This and That....

June 18, 2013

I am going to quote from an Airline Magazine (Ethiopian Air):  “Closing the Gender Gap:  The next class of African women scientists chosen for the prestigious AWARD (African Women in Agricultural Research and Development) Fellowship will soon begin a two-year career-development program, empowering women to help close the agricultural gender gap.  Representing 11 countries and more than 20 agricultural disciplines, the 70 recipients were chosen based on intellectual merit, leadership strength and the potential for their work to improve the livelihoods of African smallholding farmers.  The fellows’ research will span everything from plant breeding to climate change.”

I have to tell you that I find this utterly fascinating, for two reasons.  1  Most of the world’s farmers are women.  Cultivate is the word used for farming in South Sudan.  Most of the women cultivate crops for their families to consume.  2.  There is something about professionalizing what has traditionally been considered “women’s work, or role” that does create a gender gap.  How many women chefs are there in the world?  The numbers are growing, but who is it that has been primarily responsible for cooking at home at least in the past?  WOMEN.  Men enter the world of farming and it is professionalized and women must do extra work to “help close the agricultural gender gap”.  This reminds me of something I read a few years ago about the feminization of poverty.  Salaries go down when fields open up to women.  Teaching, professional ministry. 

I just find it very fascinating.

Another issue that has become in-my-face-obvious here in South Africa is the issue of language.  I don’t believe that there is a single South African who does not know multiple languages.  Just as in South Sudan there are so many languages that I could not begin to put a name to them.  Fortunately there are likely a lot of cognates that make some of the languages somewhat similar.  Kind of how English relates to Greek and to German.  It makes it easier to learn languages that are in Families, similar roots and similar origins.  Why is it so difficult for us in the United States?  Is it because we are isolated except on our northern and southern borders?  Is it racism?  Is it a lack of good training in English grammar?  Is it a lack of motivation?  Is it that life has become so professionalized and so busy that there isn’t time for good old-fashioned study time anymore, and study time is required to really delve into a subject at the depth that is required for language study?  And some people do have learning challenges.  I am just truly puzzled.  People from the Netherlands have told me that they must learn other languages besides their native Dutch just to survive because their country is so small and it is the only place where Dutch is spoken.  So they know English, German and maybe French.  Arabic and Mandarin Chinese are two languages that are going to be increasingly global.  They are extremely difficult languages for Americans to learn.  Spanish might be a better ally.  I find myself being grateful to the world for learning my own language of English because of how difficult it is for myself and my country to learn their languages.

Finally today I am going to address the issue of heat.  I think I have at last figured out that America may be the only country in the world with central heating.  What the rest of the countries seem to have is a fixture that goes on the wall and usually is created to produce both heat and air conditioning.  I am going to try and get a picture of one to post for y’all to see, anyone who doesn’t know what I am talking about.  I am always shocked to see these air conditioner/heaters and yet it occurred to me today that this is ALL I have seen in other countries.  No heaters, no duct systems, no floor grates. 

Blessings,

Debbie

June 11, 2013

One of the other things I am noticing is what is considered socially acceptable in terms of “manners” from country to country, culture to culture.  Yesterday someone who was in line behind me was just fine with diving first for help at the store we were in.  I went up and asked if he was a friend of the woman employee because I had been in line before him.  He got up and apologized, and then she ended up going to where he was seated to help him before me anyhow.  I was just rather amazed by the whole incident.

In another store after that had happened I was busy helping get my groceries organized to go into my backpack and when I turned around someone was making a purchase.  I was startled and he said to me that he saw I was busy and so went ahead to the cashier.  I said that it would have been polite for him to ask me, it would have been fine and it would have been polite. 

I tell you, my reality has become that really for a sense of comfort in life, being in one’s indigenous culture is simply the easiest.  Not always possible, but the easiest.

