The dangers of yoga

I am one of the most inflexible people I know.

Yoga (#49)

I am avoiding yoga because I am afraid of snapping one of my hamstrings in two.

I don't get Pinochle

First time playing Pinochle

Complicated card games like pinochle and bridge. I don't understand the joy in counting all those cards!

What is the What

This is one of the best books about Africa that I've ever read, and I've read a lot of them!

This book is about one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, his escape to refugee camps, and his resettlement in the United States. It is, by turns, tragic and joyous.

Postcard hero

Yes, I have! Years ago (1990), I found a postcard from someone who died in a plane crash. I finally found the family members this week, so I get to return the postcard to them.

I'd go from La Crosse, WI to Minneapolis, MN to see my favorite performer

Paul Westerberg, former lead singer of The Replacements.

I no longer attach my identity to musical performers, but I still have a great fondness for Paul.

Point the getaway car to Cedar Point Amusement Park so I can scream on roller coasters like a junior high girl!

The reason why "Mutschelknaus" is the best name in the world

I would never change my name! "Mutschelknaus" is the coolest last name in the world. An East German linguistics professor once told me it means "little man" in some extinct Slavic/Germanic dialect. Plus, it's the only name I know of with 4 consonants in a row, then three consonants.

I hope I stumble across something I've lost

because a long time ago I lost my sense of wonder. As a kid, I used to think that I could magically open the sliding doors at the Fort Wayne KMart. I would like to have that magical feeling again.

Darfur refugees in Chad

The picture above is from a New Yorker article, Lives of the Saints. The article describes how aid workers cope with the influx of Darfur refugees across the border in Chad, my old Peace Corps country. I particularly like the part about aid workers being either "runners or seekers". They are either running from their past lives or seeking adventure and enlightenment. Another quote in the article described aid workers as "one of three M's: missionaries, mercenaries, or misfits". Two of these three categories are easily understood. By mercenaries, however, the person quoted means that international aid work can be highly paying and profitable, a point that Phil Caputo makes as well in his book Acts of Faith.

Lord's Resistance Army Massacre in the Congo

The day after Christmas, the Lord's Resistance Army has been accused of hacking 45 people to death in a Catholic church in the Congo. Here is the link from BBC News: Ugandan LRA in church massacre

The LRA is led by Joseph Kony, who claims to be one of God's one prophets. I found this picture of him on flickr.com. He and his followers have waged a years-long war against the Ugandan government. The LRA wants to establish a government based on the Ten Commandments and Acholi tribe traditions. The LRA uses a lot of child soldiers, and enslaves women and girls in sexual bondage. If you think of it, that really does sound rather Old Testament. I wonder why God told him to attack a Catholic church?

Zimbabwe cholera outbreak

Worsening cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe

Back when I lived in Chad, a long time ago now, there was a cholera outbreak in Ndjamena when I was in the city. It was very scary. Cholera is a water-borne disease. People who catch it, quite literally, shit themselves to death. There is no cure that I know of. In the Ndjamena hospital, they cut holes in the mattresses and lay the cholera victims there, with buckets underneath. This picture is what Ndjamena's open street sewers looked like. I'll bet Zimbabwe's sewers look about as fetid.

Why am I upset about this cholera outbreak? Part of it is because Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader, is a thug on the order of Sudan's Bashir. The other reason is, once again, we are doing too little, too late. We have let Mugabe drive this once-fertile country into ruin. Should the US intervene? Yes! We should intervene with all of the drugs, doctors, and sewer building engineers we have! But, I get the feeling we'll ignore this crisis too.

CNN's "Scream Bloody Murder"

Christiane Amanpour, my favorite investigative journalist of all time because of her uncompromising honesty, has created a two-hour documentary on recent genocides that will appear on CNN, starting on December 4th. Here is her incredibly detailed genocide website:

Scream Bloody Murder

If the link doesn't work, the web site is

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/scream.bloody.murder/

If you can't tell from this blog, I still can't figure out Rwanda or Darfur. Maybe this documentary will help me to stop other genocides from occuring.

How long must Congo suffer?

How long must the people of Congo suffer? Ever since the Rwanda genocide and its aftermath, this center of Africa has had cannibalism, forced rapes, armed rampages, pillaging, and worse. We stand by silent, as we do so often when it comes to African tragedies.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1857758,00.html

Gala beer from Chad

Anyone who has ever been to Chad has fond memories of Gala beer. This video proves that you can find just about anything on youtube. Enjoy it. Remember, "Voici Gala--jeunesse et joie!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tr1bnMdRCk

Homeland Guantanamos

This web site is actually a video game about the terrible state of immigrant detention in the United States. Check it out! Play the game, and find out a lot about what's actually happening to some of our most vulnerable U.S. residents and citizens.

http://66.232.104.66/homelandgitmo.com/

The End of Poverty

The image is from Image from http://www.earth.columbia.edu/pages/endofpoverty/index. It is the home web site for the book, I think.

