A Dream and Some Thoughts

I've been having a lot of dreams lately. I don't remember most of them of course. But there was one a few nights ago; I had visited Africa in the dream and come back. Then I was back at LU for a bit, and here and there all over places where my life has been the last couple of years. I sort of groggily woke up (not quite awake) and couldn't remember where I was so I tried to guess before I opened my eyes. Then I opened them and here I was in my room in Sudan. It was a great feeling.

The weather has been perfect lately so I've been walking a lot more than usual. The other day I was walking through some dirt roads behind a small market with donkey carts around, men sitting and drinking tea, that sort of thing. I just smiled to myself because for years I would imagine myself around chickens, and people, and sun, walking on dusty roads and here I am doing it. I feel so lucky.

Christmas is coming and that's hard. Many of the people I've grown close to have either left or won't be around for Christmas. I keep skipping all the songs that talk about being home for Christmas in my Christmas mix. But there's also really great things. The Christmas party for the boys coming up this week. Getting to go shopping in the suuk for present for the staff kids. Getting prepared for sharing different parts of the Christmas story in Arabic for our language school party. Which presents lots of unique opportunities to enlist the help of our Sudanese teachers and friends in helping us translate and prepare for it--essentially getting to explain why His birth is a big deal and why He is a big deal. So that's pretty exciting.

Something else I've been chewing on lately is a discussion I was part of a little while back about a secure sense of self rooted in Christ. A jolly ol' fellow there said something I found to be very poignant. He said that Christ was perfectly confident in who he was. He knew that he came from God and that he was going back to God. That gave him the freedom and strength to be the person he was created to be.

It is a simple truth--but I had never heard it put that way before. And it's true. We have that same freedom too. We are from God and are going back to Him. Nothing should hold us back. Fear should be far away from us.

From The Message translation's introduction to 1&2 Samuel:
"...We don't have to fit into prefabricated moral or mental or religious boxes before we are admitted into the company of God--We are taken seriously just as we are and given a place in his story, for it is, after all, his story; none of us is the leading character in the story of our life. For the biblical way is not so much to present us with a moral code and tell us "Live up to this"; nor is it to set out a system of doctrine and say, "think like this and you will live well." The biblical way is to tell a story and invite us, "Live into this. This is what it looks like to be human..." As we submit our lives to what we read, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories, but to see our stories in God's. God is the larger context and plot in which our stories find themselves."

'Quality of Living'

For those who may be interested, Khartoum was rated #217 out of 211 cities for quality of living. The survey is used by NGO's and government org's for pay rate and such for their overseas workers.

The article can be found here:
http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/quality-of-living-report-2011
And the criteria they used here:
http://www.mercer.com/articles/quality-of-living-definition-1436405

Now, I don't think that Khartoum is an easy place to live per se, but bottom 5?? It doesn't seem that bad!

Anyway, just thought that was interesting!

Girl in a Man's World

Being a single lady in a Muslim world is tricky. It's difficult. For whatever reason, this week esspecially I've been struggling with it a bit.

I was talking with one of my married male classmates the other day and we talked about public transport. I said that rickshaws were my least favorite mode of transport. He kind of laughed and asked why. He assumed, I suppose, because they are less than safe and some of the drivers are a bit careless. I told him it was because I didn't like the 1-on-1ness--that it usually leads to an uncomfortable situation. He was clearly surprised and asked if it really was an issue. To which I responded, "Yes! All the time." And it struck me that our lives here were very different in a lot of ways as foreigners here simply because he is a dude.

I'm not saying that all rickshaw drivers are bad fellows. And it's not just them. But young guys frequently make comments to me on the street. It's not a big deal. Its just, for whatever reason, happened with more regularity this week. I want to yell at them in Arabic sometimes. But I refrain, of course. However if anyone ever tries to touch me inappropriately or anything (which has happened to some lady friends here) I am fully prepared to yell at them and shame them. This is a culturally appropriate response to their culturally completely inappropriate behavior.

