Last week, we tackled the thorny issue of navigating through
town, using directions given by someone of a different culture. If that is complicated, then taking a trip
into the bush country hoping to arrive at some unknown destination is even more
perilous. So let's talk about asking
"Where?" in the African bush country.
First, it needs to be acknowledged that many Westerners do
love to get out into nature, and our system of national parks really does allow
for some awesome opportunities to plunge into the wilderness. And yet, even in the heart of the wilderness,
we tend to follow marked paths. Trail
markers are laid out at an interval just far enough apart to create a baseline
anxiety that heightens the adventure but still close enough together as to make
leaving the actual trail unlikely. We pay
a veritable army of people who maintain trails, survey the terrain for danger,
and come riding to the rescue when we do, against all odds, get lost.
Very few Westerners set off into uncharted wilderness. Those that do often end up getting eaten by bears
and then having books and movies made about them, which serve as a kind of
warning to the rest of us. This said,
we've lost some of our competencies when it comes to "reading the
terrain" and having innate senses of the right direction. Some lucky individuals retain vestiges of
these abilities. Many men insist they
have this gift but listening to their wives plead with them to pull over to get
directions belies their true state. You
can easily spot the "real deal", in that his wife simply says,
"he never gets lost."
My favorite saying for driving in the bush is, "The
only difference between the real road and a path that gets you lost in the
middle of nowhere, is that the real road takes you where you want to go and the
deviation doesn't." The West African
countryside is marked by a variety of paths carved out by commuters and herds
of cattle, twisting and turning in some general sense from one village to the
next. Most Westerners have very little
bearing once they leave the village, and trying to ascertain which paths are
the real road, which ones are old, washed out and abandon roads, and which ones
are paths that lead away from your actual destination is incredibly difficult.
West Africans, at least those who've spent any significant
part of their lives living in rural villages, do have these senses. Many of the boys start following herds of
cattle and sheep around at the young ages of 6 or 8. One of my friends recounted a story of
getting hopeless turned around in a forest early in the day while tending to
his herd. He was panicked until he
remembered what his older brother had taught him--hang tight until evening time
and then follow the herd back home. Sounds
a lot like your childhood, right? Ha! The girls are often sent off to cut wood
for the needs of the family and so spend their time hunting far and wide for
suitable timber. These experiences leave
most of them with a very good ability to read unmarked paths and subtle changes
in topography. They truly do have the
sense that "the village should be just over there, beyond that
rise." When they look at a fork in
the road, they just seem to "know" which one you should take.
So you can see that there is a marked difference in general
competencies already. How about the
cultural values? Again, here the
difference between our value of precision and their tendency toward
generalities also play out. I'd wager
that these values go deeper than we think.
For example, we value precision because we value individuality. We do not want to have to stop and ask
strangers to help us. Furthermore, we
have a real fear of ending up in a situation that is out of our control, and so
the idea of being lost in the wilderness is the stuff of horror movies for us.
West Africans probably don't love the idea of being lost
anymore than we do, but they are more at ease with the ambiguities of life,
which means they don't panic as readily.
Instead, they are willing to "wait it out" and search for a
solution. And falling into the hands of
a stranger? Well, this is practically a
desirable thing--you might just make a new friend. Here, the strong ethic of hospitality, even
to a complete stranger, explains why they do not fear ending up in some unknown
village. Strangers are welcomed in,
given water, and when it is time to go, they'll be "given the road."
This phrase "give the road" is very important
culturally. In this day and age, and in
cities especially, it has become simply the polite way to ask to leave a place. When it is time to go, you ask your host to
"give you the road." However,
traditionally, this phrase means that your host will literally take you
out to the road and walk a certain
distance with you. I once took a trip
with some young nationals who decided to take a "short-cut" on our
way to a certain village. They only had
a general sense of where we should go.
So at every village, for at least 5 villages, we would stop and ask a
group of people how to get to our destination.
The results were the same each time; instead of telling us how to get where we
were going, they simply walked us to the edge of town and showed us the road we
should take to our next stop along the way, knowing that in that town, people
would do exactly the same.
So given these remarkable differences, how does one find his
way in the bush, when asking "Where?"
Here are your tips of the week:
1. If you've been so foolish to trek off into the great
unknown without a national, then you deserve to be eaten by lions. Luckily for you, but sadly for the ecology,
predators of that size are very, very rare.
So mostly, you are just looking at the prospect of a very long and
annoying day. Always take a national
friend that knows the area.
2. Despite all the generalities I've stated above, I've
gotten lost plenty of times with national friends in the car. Remember, they may make themselves sound more
sure than they are because they don't want to disappoint you. In this case, just stay patient with them and
allow them time to figure out where you went wrong. Back-tracking is a way of life.
3. A special warning about cars... While your national guide
may really know how to get from point A to point B, he may have only ever done
so on a bike or on foot, meaning he took no special notice of the width or
condition of the road. This can lead to
some pretty scratches on the sides of your vehicle as you squeeze between trees
and bushes that scrap you as you squeeze through. Just remember, you didn't purchase a Land
Cruiser to keep it looking pretty.
4. God bless cell phones!
Not only do they allow you to make calls, but they also let you know you
are getting closer to a village. If you
had no signal and suddenly do, you know you are headed in the right
direction. Also, the cell towers are
visible for miles away and serve as veritable lighthouses in the wilderness.
5. You are going to
have to let go of your fear of inconveniencing strangers. When you ask for directions, they really are
most likely going to drop what they are doing and get on a bike to guide you to
where you need to go. Embrace this--you
need it and it is wonderful.
Prayer Requests
1. We are in the
middle of a busy week with a visiting team.
So far our travels and ministry have all gone so well. Please continue praying for the team, asking
the Lord to give them safety, strength, and effective ministry.
2. On Tuesday and
Wednesday, we put up open-air churches in the villages of Konina and Fama. We heard great testimonies of all that the
Lord is doing in those villages. Please
pray that the Lord would continue His work there.
3. Pray for an
outreach in Sanguela tonight. The
hospital team will be doing Bible Storying and health teaching in the
afternoon, and in the evening, we will show the Jesus film.
4. Pray for the
upcoming outreach to Peguena this weekend.
Again the hospital team will be doing health teaching (on a larger
scale), and we'll be showing the Jesus film the night before.
5. Pray for a visitor
who is very near and dear to our hearts.
Barb (and her husband Erv) come out often and spend a few months with
us, helping wherever needed. On Saturday
night, while crossing the street, Barb was hit by a moto. This left her with several injuries and a lot
of pain. Soon, she will be returning to
the States, but the prospect of such a long trip is daunting. Pray for supernatural healing for Barb. Pray that the Lord would literally just carry
her in His hand the whole way home.
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