Africa Journal #4
Sometimes you get frustrated in Uganda but then you talk to one of your African friends and they inevitably make you smile because darn it, they’re just so cool! Se la vie. It’s been a whirlwind couple of days and they’ve been wonderful. Today hasn’t been so wonderful, I suppose. I’ve just had my computer charging at House B since I don’t have electricity in my guesthouse room. It’s all good though.
I’m in somewhat of a writing mood although it is late here. Perhaps the Sunday afternoon siesta I had today will carry me through. I’ve been doing a lot of writing here, which is for me indulging in a passion of mine, and that’s been good. I don’t share all of it though. Most of it is processing where I am as a person. Doing this in the context of being completely out of my cultural safety net is probably the best way to do it. You’ll never feel the differences of being “you” until you’re around a society in which you have very little in common with. You become startlingly self-aware and sometimes that is a good thing. I also become a little reclusive. It’s not that being with Africans is taxing as I have many African friends both here and in the US that I’ll seek out to see, but sometimes the language barriers and cultural hoops can just cause one to need to slow down and read. I’ve found an interesting coping mechanism since being here: Cormac McCarthy’s “Blood Meridian” an epic tale of brutality and carnage written by probably one of the greatest masters of the writing craft. I almost laughed at myself as I listened (it’s an audiobook) to stories of the Commanche slaughtering a ragtag group of gold-seekers as I sat on a crammed taxi in a terrible traffic jam for three hours…to go 20 miles. I got a couple things out of the chapters: 1) I have a perverse fascination with McCarthy’s unbelievable command of the English language, 2) there is a cathartic side to his truncated sentences and incredible similes. It’s not really befitting a “mission trip” but I don’t care. It’s fantastic and it is further augmented by the Sermon on the Mount series I’ve been listening to. Did you know that Dante had an interesting take on Jesus’ famous sermon? Who knew? My particular favorite was on Bonheoffer’s and Yoder’s perspective. They seem to really grasp the radical picture Jesus is painting in Matthew 5 and 6. Speaking of Matthew, I’ve decided it’s going to be my book while I’m here. I have tended to spent a lot of time reading the Old Testament and then sometimes painfully make my way through some of Paul’s letter, by far my least favorite part of Scripture (just being honest). Yet this time I am going to pull the Jesus card and say that He is what I want to focus on. I forgot to get another copy of “The Jesus I never Knew” before I left. I’ve given mine away so if anyone wants to send me a copy please let me know….
Anyways, so Matthew is my book of the bible I plan on poring through in great detail. Choosing such things can have a large effect on the way one views his journey and season and so I’m glad the Lord has put this one my heart. The Lord has also put other things on my heart that are not directly related to my immediate task at hand. Those things are important, but my first week or so here has afforded me the space and time to really work on some things I’ve needed to do for a long time. My heart is incredibly heavy with what feels like inevitability and it is so difficult to watch seasons pass when we have such ambivalent feelings to their reality in the first place. In truth, though, I have to accomplish a certain number of things in my heart and life before I can leave here in peace. As I said in my previous letter, I’m not an unladen man. Ps. “unladen”, as MS Word has been so kind to remind me, is not a word. I don’t care.
Yesterday I hung out with a 20-somethings group from Streams of Life church. I was the only non-Ugandan. It was awesome! We sat at Stream of Life until the sunny-day-turned-epic-rainstorm ceased and we could board our rented transport for our hour or so journey to Entebbe, the actual capital of Uganda. I have yet to figure out why Kampala is considered the capital since the government resides in Entebbe…. Anyways. Entebbe is beautiful and where we were going was the best of the best: The Uganda National Botanical Gardens. Now I’ve been to some amazing botanical gardens. The best I’ve seen I think would be in, you guessed it, Santa Barbara, California which is already one of the most amazing places in the world. But I will go ahead and assert that it is safe to say that the Uganda National Botanical Gardens have Santa Barbara beat. At first, they don’t look all that impressive, but then you drive through a rainforest that includes some of the best flora Africa has to offer and then you find yourself at the shores of Lake Victoria. It is beautiful. My favorite spot however was on one of the little side roads away from the shore. It meandered into a non-thinned part of the jungle and from there broke off into little paths that were topped with wet stone, with water running in between them. Above towered 100-ft+ trees completely ensconced in layer upon layer of vine and stem. It was thick, verdant, and muggy. I felt at once overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the Creation around me. I had to duck under massive fronds and step over magical babbling streams. It was a “thin place” as the Celts once called a place in which Heaven and Earth’s division was less than clear. I did thank God, but I should have just prayed and stayed in that posture. I was alone and I felt it acutely. I felt that it would be more appropriate to share such a place with a lover, my beloved. I do not know the likelihood of that small wish uttered under alien trees coming true, but it was my momentary wish all the same. Sigh.
I returned to my African friends who were resting on the shores of Lake Victoria. Previously I had taught a couple guys how to swim (most Ugandans cannot swim) and we were all a little tired. I listened to some music on my iPod just drifting in and out of this world, totally unencumbered by the generalized anxiety that usually characterizes my every breath. That day had been wonderful: I saw a massive lizard chilling on the rocks, I had played a energizing game of catch with some of the ladies, I had swam into the murky but warm equatorial waters of the lake, I had eaten a very nice meal that mercifully was not only matoke, a staple dish here that I get quite tired of. In fact, they even had “Irish” (normal potatoes to Americans). They were wonderful. As was the avocado, chicken, beef, rice, and the African Coca-Cola. Fear not, those who know me, I had previously purchased an ice-cold Pepsi down at a rather exotic looking jungle cantina down by the lake surrounded by old Land Cruisers and grills with meat smoking on it. My African friends were a delight to be around. That age group is my favorite in Africa, and not merely because they are my age group but because a) they are fluent in English, and b) God is doing incredible things in the hearts of young men and women in Africa. They seem somewhat unencumbered by certain issues and concerns that plague their contemporaries. I saw this clearly in Malawi amongst the young Christians there and it is a joy to see that again in Uganda. These people are incredible believers and they are passionate about furthering the Kingdom and loving their neighbor. It is an honor to just spend time with them.
We took some photos, discussed some things, slapped the incessant bugs (the price you pay in paradise), and loaded back up into our rented Toyota Hiace (If you’ve been to Africa, you’ve very familiar with these wonderful machines). The ride back to church took forever. But Peter and I needed to go much farther: Back to Bombo/Kalule, a village area about 30 miles north of the city centre. Which brings us to the aforementioned 3-hour journey late last night. Thank God for the iPod. Steve Job, RIP.
Ok, that’s all I have for now. I could of course say much more, but it’ll almost midnight here… and before I did a couple hours of writing I did a couple hours of legal reading. Yes, just for fun…
Dan
Ps. Peter and I uploaded some photos from the lake. I’ll try and get mine up soon so you can see some of the epicness I was talking about. Unfortunately about my 3rd photo into the jungle excursion my battery died…
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