Laughter, the emotion

I’m in Rumbek this week to conduct a training for some community-based organizations here. The training is… interesting, but tonight I want to tell you what makes me happy about this trip: spending time outside the office with some of my Sudanese colleagues. Really, they are amazing people and very fun to talk with over dinner!

Tonight one of my colleagues, let's call him K., said that when he was a young boy, about 11 years old, he went to Uganda by himself for school, while his parents stayed in Sudan. He was lucky because his parents were able to support him financially, but can you imagine being 11 and doing all your own cooking and house-keeping, while also going to school?

K. told a story about once when he was traveling just with a cousin from Sudan to Uganda and the truck they were on broke down in the middle of nowhere. Not knowing what else to do, they walked to the nearest village and just followed a woman who looked nice home. What would you do if you were two children stranded in South Sudan by yourselves?

She didn’t have room for them in the house, but let them sleep outside with some of the other travelers from the truck. He and his cousin took turns sleeping, so that at least one of them would be awake all night to watch the other travelers, since they “didn’t know them.” K. shrugged his shoulders, took another bite of chapatti and explained that eventually they did make it to Uganda.

“Those were some very tough times then...” he said, trailing off. Umm, yeah, if he is referring to the multi-decade civil war and its impact on his childhood, then I think that qualifies as an understatement.

No one spoke for a moment. Then, out of nowhere, K. busted out laughing and everyone else around the table started laughing hysterically too! Sudanese… I do not understand. But it did make me think of something Sherman Alexie, a Spokane Indian writer, said in an interview I heard a few years ago. He said, "Indians are funny. I mean, the funniest groups of people on the planet that I've ever been around are Indians and Jews. So I think that that says something about using humor to ward off centuries of oppression and genocide.”

So there you go. I’m not always sure why, but we’re laughing it up in Rumbek this week!

-Stephanie

Photo of Rumbek courtesy of Wikipedia