I have also noticed here that there are very few people wearing what I would call indigenous African clothing.  Mostly they are quite Western although there is some creativity in color and how outfits are put together.  A very few of the black African women wear more traditional looking outfits.

June 10, 2013

Friends,

I had some real sticker shock at drugstores, internet stores and grocery stores today.

Every country is set up so differently.  The Pharmacies here in South Africa have grocery stores in them.  I found Lithium Energizer AAA batteries for about $4.00 although I do have to exchange them because I wanted AA batteries.  I paid well over $10. for the same thing in Juba, South Sudan.

Internet on the other hand…..is very very expensive here.  Especially when a person comes from countries that have wireless internet for, frankly, cheap.  I will not go into details with y’all, suffice it to say that I discovered that doing Software Updates on my computer eats a lot of mgs and costs a lot of money.  Sometimes learning can be expensive.

Now, on the other hand, the grocery stores can be cheaper than other countries.  A large jar of Nutella (350 grams, whatever that might be in pounds and ounces) for $3.20 a jar??????  I bought two to take back to Malakal with me.  I may get more as it doesn’t expire until 2014.  A decent size jar of honey is about $2.50.  I hope this doesn’t mean I am eating on the backs of underpaid farm workers.

I am concerned about what is going to happen when I enter a Costco store again in the United States.  The Checkers grocery store here in Pretoria today frankly overwhelmed me.  I found myself wondering how any store could have so many choices.  And…why does any store need so many choices?  How many kinds of shampoo and conditioner does the world need to be producing?  How many kinds of instant coffee?  This time there was even a label by Nestle that used the word GREEN!  There were some green beans in the mix with the ripe beans and apparently this is good for the environment.  It is scary how far behind being in the know I am.

Oh yeah, toilet paper, 40 cents a roll.

There was an NGO (Non Governmental Organization) Doctors Without Borders, at the shopping center.  The people that were representing the NGO were raising money for the efforts at working with tuberculosis.  TB is a particular killer in many countries that rely on donors to provide the regime of medications that are necessary in order to cure TB.  Often adequate resources are not available and as a result the TB is not fully cured and reappears.  The forms in which it reappears are resistant to any kind of further treatment.  It is a health threat that is much more cheaply dealt with the first time with the appropriate medication.  What I found today that is new to me is that it is often children who experience the devastating effects of not having adequate medicine to cure the TB the first time.  I imagine that the repeated episodes of TB weaken their immune systems and their little bodies and that there is a high rate of death among the least powerful and the least able to resist.

Blessings,

Debbie

Ruminating...reflecting...thinking by writing....sharing with all of you.

On-going Blog

June 9, 2013

Friends,

I am in South Africa, in Pretoria.  I have been here for a week now having arrived in the late afternoon of last Sunday.

I have met both of my Promoters, the two women who have been assigned to shepherd me through the Research Proposal process and into the thesis process when that time comes.  I have been to the Pretoria University of South Africa (UNISA) campus now.  It is gigantic.  There are about 350,000 students globally.  Because this is an Open Distance Learning (ODL) University there are not generally a lot of students physically present on the campus.  This would take a lot of effort for me to get used to and grasp. 

I have learned that the library here at the UNISA Pretoria campus is the largest in all of Africa.  It is many floors high, some of them underground, and one of the things that I like most is that the Masters and Doctoral (M & D) students have a study are with wireless internet.  I am hoping to use that for doing things like Software Updates and downloading tv shows from iTunes.  Yes, I am totally about scholarly pursuits, am I not?  NOT!!!

I am at this moment drinking a cup of Roobios Tea that is a specialty of South Africa.  I am rather pleasantly surprised, as it is quite good.  Since it is quite reasonably priced here, in my own opinion, I may stock up on some to take back to South Sudan for myself and perhaps as an indigenous gift for people as well. 

I am having a time of puzzlement here in Pretoria.  This is a country unlike any other that I have visited in Africa.  Pretoria, or at least what I have seen of it so far, is quite modern.  I do understand that I must get out of Pretoria and see some other areas of the country during my stay here in order to see some of the other realities of South Africa.  Such as the poverty. 

