Arrived - the good smells of Africa
Flying in over north Africa, crossing Mali and Niger , I noticed great swirling reddish clouds below extending from horizon to horizon. This is the beginning of the Harmitan season when winds pick up the fine red sand of the Sahara Dessert into the air and begin driving it south. We will likely experience the reddish skies in another few week in this region – harder to breathe, but beautiful for sunsets and the large orange setting sun. Landing in the Togolese airport, the capital port city just a few degrees from the equator, I began to notice changes since I was here last. It’s way more friendly to the visitor: no visible soldiers and guns, less interrogative tactics coming through customs. But really, the first thing I noticed was the familiar smell of the old buildings, the local vegetation, the damp hot air (85 degrees this evening and 85% humidity), the smell of dirt, and friendly sweaty bodies pressed together. It is a good smell to me today.
I’ve unpacked and settled into my small apartment on the campus of West Africa Advanced School of Theology. As you can see, the internet is up for me here. Yeah! Tomorrow morning I’ll join 2,000 other worshippers in the campus chapel that I understand is growing in huge ways. I look forward to the drumming and full voice singing in French! I look forward to meeting with God here. I’m away from home, but it kinda feels like home…
Tell you more soon. sm
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Henri Nouwen writes of Displacement… “In voluntary displacement, we cast off the illusion of having it together and thus begin to experience our true condition, which is that we, like everyone else, are pilgrims on the way, sinners in need of grace. Through voluntary displacement, we counteract the tendency to become settled in a false comfort and to forget the fundamentally unsettled position that we share with all people. Voluntary displacement leads us to the existential recognition of our inner brokenness and thus brings us to a deeper solidarity with the brokenness of our fellow human beings. Community, as the place of compassion, therefore always requires displacement. The Greek word for church… indicates that, as a Christian community, we are people who together are called out of our familiar places to unknown territories, out of our ordinary and proper places to the places where people hurt and where we can experience with them our common human brokenness and our common need for healing.”
Henri J.M. Nouwen, D. Morrison and D. McNeill. “Displacement.” In Compassion. Quoted in The Dance of Life. Doubleday. 1982. p 139.
