes but much bigger. The skin black or purple. Each bean pod herb from tropical Africa and is to transport and it needs less soil is light brown or red. There are contains 4-6 beans. The beans are grown in the tropics and in some preparation than other kinds two kinds of sweet-potatoes. The approx. 1 ½ cm (6/10 in) long and subtropical areas. The fruit is a of corn. In South Sudan corn is most common has yellow-orange have many different colours and capsule approx. 8 cm (3 in) long, harvested in September. pulp, moist after boiling. The other colour combinations. light green with five cells and many kind has light-coloured, mealy Beans are very rich in protein, seeds. It is called Lady´s fingernail Peanut (called earthnut in South pulp. Sweet-potato has a somewhat especially soybeans. The protein because it is long and bent like a Sudan) is a plant in the pea family. shorter boiling-time than potato. is also of good quality, almost claw. The whole plant contains It is an annual, approx. 50 cm Since it is sweet it is used both comparable with animal protein. mucus secretion, which can be (20 in) high herb with a stem in together with other vegetables and Most beans need to be boiled used for thickening sauces and for several branches often lying down. in desserts. carefully or they will cause medical purposes. Okra is often cut The leaves are pair-bladed with Young plants are edible. indigestion. Beans also contain into pieces. You can eat okra as a few pair-leaves and one single-leaf. Recently plants for decoration vitamin B and minerals like calcium vegetable in three different ways: Leaves and stem are hairy. The have been cultivated because of the and iron. yellow pea-flowers are placed one beautiful leaves. Sweet-potato is a Soybeans are rich in 1. Raw by one in the leaf-folds on long perennial plant, but the stems are polyunsaturated fat. Dried beans 2. Boiled with some salt. When it is stems. After blooming the stem annual and the plant continues to kept cool and dry keep almost soft it is ready bends down, the flower-bottom grow through its tubers. The leaves indefinitely. 3. Salted and sundried to be boiled between calyx and pistil grows and are green, widely egg-shaped to later

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Peas, dried yellow and green peas cutting. After harvesting new shoots Mango is rich of carotene, like butter and without thread- have some protein, minerals and can put forth up to eight times which is good for the sight, the skin structure. The taste is sweet with a vitamin B. Yellow peas are most before a replant is needed. From the and the skeleton. Mango contains weak aroma reminding of melon. common. Chick-peas look like woody stem sugary juice is pressed enzymes good for the digestion. The fruit is rich in vitamin A and C yellow peas, but are bigger and out, boiled and crystallised. In Mango is eaten fresh or and is often seen on breakfast-trays somewhat tuberous with a nutty South Sudan you often bring a piece prepared in many different ways, around the world. taste. They do not mush when of sugar cane for packed lunch. like chutney or juice and in Papaya is an ancient culture boiled. They are used in salads, Increasingly sugar cane is used to casseroles. Dried mango is excellent plant grown by the Indians long casseroles and soups. produce ethanol for fuel. for supplies or for a snack. before the arrival of the Europeans. Broad bean is part in the pea- It is not known growing wild, but family. It does not exist wild, mango papaya there are similar plants growing but is one of the oldest plants belongs to the sumac family and is a tree-shaped herb. It can grow in Central and South America. that has been cultivated in north there are approx. 35 different up to 10 metres (32 ft) high and Nowadays papaya is cultivated in Africa, eastern Mediterranean and kinds. The fruits are 3-30 cm (1-12 blooms in April through August. warmer areas and is an important southwest Asia. It is grown in many in) long, egg- heart or kidney- The stem is never totally woody. food. Dried juice from the fruit places today. The broad bean is a shaped, always with a skewed top. On the top of the stem there is a is called papain and is extracted standing annual herb with pinnate The peel is thin and pretty leathery, rosette with hand-lobated leaves by a cutting immature fruits and leaves. The flowers grow in clusters green, yellow or reddish, sometimes on long stalks. Male and female collecting what wells up in the cut. from the leaf-fold and are white towards purple. Every fruit has a flowers grow on different plants. Papain contains a protein- with black spots. When raw, broad big flat seed stuck in the pulp. The The male flower is long-stalked splitting enzyme and is used among beans are poisonous like many pulp is yellow, juicy and sweet with and the female flower is short- other things to tenderize meat and wild beans. The poison disappears a rich peach-like aroma together stalked. The fruits hang in bundles as medicine for indigestion. In when boiled carefully, but not with a weak smell of turpentine. under the leaf-crown. The fruits industry papain is used to prevent when dried. Boiled broad beans are Mango is a powerful tree with are formed like balls, cylinders, shrinking of silk and wool. nourishing; only the seeds in the small single- or bi-sexual flowers eggs or pears and sometimes with pod are to be used. and a big branchy crown. The five clearly marked longitudinal banana leaves are single, narrow lancet- rounded ridges. There is a big is a family of monocotyledonous sugar cane like. You find them wild in parts of variety and the size can vary plants. The fruits are of different is a perennial straw herb in the south Asia. With the help of people, between 7 and 30 cm (3-12 in). size, colour and firmness, but they grass family. How it looks and how the cultivated kind has spread to The thin peel is shiny, yellow are often long, thin and bent. The it grows is similar to reeds, often most of the warm and tropical or green, rarely two-coloured. pulp is soft and starch-rich covered 3-4 meters (10-13 ft) high with regions in the world. In Lui you In a hollow in the middle of the with a peel that can be yellow, sharp leaf-edges and a meter-long can see them everywhere. It is said fruit there are lots of small greyish purple or red, when the fruit is ripe. panicle. Cultivated plants do not that the cultivation of mango was seeds that have to be removed. The The fruits grow in clusters hanging bloom, but are multiplied through started 4000 years ago. pulp is salmon-coloured, almost down from the top of the plant.

