Tip of the Week--January 28, 2016

When I moved to West Africa, I anticipated culture shock and adaptation.  I geared myself up to encounter new foods, new ways of thinking, and differing values.  Inasmuch as no one can fully prepare for those experiences, I have ridden the waves of surprise, frustration, and confusion just like my colleagues (and then I go write about it...).  But I must confess, there are some elements of life that I just never expected to see affected by cultural differences, and those are perhaps the areas where I have been most surprised.

Let's take sleep for example.  Sleep.  It's biologic.  The human body needs it.  You lay down, the brain kicks off and does all sorts of amazing things.  This has all been studied and categorized by people with fancy degrees. 

All that to say, whether you were born in China or in France or in America, you sleep.  You need sleep.  So when you come to West Africa, you expect to find that people sleep just like you.  Except they don't.

Let me highlight the differences quickly for you Westerners by comparing the responses to some basic questions about sleep:

Where: You sleep atop a mountain of softness; you've done this since you were a baby.  You are, whether you like to admit it or not, the princess and the pea.  Your West African counterparts start their lives sleeping on thin plastic mats that offer approximately 0% softness.  I've had pediatric patients come into my office, lie down on the cold, bare tile floor and fall sound asleep.  While most do graduate up to some type of mattress, this ability to sleep on hard surfaces stays with (most of) them throughout their lives.

When: You sleep every night, usually in the range of 6 to 8 hours.  In extremely busy times, you may get less, but you will try to make up for that later on.  Ever since you left college, the idea of pulling an all-nighter has no appeal for you.  If you don't get sleep, you are usually tired and grumpy, and therefore you tend to calculate your sleep hours when determining how late to stay up or when to wake up.  On the other hand, your West African friends sleep every night...unless there is something more interesting to do.  If there is a wedding, a party, a lot of work to do, or a friend visiting, sleep is completely optional.  Most pull nighters at least monthly, and you'd pretty much never know it.  They can go days on 2 or 3 hours of sleep a night.  If they stay up late, they rarely sleep in.  A day after no sleep, you will find them as amiable and lively as ever.  In other words, they seem to have the ability to belie the biologic need for sleep.

Who:  You sleep alone or with your spouse.  Perhaps growing up, you shared a room with a sibling, and in college you had roommates.  But generally, in adulthood, the presence of another person in your room while sleeping, let alone in the same bed, is very disruptive to your sleep.  Having grown up in large families with small rooms, most of your West African friends are adapted to sleeping next to whomever it may be.  At big events in the village, it is not unusual to see several people asleep lined up, side by side in a very small space.

How: You go into a dark, quiet room at night.  The presence of strange noise or light will inevitably prevent you from sleeping.  From a dead sleep, someone softly saying your name is sufficient to bring you to alertness.  Quite the contrary, West Africans sleep in whatever conditions of noise or light might be present when they decide to lay down.  Within moments they are soundly asleep and waking them before morning requires nothing short of physical violence.

There you have the differences, and I guess we could ask, "So what?"  Well, if you plan on having a completely separate, isolated life, then no problem.  If, however, you plan on really "doing life" with your friends, you will inevitably end up in the village at some point (for a wedding, a party, ministry, etc) and sleeping over will be necessary.  Never fear, having spent many a sleepless night in the village, I've got some tips for you:

1. Where to sleep... I used to go to the village with no sleeping gear.  If I was offered a plastic mat, I "slept" on that.  If I was offered a mattress, I often refused because I wanted to fit in with my buddies.  After one too many nights getting pressure ulcers while laying on the ground, I graduated up to taking a thin yoga mat, just in case, or accepting the offer to sleep on a mattress.  Now I go nowhere without a full Therma-Rest mattress (or a cot), a pillow, and a sheet.  Moral of the story: if you don't mind laying uncomfortably awake all night, "go local", otherwise embrace your inner princess and bring a sleeping surface.

2. When to sleep... I used to do the all-nighters with my friends, and then would limp through the whole next day like a beat puppy.  I've come to realize that I'm just not that tough, and I'm ok with that.  I'd rather be nice the next day.  So now, when night falls, I take the first opportunity I'm given to lay down.  You should do the same.

3. Who to sleep next to...  Since all of my friends used to just crash out laying next to each other on the ground, and I wanted to fit in, I used to try to do this.  However, invariably, just as I would finally be drifting off to sleep one of them would roll over, touching me with a hand or a foot.  Then I'd be there, awake, debating the merits of moving a couple inches in the other direction (i.e. closer to a different person), or pushing my friend violently back in place.  The end was always the same, I'd be wide awake and uncomfortable while my friends slept on, blissfully unaware.  So now I look for an isolated corner, or I sleep outside.

4. How to sleep... As I've recently traveled to villages for ministry, I've been delighted to see the number of my Malian colleagues who bring tents with them.  This makes me feel so much less uppity about bringing my own.  They, undoubtedly, bring their tents to avoid mosquitoes and would never hesitate to share their tent with someone should the need arise.  All the same, with my tent, I set up a bit removed from all the noise and chaos.  I can also control the temperature a bit better, since sleeping in a hot, mud-brick oven isn't something that I can do.

5. A special word on tea.  Tea can be your best friend and your worst enemy.  West Africans will drink this highly caffeinated brew any time of the day and night, including being woken up from dead sleep to drink a round, only to fall right back to sleep.  I promise you--you do not have this ability!  Tea has a bit of a delayed kick-in, so it is important to avoid the window of time between 4 and 8pm.  If you drink it right before bed time, make sure to lay down right away after the third round, which will help you get to sleep before the effects take hold and you spend the rest of the night awake with heart palpitations. 

Prayer Requests:

1.  Thank you for your prayers for our outreaches last week.  We were in 4 villages last week, and in each case the Lord did some really neat work.  Here are some prayer requests for follow up:

--Pray for Wahab and Bakary, two young believers who were really encouraged by our visit.  Pray that despite the persecution they face, they would be able to grow in their faith.

--Pray for Amadou and his family.  Amadou (whom we've pray for before) has a disease that has left him mostly paralyzed.  He is coming to the hospital for a couple months of intensive treatment and rehab.  Pray for his full healing.  His family has been very touched by the Gospel.

--Pray for Tidiane and Kadiatou, a couple in one of the villages.  They are very open to the Gospel, but are afraid of the reaction of neighbors.

--Several young men decided to follow the Lord in Kougnou.  Pray that we'd be able to encourage and teach them effectively.

2.  Our hospital's 10 year anniversary is coming up the first weekend in February.  Pray that the celebration would go well and would honor the Lord.

3.  Pray for me and a team of pastors from Sikasso (a couple hours south of here) as we go to a village over the weekend to show the Jesus Film.