catching up with things....

Dear Friends,
Greetings! I have notes to myself all over the place here today it seems....that is notes for writing in this blog! So here goes:

In talking with ex-pats and also Sudanese families who are Christian it has finally gotten through to me that in public schools here in Northern Sudan students are required to read/learn the Koran, which of course also means learning Arabic, and to pray as the Muslims do. This is because public school is Islamic. Okay, so this is why ex-pat families put their children in International Schools. There also seems to be quite a strong movement towards home schooling here. I've had some Christian Sudanese families tell me that when they have tried to have their children in the public schools they come home and want to do the Muslim prayers because this is indeed what they are learning in school.

An American and his children took me shopping to some ex-pat stores this week. It was wonderful to be in large, well-lit, air conditioned stores for a little while. However, some of the prices of the imported food took my breath away! China was cheaper. A bottle of basil pesto, probably about 8 ounces, for $10.00. In my dreams! My host had forgotten that his car was almost out of gas and so as we glided into the gas station and stopped in front of the gas pump the care literally took a last gasp and the fuel was gone. I was so thankful that we made it! A little too hot for running-out-of-gas adventures here.

Another discovery I am making as I talk to more people is about the practice of polygamy here. It appears that there are wives in the North whose husbands are now in the South and the husbands have remarried. Because polygamy the husband can do this legally. What I don't know is if a woman can remarry without having a divorce. Clearly this puts the male population at a great advantage and leaves open great opportunities for injustice towards women. There are men in the South who have fathered entirely new families, and ignore their former children and spouse(s) and responsibilities.

The civil war took limbs, took hope and took memories. The cruelty that has been practiced by soldiers towards other soldiers and by prisoners is unfathomable. What is the point of taking pictures from someone other than to pierce their soul and cause them irreversible pain? The depth of depravity that human beings have towards one another, not only here in Sudan but in so many places in the world, does not cease to shock, amaze and sicken me.

Being that I have not strayed far from Khartoum in the time I have been here I have yet to discover if there are significant differences between Sudanese Africans and Sudanese Arabs. I have been told that there are but I desire to encounter these differences for myself. Is it inherent in culture or being that women are property? That people can be objects? That one race is inferior to another? From where do these ideas/system of beliefs originate? Do I have the right to believe that my belief system whereby all people are created equal because we are created in the image of the Triune God is a better and more just system than one that puts a premium on the male being?

I have so much to learn. So much. And I also have much to teach.
Blessings,
Debbie