Taking a break

We had been craving nature and a chance to get away. Uganda was exactly what we needed – refreshing time with friends and colleagues in Western Uganda (including their three energetic young kids), and then a week of real relaxation inside Murchison Falls National Park.

     

Seeing the majesty of these big animals in their natural habitat never gets old. The elephants, in particular, are so interesting to watch in their family groups. I read a book last year called Beyond Words: What animals think and feel about the complex social systems and emotional intelligence of a few animals, such as elephants, which makes me appreciate even more the expressive nature of these amazing creatures.

 

We took a boat ride up the Nile river towards Murchison Falls, and then hiked a couple of miles to get to the top of the falls. The river plunges through a gorge just 6 meters wide at these falls, and it is a dramatic show of the power that water has. Seeing the beauty and feeling the spray of these falls was exhilerating.

   

        

We are growing into an appreciation of birds, and enjoy trying to see and identify them. The red-throated bee-eater was a new one for us. From the veranda of the lodge we could watch them swoop down from their perch to snag an insect and then loop back to their perch. The pied kingfishers were another fun one to watch, as they hovered stationary high above the water, beating their wings vigorously, and then would dive straight down to grab a fish in the water without going under. The beauty and the unique character that God created in each bird species is truly incredible!

  

We also spent two days in the Budongo forest, where we found butterflies in such abundance that we said ‘it is snowing butterflies!” We watched monkeys (like the colubus above) leap through the tops of trees, and mused on the barking of the babboons. We spotted a few birds, but realized that in a dense forest seeing them is a real challenge!

Our flight from Aruba to Juba was on a small 12-seater plane. It was a rare experience for us to be on a plane where we could see out the FRONT window as well as the sides! Just as the plane revved up its engines and started down the dirt airstrip in Arua for takeoff, the pilot slammed on the brakes. We could see a few cows ambling across the runway in front of us. Fortunately, we did stop in time, and simply had to turn around and start the takeoff over again. But it was a reminder to be grateful for safe travel, especially in a place where we are reminded that you never know what to expect!

We are very grateful for this opportunity to get away and enjoy some of the natural beauty in this region. After this wonderful vacation, though, we were eager to get home to Juba, and grateful for our community and the ministries of the church here that make it a welcoming place to return to.

Proud Teacher

A proud teacher, like a proud parent, marvels and rejoices in the success of his or her students.  Last week I was thrilled with my students on the final examination day.  For my two classes, Contextual Theology and Church History, I had grouped students together to present for our class, to share with us and teach us what they have learned.  For my Contextual Theology class I asked my students to create a local or contextual theology, a lived theology which speaks to the realities and concerns of the South Sudanese people.   For my Church History class I assigned each of the eight groups a question to respond to, each question covering a significant historical issue and/or person of which we have studied together.  For each of the two classes and their final group presentations, I was "tickled pink" to see my students use their imagination, their creativity, their gifts and their hard work in sharing with us and helping us learn together as a community.

Students perform a sketch on Martin of Tours,
a bishop of the fourth century who transformed
the idea of "bishop" by his simple life of poverty and service

For my Contextual Theology class, Rev. Paul Ruot and Dak Badeng Gai introduced us to a song sung by a clan of the Nuer, a song composed by the women of the clan over one hundred years ago.  The song chronicles the history of one of two warring clans that fled into exile for having killed a prominent leader from the other clan. In exile the people suffered terribly from disease and their displacement.  Finally, after many years, the men who were so weakened by their diseased condition came to the end of themselves.  Into this sad predicament the women stepped forward, creating this song of repentance and intercession, naming the wrong committed and interceding to God through the known local spirit.  Rev. Paul, the elder statesman and wise sage of our class, sang this song for us.  He and Dak then connected the prominent role of women of this historical event with a South Sudanese woman who recently broke down and publicly wept during the failed peace talks in Addis Ababa.  The students shared how the leaders, exclusively men, do not realize the full extent of the problem and the suffering they are currently causing in South Sudan.  However, this woman’s public lament challenged the men while it also challenges all of us.  According to my students, her cry indicates that women love peace more than men.  Her cry is a prophetic call to a new reality, just as the song sung more than one hundred years ago was a cry for a new reality, recognizing wrong and asking God for help.  Rev. Paul and Dak also connected this traditional Nuer ballad to the song which Miriam, Moses and Aaron’s sister, sang when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea (Exodus 15: 20ff).  Rev. Paul and Dak conclude that although women in Nuer culture and South Sudanese society are perceived as weak, they are in fact known for their commitment and emotional strength, particularly in regard to their ability to peacefully restore broken relationships.  Moreover, Rev. Paul and Dak contend that the role of women and their significance is best embodied in the salvation which came through a woman in the birth of Jesus Christ.

Rev. Paul Ruot sings a traditional Nuer ballad,
a song of lament, repentance and a plea for divine help

In my Church History class, students tackled big questions such as, “What was the impact of Constantine on Christianity?”  “What central element of the Christian faith was Athanasius seeking to protect against Arianism?”  “How did Augustine understand theological ideas like goodness, evil and free will?”  “What difference do you see between the Christian view towards war and violence in the first two centuries compared to the eleventh, twelfth and thirteen centuries?”  This last question raises a lot of emotion and thoughtfulness from my students who, along with their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents, have lived under the shadow of Islam and Islamist policies for at least a century and a half.  The video below depicts the skit one group produced, representing well the Christian theological stance of peace and humility and willingness to suffer as modeled by Jesus, but also displaying the ambivalence and uncertainty which grew towards this pacifistic view over the centuries, and even how this view was altered and unabashedly compromised in the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth centuries as Popes called for a series of Crusades, Christian leaders calling Christians to acts of violence and war against the Infidels (Muslims), Jews and pagans, a sad and pitiable part of our Christian heritage which continues to compromise our Christian witness.  

Again, I am immensely proud of my students!  One thing I have learned this semester is that working in groups and having presentations plays to the strengths of my South Sudanese students whereby orality and communalism, working together in groups, are central values in contradistinction to western values of individualism and written learning and testing.  I look forward to our next semester together!