Now, observe.

I often forget I am living in a third world country. So when I remember, it sometimes slaps me in the face. I suppose its because I was always so delicately deffensive of Africa, and Ghana in particular. So many people I knew would tell me to be careful, that "Africa" was a dangerous place, or underdeveloped, or poverty stricken, or that I would instantly get some crazy desease. I also just nodded politely but secretely thought I knew better and that this was nieve. that Africa was beautiful, and diverse, in her own way a lovely place where lovely things happend. Disease and death and hurt came mostly from our lack of understanding, our colonizing history and our ineffective aid that seems to do more damage than good.



That is how I thought of it anyways, I told people Accra was just like any other city, like Toronto, just different. It turns out it is very different. In lots of places there is no running water, and most things seem run down. Lots of children don't go to school- and even in my (very lovely) community, kids wake up at 5 in the morning to set up stalls to sell things like phone cards and peanuts. I don't know what to do with all of this, there are so many things that are different and changing and I can't quite wrap my head around, and so I often feel imobile. I don't understand very much yet.


I am LOVING being in school right now. Its giving me a chance to go from understanding very little, to understanding maybe a little bit more, and I don't have to deal face to face every day with some of these challenges, I can take them one by one, and learn about them academically, but also in my living situation.

You see, I HATE being an observer. Tourists are observers, and I am not a tourist. Tourists like to look at culture from a distance and say "thats nice" or "thats sad" but don't really engage. Sometimes tourists go home and tell their friends of all the crazy, wonderful, or horrible things they observed, but still they just observe. Sometimes im a tourist in my own life, and I hate it. It means that im just testing the water without ever jumping in. It means im avoiding real issues that are immediately effecting me or the world around me. But most of all, it means that Im avoiding God's call to fight for justice, care for the widows and orphans, and give freely, as I have been so freely given.

Im reading exodus right now. Moses was an observer, when we was living in the palace in Egypt, until he saw and realized his own people were being opressed. When he understood what was happening, he ended up killing an Egyptian (we all make mistakes) who was beating an Isrealite, running away, meeting God and leading his people in a historic treck to freedom. Moses was a man of weaker speach, and didnt always know what he was doing, but he trusted God for strength and had faith that HE would do something greater than Moses himself, could ever do.

Sometimes though its tempting to remain a tourist. Its tempting to plug in your ipod and put on your sunglasses and look around like you are looking at life through a tv. screen rather than your own eyes. Its tempting when im uncomfortable with things, or when im just too plain tierd to do anything else. School gives me a chance to observe without being an observer, so bit by bit, as I begin to understand the world around me, and continue to have faith, that God will do something in my time greater than I could ever do.