I have been fascinated with our security guard at the apartment complex since I arrived. He is about the most un-intimidating person I could put as a security guard. He always has a great big smile and a goofy wave as I come and go. Even when he has his gun on his lap, I still find him un-intimidating (don’t tell him that though!) and kinda goofy looking.
Picture this, he is 6 foot 8 inches tall, the blackest complexion I have ever seen, feet larger than big foot, hair shaved down to the scalp and is built like a bean pole. In fact soaking wet he might weigh 100 lbs! Yet he is healthy looking and does not appear to be underfeed or malnourished.
Today on my way in, I stopped and had a talk with him and formally introduced myself. He demanded I sit, so he handed me his AK47, and ran around the corner to get a chair. So their I am, a Kawaja standing on a busy street corner with a fully loaded AK-47, in a third world country waiting for the bean pole to fetch me a folding lawn chair with one arm broken off. He sets it up beside his milk crate and demands I sit. I hand him his gun back and take a seat. I already knew this was going to be interesting!!!
Rahunie, (I had to get him to write it down) is the youngest of 5 siblings, he is the runt of the men in his family. Believe it or not his father is 7 foot 2 inches!!! He is a Dinka, which is a traditional tribe in Sudan. They are people who have fought hard for their land and way of living. Rahunie fought his first war when he was 7 years old! He lives in a traditional round mud hut with a grass roof on the out skirts of Juba. I asked him if he was excited about the separation, and Independence of his country. He stressed to me he and his people have suffered for decades and have had to pick up arms to fight for their rights. The government of the north didn’t care about them and they were forced to fight in a revolution that ended with a peace treaty in 2005. He felt with the change of governments and a new beginning in the south the country was going to change for the good.
Rahunie was fascinated with where I was from. I tried to explain the concept of a society where we don’t need to protect buildings of expats with guns. Where the gun, he casually had leaning on his leg had more fire power than what our police generally carry. He asked me how old I was when I first fought a war, and I explained I have never been in a war and have never been this close to a semi-automatic weapon. He was absolutely fascinated. He wondered how my child would learn to fire a weapon and defend their self with me not having these skills. (He kind of made me feel like a bad dad, that I hand’t taught my 6 year old how to fire a AK47!). I explained how we in Canada had a revolution not unlike what Southern Sudan went through, ours ended close to 150 years ago and since then we have lived in peace. While we may not agree with our government all the time, they don’t anger us to the point of picking up arms.
We continued our conversation for many more minutes and he started to understand our Canadian, peaceful way of thinking. Just before we said good bye, he really wanted to tell me something, but did not want to offend me. I exclaimed, nothing offends me! Rahunie thought I was one of the tallest Kawaja’s he ever saw. I reminded him of a Dinka Warrior, due to my tall, skinny build.
Due to this, he now calls me the “Big White Dinka”. Yes it is true I have a African nick name!!
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