The long journey

Greetings!  I have a story to share about one of my students that I was unaware of until just recently.  And.  Here. We. Go.

This student, let's call her R, is one of the better students in my class.  She is a little on the shy side, but she is never afraid to ask questions before or after class on things she doesn't understand.  She always performs well on assignments and tests.  Every time I see her, I am greeted with a friendly smile and "Welcome, Luke from America!".

Now for more to her story.  R lives in a village that is pretty far away.....almost a 3 hour walk away far.  Ever morning, she leaves her house by around 5:30 so she can make it to school by 8:15 and she makes it on time Monday through Friday.  After a long day of school and study, she has to make the same walk home with her books in her backpack.  Once she is home, it is time to care for her younger siblings, help cook a simple dinner, fetch water, and maybe do some laundry.  The next day, the same thing.  The following day, same.  On top of that, dinner is her only meal of the day.  There is no breakfast before her long journey to school and she joins the majority of my students who use their "lunch break" as a time to play foosball at the school or just sit around and talk.

For the past almost 3 months, I haven't heard a single complaint from R.  Not one "I'm hungry", "I'm tired", or "Here's why I couldn't complete my assignment".  There is nothing but hard work and joy that beams from her as she receives one of the greatest luxuries a women can have in South Sudan- a quality Secondary School education.        

I've been thinking a lot about R's story.  Besides the obvious gratitude for the education and childhood I had (and how there were days when I had to be dragged to school), I've been thinking about her daily journey and the sacrifices she has to make each and every day to come to school and make herself better.  What things in life am I willing to make that sort of sacrifice for?  There are things I hold on to and don't give up in my life.  These things are in all areas of my life, but especially with my relationship with God.  I allow God into some parts of my life, but not all.  R gives up everything to come to school to improve herself so she can get an education and job that will eventually support her family.  And she does it without complaining or being deterred by anything.  She has one goal- to get an education and a job so she can support her family.  I hope and pray that I may be able to follow God, take the 3 hour long walk to be with Him and learn about Him, and have that be my goal and purpose every day of my life- just like R.

Christmas?!?

I have to admit, when I left for South Sudan in September, there were certain things that I knew I was not going to miss being thousands of miles away from my home and country.  All of the election hoop-la was one of them.  The other one was walking through stores and seeing Santa Clause everywhere and hearing Christmas songs on the radio- in October.  Don't get me wrong, Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, if not the favorite.  I love playing and sledding in the snow, drinking some hot chocolate, being with family and friends, watching Christmas movies, and ending Christmas night building a fort and watching Home Alone with my cousins (yes we are all in our 20's and 30's, yes we quote most of the movie and still laugh hysterically, yes I know, we're pretty awesome).  These things and more I will definitely miss, just not the over-hype of everything.  I thought for sure I was safeguarded all the way in South Sudan.  About that....

For the past couple of weeks, I have been asked constantly about how the election was going and who was winning.  They follow it pretty closely and loved hearing from "Luke from America" about how things were going back home.  However, it was in a completely different context than back home.  They asked not because it really effected them, or because they didn't know the answer, or because they were a democrat or republican and wanted to give their views on fixing the country.  They asked because it was something they could ask that we both had knowledge about and in the end, they would know more about me.  They asked because they cared about me.  They asked out of love.  

I couldn't completely get away from the election, but I thought for sure that there was absolutely now way Christmas would dominate the life and culture here and I wouldn't hear anything Christmas until Advent. Well, last week as I was walking from basketball to the rosary "Silent Night" filled up the night skies.  Again, it was a completely context though than what I am used to though.  The choir had started practicing the songs for Christmas mass almost two months ahead of time and preparations for the big day had begun.  Roles have been assigned and Christmas spirit is filling the air.  There hasn't been one mention of the word Santa, presents, Christmas trees or anything secular.  They are starting preparations this early because Christmas is all about celebrating the birth of the most important person to ever walk this Earth- nothing more.  He deserves two months of preparations and lots of hard work.  One person stated that "the feast of St. Vincent de Paul was very special, but nothing is more special than the birth of Jesus, so we need to prepare and make it perfect- just like Jesus was."  Everything done to prepare for Christmas is out of love- love for Jesus.  The more I experiecnce the culture in South Sudan, the more l see that everything done here is out of love.  Love for God and love for each other.  They are perfect living examples of Luke 10:27- And I love it.   

A day in my life

Greetings from Gumbo!  It has been a couple of weeks since I have blogged, but I'm back!  For this blog entry, I'd like to give you a brief description of what a typical day looks like for me in South Sudan:

The day begins with waking up around 6:00, hitting the snooze button, and finally rising for morning meditation at 6:10.  I usually read a Gospel passage and then reflect on its meaning what it is saying to me.  Morning prayer follows at 6:30 and mass at 7:00.  Starting each and every day rooted in prayer and the Eucharist has been such a big help for me and been a great source of energy and hope.  We then have breakfast as a community before starting our work for the day.  The morning work consists of a combination of teaching English in the secondary school, either one or two classes of about 45 minutes each, and some accounting and administrative work in the planning and development office.

After lunch at 1:00, we usually have a community building activity- ping pong!  Almost everyone in the house plays and we have a lot of fun battling it out.  In the afternoon, I usually go back to the office for a bit more work , have Arabic class once or twice a week, and then oratory begins.  Oratory is a time for all of the children and youth to come out and play and have fun with their friends.  This is when we play basketball, futbol, and volleyball with everyone, and play games with the young children.  It is an opportunity to allow myself to be loved by the children, and to show them love in return.  I have really enjoyed coaching basketball and the number of players continues to increase and they are all so hard working and have a passion for learning- all while a smile is on their face and laughter is in the air.  After Oratory, we play the rosary with about 150-200 youth in 3 different languages- Arabic, Bari (the local tribal language), and English.  It is one of my favorite times of the day as we all come together and pray as one.  It is so special and beautiful when so many youth say "Hail  Mary" in unison and their prayers lifted up.  They pray directly from their hearts and fill my heart with joy seeing the faith and hope the young people have.

After cleaning up with a quick, cold shower, we have evening prayer at 7:30 and dinner around 8:00.  By the time dinner is over with, I usually only have time to check email and get on-line real quick, finalize and review lesson plans for the following day, and do some light reading before it is time for bed and put an end to another beautiful and glorious day in Africa.