“Teaching is a wonderful experience. I try to give my life for others through education”. Comboni Sister Beatriz Cristina Mata, who has been in South Sudan for twenty-five years, shares her experience.
After the terrible earthquake that hit my native Mexico, in 1985, I had to reconsider many things and this led me, after a long discernment, to enter the Institute of the Comboni Missionary Sisters.
In 2000, after studying to become a teacher in Kenya, I was sent to South Sudan, where I still am. When I arrived, it was the difficult years of war and in that context, I began to understand the importance of education and that my training could be of great value.
I had prepared myself to work as a secondary school teacher, but when I arrived, I was surprised to discover that there were only primary schools. The primary school students were boys and girls of some age. When I asked where the secondary schools were, someone replied: “Forget it, they don’t exist in South Sudan. You will have to adapt to what is there”. I admit that it was a long and difficult process, but at the same time it became the most beautiful experience of my life. I was amazed to see the changes in so many boys and girls.
They come to school with very limited language skills, but after a few months they can express themselves in English; they learn fast and soon start writing their first words. Witnessing these results is a source of great emotion for me.
I am amazed by the thirst for education of these boys and girls from Southern Sudan. They can walk for miles to go to school. It doesn’t matter if they write their first letters on the ground or on makeshift blackboards. They may also go without food, but they don’t want to go without school. Education means a lot to them, it’s a dream.
In the last 25 years, I have seen many generations of students pass through our school, complete high school and enrol in university. Today two of my former students are doctors, one is a pharmacist, one is an engineer, and there is even one who studied in South Africa and is a pilot. All this makes me think that none of our efforts are in vain.
Even parents who could not finish primary or secondary school send their children to school. I am convinced that they will do their best to provide their children with quality education. Teaching in South Sudan is a wonderful experience. I have tried to give my life for others through education, but others have given their lives for me.
I remember during the war period when two clans were fighting each other. One day our school was attacked. Everyone was running away and I was alone in the school with a few teachers, not knowing what to do.
Some rebels shouted at me. It was then that some of my students lined up around me, forming a human barrier to protect me. They took me to my house and, once they were sure that I was safe, they ran away to escape the rebels. They endangered their own lives to save mine.
The mission and life in South Sudan are enriching me from a human point of view, above all they are making me develop qualities that I had “hidden”, they are making me bring out the tenderness and the best in me: the ability to give, to love, to donate and to receive. I have received so much from them! Every day of my life, I live with gratitude to God for this Comboni missionary vocation that he has given me. I know that, even in my smallness, I am helping in some way.
