Santa! I know him!

Greetings from South Sudan!  Things are getting very busy here!  In the school, we are preparing for midterm exams, which start this Friday and will continue all next week.  Being the the computer whiz and fast typer that I apparently am (if you're from America, you're great with computers), I have been in charge of typing all of the exams for the teachers and proofreading them for any errors and making the necessary corrections.  It is time consuming and tedious, but I just put on some good Christmas music, and the time flies.  I am anxious to see the performance of my students, as they are doing really well when we review.

The other big thing coming up starting Monday for the next two weeks we will be having a summer camp for the children.  It will be in the morning and we will offer classes such as English, singing, arts and crafts, and Catechism.  We will also be playing games and feeding the kids a breakfast (for most it will be their only meal of the day).  This is such a big thing for the kids, as our primary school is now on summer break.  Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesians, once said that "an idle mind is the devil's workshop" and the summer camp is a way to keep our kids busy and give them a positive way to fill their free time.  It will be a fun and educational filled two weeks!  

This past week we traveled to different villages to sing Christmas carols and Santa came too!  I got to dress up as Santa for 2 of the days, and Tom and Jofin, the other volunteers, dressed up the other days.  It was an absolute blast to be with everyone.  None of the children knew who Santa was, but they really didn't care who this strange man in a beard and red suit was because he had candy!  It was hilarious as I would yell "Ho! Ho! Ho!" and the young children would repeat with their angelic voices "Ho! Ho! Ho!".  Most of them were excited, while some scared to death (just like in America!).  It was such a beautiful moment to hear the singing of all the people as the smiles never left their face.  We sang songs, danced with all of the "mama's", played with the kids, walked around to the houses, and shared joy.  However, by far the best moment was when we had everyone come up and kiss the baby Jesus.  They lined up in one line and one by one they bowed before the baby Jesus and gave him a kiss.  You could tell by the reverence and respect they showed that they knew 100% in their blessed hearts that this is what Christmas was all about.    

I thank you all for all of the kind words, prayer, and support.  You have no idea how much they mean to me and how much strength they give me.  God bless!

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.        

Salaam Aleikum!

Salaam Aleikum!  This is the common greeting in Arabic that is translated "peace be with you."  It is essentially how they say "hello".  As I hear about the wonderful fall weather and fall activities back home, temperatures seem to be rising a bit here.  We have been blessed with a little bit of rain to cool it down a tad, but sunny days have been over 100, or at least they felt like it!  I have started to adjust to the African weather though, as I was actually a little cold one morning!  One of the brothers even joked that it might snow!  

Now for the story of the week:

Last Friday, I asked my class to write an essay answering the following three questions: 

1.  If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be? 
2.  How would you change it?
3.  Why would you change it?

After writing the essay, they would then present their answers to the class in a short speech of just a couple of minutes.  The essay (only 2 pages) was due on Wednesday, and the speeches were going to be on Friday.  I was also going to answer the three questions myself and give an example speech on Wednesday, to give them a base to work off of.  This assignment provided to be the best learning experience by far, for both them and me.  Everyday, I asked them if they had any questions about the assignments, and there were only very minor ones predominantly about the sppech.  On Wednesday, I asked for them to bring up their essays.  They responded with nothing but blank stares.  I asked again for their papers and again got nothing but crickets.  Finally, one student spoke up. 

"Teacher, we don't know how to write an essay". 

Talk about a wake-up call and a lesson in only 9 words.  I had completely taken for granted that the students, equivalent to high school freshmen, knew how to write an essay.  Yet another example of things taken for granted and the differences in culture and level of education.  This week, I will be teaching Essays 101.

For the speeches Friday, nobody wanted to go first, but once one brave soul broke the ice, there was a nice flow of volunteers who wanted to voice their opinion and get their first taste of public speaking.  While I could go on for hours about their answers as it gave me a great glimpse into their lives and history, I will give you a summary and what it taught me.  Feel free to email me if you want more details on anything (Ebenerlukem@sau.edu)  For the first question, the most common answers were:

1.  They would put an end to fighting, war and violence
2.  They would put an end to corruption

The history in South Sudan is filled with violence.  For most of the students, war and violence is all they know and has affected them in so many ways.  There was a Civil War from 1983-2005 (the second one of the country) and there was still a lot of violence and fighting from after the Civil War had officially ended.  While things have improved since the separation last year, there is still conflict and a lot of the tribes are in constant battle.  Corruption is also a big problem with the government.  There are a couple of my students who are "Lost Boys" (a great movie about this is "God grew tired of us"). 

That led to the question of why would they change it.  Because innocent people are dying, families are broken, and progress towards a peaceful and truly free coutnry are slowed.  The people of South Sudan are torn up both on the inside and outside because of war but they are SO PROUD of their newfound freedom and country.  They use the term "new beginnings" a lot when talking about their country and lifestyle.  What an appropiate term as they continue to move forward with their new life as a country and as individuals.  It reminds me of a Braveheart line "I've lived long enough to live free".  And they couldn't be any more proud. 

How would they change it?  The most common answers, to any of the problems and not just the two mentioned above, were that they would pray everyday, preach the Gospel to the people, and BE and live the example of the change they wanted to see.  How proud this made me of them!  Here is a group of young individuals, who have been through more than most ever will be, who have an unbreakable faith, want change, and are willing to change themselves.  Wow.

