In the wee hours of the night, I heard the familiar sound of mourning. It is familiar because the sound of mourning I have heard in the Sudanese refugee camp is so similar. Since our windows are open all night, the sound carries even at great distance. The sound was coming from Wotak’s village and so I believed it was a woman that I knew who had been suffering for several years already. It is difficult to know what she all suffered from but quite likely cancer was the main factor in her death. Her 12 year old daughter carried her from place to place. She also had a 10 year old daughter caring for her. These two girls come to church each week. I don’t know the rest of her children well though I believe there are several more believers in her family. She also has attended a women’s Bible study in the past.
Today, there were several things that pointed to this lady’s faith in God. Nicole and I headed to Wotak’s village around 2pm in order to give our condolences. The crying was quite intense and so my first thought was, “it sounds like they are burying her” and I was right. We arrived just as they lowered her body into the hole. I wasn’t near enough to see much but these are some of the things that I observed:
1. There were at least 50 men and all of them had a bow about 6 feet in length and several arrows. Everyone was clothed though their clothes are tattered.
2. There were at least 50 women and all of them carried their babies on their backs in a leather sling. Most of these women also had many strands of colourful beads.
3. Most of us stood under the shade of a large tree (women on one side and men on the other side). Some people squatted on the ground.
4. It looked like only close family members were weeping loudly. They do this by folding their arms at the elbows and sheltering their eyes with their extended elbows. Their hands cover their ears. The wailing is loud and high pitched and goes on for hours. There is no private place to mourn so they just let it out. There is good in this.
5. The body was covered and a large mound of rocks was formed on top of the grave. At this point, several Gumuz took hold of a pickaxe and began to draw a large circle around the grave. This was abruptly ended when several men began speaking loudly against this. I heard the name Misa (God) several times and soon realized that this was a practice that was no longer accepted among believers. (I later learned that the dead person’s articles are broken or ripped up and placed in this trench and then buried as well. This is to destroy evil spirits that may still linger in the items that took the person’s life. At times they also burn down the house.)
6. One man shot bullets into the air half a dozen times (this was heard throughout the day). Apparently, many more men used to own rifles but they are no longer legal.
7. After leaving the graveside, we entered the house where this lady lived and everyone dropped money or food items on the ground. This money is used to purchase grain from town in order to make keya to feed all the visitors over the next 3 days. An ox will be butchered and the meat will be divided and given out to all visitors (including us).
8. The mourning will go on. Those who mourn will be comforted because of their faith in God. God was glorified today.
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