Introduction

So I have been here in South Sudan for a little over two weeks and it has mostly been a whirlwind of meeting new people, having to memorize their names, figuring out where to be and when every single day, trying to understand their English and learn a little bit of Arabic. Thus far, this is what my every day schedule looks like:

7:00 - 7:30: Morning Mass

7:30 - 8:00: Breakfast

8:00 - 3:30: Secondary School

5:00 - 6:30: Oratory/Youth Center

6:30 - 7:00: Rosary

7:30 - 8:00: Evening Prayer

8:00 - 9:00: Dinner

I am primarily working at the secondary school, which is the same as high school in America. However, the students here range anywhere from 15 to 25 years old. They are all children who have been greatly affected by the war that has been going on in Sudan for years now. Many of them were born during the war and only know that war kind of mentality since the country has rarely been in peace during their lives. For many, either one or both of their parents died in the war. Still, they come to school and having that willingness to learn. A lot of what I have been doing is administrative work at the school, which was not was I had originally had in mind when I came here. I only teach a couple of math and chemistry classes a week but hopefully that workload will increase as time goes on here. 

I am also responsible for the youth center. A large part of the Salesian charism is the oratory. Essentially, it is a place where kids and come and play and just be kids. On the compound, there is a soccer field, volleyball court and basketball courts, so every single day, I take out the balls for all the respective sports and just play with the kids that come. 

It has been a challenge figuring everything out, and I am still in that process, but I feel like very soon I can be completely comfortable here. The people here are so welcoming and open. They are some of the nicest people I have ever met and are willing to give anything for us, even if they do not have much to begin with. It is a beautiful thing that I have realized here and something that will help make this place home faster. 

Off to South Sudan

Tonight, I will be leaving to Juba, South Sudan for a year (or so) as a part of the Salesian Lay Missioners (SLMs). During Orientation in New York, I got the chance to meet the 19 other missioners that will be traveling around the globe to places that include Asia, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Florida, and South Sudan. I am so excited and grateful for this opportunity to go on mission and be with the people of South Sudan. Although I do not know what my specific duties are yet, I know that I will be working and teaching at a secondary school, working in the oratory in the evenings, and whatever else they ask of me. But before I leave, I wanted to share a few thoughts that I have:

1. I have chosen to stick with the blog address “We are called to serve.” This is because this call of service is one that each and every one of us is called to. Just because I am going on mission to South Sudan does not mean that I am answering this call more than anyone else. I am just answering God’s call for me, and that call just happens to be in South Sudan. To all those who cannot understand why I am going to South Sudan or think that going there means that my heart is bigger, or that I am willing to answer God’s call more than you, I want to say that it is simply not true. My call is no greater than your call since we are all called by the same God. Choosing how to serve in your own life within your own means, whether that means serving your family or serving the parish, or serving the mentally disabled or the elderly, or teaching kids, or whatever that call for you personally is, is the same call that I have heard. Just because God is calling me to go half way around the world does not make this call any more significant. Just like some of you could never imagine yourselves doing what I will be doing, I cannot imagine doing some of the things that you do to serve either. It is the same call from the same God to do different things, and this call is expressed through our passions. The quote I always like to use by Fredrick Buechner says, “Vocation is where our greatest passion meets the greatest need of the world.” The world is always in need, but it is through our passions that we hear how God is calling us to serve. Just as the ND Vision program challenges high school students, I want to challenge you: “God is calling. How will you answer?”

2. Let me begin by telling the Star Fish Story that some of you may have already heard: A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, “Well, I made a difference to that one!”

Realistically, one year is too short of a time to do anything or to make any real difference. Even a lifetime may not be enough to make a dent into the poverty that exists in all the places where the SLMs serve. It would be impossible for us to save all the starfish. However, this is not what I (or the SLMs) are called to do. We may be there to teach or to work at the church or lead retreats or work in the orphanages, but our real ministry is that of love and presence. It is our ministry to take every person and to love them. We are called to be present and love everyone who we encounter. God is already present in all the places where we serve; it is our job to express His love to the people we serve. I may only encounter a handful of starfish, but I want to ensure that I have shared God’s love with them. My ministry in South Sudan is to make sure that everyone that I encounter knows that they are loved. 

