sparkplug

It's 9 a.m. and I can tell it's going to be a hot day - no wind, and a cloud of tiny insects darting about below the window. Someone from the neighbouring apartment is shaking a spray paint can, and I agree with the intent. I have to put the final coats of oil on a table we bought for the deck. It will be a perfect day for it.

I'm shocked at how quickly time passes right now; it seems I blink and another week has passed. Now another weekend gone, and already work tomorrow. Not that I mind, really; I'm one of those irritating people who can claim they love their job. I haven't always liked it, but circumstances change and you grow into things.

On Friday I had the opportunity to interview Ezekiel, south Sudan's government advocate in North America, and representative of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement party. The interview was too brief; he and his companion, Moses, had a rigorous schedule of discussion, debrief, and media interviews.

Ezekiel is part diplomat, part activist, part recruiter. Six-foot-eight, with the tribal markings of the Nuer, he is based in Washington, DC, creating awareness of the plight of the southern Sudanese and the importance of retaining the tenuous 2005 peace agreement as presented by the late John Garang. As recruiter, Ezekiel and others are reaching North America’s south Sudan diaspora with the message that the south Sudan government wants them to return and help rebuild the country. According to Ezekiel, there are approximately 80,000 Sudanese diaspora living in North America - skilled workers, professionals - with a passion to return to their homeland and see it rebuilt.

Ezekiel’s activism is his whole persona - spread thickly, potently, over every word or nuance. He is completely dedicated, single-minded, quick-witted, intense. I ask him about his history as a member of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army under Garang. He joined around 15 or 16, he doesn’t know his age. He must have been dedicated - he spoke at Garang’s funeral. He described journeys two months long, with no provisions, only a gun, bullets and necessity to kill any antelope or wildlife in order to survive.

The same morning I spoke with Ezekiel, there was word that a peace deal had been reached for Darfur - momentous, if kept.

After writing all this, it seems unbelievable that I could put my attentions on the weather, work to be done, or any other inane occupation. Sometimes life here seems so small, so ineffective. I like what I do, I get to be on the forefront of exciting things, but it’s still so easy to feel like a pointless little piece, an invisible mechanism. But I know these insidious thoughts - they come jumping in unannounced and will stay indefinitely if welcomed. They are not of You. What need have I of acknowledgement by man? What do I need to know of my role as that seemingly insignificant mechanism?

Well, the lawnmower won’t start without a good sparkplug. I know that.