apparently everyone is worried that i am dead if i don’t post … so this is an “i’m not dead (yet), keep your greedy hands off my stuff” post …
i am in the UN compound in Malual Akon, South Sudan … i am doing great and, as usual, am 50% excited to be moving on and 50% sad to be leaving … i fly out on a world food programme flight on the morning of June 4th … i should be in Loki, Kenya around noon, and plan to stay at the most expensive hotel in town, which has what i am sure is the only pool 1000 km in any direction …
they also have unlimited high speed … so i will sit there for an hour or so and do what i can to catch ya’ll up on what’s been going on …
until then … i am friggin splendid … though i miss home … and the guns at night have started to play tricks on my imagination … so it goes …
peace and love …
arg … this is going to be freaking impossible … SOOOOOOO much has happened and there is SOOOOOO much to say … when i am back in loki, i will find a way to give a more complete update …
until then, here is a point form list of just what the hell i have been doing/thinking/whatever … this is going to be all over the map, so don’t expect coherence …
- i am staying in a catholic parish with 3 priests … a kenyan, a ugandan and a eastern sudanese … the kenyans is this wonderful old guy named father bernard (beh-nad) who speaks very slowly and calmly without making any sense whatsoever until he gets to the point, at which time his wisdom slaps you in the face … the ugandan is a young guy named father wilfred who may have one of the greatest personalities of anyone i have ever met … he is funny without trying … and enjoys drinking quite a lot … which i can’t really blame him for … you should try living here … the sudanese is father sebasitian … he speaks english … sort of … he talks a mishmash of 3 languages faster than anyone i have ever heard, with much swinging of the arms and contorting of the facial muscles … and then just starts laughing right from the depths of his belly … i laugh with him, cuz he is hilarious … though i am not sure i have really understood anything he has ever said …
- it is hot here … HOOOOOT here … days are rarely under 40C and often above 50C … nights rarely get below 35C … which makes sleeping … challenging …
- the wildlife is majestic and truly something to behold … my most frequent companions are: bats, snakes, lizards, frogs, scorpions, giant beetles, giant moths, giant spiders, giant other insects i don’t even recognize … and tiny silent mosquitos .. and flies …
- the food is the same every day … and when i say the food is the same everyday … i mean the food is the same … everyday … everyday … everyday … at first i was all “oh yeah, i like rice and beans, i can eat these everyday” … but then … you know … rice and beans twice a day for a month .. and you don’t really enjoy rice and beans so much anymore …
- we also eat goat … though it’s more of a special occasion food … i have now killed a goat … and prepared it to eat … and cooked it over an open fire … and have consumed every part of the goat imaginable, including the brain, spinal cord, lung, intestines, colon, tail, heart, etc … and also made soup from the skull and hoofs … most of it is not bad … though i found the spleen to be a little on the mushy side …
- we have power for 2 hours a day … sometimes … water is a bit more reliable, though recently a bat fell into the pipe and died, so we had none for a few days … i have not looked at a tv or read a newspaper or magazine in a month … or talked on the phone, except a 3 minute call to ma and pa each week … i feel like i am on another planet …
- while i frequently enjoy the sounds of random gunfire as i am going to sleep at night, today is a national holiday (SPLA Day) … so everyone who has a gun (which is everyone) took the occasion last night to fire them off into the air … all night long … its strange … going to sleep to the sound of machine gun fire …
- i have very little to do most of the time … getting anything accomplished is pretty much impossible and takes at least 2 weeks longer than you plan … i have thus turned the whole event into something of a spiritual awakening … i have started meditating everyday … i have read almost the entire old testament from cover to cover, and should be finished the new testament before i leave (it is worthy of note that I am not really a Christian, and hope to read the major works of at least 3 more major religions before I depart africa) … and i take long walks out into the middle of nowhere … sit under random trees for an hour at a time, and think and watch and listen … it’s really amazing what you see when you just STOP … these walks are by far the hi-light of my day … though to be honest, the ‘hilight of my day’ competition is not exactly full of olympic calibre competitors at this point in my life …
- funny story … i just found out that the area i go walking to is very close to where the SPLA keeps their tanks … good to know … i see a lot of soldiers everyday, and one told me in a language i don’t understand that if he saw me again tomorrow he would beat me with his gun … i think … he didn’t look very happy anyway … living in a country with no law really makes you feel … vulnerable … and for that reason more than any i am looking forward to leaving … as i walked away from him, i felt truly violated … i also was treatened with a spear one day … though i think it was less of a threat than a ‘hey look i have a spear and i can stab you if i want’ …
- i spend my time reading, walking and hanging out with a group of medical workers at the compound next to ours … they are also mostly from kenya and uganda and are fun and funny and as hospitable as is to be expected from such lovely cultures … i have managed to accomplish about 1/2 of my assigned tasks … and should get the rest done by the end of this week …
- one of these tasks took me to see what i was afraid of seeing …
- the people … the people … they are … hmmmmm … the people are … the culture is called the dinka … and they are … put it this way … i think that father wilfred, who enjoys a few too many drinks a little too often … deals with the challenges of this culture with significantly more grace and dignity than i myself could possibly claim … they are an interesting people …
- the men frequently have many wives … some men have as many as 60+ … the women work … all day … no matter where i go i see these graceful women carrying water and preparing food … they are not educated though … most have never been to school … the men … sit under trees and play games and drink … all day … so matter where i go, i never see men doing any real work … but this is unfair of me … i am being simplistic and over-judgemental towards an extremely complex culture … a culture which has truly suffered under 20 years of war … they have nothing … literally nothing … most of these people have never seen a television or ridden in a car … can you imagine that ??? … in 2005 when the UN IOM first came here, they did not have any idea what money was …
so that’s some of it … am i enjoying myself ??? … not really … i am today, as i have just beaten malaria, i think, which was about as unpleasant as anything i have ever experienced before … but on the whole … it is not an experience to be ‘enjoyed’ …
everyday is a challenge … everyday is full of frustration … there is no such thing as comfort … but like i said … it has been spiritual … it has been a month spent with myself … under difficult circumstances, and through it i have come to know ME in a way i never have before … i have seen some of the deamons living deep within my soul and learned that i can overcome some of them … i have learned to forgive to seek understanding in the face of frustration … i have seen death and misery and hopelessness and learned a little about what they are … and a lot about what they are not …
my ride has just come, so i must go in a hurry …
i am healthy in spite of bacterial infection and malaria … i am happy in spite of many of the darkest days of my life … and i am living my life each and every day … and loving it …
thanks to everyone for your support … i have never missed my home so much as i have over the past 4 weeks … if i know you, i have probably thought about you in the past month and smiled … thanks for being part of my life … just knowing you, whoever you are, has made me better …
i would seriously consider killing somebody right now and going to jail for the rest of my life for one bowl of Kraft Dinner … oh sweet mercy …