3. Something that I learned while I was in Indonesia is that there are many different types of wealth. Living in America it is so easy to associate that word “wealth” to money or material possessions. Often when we think of countries that are “poor,” we think of places where people do not have much. Their houses are run down and they don’t have many of the luxuries that we live with. However, with this kind of poverty comes a wealth of joy. It was something that I experienced in Indonesia and am excited to look for in South Sudan. I have found that the people whom we consider to be poor, I consider to be rich with something that I rarely find in America. Although their lives are difficult, I found that they were more joyful and happy than anyone in America. Because there is not much money, that is not their primary concern. Although money is important, the people I encountered in Indonesia valued personal relationship much higher. Even though they had no money, they still gave me all that they had. Although they led difficult lives, they did it with such joy and happiness that is lacking in America. This is what I am looking forward to experiencing again. 

I have been discerning doing something like this for a couple of years now and am so excited that it is finally here. All I ask is for you to keep me in your prayers.

Beach Picnic with the Kitchen Crew

Sorry for the lack of captions.... Internet is very slow here and I cannot see the pictures on my screen to be able to post captions.

We started the fire with coconuts and made pisang bakar (bbq banana), ikan bakar (bbq fish) (fresh, right out of the ocean), cassava leaves, and rice sticks (which is pretty much rice wrapped in some leaves, very good for rice to-go).

Lela From Above

A couple friends invited me to go on a short hike up a hill behind the place the students live.

Chillin with some friends

The hospital from above

Back at their home.

Simplicity

Just sit back and enjoy life… That is one of the things that I have learned to do here. I feel like I can speak for most of us when I say that our lives are busy. Whether it be going to work, or going to class, or soccer practice, or meetings, or picking up children from rehearsal, we are always on the go. I always find myself wishing there were more hours in a day, or that my body didn’t need sleep so I can do all the things that I need to do. I think it is our culture that pushes us to do this. After all, time is money, and if your not doing something with your time, you’re wasting precious moments where you could have spent volunteering, fixing the dresser, studying for those MCATs or improving your resume. This is especially the case at Notre Dame. There is a sense of urgency where, if your not doing something at any given moment, someone else is going to pass you and get that one job, or get that spot in medical school. Sometimes I feel like its a competition of who can get the least amount of sleep. After all, people want to see you’re well rounded and can do a little of everything. It’s not our fault, its just a product of the first world, competitively driven society that we live in.

Having lived in the village of Lela for approximately 3 weeks now, I can now sum up the culture of this community in one word: simple. People here wake up at 5:00, go to mass, work from 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM, eat lunch, then taking an afternoon nap followed by doing some household chores, then sleep when it gets dark. Yup, thats right, they nap almost everyday! It is something that I always want to do more of, but feel guilty when I do. I know the first couple days here I had absolutely no idea what to do between 2:00 and 4:00 because no one was around. Presumably, everyone was napping. Whenever I talk with the people here about life back home, they are always so surprised when I say I don’t take naps. Their view on Americans is that we are always very busy doing whatever we do with no time for leisure. 

This portrayal by them is fairly accurate, and sort of sad, because I love leisure. It is something that I have tried to embrace while I am here, and hope I can sprinkle into my life when I get come back home. Although I still don’t take those afternoon naps (I still feel guilty about wasting the day napping) I have been able to go out and run / walk almost everyday. Sometimes, I just go down to the field and sit on a bench and watch the little kids play soccer, or go on long walks on the beach. Its so liberating because there is no worry about what I have to do that night, or what time I have to be home. I can just go and walk / sit / play soccer to my heart’s content. I can just go and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. I can just stop and observe the beauty of God’s creation that I pass everyday but never take the time to take in. I can just be in conversation with God with no time constraints, without worry of where I need to be or what I should be doing instead. 

I have learned that life is too long to sprint through it. I need times where I can take a step back, push everything aside, and enjoy the simple joys that is life. This is something the people of Lela do on a daily basis, and it is something I hope to incorporate into my life as well.

