So far from understanding

I am a spoiled younger sibling in an upper-class Sudanese family. I summon a driver to escort me to town. I have cooks to prepare me three meals a day. As a result, I���ve even managed to gain a few pounds in one of the poorest and most emaciated regions of the world. A few women make my bed and do my laundry. I read my book this morning in my canvas director���s chair while Elizabeth swept up the dust around me. Barbed wire and bamboo form a seal between us and our neighbors. I have never felt so aristocratic. Development.

It is becoming clear that while I've learned so much here, I am barely scratching the surface. Aside from the limitations of only having ten weeks of immersion, coupled with day-consuming responsibilities tied to my computer, this place is simply far too complex to understand after a few courses and an internship.

My inquiry about this country���s cultures, conflicts, politics, and history seems to reveal more gaping holes in my knowledge rather than the understanding I seek. There is so much to try and understand. It's wonderful.

My friend Patrick is in town from the office farther north where we spent a lot of time together. He came by yesterday to take me to an apparently beautiful forest reserve. Once my fellow expatriate colleague caught wind of our plan it was abruptly cancelled. Many speculate that the park���s location is not far from a hideout of Ugandan rebels from the Lord���s Resistance Army. Some say they are outside town to seek a bit of revenge on the southern government and army for their broken alliance, a byproduct of Sudan���s peace agreement. There is much more to learn about than what I am able to see.

Obviously, tensions between Islam and Christianity are thick in Sudan; the roots of these wars are largely about religion. Yet I had no idea how deep these roots go. ���Three Cups of Tea,��� the book I was ungraciously reading while Elizabeth cleaned around me, offered a bit of insight, or at least a great topic to feed conversation with friends:

���When he touched down at a disused airbase outside Jalalabad, with attach�� cases crammed with untraceable hundred-dollar bills, and a retinue of fighters, seasoned, as he was, by prior campaigns in Afghanistan to fight the Soviets, Osama Bin Laden was reportedly in a foul mood. Pressure from the United States and Egypt had led to his expulsion from a comfortable compound in Sudan. On the run, stripped of his Saudi citizenship, he���d chosen Afghanistan: Its chaos suited him perfectly.���

I had no idea that Sudan���s capital Khartoum served as a meeting grounds of sorts in the early 90���s, a refuge for the world���s leading Islamic fundamentalists. The plans, arguments, and discussions there are probably not separate from the relationship between Al Qaida and the Taliban.

It seems as though Sudan could be increasingly in the news. The U.S. Embassy has been reminding me four or five times a day with emails that the International Criminal Court could indict Sudan���s current president on charges of genocide and war crimes. ���If the ICC in fact announces actions, protests against the ICC and civil disturbances may occur.��� Civil disturbances is quite a euphemism. Supporters of the Government of Sudan would be very upset, particularly at the ���West.��� I am grateful to be in the South during this time.

I wonder how much of my perceptions and first-impressions are very far off. I know I have been mistaken. For instance, Viola, my duet partner, is not nine-years-old but twelve and she is not the cook���s daughter but a neighbor who comes to babysit. If I get these sorts of details mixed up how wrong are my other perceptions?

I criticize the condition of the principal road (with its mounds and crevices like a motocross track) that brings in the goods that supply most of the southern half of this country. Yet only a couple years ago, the South Sudanese depended on goods dropped from airplanes.

At the very least, this time here will be a wonderful catalyst to keep learning and listening. My time in El Salvador, and the curiosity that stuck with me about development, trade agreements and poverty, pushed me into graduate studies. I am very excited to see where these knew branches of curiosity will invite me.