A story with a man from Sudan
By Edna (December 2009, Philippines)

My name is Edna and I am from the Republic of the Philippines. My first encounter with foreigners was when I was during my seventeens. My English language was a little bit curvy that time and it takes guts to speak to them. I once studied in a university in the Philippines, where many foreigners are taking medical courses. Some became my classmates.

One of my classmates in the medical course was a man from Sudan. I'm not sure if it is part of their culture but they produce some sort of smell when they entered an airconditioned classroom, in Filipino lingo, called "mabaho". I became immune to that smell because it can sound disrespect if I will ask them why they do not take a bath daily. One time, one of our male classmates was fed up with that smell (maybe) and started to "hate" our Sudanist classmate. In short, pinag-iinitan siya lagi. Later on, I do not know how it started but my Filipino classmate threw a punch over my Sudanist classmate inside the classroom while waiting for our teacher and the Sudanist threw a punch back. Then the chaos started. Sabi nga nila, lahat ng taong may ngipin, kapag nasaktan, kakagat.

Other classmates were already betting who between them will gonna win. Huh, is this a cockpit arena or what? I looked around and nobody really attempted to stop them so I stood up from my seat and went in the middle of the two and shouted, "stop!" Both of them are blaming each other for some reasons I cannot comprehend. For me I didn't see any reason to fight. Out of respect to a woman (perhaps), they both stop fighting. I spoke with the Sudanist and told him, "I'm so sorry. This will not happen again." Calmly, he said, "Ok Edna, thank you." I turned around to my Filipino classmate and told him, "Anong naging problema, bro? Tingin ko kung amoy lang naman ang problema, pwede naman siguro kayong magpasensiyahan." He stared at me and he said, "Abnormal na 'yang ganyang amoy! Hindi ka naman siguro abnormal Edna para hindi mo maamoy!"

So that was really it. It was because of the "mabahong amoy" which triggered him to create his punches against the Sudanist. I told my Filipino classmate, "if one time you will be the person to study in Sudan and these persons will fight you because of some sort of smell that is displeasing to their nose, you will feel exactly what he felt today. The world is small Efren. You will never know when you will need them later."

It was a normal day again after that incident, my Sudanist classmate became my really good friend. I saw how he trusted me with little things, but I also saw that he cannot entrust little things to other classmates. I saw how intelligent this man was and aiming to pursue a degree in Medicine after he finished is pre-medical course.

After few years, I changed my course but I saw Efren again. He finished his pre-medical course but enrolled again in a nursing course. With my Sudanist classmate, he became a doctor and he is now back in Sudan serving his countrymen.