Wet Handshake

After spending a few days in a row at Acumcum compound I needed a change of scenery, so I went with some colleagues to visit a project site a few kilometres out of Wau town.

 

Janet, my work colleague and I decided that we needed to buy a water pot each for our tukuls, so we were in luck when driving into Wau a group of ladies were walking along the side of the ride carrying pots on their heads to the market. We bought one each ($6USD) and nursed them in the vehicle like babies so that they would not break.

 

As we were passing the Wau Airport I noticed that there are about 4 planes scattered close by or alongside of the tarmac - obviously planes that crashed at some stage and have remained in their 'plane graveyard'. It does not make one enthusiastic to fly here!

 

We arrived at the project site, a new suburb on the outskirts of Wau where the government has allocated land to South Sudanese people who have returned home from the North after the civil war ended in 2006. It was so hot and dusty I could barely be bothered greeting people and just wanted to lie down in the shade of a tree.

 

After shaking a number of peoples hands I then went to shake the hand of a very elderly man. He was happily shaking my hand and speaking to me in Arabic. My colleagues were trying to tell him that I do not speak Arabic but he didn't seem perplexed and continued in any event.

 

My colleagues started speaking to other people and the old man with milky eyes continued to talk to me and lifted my hand towards his face. I thought that he may kiss my hand but as it came closer to his mouth he turned it over and spat in the palm of my hand! I was shocked and looked around but no one else had witnessed this event. I sat for the next 15 minutes with my hand hanging limply beside the chair.

 

As soon as I got in the car the antibacterial gel was out and my colleagues could not stop laughing. I asked the meaning and did spitting in someone's palm have some cultural significance? One said he must be a drunk old man, while another other said it means I am promised to marry him, while another said that he is a witch doctor and telling me that I will be protected in that area. Whatever the meaning it was not an event that I want to experience again!