The End of Poverty, by Jeffrey D. Sachs, is a compelling read. I listen to his main point, that poverty can be eradicated by 2025, and I have hope. He believes this because poverty is decreasing throughout the world, so there is less of it to fight. I also like his relentless campaigning for debt forgiveness for poor countries.

What I like most, however, is his argument that Africa can have hope. It can have economic development. The reasons why Africa lags so far behind, according to Sachs, are not because of endemic corruption and colonial aftermath--as is commonly assumed. Rather, the twin scourges of malaria and AIDS are sucking all of the economic possibilities out of these countries. It is a fresh perspective on Africa's economic situation, one that I had not read before.

At times, like all economists, Jeffrey Sachs gets tied up in hypothesizing and numbers. Even so, his energy and passion for change are evident throughout the book. He's a good guy.

On teaching "What is the What"

Well, the time has come. After a lot of preparation, I'm finally teaching Dave Egger's "What is the What" to two of my English classes. Right now, they are trying to make connections between the book and their own lives. We are focusing on the process of change and transformation, both in their lives, and in Valentino's (the book main character) life. I hope that, by the end of the book, they will have a bit more empathy for refugees among us. I also hope that they will see that they have similar experiences in common, even with people from widely disparate cultures. I also hope that they will learn that they are strong, just like Valentino.

For the moment, though, two days in to the book, they are still kind of confused. We'll see what happens. I do have one student from southern Sudan in my class. That should significantly enrich our learning experience.

Sudan's President Bashir now accountable for genocide

Here's the latest news from the BBC. Sudan's President Bashir has been charged with war crimes by the ICC (International Criminal Court) because of the genocide in Darfur.

• Sudan head accused of war crimes


• International Criminal Court home page

This, of course, is a great thing. It puts him in the company of such miserable human beings as Serbia's President Slobodan Milosevic and Liberia's President Charles Taylor.

The link will take you to a whole network of related stories about the Darfur genocide and the southern Sudan peace process. It is worth your while.

Abyei

Abyei is one of those towns caught in the middle in Sudan.

• It is located between the north and south.


• It has two tribes, the Misseriya Arabs and the southern Dinkas.


• It has two armies in it (the northern government army and the southern SPLA army). They are quiet for the moment, under a restless truce.


• Its border status between the north and south is in dispute.


• It is sitting on top of half a billion dollars of oil.

Because of these reasons, and others that I am not expert enough to comment on, I think that Abyei is a test case for whether or not the north and south can actually co-exist peacefully, or if there will be another war between them.

If my test case theory is correct, then another war is very probable. The following AlJazeera videos document the fighting in Abyei this past May 2008:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8p-V6e95yM


• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WI12r8OOKug

Since May, a truce agreement has been signed. The following Boston Globe article, dated June 18, 2008, outlines the details of the cease fire.

• http://www.boston.com/news/world/africa/articles/2008/06/18/forces_deployed_to_sudans_oil_rich_abyei_region/

So, keep looking for Abyei in the news because I don't think the conflict is over yet.

A place to go for updates on the Anuak genocide

Hello everyone. For updates on the Anuak genocide, you can go to the Anuak home page at

http://www.gambelatoday.com/

It's written by Anuaks for Anuaks, so you can get their perspective on the unfolding tragedy.

Anuak genocide in Ethiopia

Obang, one of my Anuak students from Ethiopia, wants you to know that the government is killing his people. He is not making it up. Here is more information on it. Darfur, as you can see, is not the only genocide going on in the world today.

McGill Report
When talking to Obang, he always lists this web site first as the place to go for more information on the genocide.
http://www.mcgillreport.org/

Targeting the Anuak
A Human Rights Watch report on the genocide.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/ethiopia0305/

Anuak genocide
http://www.genocidewatch.org/McgillAnuakjan04links.htm

Minnesota Public Radio: Anuak fear for homeland
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2004/07/28_straumanisa_anuakproject/

"What is the What" links and information

Another teacher and I have chosen to teach What is the What in our classes together this fall. So, you'll probably see a lot of Sudanese links coming up on this blog during the summer as I work on curriculum development with her. Here are my latest Sunday morning efforts.


Valentino Achak Deng Foundation
When I clicked on this web site, I knew immediately that we had chosen the right book! It has everything we need: web sites, videos, a reader’s guide, ways to help, updates on their efforts to build the school in Marial Bai, which is going on right now.
http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/

Reader’s Guide to What is the What
I found this on the VAD Foundation homepage. It has some helpful stuff for us, like lists of major characters, and a brief explanation of Sudanese history. There are also some public radio interview transcripts on it.
http://www.valentinoachakdeng.org/images/WhatistheWhatreadersguide.pdf

Duke University selects book for its incoming freshmen to read
If it’s good enough for Duke University, then it’s probably good enough for our learning community!
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2008/04/freshmen_read.html

Video of Valentino being interviewed
This is from Google Authors. It’s good to listen to him talk with that wonderful Sudanese accent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V7MeewG_MU

Video of Dave Eggers reading from W is W.
Dave is reading at some bookstore. It’s about when the helicopters came shooting for the first time at the village.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxz7dO5I2bo

What is the What book review: New York Times, 12/24/2006
This is a glowing review of our book. It outlines the major themes. It might provide our students with some context for understanding the book, although the prose style may be a bit too high-brow at times for them. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/books/review/Prose.t.html

Jef Shaara's "The Rising Tide"

I liked Jeff Shaara's Civil War books, and it appears that he has used the same formula for "The Rising Tide", his historical novel of World War II's North Africa and Sicily campaigns.

