Missionaries and Locals

As previously mentioned, God’s work often involves cross-cultural collaboration. This is true at the college, too. After being destroyed during the war and moving to Juba, the college did well for a time, and then fell into financial and physical disrepair during the 2000s. College land became a sketchy neighborhood with good grass for goats. Some of the church’s donors contributed a British priest and teacher couple an interim administrator and faculty. The couple are now happily living back in England, but Stephanie and I still miss them. The full-time principal, who took over from the interim administrator is South Sudanese.

Lovely, but did you pass the Entrance Exam?

The Interim's job was to get the college up & running, organize the teachers, conduct morning prayers, ensure that the college’s accounts were sufficiently segregated from the rest of the church’s, and hand over responsibility to the South Sudanese guy. The Principal's job is to organize teachers, conduct morning prayers, follow-up and cajole tenants on expected rental income, and get the college ready to expand. Both the Brit and the South Sudanese are ordained priests, both have quality Masters’ degrees, and both have my great respect, but guess which one could properly deal with the goats?

The problem with goats (okay there's two problems with goats, one being that they sound like distressed children) is less the goats than the goat herders. The goat herders a) are used to college land being essentially a dump, b) from the village at best and don't speak any English, and c) tend to be violent towards non-goats.  

So what happens when the goat herders bring a large flock of goats on campus in the middle of final exams? I'm not sure how a Brit (or an American) would deal with the problem, but it would probably go something like this.

Administrator: "This is college land, isn't it. You musn't bring your goats here. Do move along now."

Goat herders: <Shouting/beating>

But this is where cultural knowledge comes in. The Principal was on campus when this happened last year, and went out to run the goats off. The herders pretty much skipped straight to the shouting, and tried a rapid segue to the beating, but luckily, the Principal--nice suit pants and all--sat down in the dirt.

What, what is that you say? What does sitting down in the dirt have to do with it? Apparently, if you're standing, you're not really interested in talking, and are thus fair game for beating. But if you're sitting in the dirt (where the herders come from there's no other place to sit), you have the right to explain the history of the land title, the academic calendar, and anything else that might be pertinent to the goats at hand.

The goats left, the students passed, the accounts are in good order, and the college stands. A triumph!

- John