Kawaja! Kawaja!

I am convinced that all African languages have one thing in common, and that is a word for "white person". In Nigeria it was "Oyeibo" or "Batura", in Uganda and Kenya it was "Mazungu" and now in Sudan I am innundated with "Kawaja! Kawaja!" whenever I leave my compound. This is especially difficult on my early morning runs as everyone wants to greet the "Kawaja" and stare at her "making exercise", because I am also expected to greet everyone back, which can be quite tiring while one is also trying to run! But many of my experiences in Nigeria have left me well prepared for life in rural Sudan. Not only am I a walking subject of amusement for the kids (and adults!), but I am already familar with the slow pace of African life. Nothing gets done fast or on time here.

After my first day in Ikotos, I had to catch a ride to Torit, a town about 3 hours to the north of Ikotos to get my SPLA (Sudanese Party Liberation Army) pass, which is like an immigration pass to live in Sudan. (It is not very hard to sneak into the country if one were to try!). Not only did we leave closer to 2:00 pm after being told we were leaving at 12:00, but we also had to drive around town looking for the engineer who was suppose to be traveling with us. When we found him we were told that he had been "busy resting" and was now eating lunch (since he had been sleeping while the others members of the NGO organization we were driving with had been eating). When we finally left, we tore down extremely horrible roads that had more like craters than what one might consider a pothole in the US. Yet this did not deter this driver's carelessness. Even the Sudanese passengers with us were making comments about the bad driver. Nonetheless, even with a pretty long stop in a town on the way to Torit for a small NGO meeting, a few stops along the way to get out and greet some "big men" in vehicles traveling the opposite way, and practically driving over villagers who loitered on the road by bohr holes collecting water, we made it to Torit still in about 3 hours!

Ikotos is a beautiful town and the drive to Torit is still quite breath-taking. The mountains and hills are crafted from massive boulders and rocks that would be any mountain climber's dream. Even more impressive are the Sudanese villagers that dwell in these mountains and hike down to get water and then back up balancing 20 L jerrycans on their heads! (Many villages moved to the mountains to hide during the war and are only now starting to descend back down.) One of the ladies in the car with me going to Torit said that the white marks on the mountains are trails that the villagers follow to get up and down, and some of these white marks look like they go clear off a cliff!

After returning from Torit, I have spent most of this week with a host family which has plunged me into the culture and language of a Sudanese family where not much English is spoken. Not to mention the interesting foods I have had to eat. The first night there, I was outside the compound playing soccer with some of the young boys. It was getting dark, near dinner time, and one of the ladies from the compound told me to come eat with her and her family. She put some asceda (a tastless, grainy, and extremely thick white starch made from flour and water) and soup onto a plate and gave it to me. A very strong fishy smell waffled up to my nose. I broke off a little piece of the asceda and dipped it into the soup which was slimmy and hung down from one's mouth as they ate. In the moonlight I got a glimpse of shinny fish like bodies and eyes in the soup. My stomach turned. Apparently small dried fish is a speciality to add to soups in Sudan. I managed to take a few bits of the dish before saying in my broked Arabic that it was too much food and I was full. Fortunately, that is a good excuse to use in Africa because they are quite keen on enormous portion sizes. However, much to my dismay, that soup was on the menu the next night too!

Even in my short time since I have been in Sudan, I have learned quite a bit about the present politics of the country. Sudan had been in a civil war for 22 years, fighting against the oppressive Northern Arabs that only want to enforce Muslim law, political and religious, on the whole country. Evenmore, they have suppressed and oppressed the Southern, black half of the country and exploited their natural resources (one of which is oil) so they could build and modernize the Northern half, while leaving the South in still a pretty primative lifestyle. Since the northern part of Sudan is mostly desert, the southern half actually has more resources that have left the country fighting. Momentarily Sudan is in somewhat of a truce with the North, where the president of the country is a Northern, but the vice-president is a Southern. On April 11 of this year, every Sudanese who has been displaced out of Sudan becasue of the war is suppose to return to his own village and a census will be taken of the people here (kinda like Bible times around Jesus' birth!). In the year 2011 everyone will vote whether the South should separate from the North or not. It is very common in Sudan right now to see alot of NGO (non-governemental organizations, such as the UN) vehicles and compounds (that is how I have internet access in Ikotos now!) that are all here to help build up the country. However, these elections that will take place won't necessarily promise peace, I have learned. Naturally the Southerns want to separate from the oppressive North and will most likely vote to become the "New Sudan", but problems may still occur. Currently the Sudanese Liberation Party Movement (which was formly the Sudanese Liberation Party Army), is the leading political party in the South, and since its previous name involved "army" it is basically a military political party, which is a receipe for corrupt power; particularly in Africa. Evenmore, not only would the miliatry have most of the power in Southern Sudan if it separated from the North, but as one teacher from my school told me, separation will now mean that the different tribes in the South will fight each other over power, resources, and everything else man fights over. Whereas before, when the country was together, the different tribes of the South were actually united, fighting the wicked North together; they would now become divided fighting over power in the new governement. Yet fighting is nothing new for Sudan, so people would not hesitate to fight as many of them have only know war.

This flighting attitude has pervaded so much of Sudanese lifestyle. Indeed I have already seen it in the school I teach at and in day to day life. Many Sudanese are used to living on refugee camps or having food distributed to them from NGO agencies, so they are not accustoming to working for their own food (Although this is not the case for everyone! The mother of my host family is a very hard working lady!). There is still a mentality of living for the day and not planning for tomorrow because who knows if you'll be alive tomorrow! Similarly in the schools, the Sudanese system is only just developing so the education system is quite poor. Sudents are often very old for their grade level and their system of learning is only to copy and memorize their notes, not to understand and apply the knowledge.

Yet still there is hope for the country. Not only are foreign agencies assisting Sudan, but even their brother countries in Uganda and Kenya have many people working in Sudan. Evenmore, the church of Jesus Christ is very much alive and active here, and even though the country has been ravaged by war there are still the amazing testimonies of so many Christian Sudanese people.

Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for the country of Sudan. For peace to occur with the future elections and for tribes to work towards reconcillation rather than their own gain.
2. Pray for the further educational and economic development of Sudan.
3. Pray for me as I continue to struggle to learn the language. I have my moments of insight which I praise God for!
4. Thank God for the relationships I have built already with my host family, the cooks at the school who love teaching me Arabic, and even the missionaries here.