Today a couple of my teen friends dropped in for an impromptu visit. Karissa was with me and so we were able to talk quite freely, not limited by my Mabaan and Arabic. We chatted about our families, boyfriends, hair weaves, clothing, school, food, language, etc. They laughed at my Mabaan and I laughed with them.
At one point one of them asked where my mother was and was I going home before Christmas. Well, we ended up giving them a geography lesson in an attempt to explain how far from Doro my home in America is. I was shocked to learn that they don't even understand that Africa is a big continent with many countries and even more people groups and languages and that is is surrounded by water separating it from the rest of the world. These girls are 14-15 years old and blessed to be in 2nd and 3rd grade (with very sporadic school attendance), but they didn't even know this about their country or continent. To help you from their perspective a bit--in Mabaan there is one word for home, village, town, country, continent, etc. It is a very limited language.
Karissa and I used water bottles to represent the earth and the sun and how day and night happen at different times for us than you in America because of where we are and how the earth is always turning. You should have heard their exclamations of surprise and even disbelief! It was so entertaining and so fun to watch, but also discouraging that their education is appallingly neglected. I sketched the world with the continents and then showed them where Sudan was, then South Sudan, then Doro and how we are such a tiny speck that we don't even show up on the map of Africa.
