This past weekend marked my 4th month Sudanniversary.
That’s right, it’s been 4 months since I arrived in Sudan. At this point it’s
safe to assume “I’m settled” and have established a normal routine. A question
my mom asks me a lot is “What do I actually do all day?” This is totally fair.
Even before arriving I was told my volunteer hours teaching at the university
would be less than 20 per week. Going
from the “busy” life as a college student, to my Summer 9-5 gig, to life in
Sudan has been a huge change.
First I’ll directly answer the question, “What do I actually
do with my time?” I currently teach
twice a week at my university. It’s quite the trek (a half hour commute to
Kadaru), although we are quite spoiled to have a university car drive us to and
from our home, but the drive back in the afternoon leaves us zombie-like only alleviated
by naps. Activities at university are
equal part having tea, dealing with administrative issues, and actual teaching.
Additionally, I am giving twice weekly English classes to the staff of a center
for civil society. Eventually, inshallah, I might add another private class in
the afternoons.
Besides teaching I
have been reading and writing working on assisting some Sudanese students with
a variety of applications and graduation projects and also separately reading
anything I can get my hands on about the conflict in South Sudan. Rachel and I also have an inclination to make
sure everyone in our volunteer group is doing ok and that new volunteers are
being taken care of. So we do spend quite a bit of time with our friends in the
program.
I have also tried my hand at cooking! WHAT?! Its true folks,
with more time and little variety in our neighborhood I’ve actually become
interested in cooking for myself. It all started from Rachel’s encouragement
and being inspired by watching a fellow volunteer who was trained as a chef
make pasta sauce out of cream cheese and canned cheese (pretty genius). I’ve
always seemed to have some mental block to cooking; that it was too difficult,
too time-consuming, and too depressing to cook for one person. This meant I was
queen of take-out. While I was literally living the “sweetlife” with trips to
Sweetgreen and One-Fish Two-Fish sushi at least once easily three
times a week I actually have found
cooking much less stressful and more rewarding than I previously had thought it
could be.
I think this is because for the first time in as long as I
can remember, I have free time and I’m not in the least bit stressed out. Don’t get me wrong living and volunteering in
a foreign country has its frustrating moments, but overall I’m much less
stressed out than I was during college. When volunteering in a foreign country
it’s easier to accept that a large part of your life is out of your control,
what you can control is how you react to otherwise frustrating or stressful situations.
Sudanese culture specifically, is a
lesson in patience for any Westerner. If your bus breaks down its “ma mushkila”
(no problem).
 |
| Some friends I invited over for dinner! |
Now that I am over
the “Can I actually do this?” and homesickness bumps, which was shrug-worthy
compared to my pre-departure “Wait. Hold up. I’m actually doing this” moments
of freaking out, I’ve had a lot of time
to re-think about what I want to get out of my experience and the rest of my
time here. Part of this list includes travel, improving my Arabic (which is
still shwayah-shwayah), making more friends, and trying to create a working
group or some sort of contribution for my previous life with Banaa.org.
Further Related Reading
On reflecting on post-grad life: Coffee
and Stink
On relaxing as a young adult: xoJane
No comments:
Post a Comment