Cultural Wonderment

One thing that I continually find fascinating is the complexity that exists in different cultures around the world. I enjoy traveling to new places and watching how people live their lives; absorbing the beauty that exists in differing clothing, savoring the delicacies that zing the taste buds and listening to the music of each culture’s mother-tongue as people ramble on to one another with words I will probably never understand. Every once in a while though I find myself dumbfounded by the cultures I encounter. When I least expect it I am brought face-to-face with something that would never happen in my own culture (as undefined as it is, given my particular mixed-up upbringing). To explain this I thought I would use two recent examples of culturally different practices I have encountered and then add some comments on elections…since, after all, I am writing on election day.
Last week my colleague, David, returned from his work on water sanitation in a bit of a quandary. He explained that one of his workers hadn’t showed up for work and when he asked about her whereabouts he was told that she was in jail. Upon prying further he discovered that she was in jail because she had tried to run away from a marriage her mother had set up for her. It turns out she had received several gifts from the particular man involved and he had also given a substantial amount of money to the mother as a dowry payment – essentially, she didn’t have a choice in the matter. When she tried to run away, the man hired a truck, tracked her down and had her thrown in jail. After several days in jail while the families finished working out the deal she was released to go and live with the man as his second wife. David visited her several days later to give her the salary she had earned and listened to her lament about the situation she was in. Her complaint: “The first wife was beating her.”
This was a situation we found ourselves powerless to change. The girl is only about 17 years old, but even so the culture here is so accepting of the situation it is as if nothing has happened at all. Several of our most respected Sudanese staff told David that the man was completely within his rights with everything he had done. There are some things here that we simply cannot understand and at times it is heartbreaking. I am sure that this cultural practice is bound to change with time…but one can never know how long such a change could take. In the meantime seventeen year-olds are given in marriage to men who already have wives.
My second example is much lighter in content and is simply something I found somewhat amusing. We have a Nigerian family staying with us who are missionaries in an area south of here. They came here so that the wife could give birth to their second child. We have all enjoyed having them around, especially their three year-old, Praise, who is a riot. After waiting expectantly for several weeks, Victoria gave birth to a baby girl on Sunday night and we were all excited at the new arrival. Today, as I walked past one of our charcoal burners, I noticed Steve cooking something and went over to check it out. What I found was a cow foot, hoof and all, being roasted on the flames. He explained that he would make it into a huge spicy stew for his wife to eat in the coming days. It turns out that cow foot stew is a tradition for women who have just given birth in Nigeria. I’m not sure what the value of spicy cow foot is for mother and new born...and I don’t suppose I ever will.
As America goes out to vote today, I can’t help but be amazed at how blessed Americans are with our system of government and elections. With the election season in full gear we have often talked with our staff here about our system and how it will work on election day, but the fact of the matter is that in reality they cannot fully comprehend a system where people can go out and vote without fear of being shot, having their vote stolen, or having the result lead their country into civil conflict. Most Sudanese have never voted and their chance to vote in the coming years is precariously balanced atop a feeble peace agreement between the north and south. America impassively goes about it electoral duties and the rest of the world watches in wonder at something that in so many ways is a miracle.