Local kids all dressed up

The impositions of the British and Arab cultures here is not logical. Who and why and when did someone convince these people to begin wearing western suits and long dresses which are far too hot for this climate. One man I saw last week, was proudly dressed in an iridescent beige and silver pin stripe suit which would have made Elvis proud in his youth! 

At least our watchman/handyman, Emmanuel, only wears long trousers to work and then changes into shorts around our house.  I do the same. I did not see one male, of any age, in shorts at Sunday mass. Even the two-year olds were attired in long trousers. 

How inappropriate are the long pointy-toed shoes worn by the men, or the wigs and gowns worn by some of the women? Many women wear high heels even though they have to walk on the dry, cracked earth. A little boy near me in Church was dressed in a full suit, cut down in size, which he proudly wore – t-shirt and shorts would be far more sensible. 

Apparently it has just snowed in Rome. Last Sunday, the weather pattern here was also a small aberration. I sat defiantly just inside the door of the Church enjoying being cold for a change. It was really too cool, but ‘cold’ was a rare experience that I wanted to savour. This past week, however, it has indeed been ‘oven-baked’. Thank heaven for fans but last night there was a total power failure in our area. So no fans and not much sleep.

Sometimes I have remarked: ‘It is very hot today’. Every time, without exception, the kind of reply has been: ‘Wait until March. It will be worse’. It used to be ‘Wait until February’ but now we are in February. Occasionally, just once, it would be nice to hear someone say: ‘In April or May it will be better’. But no, the answer will be: ‘The wet will start. The mud will be dreadful. It gets hot and humid’.  It is always going to get worse! 

The externals of life can all too often bring some unpleasantness but it is how we cope with these difficulties that is the key issue. Maybe what others are really saying is that feeling baked in an oven is inevitable but how we cope with that is a matter of personal attitude. What was it Nietzsche said? ‘He (she) who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.’ This is a place where the real challenge is internal whereas the first impact is external.  

In Melbourne, if the temperature reaches 35 degrees, the workers walk off building sites and still get paid. Here it may be 45 degrees day after day but the men continue shoveling in the hot sun, fully dressed, in their long trousers. Different attitude – no work, no pay. So they work happily – if they are paid – for less than a dollar an hour. Some may be ill but still they work.  

On February 2^nd, the Feast of the Presentation, we went to the celebrations of ‘Candle mass’ in Wau. Mass lasted almost two and a half hours. Again the large cathedral was full and even the very young children were patient and well behaved throughout. The people participate with enthusiasm, and even joy. Wonderful attitude.

My great mentor and friend, Brother Damien Harvey, wrote in his 1985 Principal’s Annual Report:

‘We grow old not by having birthdays but by deserting ideals. Passing years may wrinkle the skin but lost enthusiasms wrinkle the spirit. We are old indeed when the central places of our heart are covered by the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism. We Christians live with the virtue of hope, which is the ability to dream, and when we lose this we begin to die by centimeters.’ 

So I continue to live with the hope that next month will bring better weather but inwardly I know it doesn’t really matter. If I keep my enthusiasm, if I continue to hope, then I am fully alive. Being here keeps the wrinkles away. Here, maybe, it is the sweat of pessimism and the heat exhaustion of cynicism but the message, the importance of the underlying attitude, is the same. 

Who knows if peace will prevail in this country. We can only hope it does and act on that assumption.                                         

Br Bill