Joys of Living

Friends,

Never have I been so thankful to be living in the great dorm of Alumni Hall, Notre Dame. Despite its lack of air conditioning, personal space, functioning kitchen, and cleanliness, it is still the place that I proudly call home and one that I have so often taken for granted. I think that more often than not, we college kids like to complain about our living arrangement, whether it be our annoying roommate, lack of room to put all our stuff, or that the bathroom is all the way on the other side of the building. I know I have done my fair share of complaining. 

However, since I have seen the living conditions of the students attending the nursing school and SMK (school after high school, but not college) here, I have come to appreciate the simple luxuries that Alumni Hall provides. After playing soccer with some of the guys (more on that on a later post) they invited me over to their place to hang out. They all were excited for me to come by and show me around and teach my Indonesian / learn English. What they showed me was a 1 story building with a doorway, but no door. The walls were much like propped up garage doors. Only a .5 inch piece of cardboard separates the inside from the outside. The floor is just dirt and it consists of rows of bunk beds. Unfortunately I did not have my camera at the time since we just played soccer, but you could imagine living in these conditions. I’m sure most of us could not dream living like this, and yet, my friends were excited to show me. They were proud of where they lived. They didn’t show any discomfort living there. No complaints or anything. Maybe they don’t know any better, but they were perfectly content living like that. They had to boil their water, wash their clothes by hand, and deal with the hot and humid weather all year round, and yet they were content. 

I feel like although they have very little, we act poorer than they do. It seems like there is always something wrong in our life, something more that we want, or something better out there. This is something that I have experienced so often back at home, people that have everything but still feel like they have nothing. It is something I have been working on for a greater part of the year. I have been trying to view life and materialism as my friends here do: be content with what God gives you, and ask for nothing more. I find that this has made me a much more joy-filled person, and have seen much happier people here in Lela, Flores, Indonesia than in most of America. Although they have little to nothing, they have the one thing that surpasses most of us, and that is joy, one that I long to have as I spend the rest of my time here and for the rest of my life. 

Schedule of My Day

5:00 AM : Wake up
5:30 AM : Morning Mass
7:00 AM : Breakfast
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM : Work in the Lab
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM : Help the kitchen bake some goodies
2:15 PM : Eat Lunch
4:00 PM : Run/play soccer
6:00 PM : Hang out with some of the nurses
8:00 PM : Dinner
9:30 PM : Sleep

Joys of Running

So everyday since my parents have left, I have gone out running in the evenings down to the beach, around the beach a little bit and then back up to the hill. It is a pretty good work out considering the horrible shape that I am in and the humidity of this place. What makes these runs so memorable is not the absolutely stunning scenery, it is the people on the side of the roads who call out "Selamat sore, Dokter!" which translates to "Good evening, doctor!" I just return the greeting and laugh to myself. This is great, I get the title of doctor without having to do any of the work! Another greeting, which is even more special that I get is "Selamat sore, ka!" from the little kids. Ka is the word used to address an older brother. That makes me secretly smile. Its only been a little over a week that I've been here and I can already call this place home.

Language... What an odd concept

My Bahasa Indonesia has gotten so much better in the time being here. I am now comfortable carrying conversation with anyone even though there is still a whole lot I do not know. I was even complimented on my Indonesian at one point! Now thats what I call progress! In the hospital, I have been working in the lab doing things like blood work and checking for malaria, TB, etc. The workers have been super patient in teaching me everything, from Bahasa Indonesia to teaching me how to use the instruments and read the data and things like that. Them, along with everyone at the hospital has been really patient with me while I am still learning. Everyone has allowed me to ask questions and explain words that I don’t know. From barely knowing what to say, or how to say it, I am now almost able to understand conversations without having to ask what words mean, I can even tell stories myself, something that I was really uncomfortable just a week ago. It feels like the longest time since I have spoken English, but I guess that is what happens when you immerse yourself in a place where no one speaks it. From being terrified of not being able to speak English here just a week ago, I even find myself counting, thinking, and dreaming in Indonesian know. Weird… I know. Today though, I got to put my skills to the test. There was a Canadian couple that came into the UGD (emergency room) today with an infection. They hardly knew Indonesian and the people here have a difficult time with English so I acted as the translator. Good to know that I can still speak some English.

Feels Like Home