The past month and a half has
been a blast, full of travel and friends, both old and new. I spent the majority of December at a Swahili
school in Iringa, a town that is a three hour bus ride south of Dodoma. While at language school I met two lovely
Norwegian families also taking Swahili courses before starting their mission
stints in Tanzania. It was great to
settle down but still experience a different part of Tanzania.
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| I stayed in the banda (room) on the right |
After spending a nice Christmas
in Dodoma with a couple of friends I flew off to Cape Town, South Africa to
meet up with some friends from YASC for the New Year. Seeing everyone again, the triumphant reunion
of TEAM AFRICA, really lifted my spirits.
We climbed Table Mountain, saw Star Wars VII, toured a vineyard, went to
a New Year’s Eve concert, joined thousands of our closest friends at the beach
on New Year’s Day... I had an awesome
time.
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| Table Mountain overlooking Cape Town |
Now that I am back home in Dodoma
and have had some time to reflect on the two trips, I feel like a very lucky
guy. In fact, if I’m being completely
honest it’s not just about luck, it’s about privilege. And while the word “privilege” has become
politically charged and is sometimes used as a tool for shaming people, I have
found it increasingly important to acknowledge my privilege this year.
The fact that I can spend a year
in Tanzania doing YASC is the first thing.
I am a part of communities that could financially and spiritually
support me, I have loving and supportive friends, and I come from a country where
such a program even exists. But in some
ways my time in Tanzania has widened the scope of what my privilege really
looks like.
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| Vineyard in the foreground, Table Mountain in the background |
Many Tanzanians seem to show
undue deference to me because I am an American.
Where many Tanzanians live without electricity or running water neither
are issues at the compound where I stay.
Where many Tanzanians eat one meal a day, I continue to take three meals
a day. Where some young Tanzanians have
college or university-level education but no employment opportunities, I
suspect that once I am back in the US I will be able to find work for a decent
salary. Where some Tanzanians never
travel outside of their region, let alone the country, I had the opportunity to
jump on a plane from Dar-es-Salaam to Cape Town and will likely see more of
Tanzania as well. Where many Tanzanians
cannot afford to take public holidays off, I just spent what amounts to a
month’s time studying Swahili and enjoying a vacation with friends.
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| Jeremy Loops (a South African musician and Cape Town native) New Year's Eve concert |
I don’t make these comparisons to elevate or diminish anyone, but rather simply to share what I personally have seen here in Tanzania. And I think there are some hard questions that follow: how do you make sense of someone being born into circumstances beyond their control? What is God’s purpose behind this wide variation in peoples’ lives, variation that seems to result in privilege? What do we do when this variation in privilege causes others to suffer? What should we do when this variation in privilege causes others to suffer?
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| "Therefore from one person [Abraham]... descendants were born, 'as many as the stars of heaven and as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore'" (Hebrews 11:12) yep, pretty much |
Scripture has a lot to say about
what we should do about this variation, namely that we are called to support those
who are less privileged. I’m not saying
anything revolutionary here. One does
not need to go to another country to have such realizations; you can read the
Bible anywhere and you can see variations in privilege anywhere. From Deuteronomy 15:11 (“Since there will
never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open
your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land’”) to James 2:15-17 (“If
a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them,
‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their
bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works,
is dead”), the Bible seems to be quite clear.
Acknowledging one’s privilege is
an honest start. But during my time here
in Tanzania the idea that God requires more of us than simply acknowledging our
respective privileges is increasingly being reinforced. As we continue further into this New Year, I
can’t help but wonder how moving further from simple acknowledgment towards
more thoughtful action will look like in my own life. I generally know what I should do, but what
will I do?
Opening myself up to God’s
influence and praying for His guidance has always seemed like a good place to
start.
