My students were aged between 14 to 18 years and because of Sudan's history, they came from a very different background. Sudan has been plagued by civil war since the eighties with sporadic attempts at cease-fires. It is a country neatly divided between the Arab Muslim North and the dominantly Christian African South. The seat of government is Khartoum, in the north, which has been trying to control the south and impose Muslim law on it. Southern Sudan has been destroyed by civil war.
Famine is rife.
The people have fled their homes and moved north in shantytowns around Khartoum. With no sanitation, little food and water, many separated from their families and with barely a roof over their heads, living conditions for the southerners in Khartoum are horrendous. Comboni College Khartoum catered for students who came from such a background as well as those who were Muslim Arabs and were reasonably well off. It was very challenging to work in such a mixed religious and cultural environment, especially when these very differences were the cause of war in the country. All my students were hard working and very respectful in the classroom.