The problem of the cows...

Yesterday, I was translating for Cath in Sunday School, and we were telling the story of Adam and Eve.

At one point, I was meant to translate that God punished Adam and Eve for disobeying him by eating the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And I said, “Omiasa Adam iko Eva, ebak Hollum isia.” (“Adam and Eve disobeyed; God punished them.”)

And then I paused for a second and realized what I also said.

“To punish” is the same word for “to beat.”

So, I had just told these children that God beat Adam and Eve.

Hmm.

Whoops.

Lucky for me, the Lopit language does abound in words for beating, so I held up Cath for about a minute, explaining that he didn’t “ollumo” (beat them with his hands only) them, he just “ebak” (punished) them. He didn’t “edianga” (kick) them, either; he just “ebak” (punished) them.

And, finally, in a moment of what I hope was clarity for both parties, I came with, “Efuhe Hollum isia ade. Ojo Inya hijo hijo hijo, ‘Ibanga ettole teni.’ Arra nya Baha tohonye. (God chased them away. He said you can’t stay here. This was their punishment.)

Phew.

But, gracious… Is there anywhere in this culture you can go to get away from all the beating?

Two days ago, I saw some youths “flirting.” And by that I mean, the boy-man took a small  elastic stick and whacked the girl-woman on the head. And, as he retreated, she took a baseball-sized rock and chucked it at him. Aww, how cute.

Or, take this. Yesterday I look up to Abuba’s compound and Ellen is gleefully chasing Franco and Francis around with her own stick, getting in some pretty good licks. Just adorable.

Our very, very pregnant friend took a fierce beating last week, at the hand of her husband. She’s hardly moving.

And while we chatting with our guy friend the other day, he told us of course he “sometimes” beats his wife. He’s a relatively committed member of the church, and a student at a Bible school on the other side of the country. That’s just the culture. It’s the “problem of the cows,” meaning the men pay for their wives dearly (lots of cows and goats), but the women pay nothing. So I guess that means the men own the women, and the women take their beatings to pay toward that debt.

And all the children know is the rod. We can’t discipline; we can’t garner any respect; we can’t contribute to the communal aspect of raising children—all because we won’t beat them.

Hmmm.