I haven’t written in a while, so this is just an update on
the situation here and what life has been looking like. Welcome to my
frequently asked questions:
-How was Egypt?
The trip was…interesting. I am so thankful for the
opportunities to travel at this age and see things I never thought I would.
However, that doesn’t mean I am living the perfect traveler’s life. Traveling
is often rough! The diving was great, the drowning was not; the food was great,
the digesting was not; the pyramids were great, the police were not. All that
to say: fb doesn’t always show the whole picture, I just thought I would spare
you all a photo of me hurling in the desert! ;)
-Where are you going
next?
The current plan is to find a safari near Ngorongoro Crater
and Kilimanjaro then fly over to Zanzibar, a small island off the coast of
Tanzania. Tentative leave date is
October 25th followed by attending a conference in Eldoret, Kenya
starting on the 10th of November.
-How is Juba? Work?
Work has still had its challenges, but I have been given a
lot more responsibilities lately and feel like I am more adjusted into my role.
I still work long hours and feel uncertain about where I see myself working/
what I see myself studying in a year, but I have yet to meet anyone besides my
grandfather who had life figured out at 21 (congratulations Dr. Hans Peterson
for the impossible bar you have set for the rest of us). Still, I see a lot of
growth here in this role and love the challenges that come with relief work.
-What is the security
situation like?
Juba specifically has remained relatively peaceful. The
violence here is usually associated with crime and the victims are often left
unharmed. This involves a lot of armed robberies and armed carjackings of NGO compounds
and vehicles. Violence has continued to escalate in the northern parts of the
country, however, and one of our bases was evacuated not long ago. The staff
have since returned and everything has settled down for now, but a lot of troop
movement and minor incidences still yield to rumors of future attacks. With the
food situation already so dire in these locations, any additional security
threat has the potential to turn what is now scarcity into a famine.
-What are you doing
now?
For the next two weeks I will be based in Yida, one of our
refugee camps in Northern Unity State, South Sudan. I am leading computer
training courses for a group of about 30 national staff. This involves sleeping
in a tent and a reliable lunch menu of rice and beans every day. I still have
internet and the base is rather peaceful, so the change from the commotion of
Juba is nice.
-How is CCC?
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| Anabelle and Faith - CCC Facebook Page |
After being featured on Humans of New York, CCC raised over
11,000 Facebook likes and has received an overwhelming amount of
support/emails, enough that they hardly have the capacity to handle it all.
Still, the girls have no idea what celebrities they are and there is nothing
better than sharing a plate of dinner with them every Wednesday night like
nothing has changed.
I started attending church with the girls Sundays at 8:00
am. Since we work on Saturdays, this is my only day to sleep in, so I do not
attend very religiously. However, the girls typically guilt-trip me into going
and within the past month their main Sunday school teacher left town; he asked
me to take over. Before, the girls often read from a children’s bible, rolling
their eyes and blatantly talking over the lesson. Now, I won’t excuse their
poor behavior and attitudes…but many of these girls are pre-teens who want to
be treated like they’re thirty. It’s no wonder they hate church when they are
treated like they’re five. I asked the girls if they wanted to keep reading
from the children’s bible to which I received a resounding no, and immediately
promised them we’d ditch the baby book (thank you camp ministry for forcing me
to spend a summer trying to understand pre-teen girls). That Sunday, you could
hear a pin drop while Sarah prayed the closing prayer. These girls quoted
scripture to me, listened to me share my testimony, and then proceeded to share
their stories. Later, when I asked them if they shared these stories with each
other, they shook their heads slowly and avoided eye contact with one another. It amazes me that every Wednesday I will see
someone from the media trying to pull these stories out of the girls to utilize
for fundraising, forcing the girls to recount painful memories over and over.
And yet – they have no one, even amongst each other, to simply listen to their
stories for the sake of listening. How sweet it is to play a minor role in the
background, to simply spend time with these girls because they are my sisters
and not because it is my job or because I have some ulterior motive for hearing
about their pasts. At the core they have the same desires I do, to be known and
loved simply for the person they are and not the things they can offer. I walked
out of the classroom so thankful for little breakthroughs.
And then Anabelle ran away.
I watched the woman in charge run to the front of the church
gate frantically, but Annabelle, pictured with baby Faith above) was
already too far. She was gone for eight days. This wasn’t like when Julie ran away, no, this was much different. Julie is a scrappy little thing,
she knows her way around Juba. Though she may get herself into trouble, she can
get herself out of it. Anabelle doesn’t speak a lick of English, is easily provoked,
and doesn’t understand social cues in her own culture. Though her deafness is
not the cause, her inability to communicate is, and her life is made a daily
struggle by this frustration. When they finally found her she had lost a lot of
weight and had no idea where she was, bouncing from one camp to another.
When I returned to CCC the following week, I spent a lot of
time with Anabelle. We had worked on some sign language before she left and I
wanted to pick back up immediately. Though I am by no means qualified to be her
teacher, the options here in South Sudan are very limited for her, and I’m
doing the best I can with what little time I have. We walked around the kitchen
pointing at different items and learning the signs. Before, when I would sign a
conceptual sign such as “what?” she would sign it back to me and smile, demonstrating
a clear lack of understanding. But this time, as I would sign “what?” and point
to an object, she would return the appropriate object sign, a huge step from
the previous weeks. Not to mention, I noticed one of the staff members using
the sign name I gave her to get her attention, she must have taught them her
new name.
The communication skills I can provide her are minimal. And
without other signers to interpret her signing, the effort seems futile. However,
the joy I see on Anabelle’s face as she finally grasps a concept and that look of
curiosity she gives me, dragging me across the compound pointing to different
objects in search of a name, makes it worth every second.We spend some time tossing a ball and laying on the
trampoline before I leave for the evening, so thankful she is finally safe
again.
For the remainder of the week I start thinking about all the
possibilities Anabelle could have if she could just attend school. I start dreaming
up intricate plans of how I could help get her to a school in Uganda or Kenya,
picturing her graduating and one day being able to actually read the letters
she carries around every day, and researching the amount of funds my schemes would
require. After a week of waiting to discuss these options with the CCC staff,
Wednesday finally arrives. Rather than immediately going to hold baby Brian, per
the usual Wednesday routine, I detour to the administration office and ask if
anyone would be willing to discuss options for Anabelle’s future…silence. Someone
clears their throat and stumbles out the words: Anabelle will be going back to Bor.
Bor!? I read those security updates, I know what happens in
Bor! They can’t send her there? She could be killed. CCC is her family now, who
will she return to? And how will she make a life for herself, everyone knows
she is deaf. Even if she could get married, her dowry would be practically
nothing…Anabelle. Going back to Bor.
I know that even in relief work, you can’t expect to save
everyone. I know that suffering is the nature of the world we live in. But I
also know that nothing will change for Anabelle if we don’t try...
That’s all of the updates I have for now. Please be in
prayer for my travels, the work of SP, and the girls at CCC. If you would ever
like one specific girl to pray for I would love to give you her name and tell
you a little about her and her specific needs, so feel free to message me for
details on that! Thanks for reading - Breanna
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| Brian -CCC Facebook Page |
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| Yida Refugee Camp - S.Morson |
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| Afternoon S.Sudanese Ginger Coffee Break in Yida - S.Morson |