Normally, I read books about sub-Saharan Africa, but I have an uncle who was an ambulance driver in North Africa, chasing Rommel. He never talked about it at all. I can't blame him. The only thing he would say is that they drove without headlights, following the red tail lights of the ambulance in front for fear of bombers.

So, I had to read this book! If it is factually, accurate, which I believe it is, then I have a new respect for the contribution my Uncle Doyle made. He truly did go through hell. Those World War II veterans were tough men!

I recommend this book if you had someone in your family who fought in North Africa in World War II. For the average reader, it's probably a little too dull.

Machete Season

Jean Hatzfeld's harrowing interviews with some of the criminals who wielded the machetes in the Rwandan genocide is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the conflict. Basically, every day these men would wake up, grab their machetes, and go hack down Tutsis hiding in the giant swamp behind their village. Their lack of understanding, and lack of remorse, is chilling.

Here is a decent link to more book reviews on Machete Season: http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/ghistory/hatzfj1.htm

An Ordinary Man

(Image in original context at library.huttcity.govt.nz/.../05_May.aspx)

Well, I have read many books about the Rwandan genocide, and Paul's book An Ordinary Man is one of my favorites. I liked it better than Gourevitch's excellent book We Wish to Inform You because Paul is a Rwandan. He writes from inside the conflict, rather than reporting on it. I liked it better than Immaculee Ilibagiza's Left to Tell because Paul doesn't try to find any salvation message in such a regrettable, bloody slaughter, like Immaculee does.

In the book, Paul debunks the easy spin that we in the West have put on the conflict. It was not a Hutu/Tutsi tribal blood feud. Rather, it was a deliberately calculated plan by the Rwandan government, which was overlooked by so many Western governments. Paul asks us to accept complicated explanations for the genocide, rather than trite cliches. Nor does he offer any easy closure for it. He thinks another genocide is in the making in Rwanda. For such insights, the book is worth reading.

Paul Rusesabagina

I went to see Paul Rusesabagina at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse a few days ago. He is the person that the film "Hotel Rwanda" is based on. A very powerful speaker. It was like seeing someone return from hell to tell us all about it. He even signed a copy of his book, "An Ordinary Man" for me. The picture on the left is from Google images.

Here are some links for you if you are interested.

Hotel Rwanda Foundation: http://www.hrrfoundation.org/about.html

"An Ordinary Man" interview on NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5324187

Nuruddin Farah

This picture of Nuruddin Farah is from the npr.org web site.

The Somalis I talk to consider Nuruddin to be their spokesperson for the Somali diaspora. After reading Yesterday, Tomorrow: Voices from the Somali Diaspora I understand why they are so proud of him. In "Yesterday", he talks to Somalis around the world, chronicling their conflicting emotions of despair and hope, loss and rejuvenation, and their desire to go home again.

"Links" is also a good book. It is a novel about a young man caught up Mogadishu's civil strife.

I have never read it, but one of my Somali friends claims that "Sardines" is Farah's best work. It is a novel that follows the struggles of a female journalist under a repressive African dictatorship.

In conclusion, Farah is firmly entrenched in the pantheon of great African writers. You should try one of his books.

Chinua Achebe

This is a picture of Chinua Achebe (right) and Langston Hughes (left) in Lagos Nigeria in 1962. I took the image from Wikipedia's image repository, where it is licensed to be used by anyone.

Chinua Achebe was one of the early national voices of Nigeria. I first read his great novel "Things Fall Apart" (published in 1958) as a French translation when I was in the Peace Corps. I still remember the title in French. It was called "Le Monde S'Effrondre". At that point in time, I was naive enough to believe he was a French writer. When I read it again, years later, in its original English, I was astonished at how perfectly Achebe captured the tensions between tribal traditions and new colonial ways in Nigeria.

Then, years after that, I read a collection of short stories of his called "Girls at War". In these short stories, he chronicles how war affects not just the soldiers, but the people behind the lines too. I remember one character was addicted to sugar and couldn't get it. Another character rinsed out condoms and hung them out to dry. "Girls at War" is also a compelling read.

