Every Tounge

I really like my church here. It's bigger than you would probably think. Maybe 200 attending every Friday? I'm not so good with estimating, but that's my best guess. It's mostly African,  a few Asians, maybe 20% Western, if that. The worship is pretty great and the pastor shares the pulpit pretty frequently. We get to hear from people all over the world.

At the end of worship last week we were singing "How Great Thou Art" and the guy leading encouraged everyone to sing the chorus in their mother tounge. Just around me there was English, German, Swahili, and Arabic. But represented also were Filipino, and languages from Uganda, Algeria, Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and numerous others. It was beautiful.

Giving Thanks

In light of Thanksgiving I did some baking for the boys centers. On Wednesday last week I made glazed sugar cookies for the littlies center and the teachers. I explained about Thanksgiving and how it's a day where people don't work or go to school, and it's dedicated to family and food and being thankful. I said how some families go around the table and share what they are thankful for. So I suggested we have the boys go around one by one and say something they were thankful for. I started and said I was thankful I get to live in Sudan. Algheer, one of the teachers, said he was thankful for his 4 month old daughter. I sort of expected the boys to say all the same thing, but they did have some unique responses. There were a lot of thankfuls for the center and the chance to go to school. There were two "I don't know"s. One boy said that there are a lot of dead people, but he's not. To which Algheer responded jokingly, "You're happy a lot of people are dead!?" One boy was thankful that no one was sick that day. Another that they had food. One of the new boys, Abudu, said he was thankful that I came from America to teach them to draw. At the end of every day I literally pry the pencil from this boys fingers when I need to leave. It was precious.

I made a pumpkin cake for the older boys. I didn't ask them to go around with what they were thankful for, but I did explain about Thanksgiving and that it's a day for family. I told them they are like my family in Sudan. They applauded. I'm not sure if it was for the family comment or the cake, but they were happy all the same. I made a point not to tell them up front that there was pumpkin in the cake. In general the Sudanese palate does not like to try new things. Also, I'm learning that pumpkin in sweet things seems to be a really American thing. It's not unheard of in other Western countries, but it seems to be a lot less common. One of the teachers asked me what the ingredients were. I rattled them off and when I said pumpkin he said "Pumpkin?" I said "Yeah, pumpkin." ..."Pumpkin?!" "Yeah, pumpkin." Then he sort of laughed to himself. I guess you never know what these crazy foreigners will bust out. He encouraged one of the other teachers to try it and said I was an artist with food. Yeah!

My Thanksgiving day was nice. I had language school in the morning. Made an apple cake to share. In the evening I joined about 30 other Americans (10 of them were kids) and we had a  big potluck. No turkey or cranberries, but still a few of the classics--stuffing, mashed potatoes, yeast rolls, a pumpkin sort of mac and cheese, pumpkin pie, apple pie, among other things. It wasn't the same as being at home of course, but it was super fun and I was so thankful to have people to share the holiday with. We played games and I went to bed with a very overfull belly...as the holidays often go. Thankful!

Bits

There is a lot going on in my heart and life these days. I've tried a few times the last couple days to type it out into some sort of sense. It doesn't feel like anything worth sharing yet. This entry feels like a little bit of a cop out. I knew it was time to post something but I don't have any good stories or anything. There is a lot going on but it just feels like bits and pieces.

Our neighbors had a precious little baby and a few days later with no warning a giant tent was erected, literally, 6 inches from our front door and it was party day. People up and down our steps all day. My housemate was gone for the weekend but I knew I had to stop by. Make an appearance, if you will. So I went and ate, tried to chat, sat there awkwardly. My life. You begin to grow accustomed to these sorts of situations. Smiling and rolling with it are an art I'm beginning to grasp.

Part of last week and for a few days this week I'm substitute teaching at an international school for a friend so she could go to a wedding in Switzerland. Said friend left detailed and easy lesson plans. The class is fun and well behaved. One of the boys has the most expressive faces I have ever seen. One of the days was, all of the sudden, declared Muslim New Years and therefore a public holiday, so we all got the day off. So it's been a pretty easy gig. And I was promised some Swiss chocolate in return for my services. Can't beat that!

Today I was even given a ride home (no bus!) and as I was waiting I got to chatting with a few of the teaching assistants, who are all Sudanese. I started chattering away in Arabic with them (there is a no Arabic rule during school hours to get the kids who are mostly non-native speakers to become completely fluent.) They were impressed with my skills. Which, I think they are pretty easily impressed, but it was good encouragement all the same.

These next few weeks are buuuuusy. I am facing them with a tidbit of apprehension, but I know all will be fine. I love this time of year, even from afar. I'm feeling homesick, but I'm very thankful that I have community here to share the holidays with.

Hopefully next week I'll feel less frazzled (though that is unlikely) and I'll have something better/more interesting to share. Thanks for reading! Sorry if my posts are a let-down sometimes!

Obama and Sodas

This week I got many congratulations from lots of local folks about the re-election of Obama. When I was at the littlies center earlier this week I was sitting and eating lunch with a bunch of the teachers and staff. They were congratulating me and America and laughing. I asked why they like Obama so much and some of them pointed to their skin and said "Because he is black like us!" Also, the tribe that his father was from in Kenya has roots in Sudan, so often I will hear that Obama is Sudanese. People like that.

As we were eating one of the teachers pulled out some money to get one of the boys to go get some sugar to eat with the rice. (I don't get it either, but people eat it like that here often). One of the other teachers joked that he should buy sodas for everyone to celebrate Obama. (Any excuse for a fizzy drink, really). I said that if anyone bought sodas for that it shouldn't it be the only American? We all laughed about it but they were carrying on and it was so silly that I ended up doing it. I said I would buy for the boys as well. The director said "No, no, it's ok, just for the teachers." And I said "The boys aren't happy about Obama? Only the teachers?" They laughed and agreed I could buy for the boys too if I wanted.

When they got the sodas the director stood up and had them toast me and America and Obama. It was ridiculous and funny. One of the boys got confused and asked if Obama was going to be the president of Sudan. Ohhh my. Haha. But the boys didn't really care, they were just happy for an excuse for a soda.