A Little Life Perspective

So I had a life-changing dinner the other night. The food was excellent but it was the company that made the night memorable. I work with lots of interesting people and one of the real joys of my time here in Khartoum has been working with such a diverse group of folks. One of my fellow teachers is a guy about my age from Eritrea named Daniel. Since the school year is coming to an end, he tried to get some of the teachers together for dinner last Saturday night. As tends to happen with these things, lots of people said they would like to come but then couldn’t actually come for one reason or another. Anyways, it ended up being just me, Daniel, and another teacher named Linda. A little background on Linda: she is originally from southern Sudan but left when she was young and spent most of her time growing up in America. She is now an American citizen and if you spoke with her, she sounds like an American.

We enjoyed a very good meal at an Ethiopian restaurant (there are a lot of Ethiopian restaurants in Khartoum and the food is incredible) and then had a pleasant conversation after the meal over some delicious coffee. Anyways, we started talking about why we came to Sudan and that’s when things got really interesting. Thank God Daniel asked me first because I would have felt silly answering that question after hearing their stories. After telling them how I wanted to experience a different culture and really challenge myself by coming to Sudan, I asked Daniel the same question. If you’re not up on Eritrean politics, the country has a brutal recent history. After a 30 year war with Ethiopia, they finally achieved their independence in the late 90s. However, the new military leadership imposed an authoritarian government. While the people of this war-torn country lived in extreme poverty with little opportunity, the president created a law that prevented Eritreans from leaving the country. Also, every Eritrean male is drafted into the army after finishing high school. Back to Daniel’s story, he got very good grades in high school so he got a deferral from the army to attend college. After finishing university, he was then forced the join the army. He was serving with the Eritrean army near the Sudanese border and he decided along with some friends that they had had enough and were going to escape. They were familiar with the patrols in the area so one night they took off with what food and water they could carry and headed for the border. They travelled by night and rested/hid during the day because the border patrols are authorized to shoot to kill any Eritreans trying to cross the border. After three days of walking through the mountains, they made it through to the Sudanese desert and eventually found their way to a refugee camp. He was given refugee status and came to Khartoum to look for work. It took him some time to find work but then Cambridge basically hired him on a probationary status and he has been working there for almost a year. He is only making $300 a month (which made me feel pretty guilty since I make 4 times that) but when we said he should try to get more money, he said that what he was making was a blessing. This really hit home with me. He said he was only making about $10 a month in the Eritrean army so this was obviously a huge upgrade. He also went on to talk about how his goal is to go to America to get his Master’s degree in environmental science, but since he is a refugee and left Eritrea illegally, it is very hard to get the proper documentation. It was very powerful to hear how grateful he was for everything he had and how hopeful he was for his future even though he has every reason not to be.

Linda’s story is no less amazing. As I said earlier, she was born in southern Sudan. If you’re not familiar with recent Sudanese history, there was a terrible civil war between northern and southern Sudan that just ended in 2005 (I say ended, the two sides signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement but there is still some fighting in the south). When she was six years old, Linda’s grandmother decided to take Linda and try to escape their increasingly violent surroundings. So they set off on foot for what would be quite a journey. Linda said they walked for three months from village to village avoiding the gunshots and armed groups of men. They eventually made it to the Ethiopian border and after spending some time in Addis Ababa and reuniting with her siblings and mother, they immigrated to the US. She didn’t give a lot of details about their journey and we didn’t push her for them since I’m sure that’s a painful time for her. Anyways, she was obviously so grateful just to be alive and to have the opportunity to grow up in America. She graduated from the University of Florida and is now taking online courses for a Master’s degree. Now that the war has ended, she wants to go back to southern Sudan and help rebuild that part of the country.

As you can imagine, I was blown away by both of these stories. To be honest, I really didn’t say much for the rest of the night because I just couldn’t believe what I heard. What could I say? “Yeah, I come from a wealthy, upper-middle class family and I never felt real danger or wanted for anything in my entire life.” I have experienced these feelings of guilt before when I’ve travelled to developing countries but I have also realized that feeling guilty for what you have isn’t really the proper response. I’ve realized that we have no control over where we are born or into what situation we are born. We can only be thankful for what we have, help those that are less fortunate than us and live our lives to the fullest. What this evening did help me realize was that a lot of the problems we complain about in the west are really quite trivial and unimportant. While we worry about the price of gas or the traffic on the way home, there are people in the world struggling to survive in the face of war and poverty. Hearing Linda and Daniel’s stories just gave me a human reminder of this fact and made me realize that I can never give God enough thanks for the many blessings in my life.

