The Foreign Service Journal, March 2013

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | MARCH 2013 37 returnees to build homes, while others coordinated homestay programs until they could provide them with transport to rural areas. Absorptive capacity was a significant concern due to limited resources. Despite these constraints, numerous transit sites that had been intended to be small and temporary turned into villages and towns with significant economic activity and semi-perma- nent infrastructure, thanks to the industrious returnees. Sadly, though, many of the considerable technical skills they brought with them from their vocations in the north were of little use in their new homes. Language skills were another problem. One young Arabic- speaking woman, who had been a housekeeper for an elite family in the north, admitted that she didn’t know how she would survive in the south. But with her small child resting on her hip, she said she was determined to learn a new language, take up a new vocation and start over. Most of the returnees had spent their whole lives as dis- placed persons. A few shared stories of residing for years in refugee camps in bordering countries, and many reported receiving U.S. and international support at some stage. No one could predict the outcome of the referendum, of course, but there was an overwhelming sense that with 50 years of war behind them, they would now be able to offer their children a better future. One woman, after surveying a plot of barren land she had received near the village of her ancestors, told me, “I don’t know how we will live here. My children don’t know this place, and they don’t even speak the local language. But this is their home, so we will find a way.” In the presence of such courage, it was sobering to reflect that the road ahead for the returnees would be even steeper than the road behind them. Those of us who are aid practition- ers in such settings may become frustrated by exceptionally poor conditions and insufficient resources that make lasting progress seem far out of reach. To counter these realities, I remind myself that I have witnessed the great impact that U.S. programs continue to have on the lives of the displaced. I also carry with me memories of the Southern Sudanese returnees who, despite significant hardship, maintained that one crucial ingredient for positive and permanent change: tremendous, unrelenting hope. Laureen Reagan, a Foreign Service officer, is currently assigned to USAID/Zimbabwe’s Humanitarian Assistance Office in Harare . n