07 August 2005 22:56
greetings all. we can start off by looking at some pictures of airplanes. how about the airfrance that went off the runway last week that (happily) no one died in?here airliners.net, and
here airliners.net.
in other news, China's evacuated one and a quarter million people from the path of typhoon matsa. try here this link (might not work after a day or two). and i thought cuba's moving 200,000 was impressive when 'cane dennis went through last month. like roland says... there might actually be an advantage or two to having a dictorship. could you imagine telling 1.24million flordinese people to move to the safety of georgia? riiiiight.
there are many things i want to do in this life. i'm afraid i'm not going to get to do them all...
okay, so maybe i don't really want to be there in person.
hm. i'm being productive in areas that are ultimately unproductive. evidence here.
speaking of which (i'm taking a break from writing word plays into the opening paragraph of day eleven to relay this), we were riding back from church this morning in eric's pickup. this involved five or six adults, three stringed musical instruments, and a substantial amount of what i will (with great generosity) label "junk". bryce was trying unsuccesfully to figure out what type of place we were going for lunch...he'd heard the words "Food Court", but things weren't clicking. while the rest of us were trying to clarify our destination as the food court in the mall, roland was busy comparing to to "traffic court", as the place where people go who have exceeded the feed limit. you may groan now.
john garang, the future sudanese vp, died in a helicopter crash this past monday. the leader of the southern rebel army, he was instrumental in a peace deal ending 20 odd years of civil war this past this past january. his death sparked riots, his supporters suspecting foul play in the weeks leading to his swearing in as VP. (over 130 died, and over 350 were injured). while browsing headlines i came across this one (i admit, it has a catchy headline) scotsman.com. however, that's just background. what i did cull though, was this excerpt from another excerpt from a book by Deborah Scroggins about Emma McCune, an british aide-worker who managed to get a hundred odd schools opened, dressed like a supermodel, and wound up married to a sudanese warlord. it's an interesting paragraph (from this book review).
deborah (a reporter) was boarding a plane that emma had just gotten off of. in a mini-skirt no less.
Now in Nasir I thought I understood the current of disapproval that followed the stories about Emma. That gorgeous splash of a miniskirt seemed almost indecent in a place filled with sick, hungry people catching their breath between bouts of vicious killing and mass starvation. To look happy seemed tactless--a flaunting of one's good fortune. It occurred to me that the modest T-shirts and khaki shorts or blue jeans that were a kind of unofficial uniform for most of us expats were in some way an attempt to make ourselves sexless, at least in our own minds. We imagined that it announced, "We are not here to have a good time." It was like a surgeon's scrub suit or perhaps a modern version of sackcloth and ashes: an unspoken signal that we thought we were wiser and more virtuous than the Sudanese and were in a kind of mourning for them. Not that the Sudanese were fooled. In truth the average aid worker or journalist lived for the buzz, the intensity of life in the war zone, the heightened sensations brought on by the nearness of death and the determination to do good. We wanted to be here, we were being paid good money to be here, and the Sudanese knew it.
tis interesting that i came across that this afternoon. this morning we went out to a mission church near the military base. less than a kilometer outside of "town" (ie, going from paved to unpaved roads, houses packed wall to wall to having yards between, etc), the church has about thirty attending adult members (with 40 more kids running around... a very young church). i was basically a tag along, but there was a mission team from n carolina there who'd done a week of vbs. so we have over a dozen gringos running around. i thought about it as we gathered in the yard for a (large) group picture with all the congregation and the team. we went out into the poor country regions to worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but then we went back to city to eat fast food and sleep in our nice beds.
i like my nice bed.
it was just an interesting contrast to be standing behind a fairly poor church congregation watching roland take pictures with the sundry cameras the mission team brought along. between the video camera and four digital cameras, he was probably dangling an easy two grand US off his arms and neck. deborah's right. i always do feel weird visiting poor areas wearing my rich western clothing (even though the ritziest place i tend shop is wally world). right now i'm not offering a critique on materialism. i could, but i don't think i have anything new to say that i haven't ranted about before without actually changing my lifestyle any. ....no, i'm just curious what it's like from the perspective of the people on the other side. part of my problem is that i never get close enough to ask them what they need, be it money, prayer, encouragement, whatever. We wanted to be here, we were being paid good money to be here, and the Sudanese knew it.
speakign of nice beds, i'm not in it. roland and i just watched the italian job, but this time it had spanish subtitles. whoeee. now they're starting the original. i've seen it before, so i know better than to stay up for it. i'd like to leave you with a quote that kyle emailed me, but this is a family show, i don't think i shall. try this on for size though, AFP on news.yahoo.
in the meanwhile, don't forget your towel.
22:56 email me permalink / commentary (0)