T. Coraghessan Boyle's "Water Music"

This is a history/fantasy novel that chronicles Mungo Park's exploration of the source of the Niger River at the turn of the 18th century. As always, Boyle's delight in language is wonderful. Only in Boyle can you find words like "crepitation" (the patter of little animal feet) and "micturation" (an actual word for pissing). He also interweaves a picaresque plot that includes Ned Rise, a London ne'er-do-well; Mungo, the obsessed adventurer; and Ailie, the love Mungo abandons in his quest.

The novel does a good job of depicting the brutality with which the British opened the Niger. Basically after a few attempts to negotiate with the tribes, they blasted their way up the river with guns.

If you enjoy language, history, and unexpected plot twists, then this book is for you.

"A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah

By all accounts, Sierra Leone's civil war from 1991 to 2002 was a dirty, terrible, shameful affair. Ishmael's harrowing story of being a child soldier in that war is one of the most frightening memoirs I have ever read. Of course, what makes his story so sad is that his is emblematic of hundreds of thousands of child soldiers throughout the world today.

I strongly suggest watching and listening to Ishmael's interviews. Go to the following three web sites and do a search on his name: Ishmael Beah.

cbc.ca/thehour
comedycentral.com
npr.org

For reviews and a reading guide, go to this site and do a search on his name.
http://www.bookbrowse.com

In the end, he escapes to Gambia and makes his way to the United States where he lives now. The book is about loss and gain, innocence and evil, revenge and forgiveness, curse and redemption, and--ultimately--hope. He was very lucky to make it out alive.

A warning. If you can't handle explicit drugs, savagery, and brutality, this book is not for you. Ishmael handles these topics at length, truthfully, and with delicacy. Still, imagination fills in some of the gaps he tactfully remains quiet about.

This book was on the national best sellers list for quite a while, just like "Left to Tell", my previous book. The difference in the two books is that Immaculee looks to God to help her forgive; Ishmael looks to other people to help him forgive.

"Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust" by Immaculee Ilibagiza

I have read lots of other books on Rwanda, but this one confused me the most because it is a book about forgiveness. Immaculee forgives the Hutu killers who murdered her entire family (except for one brother away studying in Senegal).

At first, I dismissed the religious underpinnings of the book as born-again zealous Christianity. But, Immaculee is Catholic, like me, so I couldn't.

Immaculee's story is a triumph of faith and determination. Like all the other Rwandan books I have read, this one is absolutely horrifying. Dead bodies being eaten by dogs througout the country while wild packs of Interahamwe killers roamed the countryside, cutting Tutsis apart with machetes. The killers of course, were former neighbors. Immaculee survived by hiding in a secret cramped room for months.

What troubles me about the book, though, is Immaculee's absolute faith. She believes so absolutely in God. She believes her prayers are always answered. She cites specific instances of God's direct intervention in her life. This is good. I wish I had her absolute faith, but I don't.

At some level, I distrust her story because I distrust all absolutists. People who are absolutely certain cause much more trouble in the world than we confused people.

I think Immaculee survived because she was fortunate, not because God directly intervened.

However, Immaculee's ultimate message is useful, even for the nonreligious. When bad things happen in your life, forgive those who caused the event, allow your heart time to heal, and move on with your life. Don't dwell on the past.

It's a lesson we all need to learn.

Tahar Djaout: "The Watchers"

The Algerian writer Tahar Djaout was assassinated by Algerian fundamentalists in 1993. This novel (French title "Les Vigiles") won the Mediterranean Prize for literature.

I would like to say that I read this book in French, but I used the English translation instead. It is a short novel that chronicles one man's descent into paranoia and fear as the society he lives in is taken over by religious fundamentalists.

The prose is an odd mixture of undercurrents of fear and floating dreamlike descriptive passages. It is quite effective. I think it might be an accurate portrayal of what it would be like to live under a fundamentalist regime, like the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Barbara Kingsolver "The Poisonwood Bible"

I have always liked Barbara's work ever since I read "The Been Trees" years ago. In this 1998 novel, she takes on a much more audacious task--deciphering the minds of missionaries in the Congo in the 1950's and 1960's during the Congo's turbulent birth as a nation.

Barbara depicts the rather elitist attitude that missionaries must have in order to go out and convert. As Paul Simon says in one of his songs, "That takes a lot of nerve."

The story, though, is not about the missionary father, but rather about his daughters: Leah, Rachel, Ruth, and Adah. Each girl, of course, carries the eddies of her biblical story with her. I don't need to explain to you about Leah, Rachel, and Ruth in the Bible. I did discover, though, that Adah was the name of Lamech's wife in Genesis and also the name of Esau's wife in Genesis: "Lamech took two wives; the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. Adah bore Jabal; he was the ancestor of those who live in tents and ahve livestock." (From Alabaster Jars). The web site also points out that Adah's line chose disobedience to God.

Set against the backdrop of the Congo's startling beauty and privation, each girl seeks to discover and fight against her destiny. In the process, the complexity of the Congo is revealed.

This is a great novel!

