Friends,
This morning I looked around
at my classroom of South Sudanese students.
Each one of them had Western clothing on. This bothered me and it did so in particular
because these Seniors are having a class picture taken today.
We are in Africa and the
students are wearing shirts and ties and the two women have shirts and skirts
on, Western style. When I inquired about
this someone said that African clothes are very expensive and that the Western
clothing is much cheaper. So
typical. The colonizer makes it cheaper
to buy the imports from the colonizing power than the local goods made from
locally sourced materials and created by the indigenous people.
I found myself just about in
tears.
Later I had a discussion with
another teacher. I don’t sleep well at
night here in Malakal. There are many
reasons for this, one of them is that the power comes on and then goes off at
unpredictable times and often I am awakened by its beginning and its
cessation.
The other teacher asked me if
I was tired from cooking. She asked if I
cook on charcoal like the African women who must kneel to stir their pots on
the charcoal stoves. I said I try to
avoid using charcoal. And then I pointed
out that I do not have what to me is a normal kitchen. I don’t have a kitchen sink or a kitchen
counter. I don’t have a
refrigerator. Nothing is normal about my
experience of trying to provide food for myself here in Malakal.
It is difficult to live day
in and day out in an environment that is so utterly foreign to my own. I am essentially camping. I never did like camping and I don’t enjoy it
now.
I wonder how it was for
Jesus? When he came to an utterly
foreign environment how was it for him to live day in and day out? Was it as hard for him as it is for me? I’d like to think so.
Those of us who work and live
in South Sudan get to take quarterly R & R’s. Some of the reason for these times of getting
away from the country have to do with being able to experience a sense of
normalacy that is closer to what is normal in the United States….at least for
me. It is HARD to live here. The saving grace is the fact that I believe
that my students are gaining knowledge from me that they would not gain in any
other way. And hopefully it is
invaluable knowledge. That is what makes
my being here worth the sacrifice for living a totally abnormal life. Otherwise this sacrifice would be untenable.
