Sometimes........ I really hate Africa.

Yes, I said that.....and I mean it.  Judge away.  

Not all of it, just the part I live in....sometimes.. like yesterday.  I've been in a bad mood since yesterday.  

   As an American living in Africa I have had my fair share of "culture shock" experiences.  It took me a while to stop saying "in America we......." and even longer to stop thinking "in our culture we...." (ok, actually I still do it, but maybe just not as much).  There is something to be said for that whole When in Rome thing.  Honestly, as an American in a third world country you'll go crazy and get quite frustrated comparing what we know "is the right way to do things" to how they are done here.  Most of them you just shake your head at.  But, sometimes......you fantasize about being Kirk Russell's portrayal of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone (I'm your Huckleberry), where he and his posse are in a crossfire at that creek.  Just when you think they are all goners he gets up with righteous indignation saying over and over "no, no, nO, NO!" all the while blowing away everyone wearing the red sash.  Sick of injustice, wearing the badge, and saying it stops with me.....I wanted to do that yesterday.  

    If you stay in Africa long enough to get past the "tourist" phase, you'll start to see things that really affect your sense of right and wrong.  For me, one of the most difficult things I have struggled with is how woman are viewed and treated in some African cultures.  For example, for the most part women are viewed as property.  They cook, they clean, they produce children, they raise the children, the plant crops, they tend to the crops, they harvest the crops, all with a baby strapped to their backs and fifty pounds of stuff balanced on their heads.  However you pass small shops or villages and you will see dozens of men playing cards and drunk at 9 in the morning doing nothing at all.  A women is "purchased" by a man from her father and for all practical purposes the man owns the woman.  And about the having babies part, it is very common for the woman to be beaten while in labor.  I know it's cultural, but one of the things that drives me nuts is that when a woman "greets you" (shakes your hand) she does this kneel thing.  When it's a younger girl or younger woman it's bad enough, but when there is an old woman that can barely walk or stand and you are in her home or village and she kneels to shake your hand then she takes 10 minutes to get back up, you feel a bit of a jerk for allowing her to do it.  But, sadly, if you didn't allow it, that would be an insult, because "that is the culture."   There are so many more examples but I want to get to the reason to explain "sometimes I really hate Africa" and my bad mood.  

    Yesterday, my teammate, Eddie, and I were in town at one of the shops buying some supplies,  As we were having things loaded into our vehicle something caught my eye.  Down the road I saw the end of a man beating two women,  really and truly beating them in the middle of the road.  By the time we even headed that direction the women were running down the road and the man stood alone,  victoriously.  That alone was enough to make me want to go all Wyatt Earp but what went on simultaneously and afterwards made it worse.  Nothing happens in Africa without a crowd to view it and loudly give their point of view...If you get a flat tire, you will have 50 people to watch you deal with it.  If there is a traffic accident a small town forms around the scene, people take sides and fights usually ensue,  This "fight" was no different, except for what the yelling was about.  All of the men that gathered cheered the man on.  When it was over all of the men at the store Eddie and I were at were laughing away.  We were about to have a stroke.  "eh, you know, that is the way we handle our women in Africa".  The discussion that ensued was pointless, the more angry we became the more they laughed, they truly could not see why we were so upset.  We left and swore we would never buy from that store again because of how the men working at that shop behaved.  For the rest of the day, everywhere I went, I would ask men I would talk to "if you saw a man beating some women, what would you think?" and the responses made me even more furious.  Towards the end of the day I had to go to the police station to pick up some documents.  For the most part when you enter a shop, store, office, etc. you never just go in and leave, you usually sit and greet and visit for a while.  My trip to the police station was no exception.  While I was sitting there I asked the same question, "if you saw a man beating a woman or women, as a police officer, what would you do?"   "That depends on the situation," the officer replied.  "How do you mean?" I said.  "Well, if I was passing and a man was beating a woman and it was his woman, I would ask him to do that at his home and not in the public.......you see women they need to be disciplined"..... Where do you go from there, what do you do.  Part of me, ok a lot of me, wanted to go and pack up my family and say screw it, I give up.  

    But I didn't. I am not leaving.  I have really only had one goal here.  Bringing God's culture, not my American culture,  to South Sudan...and by that I mean the Kingdom of God.  I have young men I meet with and together we read what the Bible says about who we are, who God is, what He has done for us, what He wants for us, but mostly that He really just wants us.  The Bible calls that making disciples.  Before Jesus ascended back to Heaven, those were HIs orders, "Go, make disciples of all nations", so that's why I am here.  My hope is that one man at a time, families will be changed, then villages, communities, countries, and cultures.  

   But, yesterday I realized there is another reason to be here.  Being an advocate, to speak up for those that are not allowed to speak for themselves, for those that aren't allowed to have a voice.  There is a good chance that those men who laughed at our anger at that shop had never questioned whether beating a woman was wrong or not.  Also, I lied, I will go back to that shop. I have to,  I was told to.  Those men need to know the Truth.  

    

2 Chronicles 7:14-15

"if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 15Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place."