This one's for Bradley (And teaching adults)

So I’ve obviously been quite negligent in my blogging this past month. To be quite honest, I kind of lost interest in it and it was starting to feel like work. However, I know that there are some people out there who are interested in what’s going on in my life and this is a way for me to keep them posted. Hence the name of this post, since Bradley Kibler is one of the people that encouraged me (a nice way of putting it, she actually threatened physical violence) to get back on it. So I will try to do better and I will start by updating what’s been going on in my life recently.

There is another reason I haven’t been writing, and that’s because I don’t have as much free time since I have started teaching an adult class in the evenings. My school actually has five different campuses. There are two kids centers and three adult centers. About a month and a half ago they asked me if I would have any interest in teaching an adult class in the evenings. Since I’d settled into a routine teaching kids in the mornings and knew what I needed to do to prepare for those classes, I decided I would accept their offer. Also, I figured it would look good on my resume to have experience teaching adults and I just thought it would be fun. Not to mention they would pay me overtime. I’m teaching English Communication to a class of 6 people. It’s an interesting mix of folks. There are two university students, a doctor, a pharmacist, an economist, and a stay-at-home mom. The class meets three nights a week from 6-7:30. I basically teach from the textbook that the school uses but they give me freedom as to how I present the material. I have really enjoyed the experience and my students seem to be improving as well. Since it’s a communication class, I try to dedicate the last 10 or 15 minutes of each class to a discussion which has also been a learning experience for me. I keep it pretty open and we’ve talked about everything from religion to healthcare to government and many other things. So while they are practicing their English, I’m learning about Sudanese culture at the same time. Not surprisingly, the classroom dynamic is quite different in a class of 6 adults than in a class of 25 3rd graders. But to be honest, I can’t decide which one I like better. It’s definitely nice not to worry about discipline with the adults but seeing children get excited about learning feels a bit more rewarding. Anyways, I’m glad to have both experiences and teaching adults has been a nice addition to my schedule. In fact, the school has asked me about teaching another Communication class on the same night so I will most likely start a new class in the next week or two.

There is one interesting, although somewhat somber, story from that adult class that I want to share. The first night of the class was just an introduction. I went over the course outline, grading scheme, etc. and we just did some introductions. I wrote some questions on the board (Where are you from, what do you do, etc.) and had the students go around and answer them. One of the university students said she was from Iraq. I asked her how long she had been in Sudan and she said her whole family left Iraq in 2005. While I probably should have just kept my mouth shut, I just couldn’t hold back and I said, “I’m so sorry for what my country has done to your country.” She looked really embarrassed and said that it wasn’t my fault. After an awkward silence, I moved on to the next person. Although we haven’t spoken directly about the war in Iraq, there was one class that focused on describing your hometown. While Farah (the Iraqi woman) said she likes Sudan, you could hear in her description of Tikrit that she really missed it. It was certainly a poignant human reminder of the disruption that war has caused to so many Iraqi families. Although before meeting Farah I knew that the war in Iraq was a terrible thing and millions of Iraqis were affected, putting a human face to that conflict makes it much more real.

Anyways, that’s a first update on what I’ve been doing. I’ll try to write about a few more things that I’ve done recently in the next week or two. I hope everyone is doing well, wherever you may be

This is Pretty Intense

As I’ve written many times in this blog, the Sudanese people are generally very friendly and hospitable. However, I was recently introduced to a fairly brutal side of the culture. On our way to and from school every day we drive past a prison. It’s quite a site as there are tanks positioned by the walls and pickup trucks with machine guns mounted in the bed. And there are always a number of armed guards patrolling the area as well. Last Thursday, as we drove past the prison on our way home, there were a lot more guards than normal and some of them were dressed in full riot gear. We weren’t quite sure what was going on and I didn’t think too much about it at the time. Come to find out, six men were hung that afternoon and a crowd gathered to witness the event. These men allegedly killed six policemen in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Khartoum about 2 year ago. Apparently the police came to forcibly move some of the refugees and a riot broke out. In the confusion, six policemen were killed and several people were apprehended under suspicion of murder. Controversy surrounded the trial of these men as many outsiders claimed they admitted to the murders after being tortured. The UN, Amnesty International and several other organizations strongly condemned the executions based on the confessions being made while being tortured. I can only imagine that if I was being tortured I would be likely to admit to just about anything to make it stop. Anyways, the government went ahead with the executions last Thursday and many people came out to watch. It wasn’t exactly a public execution as the hangings occurred inside the prison walls. However, you can see the top of the gallows from the street and apparently you could see the men as they walked to the top of the gallows and were then pushed off, but you couldn’t see the bodies as they hung. We got all of this information today from one of our Sudanese co-workers and it was really quite shocking. I am a strong opponent of the death penalty in general and it is especially troubling when these allegations of torture are involved. While I love the Sudanese people in general, there are some real issues with the government that some of you are probably aware of. I will try to write more about my impressions of the political situation in Sudan but this gives you a glimpse of some of the problems. Anyways, it was especially troubling to know that many people came out to watch these men take their final steps and it certainly clouded my perhaps idealistic vision of the Sudanese. Sorry to write such a disturbing post but no worries, I’m still safe and thoroughly enjoying my experience!

