"things that make you go hmmmmm...."

there are usually moments in life here that shock you back into remembering exactly where you are, moments that make you chuckle, some that make you cry, some that make you go hmmmm....remember that C&C Music Factory song?  ok, well, maybe you weren't listening to rap/hip-hop in the early 90's but I was and just thinking of the title line transports me back to my late elementary school/early middle school years in Pittsburgh in a instant...

anyways, back to South Sudan....and things that make one go hmmmmm....

for instance:

• the moment in church on sunday when one of the lay leaders dressed in her white dress and head scarf and sitting up front on the dais during the service leans her head back and reaches up to grab a piece of the thatch from the roof above her head and breaks it off and begins to use it to clean out her ear....hmmmmm...... :)

• the moment yesterday when in listening to a few young South Sudanese men who have been in school in the US describe their first encounter with snow....and their comparison of the looks of it falling from the sky to that of what? termites...would not have been my first thought, but they're right, snow falling from the sky looks very similar to swarms of termites flying around after a good rain....hmmmmm..... :)

• the moment yesterday as we left a funeral, which had experienced a big downpour of rain just as lunch was served, in which we were asked to pull a matatu (large minibus taxi) behind our vehicle so that they could jump start their engine....we tried but the second attempt broke the ratchet straps being used to tie one vehicle to the next.....hmmmmm.... :)

• the moment in which you're exercising (in shorts, might I add!) at 6:45am in the privacy of one of the buildings on your compound and a young man and boy who've come to borrow a bag to wrap the dead animal in that they're carrying with them and decide that what you're doing in your   piyot is far more interesting than their dead animal and decide to press their noses against the screen of the piyot and stare at you and the exercise video on the computer screen on the table...and continue to do peer and smirk after you ask them to go and tell them that you're not able to help them at the current moment...it's not until your voice gets more firm and you sound more annoyed they finally realize that you actually really do mean what you say and that they should in fact move along, that they do actually move along....hmmmmm...... :(

• the moment in which your friend in trying to describe to you the story of Noah, describes to you the "motoro boat" that he had....the moment in which you try to discern whether she is referring to the boat Noah built for the rains God sent ("motoro" means "rain" in Juba Arabic), or  if she actually really imagines Noah's ark as a motor boat....and then she goes on to describe what actually sounds like a motor boat, immitating the hum of the engine and everything....... hmmmmm..... :)

• the moment in which you're smacked in the face with the reality of abuse that women are on the receiving end of so often in war torn cultures like this one....the reality that there is no option of counseling, or talking about it openly and honestly with friends/family...no antidepressants or anti-anxiety meds to help you cope with the emotional outcroppings of such abuse....no rest from back breaking work and caring for several children that you are struggling to care and provide for on those days that are really hard....hmmmmm..... sigh..... :(

• the moment when you see a Moru woman squatting in the church's garden as she weeds around the tiny g-nut plants with little yellow flowers that are sprounting in neat and tidy little rows in the heat of the day...and looking at the rows and rows more that she has yet to do....and you're humbled by the smile on her face as you go by....hmmmmm.... :)

just of few of the moments from this week....so that you can "hmmmmmmm" along with me.