It's not just the comments either. Even just living as a single lady here is more difficult in many ways. My roommate and I have to take care of all of the stuff for the house ourselves. Stuff that men would normally do here--pay for the internet and electricity, buy the groceries, get the gas canisters filled, take care of repairs etc, we have to ourselves out of necessity. I know this is true for single gals even in the states too, but it's a bit different here because in those places (the electricity place, the market) it's always men in there and its a little weird that ladies are taking care of those things. And when you are the only lady in a place...it's just uncomfortable. I dunno. (BUT as a result of this situation I was forced to play plumber and I fixed our leaky toilet myself! Yay for new life skills!)

One last little complaint--I can't socialize with folks as much. I can't be chatty with my fruit guy or ducaan (corner shop) man. I have to feel a little bit rude sometimes as to be cautious not be overly friendly and therefore send across completely the wrong message. Its sometimes hard being culturally appropriate as a person that does not exist in that culture. Meaning--it's hard to do the right things sometimes or even know what the right things are when being a single 20-something female living alone--a persona that essentially doesn't even exist in this culture. I'm not sure if that makes any sense. I dunno, I can't make sense out of things half the time anyway.

I will say, though, that because it is such a male dominated society, there is a greater showing of chivalry here than I experience in the States. The bus actually comes to a complete stop for women to get on and off instead of rolling for men. When I'm looking a fool trying to carry a gas canister up to our second floor apartment the guy doing construction next door will help me. Some young guys were talking about me on the bus one day and an older man stopped them. Men have given me their seat on the bus before.

It's a weird sort of dichotomy. I dunno.

I think that this post was more clear in my head than in actuallity. For that I'm sorry.

A Sudan Thanksgiving

So, not a traditional Thanksgiving of course. I suppose the trade-off for getting a week off for a holiday that I don't celebrate is still having to go to school and such on a holiday that I do celebrate. I still wanted to make my morning at school a little bit special, so I made pumpkin gingerbread cake (and splurged on a stick of butter to make cinnamon buttercream frosting) to take with me. Made my own pumpkin puree and baked it the day before so the house smelled like nutmeg and ginger. I listened to Christmas music. And it felt holidayish. :)

The cake went over well, and after class I stopped home quickly then left again for my Arabic lesson with my friend. It was fun. I always have a great time with her. We talked about Thanksgiving and what it means. Told her I was missing my family and a little bit sad of course, but that I was very thankful to be in Sudan and for all that God had provided me with here.

Then I raced home, picked up a pumpkin salad I'd made, and met up to have Thanksgiving dinner with about 25 other Americans. (And saw a car plow into 3 (3!) rickshaws! Thankful not to be in one of them!) It was like a church potluck, and so much fun. Sat around playing games and talking about serious and not so serious things. It was a lovely evening. Pumpkin pie and all.

On Friday night I got together with some other friends and we had a leftover potluck. Two guys here actually found a turkey at the suuk and slaughtered, plucked and cooked it for us. I appreciate their hard work. But...you can tell that turkeys have a rough life here. They'd bought a small chicken for us to compare to and the turkey was slightly bigger, with less and tougher meat. But it was a great night anyway.

I'll be honest, it doesn't really feel like the holidays. Without the bundling up and seasonal things in stores it would be easy to not even notice what time of year it is. Esspecially on Thursday I tried to mindful of really giving thanks throughout the day. I thank God for things all the time, but I really tried to rejoice and be mindful of all that I do have here.

The weather is cooling off, which is such a gift. This morning it was about 60 degrees and I put on every warm item of clothing I had. The highs still reach almost 90, but even that is a welcome respite. I feel rejuvenated--really. Winter in Sudan is my new favorite thing.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I give thanks for all of you often!

Bye Leo






Said goodbye last night to one of my best friends in Sudan.. We were in the same class at language school and he worked with the boys centres as well. The boys (and staff...and everyone) adored him. Leo is from Kenya and has an amazing testimony. One of the nicest, most genuine people I have ever met. You know how there are people you meet in life and they're just a genuinely good person? He was one of those. He said he'll miss me to laugh with and at. I feel the same way.

