This is Africa

We have a saying here in Africa that can only be used in very special circumstances. But when the moment is right and someone spells “TIA”, we all know what they mean. This is Africa.  

For instance, yesterday I went to church in the village and ate lunch afterwards with the pastor. It was pasta and fish. I managed to eat the first piece of fish; no problem. But when they gave me a second piece, it was most definitely the head. Pulled out of the lake, head cut off, thrown in the frying pan, on top of my pasta. That’s when you say “TIA” and politely offer your fish head to the hungry African next to you, who thankfully doesn’t consider it offensive and eats the gills off that thing.

Take another example. This morning the water was broken, so we didn’t have water in the house. This means that I had to manually fill the toilet with water just to get it to flush. Emily sees me walking several times to the bathroom with a pitcher of water. “What are you doing?” she asks, understandably so. “Flushing the toilet,” I explain as if it makes perfect sense. TIA.  

When you turn your flashlight on in the middle of the night and the first thing that greets you is a giant jumping spider…TIA. 

When you sit with the babies as they eat dinner, of course they eat with their hands and get rice and sauce all over their entire bodies. Culturally, they will round up a ball of food in their hand and offer it to you. They are so cute and messy, so you eat whatever it is right out of their hands…TIA.

And when one of the babies pees on the floor and several others all walk through and then come and climb in your lap…TIA. 

The other night, we made Mexican food for dinner. Then a storm blew in and the electricity went out just as we sat down to take the first bite. We lit the candles and found some flashlights so that we could resume our supper, but the rain outside combined with the attractive lights that we were shining caused a sudden invasion of termites. I don’t know where they came from, but all of sudden it was like the plague. “TIA,” we said, and every time someone needed to fill their tortilla, I shone my headlamp in the bowl of fajita mix so that we could pick the termites out of their serving.  

After that lovely dinner (which actually was better than I made it sound…we just got a little extra protein is all), we sat outside with some of the boys that live in the orphanage. One of the boys said he had an English song on his phone, and we all burst into laughter and dancing as Lady Gaga rang out in the courtyard. We made shadow animals on the wall with our hands, noises included. Mostly, we just sat on the benches, talked, and joked until the electricity came back on.  

One of the boys asked when we were leaving. “Only two more weeks,” we explained. “Why?” He asked, and we laughed with a hint of sadness. “Maybe we will come back and live here one day,” I told him. He perked up and repeated it back to me in his broken English as if to clarify that he understood what I said. “You will come back to live here in Burkina?” 

“If God wants.” I replied.  And that’s the simple, honest truth. All the Africans nodded their heads in enthusiastic agreement. They liked that answer, and I do, too.  

Yes, this is Africa. I am constantly coated in a layer of dust and dirt. Clothes stretch and fade from hanging out on the line. I haven’t worn a matching outfit or shaved my legs in who knows how long. I get in my bed at night soaking wet with a fan pointed directly on my face just to fall asleep in the heat. “Our life here is a mess everyday,” one of the other interns said, which made me laugh because it is so true.

This is Africa. It is where relationships are the very center of the culture. It is where friendships and the way people treat one another is valued more than anything else. It is where you shake hands with everyone, and once you’ve shaken and met one time, you become a friend. This is Africa, where friends call or come to visit every day, where people genuinely love and care for one another, where Jesus is good no matter what life brings.  

This is Africa. And I love it. Fish heads and termites and all. Because at the end of the day, you get to sit outside with some amazing African people that God made and has called to follow Him. You get to hold babies and tell them how much Jesus loves them. You get to see the kingdom of Christ coming in Africa, and you pray for its continual growth and expansion. You get to enjoy relationships and all the living, laughing, and loving that comes with it.