Some of the prices here are very good.  What I found out yesterday in trying to pursue the idea of getting a new battery for my Apple computer is that technology costs a great deal more here than it does in the United States.  Someone said that the US is the least pricey, followed by Hong Kong.  It just so happens that six years ago, or so, I bought my first Apple computer in Hong Kong and indeed I think that the price I paid for that computer was somewhat comparable to the price in the United States.  So perhaps this is correct information.

There are many things which are just plain easier to get ones hands on in the United States, and much more affordable.  I plan to be in the states next summer and may have to hold off on some items until I am there.  For a new cell phone here in South Africa the stores desire a proof of residency, which clearly I do not have.  I can’t recall if that was a requirement in China where I bought my current, and very dated, cell phone.  However I did have proof of residency in China and that may be why I don’t remember, it wasn’t an issue at that time.

A person is not supposed to take two computers into Ethiopia.  This makes it difficult for those of us that live in places like South Sudan where it is not possible to buy a computer should the only computer that a person has crash.  This means that because my path frequently goes through Ethiopia I should not think of having two computers in order to have a back up for my first (and only) computer.  Yes, I back up data on an external hard drive.  Yes, I have replaced the charger that was failing.  Yes, I am trying to get the battery replaced so that I won’t have quite as much concern as I do right now before getting to the states next year.  But what do I do if my current, first, and only, computer should crash?  How would I access internet or word processing?  These are questions that missionaries in particular have to answer.  Business people who have access to unlimited funds may not have such a puzzle to work on.

I also had quite the adventure with the modems and SIM cards for internet yesterday.  I believe that I have three different operating systems for wireless and/or SIM cards running around inside of my Apple computer now.  I just hope that I didn’t accidently remove the one for Ethiopia a couple of days ago, and I may well have done so.  So now I understand that just having a modem and a SIM card is not enough.  The operating system for the particular SIM card must also be installed.  Any missionary novices out there listen up!  This information is for you! 

As long as a person has an unlocked modem it appears that any SIM card can be used in the modem.  The modem is just a vessel, it is not the system.  But the SIM card will not work properly without the individual system being installed.  As the man at South Africa Vodacom installed the Vodacom system yesterday I pried him with questions.  One cannot be charged roaming fees if one is using the SIM card indigenous to the country of the SIM card while in that country.  Even if a different operating system worked for using it.  In otherwords, I was using an operating system for Zain in South Sudan with the Vodacom SIM card for South Africa.  Because I was using South Africa Vodacom in South Africa, even though I was using the Zain system I was not charged roaming fees.  This was a relief.

By the time I retire someday in the misty future I shall hope to know enough to write a book on:  What Every Missionary Should Know and Had no Idea Who to Ask.

Now, on to the confusion I am experiencing here in Pretoria.  I believe that most of the countries in Africa, with the exceptions of Ethiopia and Liberia (someone else told me this so if it is wrong I am not responsible), were colonized.  It seems to me that in the case of most of the countries the colonizers vacated the country.  This is not so in South Africa.  Nor does it appear to be so in, say, Sudan.  In Sudan (in the north) the Arabs from the Middle East colonized the country and have remained so that in reality Sudan is an Arabic speaking Arab country and no longer African as I assume it was before it was conquered and colonized.  Most of the original population of black Africans would have intermarried until the original populations are no longer original, or have fled to South Sudan. 

In South Africa it was, I believe, the Dutch from the Netherlands, that colonized the country.  At some point in something called the Boer War, I believe that the English fought a war with the Dutch over the country and the Dutch won.  Cry the Beloved Country and Cry Freedom, two excellent movies on South Africa, helped me understand some of this more and I am still unsure of my historical footing here.  At any rate, the country definitely has both black and white (European ancestry) Africans; although apparently it is not normal for the white citizens to be called white Africans. 

