Power of personal touch

First and foremost, Happy Mother's Day to all of the mama's out there!  There are many things in this world that only a mother can do- a motherly touch, motherly love, a motherly concern (my mom's really good at this one), motherly sacrifice.  I love you mom!

As I have said many times before, the children here in South Sudan have taught me so much more than I can ever teach them.  One of the the priceless lessons I learned recently is the power of personal touch and how much meaning and affection it can have.  It's in the sincerity of a handshake, that extra second hold in a meaningful hug, the cupping of a sister's hand on the cheek of a newly ordained priest as she says "God bless you and your ministry", the holding of a hand.  Holding of hands is much different here in Africa.  It is seen as a sign of companionship and friendship.  It is very common for men to hold hands with men, women to hold hands with women, and men to hold hands with women.  It is a reaching out of a hand as a sign of friendship and an acceptance of that friendship that is signified by a new bond of bringing the two hands together.  This was one aspect of the culture here that took me a little while to get used to.  To walk down the road and hold  hands with another guy was the definition of an awkward moment.  I still remember forcefully pulling away the first time somebody tried to hold my hand expectantly 

While I have gotten used to holding the hands of people and men here, I haven't reached that deep of a connection here yet with everyone.  I have a student, and he is THAT student, when the teacher and student just don't click at all.  I have a tremendous relationship with all of my students, except this one.  I've tried many things and things have slowly gotten a little better over time, but there was still a pretty long ways to go.  He always tells me "teacher I don't know English" and he refuses to do work most of the time.  He came into the office wanting me to mark his exercise book and had a question about yesterday's lesson.  I again explained reflexive, possessive, and personal pronouns, and he said thank you and went back to the class.  After school that day we were walking along the road together talking and he thanked me for helping him as a huge smile broke and his hand reached out for mine.  I smiled and graciously accepted his simple but powerful gesture.

There is a lot of power in simple human to human contact and make can make a world of difference to somebody.  Reach out and touch your mother today.  God bless.