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The banana is classified as \ berry how you learn about wood and of forest fires, dumping waste and The animals people are most and the cultivated kinds contain plants water pollution in the region. That afraid of are leopard, lion and no seeds but only black rudiments When the children are 9-11 years was good news. The bad news is snakes of all kinds. Scorpions also from ovules. There are however old, the father brings the sons to the that big international companies can be found in Lui. In the night kinds containing black seeds, big as woods and explains which plants are ready to extract natural after the sunset you need to bring peppercorns embedded in the pulp. are good, and for what, and which resources (oil) in South Sudan to a torch to be safe if you go for a Some bananas are so full of seeds ones are poisonous. an extent which causes a threat to walk. that they are difficult to eat. The children also are taught the wild life in the region and to the The banana family was first which plants can be used for environment. domestic animals described by the botanist Georg making ropes and building houses During the war most of the wild Hens, sheep and goats are the most Eberhard Rumphius but accepted and which ones become rotten. animals disappeared from Lui and common animals in the household. formally in Linné's Spices South Sudan. The first animals The hens give eggs to the family. Plantarum in 1753. Linné knew animals before and after the that came back were the birds Egg from birds, especially from only one kind of banana and that war and nowadays you can see kites, hens are considered to be a was growing in a greenhouse in Before the civil war in 1983, vultures and glossy-starlings among nutritious food, since it contains the Netherlands. Linné called them Sudan/South Sudan supported others in Lui. much protein. From the goats you Musa Paradisiaca and for a long the some of the most spectacular In Lui we are told that antelope, get milk. The goat milk is as close time it was considered to be a wild and important wild populations buffalo, lion, hippopotamus and to human breast milk as you can plant. Later it turned out to be a in Africa and hosted the second monkey are back. come. hybrid, a cooking plantain. largest migration of animals in More goat milk than cows milk The plant is grown in two main the world. Investigations showed wild animals is drunk in the world. Goat milk categories, the ordinary banana, that Boma National Park, west There are many typical mammals contains 13 times as much taurin sometimes called the desert banana of the Ethiopian boarder as well in South Sudan, especially in the as cow milk; taurin is the active and the cooking plantain. The latter as the Sudd, the big swamp and Sudd, the biggest swamp in Africa substance in many energy drinks. is used as a vegetable; it is especially the southern national park, close and on the savannahs nearby. The cholesterol is lower because rich on starch and is boiled or fried. to the Congo border were good Some examples are bushbuck, Nile the goat milk is richer in short and The most common kind, the environments for big populations lechwe, hartebeest, eland, topi, medium long fatty acids. one bought in Europe is the dessert of kob, topi and hartebeest (three african buffalo, elephant, giraffe, Thanks to the low amount of the banana and is eaten fresh, but can kinds of antelope), buffalo, lion, serval (wild cat) and spotted protein kasein alfa S-1 goat milk also be prepared in many different elephant, giraffe, lion and monkey. hyena and among the monkeys: is suitable for people intolerant to ways. The flowers can be used as The president announced in anubis baboon, patas monkey and cows milk. In goat milk there is vegetable. 2006 that South Sudan should do green guenon. The Nile crocodile lactose, but since it passes through everything they could to protect and the Nile lizard are in the Sudd the bowels much faster than the and spread the flora and the fauna but can hardly be seen further cows milk lactose, it causes fewer and to strive to reduce the effects north. or no problems. Goat milk is

