Celebrating Sudanese-Style (David's Perspective)

Saturday was a special day here on campus!  After months of hard work, the 3 new houses (for the Fader’s, Cross’s and us) were finally completed.  I’ll tell the story from my perspective and I’ll leave it to Karen at some point to tell her part of the story.

I woke up at about 7:00am and had some breakfast.  Then I heard some “baa-ing” and “maa-ing” sounds outside.  I opened my door and walking past was Eli and his sons, each holding a rope tied to the 3 animals we had contributed some money to buy (2 sheep + 1 goat).  I quickly put on my sandals and followed along to observe all that would take place.  

Our sheeps and goat.  I learned that sheep have long tails and goats don't.

  

When we got to the other side of campus, Augustino and some of the male students joined us. Two of the animals were tied to the fence (where they waited) and one was held down ready to be killed.  Warning what happens next may cause some of you to cringe.  Augustino took a knife, slit the sheep’s throat and then broke its neck.  It was quite the bloody affair and as I stood there watching I couldn’t help but think about what it would have been like to be one of the Israelites back in the day who month after month sacrificed animals as payment for their failures and sins.  I felt like a complete “city boy”, since I had never seen anything like this before. In Canada it’s just so easy to go to the grocery store and pick up a nicely wrapped meat package that you sometimes don’t even think (or know) where it came from.  But I digress, back to the story.  The other two animals were killed in a similar fashion and next came the skinning. 

I've edited this photo to omit the bloody parts.

A small slit was made in the skin near one of the back legs and then Augustino blew into the animal.  Yes, he really put his mouth right up against the leg and blew (so the sheep became almost like a balloon).  Apparently this helps to separate the skin from the rest of the animal.  Who knew?  Then the skin was cut off and placed on the ground (I’m not sure what the skin of our 2 sheep and 1 goat will be used for but in other places around South Sudan I’m told the skin is used for blankets or rugs.)

It was now about 8:15am and had told Karen that I would be back home by 8:00 so I walked back and left the men to do the rest of the skinning. 

The rest of my morning was spent playing with Rachel and taking her to see the “baby chicks” and Augustino and Viola’s house and the “kitty” at Eli and Bethany’s house :)  Karen was off with the women chopping up the meat and cooking the potatoes, rice, bread, onions, etc.

Fast forward to about 3:00pm.  Karen’s now back at home while Rachel naps and it’s time for me to head off to hang out with the guys.  I must stop here and say that I am amazed at how hard working my wife and the Sudanese women on campus are!  They worked all morning and most of the afternoon cooking up the evening feast AND they still made tea and coffee for the men during our hang out time.

So until about 5:00pm I was sitting on the veranda at the Fader’s new house with about 25 other men talking and having a great time enjoying Skittles (which Eli decided to share with everyone) and some tea (I’m not a coffee drinker).

Enjoying tea, coffee and juice on the new veranda at the Fader's house

One of the GTC students, Andrew, was helping to serve.  Check out his tie!  It definitely has snowmen and says "Let It Snow".  Every time I see him wearing the tie it makes me smile.

We were then informed that it was time for the program to start so all of the men walked over to where the women were.  I had no clue what it would look like or what would happen, but as we got closer and closer we could hear the beat of drums and singing.  The celebration had begun!

In addition to cooking all of the food, the women/kids had gathered all of the chairs from various places around campus and set them all up.  The women and children were sitting on one side (just like in church) and when the men arrived we sat on the other side.  

Everyone seated for the short program and speeches

  

The program consisted of a few speeches (by Principal Philip, Eli, myself and Jon) and then a prayer walk to each of the new houses to thank God for safety during construction, the finances to build, and to ask for His blessing. 

My speech (with Principal Philip translating into Arabic and Rachel roaming around in front)

Prayer walk to our house

Then it was time to eat!!!!  In university I remember having “meat fest” (around this time of year for the NCAA Final), and let me tell you, this was a great meat fest.  The only vegetables on the serving plate were a few tomatoes and potatoes, the rest of the food was meat.  There was a “ground goat meat + macaroni” dish, there was a “sheep with tomato paste” dish, a “goat meat + potatoes” dish (that Karen helped make), and a “sheep curry”.  There was bread and a few other dishes too (all which were very tasty).

Everyone seated for the feast

My table

The food!

Around 6:30pm our Indian friends from the UN came and joined us as we finished eating.  There was some Sudanese dancing and then as the sun became to set it was time to clean up.  But guess what happens?  If you guessed that the men go back to sit on the veranda at the Fader’s house while the women clean up, you would be correct.  I think I drank more tea that day than ever before.

It really was a fun day.  As I said in my little speech before we ate the feast:
- Thank you to the Fader’s for inviting us to come to work at GTC;
- Thank you to Augustino for helping me paint the inside of our new prefab home;
- Thank you to Boy and Ngok who helped me construct the prefab;
- Thank you to friends and family who donated money for these homes;
- Thank you to our mission agency (SIM) who worked hard in logistics and finance, buying and getting the materials flown here to South Sudan; and
- Thanks be to God for every good gift!