Sudanese Wedding

I apologize again for such long intervals in between entries. It sounds like there are a few folks out there who enjoy reading this blog and I will try to do better about writing more regularly. Anyways, I believe I promised a description of the Sudanese wedding I attended in Dongola and I think you will find it quite an interesting story. First of all, kind of like in the States, wedding celebrations last for two or three days here in Sudan. The first night is what they call a Henna party. If you’re not familiar with henna, it is a kind of ink that people use to make temporary tattoos. It is customary in Sudan for the bride and groom to get their hands and feet decorated with henna before the wedding. On the last night of Eid there was a Henna party at the house next door to Amar’s family. There was a huge tapestry draped against a wall and a couch where the henna tattooing took place. At the same time there was some very loud, traditional Sudanese music playing on a pretty impressive sound system and folks were dancing and having a good time. Like usual, people were fascinated by the white guy in their midst and they really went wild when I started dancing along to the music. This was also the first time I heard the unique and hair-raising way in which Sudanese women express their joy. Obviously weddings are happy occasions and the women express their delight by letting loose a series of high-pitched screams. There’s no way I can do it justice in written words but it’s something like, “Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi!!!” The next time I see any of you in person just ask me about this and I will do my best to impersonate these yelps. Needless to say, this scared the hell out of me the first time I heard it and Amar and everyone else got a good laugh when they saw me almost jump out of my skin. Anyways, after the bride and groom had their hands and feet decorated the floor was open for anyone else who wanted it. It was interesting that while the women had some pretty elaborate decorations, the men would just color their palms and the soles of their feet without the designs. A couple of people encouraged me to get some henna but I respectfully declined. So that was the henna party.

The next night, my last night in Mashu, we went to an actual wedding celebration in a neighboring village that was really quite the experience. The party was held outside at a kind of community center. They had set up these massive tapestries in a giant square with a big opening on one side. When we got there, the square was already packed and a band was playing. The band was one guy on a keyboard, one guy on a beat machine, and a singer. Apparently the guy is like the local wedding singer and he was really getting into it. Allow me to digress and say a quick word about Sudanese music. While it is kind of catchy at first and definitely upbeat and lively, all of the songs seem to sound exactly the same and after a couple hours it gets pretty repetitive. I’m sure the Sudanese can hear the difference in the songs but to me it sounded like the same song for about 3 hours. Anyways, for such a small village this was quite the gathering. I’m not very good at estimating crowds but I would say there were at least 500 people there and probably more. One of the neat things about Sudanese weddings is that you don’t need an invitation to go. Everyone is welcome, which is really cool. Many aspects of Sudanese village life are sex-segregated and weddings are no different. The women sat on one side and the men sat on the other. It was also interesting that for the most part, the men danced with other men and vice versa. And if men and women danced together there wouldn’t be any physical contact. That is one aspect of the culture that is very different from America.

Things got really interesting when the bride and groom showed up. In Islam, the wedding ceremony is very simple and is generally performed away from the crowd gathered for the occasion. The couple would generally exchange vows in front of their immediate family and then make their way to the party. And this particular couple entered in style. First, a group of 4 or 5 girls walked in shooting fireworks into the air. The bride and groom then drove up in a car with the immediate family walking behind the car. One guy had a shotgun and he proceeded to shoot a couple rounds in the air. Another guy, apparently not wanting to let Mr. Shotgun celebrate by himself, pulled out a handgun and joined in the festivities. I have to admit I was a little nervous when they started dancing while simultaneously waving their respective guns in the air but thankfully there were no incidents. The rest of the night was spent like most American weddings, with people dancing and socializing. There was one other interesting custom that is worth noting. Every so often, a member of the wedding party (either the groom or a family member, never the bride) would walk around the exterior of the dance floor and as he passed, the people would stand and snap their fingers in the air. Apparently this is another way that Sudanese people express happiness and it almost looked like the wave as the groom made his way around and people would stand to snap their fingers.

This wedding celebration was quite an interesting experience and it was a great ending to my time in Mashu. Wedding ceremonies are an important part of every culture and it was interesting to see how a different culture celebrates this sacred event in the life of a community. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to attend another wedding while I’m here in Sudan but if not, I will always remember the party in Mashu!