let's be social!
Afternoon/Evening of Day 13.
The afternoon was all about living out the remainder of our trip to the fullest! I did not want to leave Sudan and regret one thing, so I made sure to soak it all in…
including our scorpion adventure!
Snapshot of Thursday Afternoon:
-Said goodbye to our Bible school students
-I sat under the shade of our duel tocha and journaled more
-Offered to help Nyaret carry thatching, she pinched me, I saw my first scorpion
-Took photos of the scorpions, and then watched the hunt
-Took a last jal (walk) into the suk
-Toured Nasir West Primary School while it was empty
-Ran into Canada (Bahn)
-Played more yit and hung out with the Sudanese
-Last dinner of rice and beans with the team and our last surprise!!
Sora, sora!
Because I was really dealing with overwhelming emotions about leaving on Friday, I wanted to really document how I was feeling…both elated and crushed. Andrew, Peter, and Kerry had to work on taking inventory of all of Aid Sudan’s supplies on the compound, so it gave the rest of us time to relax, pack, whatever. That was my chance to sit outside by our tukul in the dul and write…
Okay, so here’s how the scorpion hunt went down:
I’m sitting in the shade journaling, and Nyaret is carrying thatching over to their hut.
I get up to offer my help, and she tells me, “No, no, no.” Then she pinched me!
I look at Mandy, perplexed, and say, “I don’t know what she’s trying to say.”
Mandy says, “I think she’s saying there are scorpions.”
Nyaret nods her head in agreement, and then points to this little black blob…a jith!!
I say, “Wait a minute, SORA, SORA!” I sprint into my tukul and grab my camera, come back and snap this shot…
Then, because that was NOT good enough to her, she urges me to step back. Then she takes a bundle and slams it down onto the ground…and scorpions go EVERYWHERE!!! I start squealing, Sudanese people come over, and Nyaret encourages me to take more pictures of the jithni (I think that’s the plural form), so I do…with my telephoto lens on!!
As soon as Mandy and I gave the signal that che thok (it’s finished), the kids start stomping and hitting the scorpions until they are all dead. Let me tell you, the scorpions are much smaller than I thought, but they are FAST!!!
Soon after the scorpion adventure, our team leaders were finished with inventory and ready for a walk into the market…one last venture into town from the ‘burbs! Here are my shots…
So, here is another image that will stay with me always. In all of the reading I had done prior to heading to Sudan, many of the “lost boys” wrote about making little mud cattle to play with when they were children. As we were walking to the market, this group of young kids was playing with little mud figurines. I stopped to look at them more closely, and they were not cattle…they were little soldiers with guns (AKs, more specifically). While I was initially shocked, I realized that many boys here in the U.S. (including my brother when he was younger) play with plastic toy guns…same thing. Anyway, here are the little mud soldiers…
While we were in town, I asked if we could go to Nasir West so I could get some pictures of the building and classrooms when there were no students. We walked over there, and I was finally able to get an accurate picture of a Sudanese school. Here is the building, complete with grass walls…
Here is a classroom…
Someone’s school work…
Good ol’ USA cans for seats…
This student was passing by and noticed the kawaja milling around, so she came over to see what we were doing. I stopped her and asked for a picture, and she obliged. She is holding her school books…
While we were in the market, we ran into Canada (iPhone4 kid…his real name is Bhan) again, so I stopped and got another quick picture with him before we left. He was going to be staying in Nasir until late August…so he’s probably home by now. Anyway, this is a cousin of Bhan’s, Bhan, and I…
I snuck another shot of the market. This is just the outer portion of the thriving suk, but it’s all I could get with my large camera without drawing too much attention…
When we returned to our compound, Mandy and I headed over to hang out with the Sudanese. We played a few more final games of yit. I was in LOVE with the sunlight at that time of evening, but Kim and Bil thought these pictures were hilarious…
Kim and Mandy (there was a really funny story behind the hat picture, but I can’t put it on the blog…ask me sometime)…
Kim, Mandy, and Jengmer…
Us…
Jengmer was carving a ring out of tortoise shell. It turned out really neat!
Many conversations I had with Kim had something to do with how different our cultures and our skin looked. As we sat talking that final night, I decided to document just how different our skin looks! As Simon said, “We look very different, but we are much alike!”
P.S. The Nuer word for “black” is micar and the word for “white” is mibor.
I had to get a foot shot, too!
I feel terrible because I cannot, for the life of me, remember his name. Kim actually took this picture (not bad, huh?), and I LOVE it for a couple of reasons. First, he looks so happy…how could you not smile when you look at this picture? Try it, I dare you! =) Second, his gaar (scars) are very distinct. I don’t know that I’ve talked about this before, but many Southern Sudanese tribes used to (and still do to limited extents) practice scarification. In the Nuer tribe, fifteen-year-old boys went through a scarification ceremony in which an elder cut this pattern across the boys’ forehead. The Nuer tribe cuts six straight, horizontal lines from one ear across the forehead to the other ear. No anesthesia is administered, and in years past, a boy who cried or squirmed would be considered weak, or not a man. Now, things are changing in their culture and the gar is no longer a required rite of passage. Many of the older Nuer men (mostly those who turned 15 prior to the war) have gar, while the younger men do not. Some people have gasped at the scars, but I think they are beautiful…
A little self-portrature with Bil (p.s. I had not washed my hair for a couple of days at that point…it was getting a little scary)…
Goi…
Mandy had the guys get out a Nuer song book, and she and the guys sang a few Christmas carols…
As the sun went down, Mandy and I headed back over to be with our team. That night was really neat because in the place of our normal devotional, we had an encouragement time. We each took turns saying encouraging things about each one of our team members. It was so much fun to encourage others, and it was so humbling to hear my fellow team say such kind things about me. I was deeply, deeply blessed by the things that my team said about me, and I am very encouraged about where this trip will take me in the future!
Then it was time for our final surprise from Andrew. We had joked a lot about the UN sending in an airlift of chocolate ice cream, but that wasn’t it. Mandy nailed it, though, when she guessed s’mores!!
The whole thing was both delicious and highly entertaining! All we had were candles to roast our marshmallows over, and the ground was too hard to stick them in, so we improvised. We used a roll of toilet paper as our candle holder, and took turns roasting our marshmallows. It was SO much fun…and it was really funny when the roll of toilet paper caught on fire…but Mandy jumped up and put it out with her flip-flops!!
Highs:
-Scorpion hunting was definitely a lot of fun and excitement! I was hoping to see a scorpion before I left Sudan…and luckily this was a semi-controlled situation rather than finding one in my shoe!
-Being able to visit Nasir West again, and to really explore and take pictures.
-Our last evening of fellowship with our Sudanese brothers and sisters. I will say it again, I feel SO blessed to have met them and the impression they made on my heart will be forever-lasting.
-Making s’mores in a mud hut, in Southern Sudan, and catching a roll of toilet paper on fire in the process!!
-Our encouragement time…I felt so blessed to have traveled with a team for which there is no shortage of great things I can say. And, it really was encouraging to have them bless me with their words of kindness.
Lows:
-Just saddened about leaving the next morning…otherwise, it was a perfect evening!
Lessons God Taught Me:
-I will never be the same again. Each person I came to know in Sudan deeply touched my heart, and forever changed the lens through which I will see this world.
-Faithfully following God brings unmeasurable joy!
