Friday the 7th of
December, 2012
We have little slugs here in
South Sudan. At least they aren’t big
ones!
The finals for my two classes
are done, the grades turned in and a semester finished. I can now turn for a while to my own research
proposal reading and packing for Nairobi.
I like the rhythm in teaching, the rhythm of the academic year. There is closure to things; unlike with, for
instance, housework.
Someday the doctoral work
will be done and then the end of a semester will signal time for myself….to
read whatever I want, to travel for pure joy, etc.
Today was the last
“breakfast” at the college until next February when the Concentrated Course
will begin. We had lentils and wheat
berries cooked together. The food here
is without imagination, of a very humble nature. The point of the food is to be filling and
provide nutrition. This is the kind of
diet that causes me to ponder: “Eat to
live, don’t live to eat, in order that others may live also.” With food like this one has no desire to live
to eat for the eating does not provide a satisfaction besides the filling of
the belly. I imagine that it is
something like this in refugee camps.
For the next week I will be
putting together my own meals. I am
finding that the solar oven, or cooker, is indeed very helpful. I can do soups or grains in it easily. One ambitious day I actually did both a lunch
and a dinner. The problem with dinner is
that I have to eat it quite early as the only way to keep the food warm is to
wrap the entire cooker in a blanket and I don’t have one appropriate for
that.
While in Nairobi I will be
stocking up on food; interesting food that is easy to cook to get a little bit
of variety into my diet here.
I am also looking forward to
eating meals at the Guest House where I will be staying, and to eating meals
out in restaurants! Pizza is at the top
of my list.
Blessings,
Debbie
December 11, 2012
I experienced graft this
morning in a government office. I was
asked to pay 100 South Sudanese Pounds for a paper giving me permission to
leave Malakal and the officer would not give me a receipt. The Principal, who had accompanied me to the
security office, said he wouldn’t give me a receipt because it was illegal for
him to ask me for payment.
Government officials are not
paid well and the pay is often late. The
supervisors of some officials tell them that they can take money from people to
help make up for the lack of salary. So
that is what this man was doing!
In the past week or so I have
had pieces of the truth about dowry come to my attention and today a whole has
come from the pieces. During the Civil
War many men were off flighting and were not marrying. Once the Civil War (this was a war between
the northern and southern parts of the whole country of Sudan which is now
Sudan and South Sudan as well as fighting between tribes in the south) had been
terminated by the Peace Agreement of 2005 the men who returned from fighting
wanted to get married. There was little
money in the country and dowry became extremely expensive, 150 to 200
cattle. Without dowry a man could not
marry.
Cattle rustling has become a
major problem and it is now growing in violence. Women and children are not only being
kidnapped but also murdered with impunity.
I will be teaching
Apologetics this coming semester. The
basic meaning of Apologetics is the defense of the faith and explaining the
hope that is within us. One of the first
questions I will be asking my class this coming term is, “What does it mean to
you to be a Christian?” What kind of
faith are we defending? If Christians
are involved with murder and kidnapping in order to marry then we must really
examine, what has this to do with Christianity?
If I am a Christian can I engage in these behaviors? What would Jesus do?
Blessings,
Debbie
December 11, 2012
I wonder if feet shrink? I am losing weight because of the lack of
food here in Malakal and the lack of variety and I am noticing that my
Birkenstock sandals seem to be larger on my feet….
Such a feeling of relaxation
has come with the ending of the academic semester! I still have tons to do: packing for Juba and Nairobi, planning two
classes and continuing my own reading for my doctoral thesis proposal, and yet
I feel as though a great burden has been lifted. This is the day that the Lord has made, let
us rejoice and be glad in it!
I have a new househelper
(housekeeper) with me today. She is
cheerful with helps a great deal already!
I have three weeks of laundry and a house that hasn’t been swept in
three weeks for her to deal with. I
don’t have the right touch for a floor that has dust on it all the time even
when it has just been swept. People who
have lived with these conditions all of their lives have learned how to deal
with them and somehow things look fresh even when the reality is that they are
not!
Blessings,
Debbie
December 18, 2012
Left Juba this morning and am
in another reality now. The touchdown on
the plane into Nairobi late this morning brought back memories….Nairobi was my
first port of entry into Africa three years ago in 2009. This was the first continent where I saw dirt
coming in to land….
It was clear even from the
airport that Nairobi is a major urban metropolis, much, much larger and more
developed than Juba. It is really quite
a good thing that after Malakal I had two days in Juba before coming here. That time in Juba gave me a bit of space to
process leaving Malakal and adjusting to modernity. Coming into Nairobi I realized:
There is an enormous
difference between the smallness of a little town, or village, like Malakal and
the impersonal secularization that I could sense in Nairobi. Life feels more out of control in a large
city, a city that is spread out and actually has outskirts. Malakal is much more self contained and the
sameness is one of the characteristics for small.
Of course Kenya is a
different country and that may account for some of what I am seeing as different,
as “other”, it may not be only the sizes of Malakal, Juba and Nairobi,
respectively.
I remember when I went to
China being thankful that I had had experience in the Middle East first. The culture of the Middle East is vastly
different from the United States, and yet it is much more familiar than the
culture of China which was so very different that having had an in between
experience was helpful. That is what
Juba was on this journey between Malakal and Nairobi. Juba was my Middle East.
Having arrived at this
compound I am filled with amazement. It
is huge. And it is green. I thought a friend had told me that it had a
garden. No, it IS a garden. Somehow it makes me think of the Swiss Family
Robinson. I don’t know, it is just so
odd to me to think that something this green exists when my soul is dying of
thirst in the heat and brownness of Malakal.
There are huge trees here, big enough for
children’s swings to hang out of them.
One of the joys this afternoon was seeing a brother swinging his sister
on one of them. There is grass
everywhere, and the folks who thought through how to minister to weary
missionaries have put tables and chairs all about on the lawn so that we can
sit out and enjoy the green and rest.
My room is wonderful. Not like a Hilton. A big bed with four pillows. I am so
thankful not to have been given a single, twin bed. Those things are quite horrid for anyone who
is used to sleeping in a large bed.
There is no mosquito net. I am
taking this to mean that mosquitos are not a problem here. Wow!
No wonder the room looked so normal to me when I first saw it!
The desk is piled with my
books now, even though I also brought my Kindle. I have reading to do for the Research
Proposal for my thesis through UNISA (The University of South Africa). I also have lots of shopping to do, primarily
for groceries to take back with me to Malakal.
Peanut butter, nutella and coffee top the list. Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment, the
next day I must go to the South Sudan Embassy to purchase a new visa for the
one that will expire that day so that I have a valid one when I return to Juba
on the 30th of December.
I have now had two Cadbury
bars! I hadn’t had chocolate in three
and a half months!
Dinner was amazing. I was drinking the filtered water and
suddenly realized that it was cold and
that was why I was feeling so satisfied.
Tomatoes and avacados! SALAD!!!
Actual lettuce. Green beans. Tremendous garlic bread. Real coffee with real milk. Okay, this place is a treasure for a starving
missionary. How am I going to go back
into the desert after this? Literally,
Malakal is a desert. Which wouldn’t be
so bad if there was power. With power
there could be refrigeration and cold water.
The Guest House is going to
bring Diet Coke in for me so I can purchase it at the front desk! There is a frig for guests so tomorrow after
my dentist appointment I am going to see if I can find yogurt to bring back and
place in said frig.
And I plan to try and spend
the afternoon outside in the quiet and green.
Will write more soon…
Blessings,
Debbie