For a decent book review, go to http://www.uca.edu/divisions/academic/honors/pub/vino/0203/vino21_1/BookReview.htm

Another good book review
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/5-1-10/25625.html

"We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda" by Philip Gourevitch

For the sheer, documented horror of the Rwandan genocide, this book is a must read. Although I can't prove it, I think that the movie "Hotel Rwanda" was based, in part, on facts contained in this book.

The movie, however, doesn't even begin to describe the terror, the degradation, the overwhelming cruelty of the genocide where hundreds of thousands of Tutsis were killed with machetes. The book does. It is almost impossible to put down, and deeply unsettling.

Gourevitch also traces the genesis of the brutal Congo wars to the Rwandan genocide. For anyone who needs to know more about the genocide (and indeed we all must), this book is a must read.

For a decent book review, go to The Eye online magazine at http://www.theeye.co.rw/book_review_wish_tomorrow_families.php

For an excerpt from this book, go to The History Place http://www.historyplace.com/pointsofview/rwanda.htm

To listen to a conversation with Philip Gourevitch, go to Globetrotter at Berkeley
http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Gourevitch/gourevitch-con0.html

Philip Caputo "Acts of Faith"

"Acts of Faith", 2006, is the story of aid workers during Sudan's desperate southern civil war. Caputo is a powerful writer who knows the particulars of the conflict, the tribes, the geography, and the politics of the region.

Of course, it is a story about white aid workers struggling to find their moral compasses as they sink into the morass of the civil war. The tired cliche of morally decent people turning to arms running in order to help needy Sudanese is resurrected. I found that part of the book particularly annoying because it provides a false moral excuse for weapons smuggling.

Caputo also examines the ethical quandaries of slave redemption. School children's money in the United States was collected to redeem slaves in Sudan, but the gullible people redeeming the slaves merely turned the money over to arms merchants.

Finally, Caputo fictionalizes Emma McCune's tragic story. For more information on this British aid worker who married the southern Sudanese general Riek Machar, refer to my post on "Emma's War." If you didn't know about Emma MCcune before, you might find her story in this book to be compelling. If you know her actual history, Caputo's rendition of her is too melodramatic.

In addition, Caputo brings in the usual tropes for Sudanese literature: lion attacks, Lost Boys, Russian bomber pilots, horse militia, slavery. All of these things, in context, are of course true.

Despite my reservations about some of the plot elements in the book, overall I did like it quite a bit because it demonstrates, quite clearly, how people's good motives can become twisted and warped so that their actions end up accomplishing evil instead of good.

"Facing the Congo" by Jeffrey Taylor

"Facing the Congo", copyright 2000, is the story of Jeffrey's voyage up the mighty Congo in a steamer and back down, partway, in a pirogue by itself. Because it is a river travelogue, it naturally echoes "Heart of Darkness" and "Huck Finn". It is also a compelling portrait of the Congo right before one of the worst wars in recorded history ripped the country apart.

At first, I was not sure I would like this book. It seemed too much like a white man's adventure in Africa travelogue, a breezy romp through an adventurous landscape. However, like in all great travel writing, the story is really about Jeffrey's metamorphosis, wrought in him by his experiences on the Congo.

He ends the book by writing, "The best we can do is exorcise our demons through action, for time will always be short, and there is always much to be learned from living--even when the lessons prove to be deeply painful."

I'll leave it up to you to discover what he means by that final quote. It really is quite a good memoir.

"Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood"

Alexandra Fuller's "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" is a memoir. It is very similar, in scope and power, to Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes." That is high praise, indeed.

You can learn more about the book by going to the following Minnesota Public Radio web site: http://www.mpr.org/books/titles/fuller_dontletsgo.shtml

Just copy and paste it into your browser. There is a good book review on the site, an excerpt from the book, and an audio file of Alexandra reading the book.

I highly recommend this book. If you liked "Angela's Ashes", you will like this book too.

"What is the What" by Dave Eggers

The subtitle of What is the What is "The autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng: A novel". It the account of one Lost Boy from Sudan trying to make sense of his life in Sudan and the United States.

Valentino is a real person. Dave Eggers fictionalized some events for literary purposes. However, you can find out more about the real Valentino, and his foundation to help southern Sudan, at Valentino Achak Deng The web site is http://valentinoachakdeng.com/

All proceeds from the book go to help southern Sudan. For this, I respect all of the hard work that Dave Eggers put in to writing this wonderful book. He captures both Valentino's sorrows and joys, as well as his sometimes difficult adjustment to the United States.

Anyone who read Dave Eggers debut novel, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" knows why he undertook this current project. Dave Eggers is, in a very real sense, an orphaned Lost Boy himself.

Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell

The 2006 Leonard DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou movie Blood Diamond borrows many of its basic facts from this great book. There, however, the similarity ends. While the movie is just another tired, stale example of white people using African conflicts for exotic movie settings, the book is an in-depth examination of the awful civil war that raged in Sierra Leone in the late 1990's. Campbell also makes, in my opinion, a tenuous argument that blood diamonds help to fund terrorists because they are so hard to trace. It is a well-researched, readable book.

