Walk with me

Well, I’ve been here now for 2 ½ months and most of my time is taken up by language study – Juba Arabic, which is a low dialect of Arabic. Every day, five times a week, I set out in the morning to walk the 2 miles to my language helper’s house, Mary. At first, I turn to the main square where the donkeys usually stand/sleep – they are really cute! While walking, I pass lots of people on the road, particularly children, who will always greet me saying: “Kowaja, how are you?” Kowaja, meaning ‘foreigner’ or generally ‘white person.’ On average, I hear this greeting about 50 times a day. I will go past the borehole where the women are usually busy getting water for their families – during homestay, I got such a bad sunburn from waiting at the borehole for an hour (granted, I had forgotten to put on sunscreen). When I finally reach Mary’s house after 30 minutes of walking and greeting people on the road, she welcomes me and gets ready for the lesson – here, people start getting ready when you show up, so it usually takes another half an hour.

I am just so amazed and thankful for how my relationship with Mary has grown over the last few weeks. She is truly a gift from God – and due to her help, I can now even say that in Arabic! Often, after finishing the lesson, we would sit together and she would make Arab coffee, drunk out of tiny little cups. The peaks are when we cook together on the Sudanese charcoal ovens – I am not good in the kitchen at any rate, but it is quite another challenge to cook on charcoal. However, she is so patient with me and after all, cooking together is just another excuse to spend some more time talking...

When I get home, my little kitten ‘Sid’ is waiting for me. He is only 4 months and was flown in from Kenya a few weeks ago. I’ve called him Sid, because he strongly reminds me of the Sid in Ice Age as he can never sit still and takes ages to go to sleep J. On a spiritual note, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

“We should allow ourselves only to be found where Christ is. We truly can be nowhere else than where he is. Whether you work over there and I work in Africa*, both of us are only where Christ is. He takes us along. Or, have I perhaps avoided the place where he is? The place where he is for me?" *(America in the original) Who is Christ for us, 55

I believe I’ve come back to that place where God is for me. All in all, I feel like I’ve come home, like God has waited for me here and has put my heart at rest.