From what I have observed so far there still seems to me to be a great separation in the lives of the blacks and the whites here.  Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest in the United States (the Seattle area) I have not spent much time in the American South to know if this may still be the case there or not.  In my mind I guess that the American South is what I perceive as being the closest to my experience here in South Africa of black and white. 

I am hoping for more clarity on this in the coming days, weeks and months.  This also has some ramifications for my thoughts on the United States.  The Europeans were the original colonizers of the part of North America that became, over time, the USA.  “We” did not leave.  So in a sense “we” are something like the Dutch in South Africa.  It absolutely dumbfounds and amazes me how history books are written from the perspective of the “winner”.  I do not remember learning anything about how the Europeans colonized the Native Americans, the indigenous people, and did not become good neighbors but instead put the indigenous people into little pieces of land and took over their homeland.  Hmmm, sounds a little bit like Israel and Palestine too, doesn’t it?  And, come to think of it, this is only about the indigenous people issue in the United States.  We also have the African American issue that includes the Civil Rights Movement and the history of the slave trade that involved many countries and much injustice, heart break and terrible brokenness.  All of these things are a part of American history.  It is not just the red, white and blue.

Anyhow, these are issues I am grappling with along with the Research Proposal.

Blessings,

Debbie

Bringing you up to speed on the journey....

May 30, 2013

I’ve been at the hotel for less than 24 hours…what a difference a bed that is big enough, long enough and sturdy enough makes for sleep!  Not to mention having a remote control for the air conditioner.

Having said this I should explain that in South Sudan, and this was true in Sudan as well, many beds and chairs are made with colorful and strong string or rope.  Someone weaves the bottom of the bed over the frame, or the bottom and the back of a chair over the frame.  While this is of course good for local business it is not the most comfortable material to sleep on, even with a mattress, and box springs do not exist here.  In my case the college had transported my cotton full size mattress from Khartoum and I had to have a frame and bottom made for me in Malakal.  While I took good measurements and the men who did the work claimed to know what I was instructing them to do, they did not understand.  As a result the mattress sticks up on the head and foot of the frame and my feet go over the bottom when I stretch out.  So believe me when I say that a large enough mattress is a true blessing! 

I had a feeling in Malakal that my Solar Shower “showers” were not really getting me clean.  The bottom of the stationary shower here in the room was coated with grime this morning, I kind of winced when I saw that.  The actual shower head that does not work in Malakal because we do not have running water in the house is where I hang the Solar Shower.  It is not high enough as I think the SS is meant to be placed in a way high tree branch.  So the advantage of the SS is I am not having to use soapy water to rinse off but I have to hold the hose that comes out of the SS and it is not as effective as a stationary shower head.  There is also a lot of dirt and grime in Malakal and the SS cannot hold the amount of water (or I couldn’t carry it down the hall from the kitchen where the Clean Water Barrel is from which I fill it) that I would need for the kind of shower I am able to take here in Juba. 

May 26, 2013

There are so many developmental issues in this country.  One  of the issues is how to keep the ground from being over saturated during rainy season and how to irrigate it during dry season so that it averages and evens out and can be cultivated.  With cultivation will come the question of how to provide food security so that people know the food they grow, the crops they plant and nurture will not be stolen from them.

One of the issues for me living here in Malakal is the monotony in food.  The people here are used to having the same food every day, or however often they are able to eat.  The food is cooked over charcoal and I don’t think that spices or herbs or anything besides perhaps onions and salt are used to perk anything up.  The concept of Mexican or Italian or Mediterranean food does not exist here.  Someone asked me today so what is American food?  And I said, Mexican or Italian or Mediterranean or whatever because we have people from every country in the world in the United States.  I have my menu worked out for the first two days in Juba….spanish omelet, vegetarian pizza, crepes (supposed to be pancakes but they aren’t), spring rolls, vegetarian pizza.  In between there will be strawberry yogurt and snickers bars.