Emma’s War by Deb Scroggins

Astonishingly, this is now a movie in production with Nicole Kidman as Emma McCune. The book is a true story of how Emma, a British aid worker, became more and more enmeshed in the southern Sudanese civil war and eventually married Riek Machar, one of the founders of the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). If you want insight into how the international aide system works, and the war/politics in Sudan, then this book will be an eye-opener for you. It is also very depressing. I have talked to a few Sudanese who saw Emma McCune in Sudan. They disregarded her fame, and viewed her as a celebrity more than anything else. In other words, Emma may be a more of hero to white people who have never been to Africa than to Sudanese who lived through the war. I would have to ask a lot more Sudanese to make sure though. I often find myself wishing that there were more books by Sudanese about Sudan. But, of course, that would be difficult because so many of them have been killed.

African Radio Stations

I decided to find out if I could find any decent Chadian radio stations on the web. There are two good internet radio sites for Chad. The first is the BBC site at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/default.stm

It's a good site because you can listen to African news in either English or French.

The second is the old standby Afrique Numero 1. A message says that its internet site is down now, but they are trying rapidly to fix it. It is at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/default.stm

On helping a Sudanese Lost Boy

This photo of SPLA soldiers is from news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4297508.stm

For about a year now, I've been helping a Sudanese Lost Boy write his story. He already has self-published one book about it: The World is Better Off Without Terrorism. You can find it at Amazon. It's a good book about Sudan. John views the people that burned his village as terrorists.

Now we're working on the next part of the book. My sole job is to transcribe cassette tapes, lots and lots of them. As I work, though, I am conflicted.

First of all, I don't like the fact that John needs a white man to make his voice heard. His voice is so strong that he shouldn't need me as an intermediary.

Second, I think John views this second book we're working on as a political tract, aimed primarily at southern Sudanese to remind them of what the civil war was like and as an educational book for Westerners who do not understand the Sudan civil war. Two million dead, mostly unobserved under the empty blue sky. When the vote for independence comes, he wants to be sure that the south is a new country.

This is good, but it won't make his book sell on the mainstream market. To make it sell there, he should talk more about his trials on the run, in the SPLA army, and in refugee camps. But this is a rather capitalistic, Western attitude on my part. It would be like saying to him, "We want to learn about your suffering, but we don't really want to do anything in the future to help. We sure are sorry we ignored Sudan for the past twenty years."

Third, he's in the U.S. Army now. He has fought in Afghanistan and Irag. He sees the connections between these wars and his fight in Sudan as well. I feel like he's already spent his time fighting. In a way, his new country, the United States, is using him after he's already done his part. But, he's happy to contribute, so that's good.

For now, I'll keep on transcribing tapes.

Fighter jets in Africa

Once I was hiking outside a small village in Chad, Africa. The crops were about two weeks away from harvest. The villagers were hungry.

I shocked a farmer hoeing his plot with a mattock. His gnarled hands stopped in mid-stroke as he straightened to look at me. I was a typical white Peace Corps volunteer in baggy jeans and a faded T-shirt. “Hello” I said in French and Ngambaye. He replied rapidly, quite agitated. He was telling me to get off his land, so I left.

Out of nowhere, a French fighter jet screamed past, so low I could read the numbers on the fuselage. It was frightening, out of place. I don’t know if the fighter was on a training run, or on its way to the Central African Republic. In any case, it was a fearsome display of imperial power in a place where the skies are always empty. As I walked back, I wondered if the farmer perceived any difference between me, the white foreigner stumbling around on his land, and the fighter plane roaring by over his sky. We were both intruders. He probably didn’t.

On Darfur and tolerance

Over the past week I have been doing research on refugees and newcomers and how to help them through education. I found two great web sites.

The first web site is Eric Reeves' blog on Darfur. According to the New York Times, he is the authority on the genocide. If you want to read his blog, go to http://www.sudanreeves.org/
There probably won't be many refugees coming out of Darfur. I'm afraid they're all going to die if we don't help soon.

The second web site is a Harvard web site that has online tests for your hidden biases about race, age, size, gender and others as well. The tests are statistically researched and valid. They only take a few minutes to do. Try the tests. You might be surprised at what you find out. Go to Project Implicit at https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Run for your life: A Lost Boy's Account of Flight in Sudan

I'm helping John Ruot, a Lost Boy from Sudan, write his memoirs. Here is an excerpt. It's an amazing read.

