Sunday, May 11, 2008

Tanzanian Drive-Thru

Last weekend (May 1-4) we were able to get away to Mwanza for a short trip. It is a 3 hour drive on all paved roads. Mwanza has many things that Musoma does not, including supplies (certain canned goods, cheese, bacon, etc.) and restaurants (Chinese, Indian and Pizza). It was a lovely trip and the weather was beautiful. We stayed at our friend Naomi's house-- check out this beautiful view of Lake Victoria!Between Mwanza and Musoma is a little area called Kiabakara. It's not quite a town-- I think it's most accurately described as a produce stand with a nearby village or 2. Local farmers stand on the side of the road and have buckets of fresh produce. The selling process was culturally stressful to us for such a long time. Then a few months ago we were traveling home from Mwanza and started to really appreciate not getting out of the car to do our produce shopping! Now it's often one of the highlights on the drive back from Mwanza. Here's how it works. First, a car or bus pulls over between the 2 speedbumps (these mark a "slow zone"). This is an invitation for all the women to approach your car (or bus as you can see above) with buckets piled high with produce. You choose what you want, bargain the price, pay and take the fruit through the window. Sounds easy, huh? It usually is. Sometimes, though, you get someone who is being really pushy about their rotten bananas and will actually put them inside your car trying to get you to buy them. Oh, another fun thing is to just tell one person what you want (ie: naomba ndizi na matango-- I'd like bananas and cucumbers). They'll call out NDIZI! or MATANGO! Then 3-4 people selling those items will run to your car so you're more likely to buy theirs. It's quite the event.
We can usually tell how we're doing on the culture stress scale by how we look at this event. If we're homesick and culture stressed, the Tanzania Drive-Thru is really overwhelming. When we're doing well, though, it's a lot of fun!

-JLR

Friday, May 9, 2008

Expectations of a Missionary: Rejecting the MHC

So, the last article I wrote concerning poverty and missionary lifestyle got me thinking about a slightly related issue I’ve been bothered with as of late.

It has to do with expectations of a missionary; both his own expectations of himself, as well as others’ expectations of him. Specifically, in regards to the concept of the “missionary hero”, and how this concept changes these expectations. William Carey. Adoniram Judson. Hudson Taylor. David Livingstone. These and more are our “missionary heroes”.

I find hearing about the lives of these missionaries to be extremely encouraging. The reoccuring theme that I find so encouraging is the constant response of faith to suffering. And so it’s interesting that the very thing I find so encouraging is also the thing that bothers me the most. And here’s why. The problem is not the missionary hero’s response of faith to suffering, and the application of that needed encouragement to my own faith, it’s this: that others expect on some level that those sufferings will be the same today (or very similar), and if they’re not, then the modern missionary does not measure up. Plus, I find that I have those same sort of expectations of myself, whether I want to or not. I’ll call it a missionary-hero complex (MHC).

These missionaries never went on furlough.

These missionaries never took a vacation.

These missionaries never saw their families again.

These missionaries lost many of their children.

These missionaries lived with malaria, and a lack of drugs to treat.

These missionaries had to travel by boat for months on end.

Etc.

Should I compare myself to this?

This is what Dr. J. Herbert Kane says:

We usually think of the missionary pioneers as making a great sacrifice when they went to Africa and Asia in the nineteenth century. This is not altogether true. When Hudson Taylor arrived in China he didn’t find any indoor plumbing, central heating, electric light, or telephone service. So what? He didn’t have them back in England either. Where then was the sacrifice?...There is a sense in which today’s missionary candidates make greater material sacrifices than their predecessors a hundred years ago. This should be borne in mind when we are tempted to criticize the younger generation for their reluctance to forego the amenities of Western technological civilization.

Thoughts? Thanks for reading.

-T.M.