Here is my first attempt at describing my experience in Africa. My life has been anything but linear these last couple of months so when asked to go to Africa, I jumped on it faster than Angelina hopping on a plane to pick up her next kid. It’s hard to explain Africa. It seems to be the humanitarian cause du jour; social justice is the new “black”. It’s in. It’s trendy. You can wear it on an expensive tee or around your wrist. You can sip it out of a mug. You can drink it out of a bottle. You can put in on over your newly styled coif. You can be just like a celebrity, if you choose Africa.
A fellow team member asked me, “So, why did you choose to come to Africa? Of course you felt called, but why do you feel called?” Crap. This kind of question already? We’re still in New York. We haven’t even gotten on the “big” plane. I sheepishly retorted some rehearsed answer perfected by years of ministry and knowledge of the spiritual lexicon. It seemed to appease the questioner, but it caused uneasiness in the pit of my stomach for the rest of our ridiculously long journey to Malawi. Why had I come to Malawi? Had I ever really thought about Africa more than just the CCF commercials when I was a kid and I thought you actually adopted a child? (Incidentally my brother and I would argue over getting a girl or a boy because we thought they actually came to live with you). Or maybe when I’d seen the Invisible Children film and heard about the kidnapping of child soldiers in Uganda. Then of course I heard about Rwanda, and thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio, the Ivory Coast. But, Malawi? Can’t say that I’d ever thought about it much and here I was sitting in a plane for 26 hours about to embark on an adventure I really hadn’t thought about all that much. Story of my life. Act first and sort out the details later.
The first striking thing I noticed about Africa was my annoyingly ignorant and ethnocentric view of the globe. Africa is freaking huge! You could fit nearly 6 United States inside the continent. Clearly the maps we use to teach our children have an agenda. Fly South African Airways and look inside their in-air magazine for a more accurate take on the size of the world’s continents. Secondly, Africa is not all desert or barren wasteland. Granted, I had the blessing of traveling immediately following the rainy season, but it was covered in rolling green hills, mountains, and beautiful trees and flowers . I felt this overwhelming sense of entitlement as we rode through villages each morning to get to our medical sites each day. I couldn’t help, but think, who the h are we? We travel anywhere in the world that we want. We drop in on people, on communities that have never experienced life outside their tiny village and we swoop in to do what? To save them? To heal them? To teach them about McDonald’s and running water? Who am I to come in and change anything? What do they want? What do they need? Whatever I do, I want to start with asking those questions first. One of the many beautiful things about Africa is their list of wants and needs are generally the same. Growing up in our overindulgent society, needs and wants become this indistinguishable mix of stuff. When you shake it out, distill it, you actually start to see that our needs and wants are very different things and our list of needs is small, but what would someone else's list look like?
WANTS & NEEDS: MALAWI (NTSCHISI DISTRICT)
1. Clean drinking and bathing water that is less than a mile away.
2. Bandages so lesions don’t become infected.
3. De-worming pills so I don’t get sick from my every day life and all the parasites lurking in and around my home.
4. Soap to wash away the parasites before I eat with the very hands that touch the parasites.
5. A toothbrush and toothpaste so my teeth won’t rot away.
6. Shoes or sandals so I don’t have to go barefoot everywhere.
7. A parent so I don’t have to take care of my baby sister and actually get to play with the other five year-olds in the village.
8. A husband that doesn’t leave me and our kids when he finds out I have HIV.
9. A friend I can actually talk to about being scared to die of AIDS.
10. A hug and acceptance from my community when I tell them I’m sick.
So, I actually made up this list obviously. But, I think it wouldn’t look that different if a Malawian living in the Ntchisi District was asked to compile such a list. They wouldn’t ask for toilets with running water or restaurants serving burgers and fries. They wouldn’t ask for gas guzzling cars to get around (they may ask for a bicycle) or new clothes. It makes me think that the more you have the more you want. The more I’ve been exposed to, the more I’m accustomed to expecting it. The basics of life are not a want for me. I don’t even think about clean drinking water or getting sick from taking a shower. It’s so expected and taken for granted that I fail to think of the many people who struggle for such things on a daily basis.
Back to my original thought: Asking them what they want. What can I do for you? Instead of, bursting in with “Here I come to save the day”. It was very frustrating standing by waiting to help build a chicken coop because so many guys from the church came out to help, but isn’t that the point? Together. We build it. Also, I love kids, but I wanted a break and they followed me everywhere even when I was supposed to be doing something else, argh, kids. Attention and fun should not to be overlooked. Hugging a child with stuff oozing out of their eyes and nose and ringworm over half their head exposing their bare scalp, is usually not my idea of fun. But to see their faces when you reach out, to feel their bodies relax into yours is indescribable. Kids in Africa have to grow up so fast. The stress of life is unbearable. I pray that for one moment they felt what it’s like to be a kid.
