Faith, Culture, Values. Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A note about yesterday that I did not mention in my last post. As we were journaling that evening (Tuesday night) one of the Northrise students came over and told us how much he appreciated us being there. He was learning a lot about our culture and glad to have three new friends. He ended by saying, “You’re in Zambia. You are not tourists. You are Zambians.” We were glad to feel accepted by the students and leave the North American stereotypes behind us. It was definitely a comment that has stuck with us even post trip.
Wednesday morning I woke up to another example of how spiritual the Zambians are. I wandered over to the sink shortly after waking up and heard the hymn “How Great Thou Art” coming from a nearby shower. I was filled with joy just from hearing those lyrics and was enriched by someone praising the Lord to start the day.
Another example of how Zambians are more open about their faith occurred later that day. I was touring additional facilities that day with Kafubu and the engineer I was with asked me if I went to church back home. I explained to him my CRC back ground and he shared his Pentecostal faith and how he had journeyed in his walk with the Lord. Additionally, the engineer also gave me some knowledge about Ndola’s church diversity. The top three churches in Ndola are the Roman Catholic, United Church of Zambia (UCZ) and Penecostal Church. He mentioned that the Pentecostal church received some negative response when it first started in the 1980’s but has been doing better as people have become accepting of it as it has grown.
As I mentioned earlier, I visited several Kafubu sites today as well. They were both collection stations for bore holes. (Pipes coming from an underground water source.) I was fascinated to hear that the 10-11 bore holes average 160 meters cubed/hour of flow, with the top one rated at 224 meters cubed/hour. As with the station we visited yesterday, this one too had minimal additives. They only added one kilogram of chlorine per hour. I was again impressed by the cleanliness of the water that Kafubu was taking out of the ground.
The bore holes were about thirty minutes drive out of the city of Ndola and provided a look into a side of Zambia that I had not seen yet. We drove into an area that was not serviced by bus. As a result, there were people all the way along the road walking or biking to town. We passed many people and picked up a few along the way. At one point we had eight people and two bikes in the back of the pickup truck. We picked up four students in blue uniforms on their way to school. I found out they were in grade ten and enjoying school. When we were dropping the girls off a man from the side of the road started asking me questions like where I was from, what I was doing in Africa etc. I told him I was a student from Canada. He wanted me to take the school girls with me back to Canada. He then started speaking Bimbe, the local language in Ndola, and the driver translated for me after he had finished. The driver told me that this fellow saw that I had a blue shirt on that was similar to the one the girls had for their uniform. He was saying that if I was able to come all the way from Canada for a trip the girls should be able to do the same trip backwards and go to North America.
This was the same line of thinking that I had received from one of the girls when I had asked her what she wanted to do with her life. She had replied, “I want to be somebody.” That sentence stuck with me all day. The girl does not feel satisfied in this culture and wants to get out and do something with her life that means something. She seemed to feel insignificant and unvalued as a Zambian. This worldview frustrated me. She DOES matter! She is a child of God that has gifts and talents that she can use to serve the Kingdom. I could not understand why she did not feel fulfilled in Zambia and how being in America or just leaving Zambia would help her. This view that America is better than Africa in every respect is a perspective I heard all too often from Zambians and an idea that I struggled with throughout the trip. There are many people trying to drop everything African in their pursuit to become more American. The Zambians have such a unique culture that I hope they do not desert it in an attempt to become more prosperous. It is not worth it! They would lose a lot of their heritage in their effort to become more western and I hope they learn to value their culture, country, and history.
The driver also said that I had inspired the girls to study hard. This was a comment that I did not understand. Why am I an inspiration to people because of the colour of my skin? Is it just because of the wealth? I do not understand the impact that I apparently had on those people. I told the driver I did not want to be treated as a celebrity. I wanted to be another civilian, akin to one of them. No special treatment. However, the driver said I needed to make the most of it. He said that when I smile and wave to the children that I probably made their day and that my friendliness towards them would not soon be forgotten. I do not want to be treated specially by these people. I do not like social classes. I wanted to bridge cultures and bring knowledge to the people, not be celebrated like a celebrity. This is one reason that the words of our friend in the dorm meant so much to us three North American guys. When he said that the dormitory guys saw us as Zambians and not tourists we felt like we were connecting to them and were not just outsiders taking pictures. Overall, it was a wonderful morning where I felt like I experienced more of Zambia as well as the people that form the culture.
I came back to the campus at lunch time and had a wonderful meal of (you guessed it) Nshima. There was a lot of friendly conversation similar to the bus rides. (An interesting side note: That morning I had to take the bus as the only North American student and felt totally comfortable. I was encouraged that there was no nervousness and really felt that I was among friends.) I learned that Zambia has 500 tribes that use 72 different languages. Apparently there are subtle differences in language among tribes that speak the same language but you can understand it if you know the language. I was surprised to learn how unified the people are under the Zambian flag. Even though there are many different tribes they all work together as one nation. This has occurred much to the credit of the first president of Zambia who wanted all of Zambians to unite as One Tribe, One Nation.
Later that night I helped make supper which was composed of nshima, fish and relish. It was highly complimented by the guys although they were hungry by the time we finished at 10 o’clock. (Zambians usually eat later in the evenings like 8 or 9 o’clock but we were definitely pushing the limits.)
After supper one of the guys was showing me some of his Zambian music. He was describing some of the lyrics and I found them to be very inspirational. Instead of talking about sex and treating others poorly there were songs about HIV Aids, being careful with how you live your life, and respecting women for who they were. This was a polar opposite from what one would hear on the radio in North America and I was impressed by the lyrics.
Today I both discouraged and impressed by the people of Zambia. I was discouraged that they feel inadequate and want to be more western instead of embracing their own culture. However, I was encouraged by their music lyrics and the values that Zambians have in which Faith tops the list. My hope is that Zambia continues to build on its culture as it ages as a country. I also hope that as North Americans we learn from cultures such as Zambia that put faith and values such as friendship at the center of their lives. This day challenged me on what I believe, and forced me to ask the question “Which values are the center of my life?”
I want to ask anyone following the same question. What are your values? If someone were to meet you for a short time would they recognize these values in you? What culture do you live? Are you living in the world but not being of the wind? Today’s events challenged me on these questions and I wanted you to think through a few similar questions. Smell what I’m stepping in? Think. Reflect. Praise the Lord our Maker who gave us a free will to praise Him and proclaim the Good News to the world!!
Soli Deo Gloria