week 3: tom

Week 3

As I continue to tell my friends, family, and people I have just met about my trip to Africa this summer, I get more and more excited for EVERYTHING. The more I tell it, the more I know it is just what I need right now. The more I tell it, though, there is one thing that concerns me more and more. I always find myself saying somewhere in my basic telling of the trip, “We are going to Africa to build ovens for people and help them start up bakeries for themselves.” The word “people” in that sentence really bothers me because right now all those “people” are nothing more than that – people. While I know this is all they could possibly be to me right now, I can’t let it stay that way.

Helping “people” is great. It’s a very noble thing to do, but how does it sound all of the sudden when you look back after? You come back and say, “Yeah, we built some ovens for some people,” or you come back and say, “Yeah, we built some ovens that the Smith (or other African sounding name) family is going to run. Little Johnny Smith (or some other more African sounding name) really likes those simple little roles, but he LOVES the baked beans recipe we gave them. It’s a good thing his sister Jackie (Africanized of course) loves baking them for him.”

I went to Peru a few years ago and I miss Armando. That man taught me what it means to work your community as well as some great carpentry skills even though neither of us spoke more than 10 words of each others language.

When I come back from Kenya and Uganda I don’t expect to be able to name every family of the village, but if I don’t come back actually having built relationships with anyone there, then all I really did was build some ovens for some people.

------ tom (tom@lifebread.org)