The first memories that I remember about my childhood start when I was about five years old in Sudan. That was the day when my parent’s house was burned. That was the last day I saw them. I ran with other young boys, children. It was a very hard journey across the desert all the way to Ethiopia. I was so small that the other children carried me.
I have many memories of Ethiopia. I survived though the shortest, hardest life that I had ever seen. Everyday people were dying. I was living with a group of children in Ethiopia. I was there a whole year. It was hard on my mind. I couldn’t do a lot of stuff the other children could do because I was the youngest. For example, when they swam in the river, I couldn’t do it because I was afraid the crocodiles would get me.
I was scared all the time.
I was scared of swimming but not climbing trees. One day I decided to cross the river with friends that would carry me across so that I could be the one to climb the tree and get some mangos. Somebody came with a gun and shot at us in the tree while we were up in the tree. We all jumped down and fell into the river. When I jumped into the river, I went too deep and my stomach was scratched and bleeding and I couldn’t breathe. I thought I wouldn’t live anymore. It was painful. One of my friends was killed from the shooting. One kid’s body was never found. At least I was alive.
When the government of Ethiopia fell apart, the new government shooed us out. TheEthiopian army went down the Gila river on the border and kept shooting at us boys. So we either jumped in the water, and they knew we would drown because the river was way too fast, or they would shoot us and kill us. I didn’t know how to swim, so all day I watched people getting killed near me. There was a lot of crying, the people crossing the river had to go all the way back. The shooting continued. I was crying as people near me were crossing were being shot at. The river was full of people. The army realized later that none of them were alive.
I needed to get across the river; I was thinking what could I do about it. There was no way out and no one to help me because no one was there. It seemed like forever. I was too little. I couldn’t do anything, and I didn’t have any power to help me cross the river. I had one brother there, and I didn’t know where he was, because I couldn’t remember exactly where he was when the shooting began. We couldn’t run together and from there we fell apart.
For a long time there was nobody beside me. I remember other people showing us how to protect ourselves. I covered myself with a person who was dead at the shooting time while we were getting shot at. So, when the shooting cooled down, I asked the boy next to me if he would try to cross the river with me.
He said “I don’t know how to swim either.”
I thought to myself, think twice. I guess it’s me alone now. I thought that I would die either way. Then I thought I would rather die in the water than get killed watching people shooting at me. I threw myself into the water. The water was moving so fast that it brought me to the other side of the river. That is how I survived and crossed the Gila river that killed so many people.
I followed the other boys all the way to a place called Ishala. It took us several days before we got there walking on foot. We didn’t have water or anything. We were now on the Sudan side of the Gila river. We saw hunger like we had never seen before in my whole life. There was no UN or anything. If you found one kernel of corn, you would live off that for a day or two. It was a hard life. We lived like that for two months until the UN came and started bringing food. It got a little better with food.
The enemies from Ethiopia followed us. They crossed the river at the border and the fighting began again. We had to leave Ishala because there was trouble again. I myself was too little. I couldn’t walk with the others because I was too little of course. People would start talking about me, wondering what to do. They told me, “Stay and try to talk to the Red Cross to see if they can put you in a car with them.”
Well, I said yes and tried because I didn’t have a choice anyway. I was waiting for the Red Cross cars that I knew were going to pick me up. From there I knew I was saved because I wouldn’t be walking anymore. I would be taken by a Red Cross vehicle. I did try everything while waiting, the things I should do. Nothing was easy for me to do. When we had to leave Ishala, I took the old ladie’s advice.
The first attack didn’t take over Ishala but the second attack did. When the enemy took over Ishala I was at the river getting some water. I was there with some other boys in the little river. The enemy came while we were playing. Once again we had to jump in the water. I heard a sound of a bullet, but I didn’t know what it was. The kids that I was playing with were all gone when I got out of the water. I couldn’t run because the bullets were all around me.
I waited until night time. It was dark is when I left the river. There was also shooting at the airport. I tried to go to my house. I didn’t know that the people who were going to take me with them were all gone.
I got to my house. I accidentally knocked and the enemy heard me and captured me. They took me to the place where they put all the other captured people. It was early morning, maybe 4 o’clock.
I slipped under the fence to escape. I went all they way out. I found one of my friends I had lived with on the road. His name was Mobil, and he was from my same village.
It took me a long time to get to safety. On the way there was a lot of shelling on the road. I thanked god that I was not killed in the shelling. When I got to a place called Akella, I found a Sudanese lady that worked at the Red Cross that had told me not to leave Akell.
We were still alive. From there we went to a place called Buma. In Buma I found a UN worker and they took the little children at night. We were trying to sleep when the enemy came and shot at us. Three off my friends were killed, one was my father’s brother-in-law. He was sleeping in the same bed as my brother, but my brother did not get shot.
We went into the tent that had a cooking fire. We went into the fire thinking we could avoid the shooting. I was there in the morning after we got shot at.
We left, of course, to go to Akorta. We didn’t stop there. We went with Red Cross people to Naroose, close to Kenya. We stayed there, but there was no camp. The UN had to come in and give us food. While we were in Naroose, the enemy captured Buma again. The UN took the children across the border again into Kenya. We lived there but we were still scared to death. The UN decided to bring us to Kakuma near the water. The people there treated us badly. They were nomadic people called Turkana. They didn’t know Sudanese in that time.
This was in 1992. The natives in Kenya didn’t know us, and they were uncivilized people. They only lived to raise cattle, and they didn’t like Sudanese people coming around their area. The shot at us outside the camp.
In 1993, I decided to go back to Sudan to be trained to fight in the military, rather than suffering and dying somewhere else. I wanted to get even with the people who pushed me out of my homeland. So, if I were to die it would be in the benefit of my country.

