African Insights  – June 2004

Times and Seasons in Africa

"It was during those hard times when Idi Amin was ruler of Uganda; my family was having a hard time.  When my sister was born, the long rains had set in and we needed food ." Richard's face was saddened as he spoke to me and there was a realization within me about what he had said involving times and seasons

Here in the USA, people have watches, calendars and electronic calendars, and PDA's where we enter data hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute.  In the West our calendars reflect our tasks and whether we have completed them.  In East Africa the calendar is more relational in nature than here.  One records time by events that have taken place.  One may not remember the date, but the season; the time of a birth, the time of drought, of a good harvest, of when the family mourned or celebrated a life or an event.

While living in the USA, I can remember being at a wedding, all the while thinking of the next event I had to go to.  The problem with that concept of time is "there is never enough time to be, to give of one's self, to give presence."

I have friends in Africa who recently celebrated the marriage of a daughter and son.  It was a Christian wedding with no alcohol, but it lasted from 11 AM until 11 PM, people enjoyed each other. Church is that way in Africa; people come to stay. I used to attend a church where there was a beginning and end, but Africans usually like to spend the day.

Celebrations do not last a few hours, but continue until everyone has been fed; not just with food, but also with words, embraces and the presence of friends and family.  Celebrations will be marks of remembrance noted on the African calendar, which is not written down with ink, but told in stories, as were tales of old, under the mango tree as the sun sets.

Here in the USA, it is the time of celebrating Independence, watching fireworks exploding high in the sky above the Bay.  People will go "ooh and aah" and I will be on my bed looking out over the bay and not missing a thing. I think back to the first fireworks I saw over the castle in my small town in Germany and how for the rest of the year we would periodically remember it. It also makes me think of the time when I exploded some rockets on a New Year's Eve in my featherbed, which resulted in a protoplasmic posterior stimulation administered to me. 

Not only is it Independence Day for our country, but on a personal note, my life will be quite freer in the near future.  My time as Innkeeper of a 10-room Bed and Breakfast with all of its obligations is over.  September will be a new day for me, a new opportunity, and the start of a new season in my life. Hopefully, the doors will open at the right time so the dreams of my heart can come to fruition and I can be, celebrate, give presence, and simply enjoy the moment and the gift of family and friends.

Africa taught me a lot about the concept of time, seasons, and history.  As an Innkeeper, I told stories to the guests; stories like the ones I had heard in Africa, but in a Western setting.  People enjoyed the personal touch and warmth and I enjoyed their presence in my life.

Here in this task-oriented society, the calendar dictated the profits of the inn, the bookings, the waiting for and welcoming of guests, the preparation for and making of breakfasts and the baking, the supervision of the housekeepers, and consistently doing. After some seasons, it becomes a blur of activity and one slips into being a Human Doing instead of a Human Being. 

I began journaling once again and look forward to being with my family for the birth of a grandchild, the birthdays of my son and daughters, the Christmas Eve together, the first one in six years.

I am getting ready for a new season in life, African style, relational...jon