Windhoek
In two weeks I leave for Africa. I'll be in Namibia for about 12 days (with days on each end for travel). First let me say that though this trip is through the Div school, it is not a mission trip. I wouldn't go if it was.
I'm still very wary of the word and concept of mission. A bunch of privledged Christians going to 'poor' areas or nations and bring 'the Word' and 'salvation,' along with their own overpowering understanding of how things should be 'fixed.' Mission, even if some of it's colonizing tendencies have been erased (or just better hidden), is still about us talking and you listening. It's about the missionizer having the answers, and the missionized being put in a position were accepting those answers seems to be the lesser of two evils.
I'm calling this the 'shut up and listen' trip. Officially, it's called a cultural immersion. The point is to listen to as many voices as possible from a culture that will be very different from the one we know and try to open ourselves up a bit to questioning our own assumptions and values. We'll meet government officials, clinic directors, farmers, students, teachers, and vendors just to name a few. There is a hope that we can develop some understanding of what a recipricol relationship would look like for some of these communities between them and a bunch of naive and over-eager grad students. But the understanding is that these relationships are to be defined on their terms, not ours.
Certainly it's not perfect, there are flaws in every system, but this seems to be a way to travel that is less focused on consuming the other than most.
People keep asking me if I'm excited. There seems no way to properly express my feelings about this trip- the whole thing is so big that I have no words or overall comprehension of what the trip may hold for me, my friends, my mind, and my emotions.
I'm still very wary of the word and concept of mission. A bunch of privledged Christians going to 'poor' areas or nations and bring 'the Word' and 'salvation,' along with their own overpowering understanding of how things should be 'fixed.' Mission, even if some of it's colonizing tendencies have been erased (or just better hidden), is still about us talking and you listening. It's about the missionizer having the answers, and the missionized being put in a position were accepting those answers seems to be the lesser of two evils.
I'm calling this the 'shut up and listen' trip. Officially, it's called a cultural immersion. The point is to listen to as many voices as possible from a culture that will be very different from the one we know and try to open ourselves up a bit to questioning our own assumptions and values. We'll meet government officials, clinic directors, farmers, students, teachers, and vendors just to name a few. There is a hope that we can develop some understanding of what a recipricol relationship would look like for some of these communities between them and a bunch of naive and over-eager grad students. But the understanding is that these relationships are to be defined on their terms, not ours.
Certainly it's not perfect, there are flaws in every system, but this seems to be a way to travel that is less focused on consuming the other than most.
People keep asking me if I'm excited. There seems no way to properly express my feelings about this trip- the whole thing is so big that I have no words or overall comprehension of what the trip may hold for me, my friends, my mind, and my emotions.
Labels: Africa
posted by skirt at 11:34 PM
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