"The darkest thing about Africa has always been our ignorance of it " ~ George Kimble, Africa Today, Lifting the Darkness.
After my first month in Africa, my strongest impression so far is that this continent deserves a much more positive reputation than it seems to currently have.
Growing up, I was terrified of the idea of Africa. A collection of media encounters, including the news reports on the Rwandan genocide, the Somalian famine, and the ebola movie Outbreak, left me never wanting to go anywhere near the continent. I was quite convinced that Africa was to be feared and avoided at all costs.
I wish I could tell 7 year old Bethany that she WOULD in fact go to Africa one day, and and then shock her little Osh Gosh jeans off by telling her she would also LOVE it.
~Pinterest~
The weather in East Africa is beautifully cool and dry this time of year. After three months of sweating ourselves silly every day in southeast Asia, the first gulp of cool Ugandan air was like a luxury. Even though I am a few months early, some instinctive part of me is assuming I am in North Carolina in October, and I savor the steamy mugs of hot African milk tea with the same coziness with which I would sip a pumpkin spice latte at home. And the lovely weather was just the beginning of the pleasant surprises.
A beautiful autumn tree in Tanglewood Park, NC….home. Pumpkin Spice Latte ~Pinterest~
As soon as we arrived at our contact’s house at the beginning of July, the African culture of honoring guests was evident immediately. Despite the fact that it was 1am when we finally arrived, Pastor Robert sat us down, washed our feet as a Biblical symbol of honor, and presented an enormous Rwandan feast to us. For the remainder of the month we were not allowed to help wash our own clothes or dishes, help cook our own meals, or clean the house, all as the family’s way to continually honor and respect my team and I, their cherished guests.
Rounding the corner of the dirt road that led into the village we ministered to this month, the first thing we saw every time was 15-20 bright-eyed children running at us with open arms. Our lovely new friends literally threw themselves into our arms, laughing and hugging and proudly saying the few words they knew in English. The sight of their excited faces and huge grins was an incredible contrast to their tattered clothing and mud hut homes, and a testament to the fact that there is a lot more to life than material wealth. We would walk with several children holding on to our every limb to the humble church to teach English to the adults and play with the kids.
Hearing the sounds of African worship in a small, dirt-floor, tin-roof church for the first time gave me chills of awe. The rhythmic beating of a cow-hide drum combined with passionate singing from both adults and children is a sound I will never forget. When I wasn’t at the front of the church sharing, I had children with big, coffee-colored eyes and flawless brown skin sitting in my lap, holding my hands, and running their precious, dirty little hands through my apparently fascinating white girl hair.
We can not deny the pain and cruelty that this continent as a whole has seen over the generations. The horrors of the Rwandan genocide of 1994 have left an undeniable scar on it’s survivors, and the pictures and descriptions of the atrocities that are displayed in the memorial museum are absolutely nauseating. Starvation, AIDS, the Lord’s Resistance Army, apartheid, human sacrifice, forced colonization, and corrupt political agendas, to name a few, have certainly left an ugly mark on Africa’s history. Even as I write this, there is not complete peace in the land, and given the nature of us fallen, selfish humans, there probably never will be.
But there is a certain resiliency, a certain pride about this place that is unique. Not proud in a arrogant way, proud in a “grateful to be known for this” way. I thought at first that I would be reprimanded for accidentally saying “Africa” instead of saying “Rwanda” or “Uganda” when speaking to a new friend. Turns out that the African people love being referred to as such; they even have ample TV programs, commercials, billboards, advertisements, and expressions that promote African patriotism.
~Pinterest~ Some of our village kids in Rwanda.
So even though I have had a comparatively small taste of the whole pie, I can safely tell you that the taste I HAVE had is warm, sweet, and bursting with flavor.
The site of the big orange African sun, the brightly patterned women’s garments, and the huge white smiles framed by smooth brown skin are my strongest visual memories so far, accompanied by the sound of spirit-filled worship and children’s laughter.
Red African dirt is ground (possibly permanently) into the heels and soles of my feet, I have eaten more white carbohydrates in the last month than I did the entire year of 2011, and I have taken cold bucket showers in 60 degree weather by light of a citronella candle.
I have two more months of African awesomeness to enjoy. For the month of August, I am going to be so incredibly blessed to get to spend the month traveling around Kenya with our female squad leader, Leah, to stay with our all-women teams while our men spend the month doing ministry in Sudan. God knew I needed a month off from team leading and He gave it to me in such a surprising and exciting way! Pray for guidance, peace, and protection for our whole squad as we continuing diving into this incredible place!
