I had intended to write on a different topic Thursday evening but before settling down to write decided to stop for a cold drink at a local shop. Sodas here are served in glass bottles which require a deposit so small vendors expect you to consume on site and return the bottle when you are finished. While enjoying my drink I struck up a conversation with two young men in their early twenties which covered so many topics I had plenty of different things to ponder.
One of the young men lived in the back of the shop. I assumed the woman who owned the store was his mother or his guardian. He had been injured about a month ago and was recovering from surgery on his leg. His friend had come for a visit. Most of the conversation was initiated by the friend. We talked a good bit about religious topics and theology. This young man was struggling with the concepts of suffering and punishment in Hell, poverty and greed and their effects on people, and the importance of a personal relationship with God versus what corporate or organized religion provides. Underneath this he was also expressing his feeling of despair or lack of hope for himself and for people in Uganda. Wow – and I just stopped for a cold drink!
At one point he asked me why I would choose to leave where I am from, where I have everything, to come to a place like Uganda where there is so little. I told him that I wanted to come to see if I could help people find a way to make their lives better. He didn’t ask specifics how or who I was working with but seemed to accept my answer as enough. It was almost as if he meant it as a rhetorical question. So he didn’t know the specifics of my calling, that I’m here serving with the UMC and that I’m on the ordination track to be ordained as a minister. I think that by engaging him in conversation he realized that here was someone who actually will listen seriously to his concerns and questions and that is what he really wanted. It didn’t matter to him what my background or role was but that I was fully present with him to hear precisely what was on his mind.
I stayed much longer than I intended – well after I finished my drink – but staying somewhere longer than I intended seems to happen frequently here! I was there so late that the pending blog post did not get written. Actually that is how many of my days play out here. I can start out with an idea of what I will be doing each day but usually my program (that’s how people here describe an agenda or plan for the day) gets interrupted with something else, like this exchange with these two young men. I am fortunate that I have the flexibility to adjust my schedule pretty quickly in response to a situation like this where I want to spend some time.
I did the same thing very often when I was living in the US but find it even more natural here in Uganda. The culture here just seems to lend itself to that type of ordering of the day. Most of the time is spent thinking in the present. The trick though is figuring out how to maintain balance between being in the present and planning for the future. How do we experience the moment while not losing sight of the future? In the US the culture makes it easy to spend too much time worrying about the future with the emphasis on deadlines, outcomes and production rather than seeing the real needs right in front of us. Here in Uganda the opposite is true where I find myself spending more time involved in the issues of the day rather than looking at tomorrow, next week or next month. But without some planning and focus tomorrow, next week or next month eventually comes with a new set of issues that could have been prevented with some forethought.
Neither culture provides an exact fit. And in both countries the way of ordering the day is a product of the culture. The expectations about how people go about the day in the US are a result of the social mores and values of the country that are shaped by a results-driven society. The context in Uganda with its challenges of poverty, poor transportation, unreliable power etc. has created a climate where the focus is on getting day to day events accomplished in light of the sometimes unpredictable challenges that present themselves. The approaches are not interchangeable in the other setting. If I try to operate in Uganda with the same expectations I might have in the US, I will set myself up to fail every time – I will never be able to accomplish here in one day what I can accomplish in the US without significant effort and additional resources. On the other side if I attempt to function in the US with a day to day focus without thought for the future I will find it hard to manage in a society that emphasizes individual success and upward progress.
I am appreciating being in a society that values taking the time to be fully present with others. While I do have programs and events that I must plan for, I have room to be flexible and engage in unexpected opportunities that present themselves. When people ask me what I expect to accomplish while I am here I explain that I am training leaders in the United Methodist Church on what it means to be United Methodist as well as developing leaders in the community who can spearhead community development and income-generating projects. While those efforts can be measured in specific outputs, I think some of the best results will be on the individual level as I interact with the people in these programs. I am sure I will have many more opportunities like the one I had with the two young men last week. All that was needed to help the young man was a willingness to listen and be present so he could realize he was not alone and someone cared about his struggle. These are the moments that are most important to me.
I do not know if I will meet that young man again in the future or if I will have a chance to walk with him further along his journey. I trust that he will find someone else who is willing to help him find his way along the path when he needs help again. What I do know is that God has called me to keep my eyes open to see what is happening around me each day so I won’t overlook an opportunity to love my neighbor as myself. I know what I do is very small compared to the needs here and some may wonder if it makes a difference. It made a difference to that young man.
Today I came across some words in a prayer by Archbishop Oscar Romero: “A Prayer for Workers, Prophets and Ministers & All Those in Outreach Ministries.” Part of Romero’s prayer says, “We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.” My hope is that I am a prophet of a future that is not my own.