Wow, I said this was “Take 1”. I’m not sure how to stop writing. More will probably come as I continue to process the experience. I didn’t even get into the ways God moved and also the ways in which spiritual agenda made me sick. Africa is worse than I thought and more beautiful than I thought. It’s not a cause. It is a place with amazing people and amazing stories. Africa makes me feel incredibly small and that is a very good thing.
A fellow team member asked me, “So, why did you choose to come to Africa? Of course you felt called, but why do you feel called?” Crap. This kind of question already? We’re still in New York. We haven’t even gotten on the “big” plane. I sheepishly retorted some rehearsed answer perfected by years of ministry and knowledge of the spiritual lexicon. It seemed to appease the questioner, but it caused uneasiness in the pit of my stomach for the rest of our ridiculously long journey to Malawi. Why had I come to Malawi? Had I ever really thought about Africa more than just the CCF commercials when I was a kid and I thought you actually adopted a child? (Incidentally my brother and I would argue over getting a girl or a boy because we thought they actually came to live with you). Or maybe when I’d seen the Invisible Children film and heard about the kidnapping of child soldiers in Uganda. Then of course I heard about Rwanda, and thanks to Leonardo DiCaprio, the Ivory Coast. But, Malawi? Can’t say that I’d ever thought about it much and here I was sitting in a plane for 26 hours about to embark on an adventure I really hadn’t thought about all that much. Story of my life. Act first and sort out the details later.
The first striking thing I noticed about Africa was my annoyingly ignorant and ethnocentric view of the globe. Africa is freaking huge! You could fit nearly 6 United States inside the continent. Clearly the maps we use to teach our children have an agenda. Fly South African Airways and look inside their in-air magazine for a more accurate take on the size of the world’s continents. Secondly, Africa is not all desert or barren wasteland. Granted, I had the blessing of traveling immediately following the rainy season, but it was covered in rolling green hills, mountains, and beautiful trees and flowers . I felt this overwhelming sense of entitlement as we rode through villages each morning to get to our medical sites each day. I couldn’t help, but think, who the h are we? We travel anywhere in the world that we want. We drop in on people, on communities that have never experienced life outside their tiny village and we swoop in to do what? To save them? To heal them? To teach them about McDonald’s and running water? Who am I to come in and change anything? What do they want? What do they need? Whatever I do, I want to start with asking those questions first. One of the many beautiful things about Africa is their list of wants and needs are generally the same. Growing up in our overindulgent society, needs and wants become this indistinguishable mix of stuff. When you shake it out, distill it, you actually start to see that our needs and wants are very different things and our list of needs is small, but what would someone else's list look like?
WANTS & NEEDS: MALAWI (NTSCHISI DISTRICT)
1. Clean drinking and bathing water that is less than a mile away.
2. Bandages so lesions don’t become infected.
3. De-worming pills so I don’t get sick from my every day life and all the parasites lurking in and around my home.
4. Soap to wash away the parasites before I eat with the very hands that touch the parasites.
5. A toothbrush and toothpaste so my teeth won’t rot away.
6. Shoes or sandals so I don’t have to go barefoot everywhere.
7. A parent so I don’t have to take care of my baby sister and actually get to play with the other five year-olds in the village.
8. A husband that doesn’t leave me and our kids when he finds out I have HIV.
9. A friend I can actually talk to about being scared to die of AIDS.
10. A hug and acceptance from my community when I tell them I’m sick.
So, I actually made up this list obviously. But, I think it wouldn’t look that different if a Malawian living in the Ntchisi District was asked to compile such a list. They wouldn’t ask for toilets with running water or restaurants serving burgers and fries. They wouldn’t ask for gas guzzling cars to get around (they may ask for a bicycle) or new clothes. It makes me think that the more you have the more you want. The more I’ve been exposed to, the more I’m accustomed to expecting it. The basics of life are not a want for me. I don’t even think about clean drinking water or getting sick from taking a shower. It’s so expected and taken for granted that I fail to think of the many people who struggle for such things on a daily basis.
Back to my original thought: Asking them what they want. What can I do for you? Instead of, bursting in with “Here I come to save the day”. It was very frustrating standing by waiting to help build a chicken coop because so many guys from the church came out to help, but isn’t that the point? Together. We build it. Also, I love kids, but I wanted a break and they followed me everywhere even when I was supposed to be doing something else, argh, kids. Attention and fun should not to be overlooked. Hugging a child with stuff oozing out of their eyes and nose and ringworm over half their head exposing their bare scalp, is usually not my idea of fun. But to see their faces when you reach out, to feel their bodies relax into yours is indescribable. Kids in Africa have to grow up so fast. The stress of life is unbearable. I pray that for one moment they felt what it’s like to be a kid.
Wow, I said this was “Take 1”. I’m not sure how to stop writing. More will probably come as I continue to process the experience. I didn’t even get into the ways God moved and also the ways in which spiritual agenda made me sick. Africa is worse than I thought and more beautiful than I thought. It’s not a cause. It is a place with amazing people and amazing stories. Africa makes me feel incredibly small and that is a very good thing.
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