Skip to main content

Weekend in Kumba

I just spent a wonderful weekend in Kumba!

When Becky first proposed my going to town for the weekend to visit Kara while Mike did a supply run and went to a meeting I didn't jump at the chance. I felt shy about imposing on this missionary girl I'd met briefly but not really talked to. Intimidating me further, to make the arrangements, I had to invite myself over.

But in the end, it was a great way to mark my anniversary of one month in the village: by getting OUT of the village. It was also great to hang around with a North American of my peer group for the first time in almost two months. And, life at the Lutheran compound is the lap of luxury.

It's the little things that make the difference. With the disclaimer that we really want for nothing in the village (as far as necessities go), and that we live like kings compared to the rest of the village, nevertheless, my stay in Kumba was remarkable for the many little luxuries I enjoyed there. Electricity whose use is not strictly monitored, climate control in the form of ceiling fans and an air conditioned computer room, a greater variety of food available at the market down the street, paved or at least gravelled roads, even soft toilet paper-these are things one can easily live without, but are so very appreciated when one has.

Comments

Unknown said…
It sounds like such a rich time you're having. Winnipeg must seem like a whole world away (I guess in some sense it is). It's great to hear how things are going for you. Take care, and God bless your time there.

Popular posts from this blog

My favourite nativity scene

“There’s no accounting for taste.” That’s my dad’s favourite way of explaining personal tastes that are incomprehensible to him, like living downtown, and riding bike in winter. The inexplicable factors which determine an individual’s likes or dislikes are probably the only way I can explain why my favourite nativity scene contains a horribly caricatured black magus, a random adoring child attired – to my fancy – like a Roma person, an old shepherd carrying some sort of blunderbuss. And a haloed holy family with an 18-month-old baby Jesus. This is the "Christmas Manger Set – the Christmas story in beautiful cut-out scenes and life-like figures." See how the 1940s-era family admires the realistic flourishes, like raw wood beams and straw protruding from the edge of the roofline; the rough, broken wood of the stalls; the tasselled camels; the richly dressed magi; the woolly sheep; the Bethlehemites on the path in the background, ostensibly out to get water, judging...

Upside down economics of Jesus: household action and global change

--Presented at a CAWG event in Altona -- In Living More with Less , Doris Janzen Longacre shares a story about envelopes from Marie Moyer, a missionary in India, who was studying Hindi with Panditji. Marie writes: “From his philosophic mind, which probed the meaning of events and circumstances, I learned more than Hindi.” Just before her teacher’s arrival one day before Christmas, she’d received and opened a pile of Christmas cards and discarded the envelopes as he walked in the room. She writes: “He sat down soberly and studied the situation, then he solemnly scolded me: ‘the reverberation of this wasteful act will be felt around the world’.” Marie was stunned. “What do you mean?” she asked him. “Those envelopes,” he said, pointing to the wastebasket. “You could write on the inside of them.” “Chagrined”, Marie apologized and rescued the envelopes with the help of Panditji, who “caressed each one” as he pulled it out of the garbage. This forever changed Marie’s relationship to p...

Broken people...

After reflecting with one coworker on how often churches in all their forms really mess up and hurt a whole bunch of people in the process -- and how "we gotta do better" -- I stumbled into another conversation with a coworker which highlighted our brokenness, and I suddenly realized what was wrong with my take in the first. I wanted the church to be better at fixing our mistakes, or better yet, at not making them in the first place. But maybe this "fix-it" attitude is partly the reason we keep blowing it again and again! My friend recollected an experience when a church community was in a terrible place: compounded mistakes, hurts, and frustrations had blown up, spewing pain all over all parties. (I'm sure anyone with a long history in the church can think of one, if not several, such occasions in their past.) A new Christian who observed all these goings on responded in an unexpected way. Instead of "you people are a bunch of screw-ups! How could this pos...