However, unfortunately I won't see it until the 27th, because that is the day after I get back from South Africa.
Which is still great, and I want to add to my ongoing list of Things I Love About South Africa:
The way that they don't say "Is that right?" when confirming a fact. Instead, South Africans say "Is It?" with high upspeak on the "it".
Also, I love listening to Xkosa, one of the "click" languages. AND I love how South Africans roll their "r's". It's very unique.
Ok, so, like I said, I'd rather be writing about Harry Potter, however, there is a story I need to tell.
There is a man in my class, I'll call him Jakob. He is well over 6 feet tall, dark dark lovely skin, like the deepest velvet chocolate. He is from South Sudan, about 35 years old, and is a quiet man, who never hesitates to speak when he has a point to make. I've been wanting to ask him for a picture, just for the contrasting effect of a short white American girl juxtaposed against this tall, serene, Sudanese man.
Jakob sits in class, usually located on the left side of the room, and (mostly) pays attention. Sometimes I glance over and he is responding to an email, or something like that. (I'm not saying that I don't do the same thing, mind you, and I probably surf the Internet much more than many of my classmates.)
Being a Christian school, in the morning, the class does a devotional. They will sing a song of praise and then say some inspirational religious quotes from the Bible or w/e. Jakob bows his head during prayer and sits perfectly still with his hands clasped.
When we all eat dinner, usually together in one room, Jakob eats quietly, usually nearby his fellow Sudanese friend "Adam". He never eats a ton of food, even though his body is big enough to welcome it. He just sort of takes his time, and never rushes to finish his food.
I don't know a lot about Jakob. I don't know if he is married. I don't know if he has kids. I don't know if he has siblings or nephews or nieces or what his undergraduate degree was in or very much at all about him, really.
I do know that his parents were killed when he was 8, and he was then taken as a child soldier to fight and train in Cuba, Ethiopia, and Kenya. When he was 16, he found himself in Kenya, and ended up going to school and getting his degree.
Right now Jakob works at UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund) in South Sudan, and is helping to prevent children being taken as soldiers. Like he was, at such an early age.
As much fun as I am having in South Africa, when I heard this story yesterday, it just snapped me back to reality. It reminded me of why I am here. It's because children should NEVER have to be taken from their families and made to fight in horrible wars. It's because people should be paid a fair wage, and appreciated for the work they do. It's because women should never be victims of rape by warmongers. It's because people have rights, and those rights should be upheld. I feel fortunate that I get the opportunity to be in the program that I am, gaining my graduate degree in the hopes that somehow I can be a part of the struggle for justice, in whatever capacity I am able.
Jakob made me think about faith, about how I can't even imagine what psychological damage must have been done to him from his experiences, but also how it made him such a strong person. I do not want to change my religion, I think that my faith is mostly in humanity... but I don't know...I just think that some people would not survive without their faith in religion, or something. Maybe we just form rituals around and give different names to something that we all believe in.
I'm still figuring it out.
(Photo credit: David Cram)