9:6 Facts excellent for sportspeople and everybody who exercises thanks to the high amount of minerals and vitamins. In the country-side there are tribes who herd cows. In South Sudan cows are white with long horns and in Moru language cow is called ti. There are quite a lot of dogs but very few cats in Lui. burn-beating A type of agriculture where wood- or steppe-land is cleared by burning every two to three years in order to cultivate in the layer of ashes. Since no new manure is added, the land is soon impoverished. The land is left to grow new grass for pasture and eventually new trees. Burn-beating is a very old kind of agriculture, and is still used in many parts of the world. In Britain the stubble from crops used to be burned but this has effectively been forbidden since 1993. the war See facts about the war in chapter 1, The move.

9:7 suggestion 1 suggestion 2 suggestion 3 suggestion 4 Conversation Prayers Exotic fruit-salad African animals child rights convention bible word Make a fruit-salad with exotic Present some African animals. Talk about article 29, Education The creation (Genesis 1:1-25) fruits like mango, banana, Borrow books from the library with the purpose of developing orange, papaya and melon. or search on the web. Make respect for the natural songs collages, reports, power point environment. In South Sudan Farmer, farmer, why do you presentations etc. they are very proud of the wild plough? (CAHON 796) animals and very happy that they are returning after the war ended. It takes an almighty hand to Do we have the same pride for make your harvest grow (KS 176) our wild animals and which ones If I were abutterfly (KS 128) would that be? Push little seed (CAHON 881) basic feelings Talk about the feelings in the There are hundreds of sparrows story. What can make you (KS 320) scared? The children in the story are afraid of meeting wild prayer animals. Are there any animals Thank you, God for your you are afraid of? creation of beautiful nature with many different kinds of plants and animals. Help us, God to take care of it all. Amen

9:8 suggestion 5 Egg experiments spin an egg egg in a bottle a transparent egg Spin a hard-boiled and a soft- Peel a boiled egg. Take out a Put an un-boiled egg in a glass boiled egg. Which one spins the bottle and show that the egg and pour vinegar over it until the longest time? cannot come down into the egg is covered. Put cling film over bottle. Light some matches and the glass and wait one to two The soft-boiled egg stops put them in the bottle. Then put days to see what happened. The spinning pretty soon, but the the egg on the opening of the egg-shell will dissolve and only hard-boiled keeps spinning, since bottle and the egg will go down the thin skin will stay. The egg there is no liquid inside that into the bottle. When you put will look transparent. moves around. the egg on the bottle-opening the first time, the air-pressure is the a super-strong egg make an egg float same outside as well as inside Wash four half egg-shells Show that an egg cannot float in the bottle. To pull the egg down carefully so that the edges are as water by putting it in a glass of into the bottle can only be done clean as possible. Put them on water. Take it out and put salt through the force of gravity, a table with the round side up. in the water. Stir. The egg will but it was not strong enough to Then put books on top. How float, since the water gets heavier pull the egg down through the many books can you put there when salt is added and so the egg bottle-opening. But when you until the egg-shells break? It can floats. change the temperature inside be a surprisingly number. The the bottle, you also change the egg-shell halves are strong, but air-pressure. If you diminish the if you pick an egg-shell from the pressure enough inside the bottle, inside it will break at once. the pressure outside will push the egg down through the opening. If you use a soft-boiled egg the experiment will be stickier, but it will be easier to get the pieces of the egg out of the bottle than if you use a hard-boiled egg.

9:9 Resources

pictures The nature Banana with fruit and flower Monkey Nature Papaya Kite Nature with a road Durra-field Vulture Old road Cows with durra-field in the Glossy-starling background White Nile Crow Small durra, close-up River Butterfly Ready durra-panicle Mountain with fire Lizard Cassava-field Children with grass Scorpion Earthnuts and cassava Boys by grass Cock Sweet-potato Grass gathered at school Hen with chicken Sugar-cane Burn-beating Herd with sheep Blooming okra Fruit and eatable herbs Goat Okra, the fruit Blooming mango Cat Lentils Mango, the fruit Dog Animals Banana-plant Cows

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