After the speeches, I asked for feedback about the assignment and how the speeches went.  They talked about the initial fear they had, but how happy they were after they got up to speak and finished!  We then had a great discussion about they just overcame the greatest fear in the world today (public speaking), which brought many smiles to their faces. I then added that they should have nothing to fear when they change the one thing in the world from their speech.  After all, the number one phrase in the Bible is "Do not be afraid."

I pray everyday for peace in our world, peace in our communities, peace in our families, and peace in our hearts.  I ask you to please do the same for my students.  God bless and Salaam Aleikum.


      

   

Journey on

Greetings from Gumbo!  Life continues on safely in South Sudan as another week of teaching, learning, playing, and praying is in the books.  It is amazing how I look back on each day and say to myself "Wow, this was such an amazing day with so many awesome experiences...how can it get be better?"  And yet it does.  Teaching has gotten a lot better this week, as the weekend before I read a lot about teaching ESL and that really helped out a lot with some basic things that I honestly took for granted with the English language and how I was speaking in the classroom.  Their favorite thing and thing they thirst for the most is learning new vocabulary words, and more about Don Bosco!  It has led to some fun and interactive classes.  It has been a great apostolate for me.   My arabic vocabulary continues to grow, although at a very slow pace!   I am excited as this week I will begin organizing basketball drills on Mondays and Wednesdays, and lead a bible study with the youth.  While I have been missing a lot of American things lately- family, food, watching sports with friends while enjoying a cold beverage, fall festivities and weather, I have been blessed with many other unique and awesome experiences.

For the month of October, since it is the month of Mary, one of the sisters has been traveling every Monday-Thursday to villages in the area to pray the rosary with the communities and children.  Today, I had the opportunity to go with her and three other youth.  On the way there, we played "dodge the puddles" as we had just received a fresh rain and the dirt roads were quite messy and muddy.  As we passed houses made out of anything found in nature (mud, grass, sticks, bamboo) and lots of children with torn or no clothes on, I was reminded of my walks/runs back home and how blessed we are and the differences in the "neighborhoods".  It was neat to see variations of games played in America.  There were kids playing stick ball, and a game of tetherball- only it was a water bottle on the end of the string and you had to kick it back and forth.  Along the journey, we were greeted by ALL of the children as they yell out one of my many names- "A-boon-ah", "Ka-wadda", or "Luka".  Aboonah means father, as that is what they call any male associated with the church, Kawadda means white foreigner, and Luka is the African version of Luke.  After a 30 minute walk, we gathered with over 100 children and mothers and prayed the rosary together (in 3 different languages) underneath a tree and we sat on some rocks and the ground.  It was a really cool experience seeing all of the community members gather to pray together as one. 

I thank for the the continued prayers and support!  God bless you all!    

Happy Feast!

As I write this on the Memorial of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, a wonderful saint who I have been reading about the last couple of days in her auto-biography, there is another saint that has made a big impact on me this past week.  The saint is Vincent de Paul, which was celebrated in a big way at our local parish this past Thursday, as he is our patron.

Since we got here almost a month ago, preparations were being made for the big feast day on the 27th of September.  For hours every day, the choir was practicing songs, children and various goups were practicing different dances, and money was collected to help cover expenses.  I was getting excited as the antipication and mystery continued to build as I could tell right away that this would be very different than a typical celeberation in America.  I was quite right.

The festivities started Wednesday when a live bull was brought to our compound.  While we did not get to witness it, our friend would be slaughtered that night as the official kickoff.  We could hear lots of singing and dancing from the joyous celebrants.  Thursday morning we had mass at 10:00, which was led by the Vicor General of the Diocese.  The church was busting at the seams, and there were large tents and chairs set up outside.  The almost 3 hour long mass was filled with constant song, dance, and the Holy Spirit!  It was such a joy to watch and be a part of!  After mass, we had a huge lunch (with the bull being the main course), and it was shortly followed by the afternoon program, which was four hours of songs, dances, skits, and speeches.  It ended with a traditional Bari (the local tribe) dance, which everyone participated in.  It was amazing to so many people and so many communities come together to celebrate and enjoy each other's presence and wonderful talents. 

On Saturday, we had a mini-retreat in the morning and our Rector spoke a lot more about St. Vincent de Paul.  When he initially wanted to become a priest, his primary reasoning was that he wanted to have his own office in the church and to be able to retire early.  However, he later had a change of heart and realized the reasons that God wanted him to become a priest and lived a saintly life.  He soon discovered though, that his initial motivations about becoming a priest were very common in the Church at that time, and his mission became to change the hearts and vocations of priests to serve to people, not just to have the coveted corner office.  The priest concluded with, "in order for him to change the people, he first had to himself change." 

This has led to lots of prayer and contemplation the past couple of days.  How have I changed since I've been here?  What do I need to change about me in order to bette serve the people of South Sudan?  How have I changed the people I am serving?  I have discovered that I have changed quite a bit over the last month- in my thoughts about people and the world, my words- both what I say and how (slowly) I say them, my actions and habits, and even my appearance (still rockin' the missionary beard!)

As a last thought and official movie quote of this blog entry, we watched the Hunger Games a couple of weeks back.  This was my first exposure to the famous series, and there was a quote from the movie that really struck me- "The only thing greater than fear is hope."  As I continue to change, I hope to instill hope in the people of South Sudan, and that both they and I can overcome our fears as we both hope for change to create a better world.

I thank you for the continued prayers and support.  God bless you all!