By Leo! You will be missed. We're all better people for having known you. (PS Please come back to Sudan when you're finished at University.)

Port Sudan Getaway

Last week was the big Eid. It's like the Christmas of Islam in terms of the celebration and importance of the day. That means that there is break from school! My friends and I took a trip to Port Sudan. The break couldn't have come at a better time. The trip was so much fun. Port Sudan was great, but the best part was the company. I was with a very fun group of people.

My roommate and I took the bus up with one of her co-workers. It was about a 10 hour bus ride. So, I got to see a lot of Sudan. Desert, semi desert, some mountians, acacia trees, and lots of goats, camels, and donkeys. The bus stopped a few times along the way and at one such stop I encountered the most interesting toilet situation I have to date. The walls were about chest height, there were 3 'stalls' and in each stall was a tennisball sized hole in the ground. Too small in my opinion as the surrounding wet ground revealed other ladies poor aim. Now, I'm pretty adept at using a sqatty potty. It's no problem. However, the interesting part was that there were no sort of doors or cover over the stall so all the other ladies walking by could see you. And one of the stalls had holes in the wall. But not so bad that I didn't use it when we stopped on the way back home.

My roommates co-workers husband (you got all that?) had set up a place for us to stay. It was a nice, pretty cheap room on the first floor of this mans house, with air con(!!!) and a fridge and little gas burner. (And a few not-so-soft beds). Our friends ended up staying at the same place as well.

The first day of Eid with the help of some locals we managed to find a nice beach far from the road and on a path made of dirt and coral rocks. We were there for hours and had it all to ourselves. The beach was amazing. Red Sea as far as the eye could see. Full of coral, fish, shells, little rays. I spent the majority of the day collecting cool peices of coral and playing with hermit and sand crabs. I love ecosystems! Yeah, I'm still 8 years old apparently. It was nice to forget, for a few hours, that I wasn't in Sudan. A little mental escape.

This Eid requires each family to slaughter and eat a sheep. So the people who run the place we were staying gifted us that morning with a leg of sheep. Thankfully they had taken (most) of the fur off. So that night for dinner we cooked it up. Probably the toughest meat I have ever eaten. But we still enjoyed the meal!

Our sheep leg.

The feel of Port Sudan is different than Khartoum. Def has a lazy beach city vibe. Almost all of the men and boys still wear the traditional jalabiyyas. You see them all over Khartoum, but in Port Sudan I would say that the vast majority of the men and boys wear them everyday.

Cute kid in a jalabiyya.

And though I feel like an oddity and like I stick out all the time in Kht, Port Sudan was a different story! Cleary they don't have a slew of foreigners. We were stared at by most, photographed by some, and videoed by a few! It was nuts. Though we were still incredibly welcomed and liked, as is the Sudanese way. One day we took an amjat to the fish market. He honked and waved to everyone he passed and even announced to some of them that he was driving khawajas. It was funny.

We ate fresh seafood everyday, played a lot of cards, saw old buildings made out of bricks cut from coral, walked around the city, explored a presently unused train station that was built over 100 years ago. I demonstrated how to pick a crab for my German, Kenyan, and South African commerades, and we spent plenty of time soaking up the sun and doing a bit of snorkelling in the salty, beautiful, blue Red Sea.

Fresh fish for dinner.

Pretty lil cove.

Camels were everywhere!

One was so nice to stop and pose in this sunset picture.

I feel relaxed, refreshed, and ready to get back to the grind. So thankful for the break! (And my roomie and I are already thinking that a return trip is in order!)

New Pictures

I've (finally) gotten to posting a bunch of new pictures of the last few months of life in Sudan. If you're not my facebook friend follow this link and enjoy!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100141891505638.2434303.55700474&type=1&l=8fdea23ab4\