In 1994 I went to back to Sudan. In 1995 I went into the military. I didn’t like life, so I went to die. It was my own life and my own decision. I wanted to kill those who were killing me and my family. I wanted to benefit others. I didn’t want to die of hunger. I wanted to kill those who hated me. I had to go back to Kakuma, Kenya, in 1995, after I got shot in Sudan and the bullet was removed from my body.
I lived in that refugee camp in Kenya and then came to America three years later. I flew out of Nairobi. I started high school in Minnesota. I didn’t know if I could find anything in America. I graduated high school and started community college.

Some thoughts and web links about Chad

I've been thinking that I would try to convey a little to you about my time in Africa, as long as you understand that I don't drone on about it all the time! My time there, though, will continue to affect me for the rest of my life. I feel like I can see through a rather thin veneer of comfort and luxury here in the USA to a much more complicated picture of reality, and ethics, on the other side.

Anyway, I lived in Moundou, Chad, from 1990-1992. Here are some pictures I found on Google images. If you copy and paste them into a web browser, they will work:

This map shows you where Moundou is: http://www.dcms.kirchenserver.org/dcms/sites/nad/laender/tschad/kirche/index.html

This one is what the kids look like in Moundou. You have to scroll down a bit: http://catholique-lyon.cef.fr/article.php3?id_article=358

Here is the way I travelled around Chad. There are three pictures on the web site: http://www.delcaf.cec.eu.int/fr/ue_et_afrique_centrale/transport_regional.htm

This is the way the country looks around Moundou: http://lacasedumandoul.blogg.org/offset-85.html

Zakawa soldiers. I've had the privilege of them locking and loading their weapons at me: http://voyage-bons-plans.aufeminin.com/album/see_76519_3/aventure-au-tchad.html

Here is a picture of the capital city, Ndjamena, as I remember it. I lived there too. You have to scroll halfway down the page. This is what most cities in Africa that I saw actually look like once you get away from the tourist parts: http://www.affordablehousinginstitute.org/blogs/us/2006/03/economic_hostag_1.html

This is what one of the best schools in Chad looks like: http://annick.voituriez.free.fr/Tchad/ndjamena.htm

More pictures of soldiers. I used to have really bad dreams about guys like this: http://www.interet-general.info/article.php3?id_article=6720

That's probably enough pictures for now. When I arrived, I moved into a house that Margaret Schutzius, a former Peace Corps volunteer right before me, had lived in. Her jet plane home when she was done got shot down over the Sahara desert by terrorists from Libya. I found a postcard she never sent to one of her friends about one month after I moved in. I still have it.

I taught English in Moundou for two years to junior high kids. Each semester, I had five classes of 100 kids each. You had to teach them by rote because there were no textbooks. They would write very small in their notebooks to save paper. The poorer kids would write on the smoothed-out paper that is on the inside of a pack of cigarettes. They dug for those in the trash.

This past Friday night I was drinking with some friends in a bar, and it turned out that the bartender was a former Peace Corps Volunteer from Kenya. You know what he said when I told him I was in Chad? He said, "Man, that place is hard-core." It was, and still is, one of the poorest, most desperate places in the entire world. The only place I know that compares with it is Haiti.

I lived next to the hospital. You would see the people wheeling their sick family members to the hospital in wheelbarrows. My best Chadian friend, Gali, his wife Honorine died because we didn't have enough money for her operation. My best American friend's child, David Gray age 5, died because his father, Larry Gray, couldn't get him to a hospital fast enough to get his appendix out. He died of a burst appendix. I had malaria a lot--we all did, but fortunately my brain didn't explode from it like my boss's brain did. His name was Yoram Nadjialdoungar.

So much happened to me there, but I did get to come back here. Plus, the people in Chad are great. They live in poverty, most of them, but they are absolutely wonderful. The southerners, that is. In Ndjamena and northern Chad, the desert nomad tribes hated all white people, a hatred you could feel intensely. I couldn't blame them, though. Really all we were was a bunch of privileged kids slumming it for two years. In my second year there, we had an African-American volunteer named Charles. He had to leave, though, because he couldn't take it. The Africans called him white too.

I'll end on a good note. Another of my friends, Kongar, had a first-born son about two years ago. That's a big deal. He's a gym teacher, so I sent him a stop watch. Anyway, I'll write more about Chad at some other time. I want to squeeze it all up and put it in one awesome spot.

Rwanda

Why is it that Rwanda (Rwanda Partners) has been forgotten? Such a genocide must remain a constant reminder of how we can be inhuman to each other.