April 28, 2013

Life takes a lot of time without electricity or running water.

April 2, 2013

I have just woken up after a bare minimum amount of hours of sleep from a day and a night of travel to a place called The Grail in Cape Town, South Africa.  I wrestled the front door open and lo and behold my eyes feasted on a vision of nature that took me back to childhood to a place called Buck Creek that was a Presbyterian Church Camping ministry. 

There was rain last night and the greenness here is permeated with subdued water. 

There is rustic and then there is rustic.  The cabin, or little house, in which I slept is rustic.  However it has running water.  And a real kitchen with a running refrigerator.  I just heated water in an electric kettle. 

There were three airline flights yesterday to get to this destination.  I flew first from Juba, South Sudan to Nairobi, Kenya.  Then from Nairobi to Johannesburg, South Africa.  Then from JBurg to Cape Town.  THEN there was a van ride of at least 70 minutes out to our accomodations for the next week. 

As the plane flew into JBurg I looked around and realized, after landing, that the people who were on cell phones must be the folks who live in JBurg.  Then I realized this must be true for anywhere in the world that I land in a plane.  The folks on the cell phones are the natives.  In the case of most of the world this means that they have a SIM card for the country and aren’t waiting to purchase one, like a foreigner.  Oh yeah, that would be meJ 

I am very tired.  I’m going to sign off for now and continue to blog later.

Blessings,

Debbie

Catching you up....

April 2, 2013

I have just woken up after a bare minimum amount of hours of sleep from a day and a night of travel to a place called The Grail in Cape Town, South Africa.  I wrestled the front door open and lo and behold my eyes feasted on a vision of nature that took me back to childhood to a place called Buck Creek that was a Presbyterian Church Camping ministry. 

There was rain last night and the greenness here is permeated with subdued water. 

There is rustic and then there is rustic.  The cabin, or little house, in which I slept is rustic.  However it has running water.  And a real kitchen with a running refrigerator.  I just heated water in an electric kettle. 

There were three airline flights yesterday to get to this destination.  I flew first from Juba, South Sudan to Nairobi, Kenya.  Then from Nairobi to Johannesburg, South Africa.  Then from JBurg to Cape Town.  THEN there was a van ride of at least 70 minutes out to our accomodations for the next week. 

As the plane flew into JBurg I looked around and realized, after landing, that the people who were on cell phones must be the folks who live in JBurg.  Then I realized this must be true for anywhere in the world that I land in a plane.  The folks on the cell phones are the natives.  In the case of most of the world this means that they have a SIM card for the country and aren’t waiting to purchase one, like a foreigner.  Oh yeah, that would be meJ 

I am very tired.  I’m going to sign off for now and continue to blog later.

Blessings,

Debbie

More pictures from the Unity Service on Palm Sunday, March 24, 2013. Presbyterian Church, Malakal, South Sudan.

Happy Easter 2013!

All caught up....as much as that is possible! :)

March 29, 2013

It is Good Friday and I have some time in the air-conditioned hotel room to catch up on the blog

so that after this I can move on from today.

Palm Sunday, March 24, I attended a Presbyterian Church of South Sudan worship service and then ordination of many, many people who were becoming Elders, Deacons and Pastors in the church.  There apparently had not been an ordination service for several years and there were over one hundred who were ordained for the various offices in the church.  One of my colleagues, a female, became a Reverend on that day!  She is only the second or third female to be ordained as a pastor so this was a momentous occasion.

The worship and service for ordination lasted for about three and a half hours.  The worship service was a Unity service for all of the Presbyterians in Malakal.  There are many Presbyterian churches in town because each people group (tribe) has one due to each ethnic group having its own language.  The Unity service was primarily in Arabic with some English, an apology was given at the end of the service for not having translation for those whose first language is English (I may have been the only oneJ) and a promise to have translation next time.  The service was definitely unifying with each church being called upon, one right after the other, to present a gift of singing.  This is one reason why the worship was so long.

