Religion

…Religion is interesting here. There are Catholics and Protestants – both of the Bible-beating, fire and brimstone variety and a more laid back approach too. The vast majority is Muslim from what I’ve seen. There’s relatively little conflict between the two, except when politicians play off the differences in order to grab power (which generally leads to a civil war). It’s also pretty much a Muslim North vs. Christian South issue. Like we read back home, the North is Muslim, Arabic whereas the south is mostly Christian –African. Verrry interesting. But get this: both of them are still heavily heavily influenced by animism (the traditional pre-missionary religions).

The basis of animism is that all things are animated by life forces. Trees, lightening, animals, etc. etc. are all spirits or have spirits. When bad things happen, it means that the natural order has been upset (i.e. bad harvest or epidemic as punishment for something). To set the problem straight, sacrifices or other rituals are required. Actually, you should read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for a really good description.

So, anyway, both Christianity and Islam here are still deeply rooted in animism. In Bol, the kids wear amulets called “gris-gris”. They also cut the kid’s hair in crazy ways to make them ugly so the spirits won’t take them. I don’t know if there’s anything cuter than a little African girl with a Mohawk!

Hey, hey, Sunday morning now. It’s beautiful today! Probably upper 80’s with a nice breeze. It’s harvest time now. I went for a walk this morning and it was just so beautiful. The sorghum fields have all turned red, red-brown (burnt sienna, really) and the stalks look like corn stalks. The rice fields have turned golden yellow. Everywhere you look people are out in the fields harvesting by hand. As I was walking, some women called me over to where they were working. I greeted them, tossed out a few “alhumdulilahs” and they handed me a bundle of rice to thresh! They beat it on a metal barrel til the grain is out. Cool huh? The other afternoon Mai and Josh and I were walking and we came upon a man threshing sorghum. He had it spread out in a big square and was beating it with a hand carved implement. There’s something so soul satisfying about harvest time. I’m sure you both know what I mean. It makes me so thankful and at peace. There’s another good thing about Bol. It’s such an ag based region, I’ll have that familiar seasonal cycle to count on. Funny that I’m in the middle of Africa but my roots are still right here with me.

I want to tell you how hard-core Chad PC is. We are the most expensive (per volunteer) PC country for the gov’t to run because there are so few of us and there’s no infrastructure. Most much smaller countries have way more volunteers than us – Cameroon is way smaller than Chad but has 150+ volunteers. We have 30! We are acknowledged to be the worst/hardest PC country.

One of the trainees heard on the radio that some think tank said the Chadian government tied with some other African country for most corrupt government in the world! Every person who comes to visit us who has served in another African country is like “God, this place is awful! You don’t have ROADS?” People say if Africa is 3rd world, Chad is …11th..20th…50th..100th Way below even the rest of Africa. AND, I’m in the North, which is way more hardcore than the south, where they have more infrastructure. So I’m in the hardest country in the hardest region and I love it!

OK, best wrap up and get this off to you so you get it before Christmas!

Love,
Kate