people stories

it's funny that i'm so task oriented to the point of being very non-people oriented, and yet people stories impact me more than tasks. i am still pondering how that works but somehow it feels like God must have designed it that way.

my friend is in darfur, sudan right now teaching people in refugee camps to use solar cookers. one of the reasons these are so exciting and important is because it can save women from the huge risk of rape and attack they face when leaving the camps for firewood. anyway, my friend sent this story and i want to share with you. i'm not crediting the story by name for security. it's a funny culture-shock sort of story, but also finds way deep into my soul.

One lady told how she and some other women were out in the bush country up in a tree picking some wild fruit. Some government soldiers came by to molest them and possibly rape them. They asked the women what they were doing up in the tree. The woman telling us the story reported that the women said that the doctor told them to eat this fruit for the sickness they had contracted. “What sickness was that?” the soldiers asked. “Why aids of course” the women replied. Upon hearing this the soldiers beat a hasty retreat. This story and others of near calamity brought laughter in the midst of much hidden sorrow.