The ordination segment of the total time was lengthened by the number of Deacons being ordained as there were so many of them that the officiates had to ordain them in several small groups.  I was witness to quite the organic movement of the Holy Spirit in the church!

This past Wednesday the 27^th I flew to Juba from Malakal in order to obtain a multi entry visa.  These can only be purchased in Juba and I had to obtain it in order to reenter the country after my return from the Gathering of African Mission Co-Workers in Cape Town, South Africa on April 10^th.  One of the men from the Presbyterian Church of South Sudan spent quite a bit of time with me on Wednesday on the compound of the Office of Immigration going from office to office, the end result of which was a three-month multiple entry visa in my passport.  I had to come to Juba earlier than I had planned because, while I don’t fly out to Cape Town until this coming Monday April 1^st, there was a strong likelihood that because this is Holy Week (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Saturday Vigil and Easter Sunday) that the Office of Immigration would close early on Thursday and I could not risk having to leave South Sudan without a way to reenter. 

I am learning that it is not good to travel in foreign countries on Christian holidays, nor probably the holidays of any other religion.  I was in Nairobi at Christmas and had challenges getting my South Sudan visa renewed there.  This time it was Holy Week in Juba and I had to adjust my schedule accordingly.  Now that I have obtained my first multiple entry visa this situation may become a little less urgent.  I hope

I realized on Wednesday as I was in a car with only two other people and not a public transport in Malakal with several people, driving down a paved road that I was driving down a paved road.  Then I realized that the culture shock going from Malakal into Juba is becoming somewhat less jarring.  I think this may be because it is happening more often.  However I then was taken to an actual grocery store, not just a pop and biscuit stand on the street, and I wanted to break out crying because we don’t have actual grocery stores in Malakal!  I was actually able to buy a Snickers bar, even though it cost me almost $2.00!!!!  I also got Diet Pepsi, even though my true love is Diet Coke it isn’t to be found in South Sudan, and that is cheaper than in Malakal.  So that was nice.

I have decided to call the car rides in South Sudan “Oh Lord, the potholes are so deep and wide and the car in which I am being driven is so small.”  Up and down, being thrown about, it hurts!  Someone told me that most women wear a strap and I was finally able to figure out that this is different than a seat belt.  It is something that supports the back and helps to keep us from being thrown about quite so violently.

I will tell you that Juba is a HUGE city.  Huge, huge, huge.  It  just keeps going.  And going.  Yesterday, Thursday, I got to see quite a bit of it because two men came from the church to help me run errands in the morning.  We were looking particularly for fuses for my solar battery for one of my two not functioning solar systems.  We could not find them.  But we certainly gave it a good try going from store to store in the heat with sweat running down our faces and backs.  I got to see many parts of Juba that I have not seen before.  I realize that is simply because Malakal really is a town and not a city that Juba seems so big to me, and yet I realize that my perspective has changed on what is little and what is big.  I fear that at this point New York City would totally overwhelm me. 

There is a shower in the bathroom here at the hotel.  It is one of the best things about staying here.  Having a shower where the water actually comes out of a showerhead that is on the wall and having HOT water if I want it is so delicious!  I could wash my hair under a stream of water coming from above and not bending down over a bucket.  I hope never to take such wonderful delights for granted again. 

There are so many other things that I could share with you.  Every time I am out and about I see and observe a lifetime of thoughts/differences/people/events/etc. that I forget if I don’t make notes to myself for the Blog!  I do keep in mind very often that I am the door for many of you into a world that you may never step foot in for yourself.  I want to share what is on the other side of that door, and I try to do that, with God’s help.

May your Easter be bright and revelatory for those of you who are Christians.  For the others, may you have a peaceful and restful remainder of the week, which is basically the weekend by now!

Blessings,

Debbie