Awesome Africa

Our blogging has really come to a grinding halt as our lives have established a rhythm better matched to our temperaments and expectations. We are forgetting how to share with those across the world from us what the air we breath is like, just as it can be so difficult for the folks at home to relate their lives to us in an insightful, worthwhile way. (This is not meant as a critique. We just find that often people back home seem hesitant to share with us what is happening in their lives, as if there's no way their lives are as novel for us as ours are for them; there may be some truth in this, but it doesn't mean that as time goes by we don't want to know how your life has changed, and changes day to day.)

As we feel ourselves blending in, assimilating in some ways, with our surroundings, I find myself thinking differently about that thing, Africa. Of course, I feel like I am part of it now. And I'm glad.

Africa (and Asia) (and the Middle East) has always been fascinating to me. In college I became aware that I knew next to nothing about these places. I knew there were poor, dirty, starving children in these places, criminals, dysfunctional systems. But aren't those in every country? Is that all they have?

Of course, my knowledge of Africa came from the news media, which I've come to hold as a very poor shaper of opinions, or informer, or educator, especially about the details of things. The fact that the news is what teaches people about Africa came to slap us in the face, really, as we told people while bursting with excitement that we had been invited to serve in South Africa. Some people had been there, or knew people who went there, or knew someone from there, and those people were universally ecstatic with us. About half of the others could barely contain their shudders, however.

Here in Africa, Tim and I live half an hour from a mall on par in classiness, newness, and the repulsive I-am-my-things consumerism that America is known for, as any mall in America. We can easily obtain any sort of cuisine (okay, not easily, but if we go to a city, sure...), we can see old boring European stuff, which Americans seem to love, we can buy computers, and everyone has a cell phone...not to mention some of the greatest landscapes of the world...and elephants and giraffes sometimes wandering down the street! So why the shudder? Because we also live in a place where people litter, because people are (for no good reason) dying of various diseases, because a lot of kids don't really stand a chance...

Sometimes we scratch our heads about why we are here, when it seems so much like home, or like living on a Native American reservation or similar place. More often we scratch our heads when people ask us about race relations here, about crime and safety (yeah, yeah, they can be issues...just like in America...)...about when we got back to America, since we're on Facebook (we may not have electricity or running water all of the time, but at least we can blog about it!).

I have come to love this place, for what appear to be paradoxes to me based on where I come from (i.e., internet but no water...), as well as for what Africa represents conceptually to Americans, versus what it is. Does that make any sense? I guess my point is that I think it's healthy for people to have their assumptions challenged by facts, and I see that as part of my everyday life here, as well as my sworn duty as an honest human being when I talk to people from America. (Sometimes I feel like I'm in 1984 when I talk to people about Africa: "Wow it must be hot!"--"No, it's freezing."..."I heard race relations are really bad there"--"Um, you mean since Apartheid ended in 1994? What are you talking about?") No, Africa is not cheap! (At least not South Africa: I only use the term "Africa" to emphasize this notion of a homogeneous horrible poor black place). Nor is Africa black! Whites from all over came to inhabit much of southern Africa at around the same time that black people did. People are not doomed here, by HIV/AIDS, by a colonial or Apartheid legacy or by imperialism, or by destiny. Many people thrive here. Race relations are in many respects no worse (or better) than they are back home.

I'm pointing out mostly good things, and challenging mostly bad things, right? It's a hard life to share, but it is not a hard life to live. In fact, it's kind of the opposite of life in America, or at least what people think about America...that everyone in America is rich, etc.

So, that's all. Africa is awesome. Some day we dream of bringing you all here to see us, here or wherever else on the continent we may end up, or heck, Asia, or Latin America, whatever! I'm not sure I'm really even talking about Africa here, but rather using it is as an example. I don't know, because I haven't been everywhere (though I have been to some awesome places). But I love living in Africa.