"Pray that they go temporarily blind"

Today we're going to talk about the importance of picking the right color of pen.

This is almost like product placement

Unless you're a teacher or college professor who likes to make poorly written papers bleed, normal people don't put much thought into the color of pen with which you use to write or sign a document.  For me, it's usually whatever pen is still remaining somewhere on my desk since people periodically snatch them or walk away with them.

In South Sudan, however, the color of pen that you use to sign is apparently very important.

Allow me first to provide a context.

Working in administration and being around in South Sudan, I've learned that people are very keen on things being very official and having certain formalities.  Not only is it not enough that a simple letter about next to nothing is signed and on letterhead, but it must also have an organizational stamp near the signature.  Before addressing a crowd, a speaker cannot simply thank the audience for giving him or her the opportunity to speak.  The speaker must first greet and thank each of the "big men" in the room individually and in order of importance.  This can take some time if you have a high level meeting, especially when one must always pronounce his/her full name and their titles such as Honorable, Excellency, Right Reverend, and so on.  While watching the South Sudanese news channel, you would think that the newscasters would start saying just "President Kiir went to China today," because we know who they're talking about.  However, they insist on pronouncing in full, "His Excellency President Salva Kiir Mayardit," each time he is mentioned.

L: man who fought in the bush (rigid), R: man named Bush (casual) 

Even at the most formal events, I don't believe Americans would walk around and treat each other with that much reverence.  Perhaps it's our sarcasm and overconfidence that makes us so over-casual with each other.  Notice the body posture of Kirr versus the posture of George Bush in this picture where they're shaking hands; doesn't that give something away about their respective cultures?

However, not knowing and consequently not following some of these formalities in South Sudan can get one into a socially or professionally awkward position.  Along with many other examples that I'm sure I haven't encountered yet, another example comes with something much more ridiculous.

The organization I work with was recently registering something with the government.  Getting the relevant papers in place and signed by the relevant individuals was a hassle and even took several months.  Once everything was finally in order and in the hands of a lawyer and the government officials, our director came back with some bad news; we had some of the signatures in the documents in black pen.  Apparently, only legislators may sign in green colored pen and judges only may sign in red.  To use those colors would be considered an offense or a subversion of their authority (or something).

Of course, the color black is reserved for the president.  

So our director, who is a pastor, submitted a prayer request that morning when he made the announcement: "Let's pray that they temporarily go blind."

Lesson learned.  Only sign in blue pen.