Closer to the Kingdom

Before I left for Rwanda, almost 15 months ago, I remember talking with a close friend, John Varga, about cultures and Christianity. He offered a thoughtful question to think about when traveling: "How is this culture closer to the kingdom of God?" I've dwelled a lot on this question, I took it with me to Rwanda, and throughout the year I wrote down a list of how Rwandans are closer to the vision that God has for a transformed Christian life, society, and church. On the other hand, I also jotted down how I think they could improve, usually on the days that I came home frustrated or tired of being "culturally sensitive." Of course, it goes without saying that these are also generalizations that don't apply to everyone in Rwanda, but they make for good starting points...

***Closer to the Kingdom***

1. Resourcefulness. Everything is fixed or reused for something else. Hardly anything is thrown away. Rwandans recycle rubber tires to resole shoes. Plastic bags are banned. I could probably fit all of my 14 months worth of trash in 4 garbage bags, and that's from my more "western" lifestyle.
2. Friendship. Focus on friendship and the healthy/good obligations that come with it. Friendships are not about convenience like they often are in America.
3. Focus on the present, not the past or future. They live more "in the moment," so they're more flexible and don't get stressed out easily.
4. Community oriented "Umudugudu" (translates to "Village"). Not only is it fun to say, but it's extremely effective. Each umudugudu is made of about 50 families. It's the smallest unit of societal/governmental structure. They meet every month or so, usually under a tree, and talk about the issues and needs in their community and help each other out. Every few years they vote for new leaders by going to a field and standing behind their candidate of choice. This ties in nicely to Wendell Berry's idea of "community" as opposed to the widening separation of "public" and "private" life in America (see his essay titled, "Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community").
5. Responsibility. Students say that they have a responsibility to help disabled classmates. That is, they feel an obligation to step up and help, where without their help the disabled person would not be able to attend school. The responsibility was NOT the school's. The only thing the school does is to ensure that a student is available to help: like retrieving water for a girl who's missing a foot and on crutches. There's good and bad to this system, but I admire the hard work and community responsibility rather compared to a complicated school/budget/taxes/bureaucratic program.
6. Reconciliation oriented: Gacaca courts (village courts where they dealt with genocide crimes that occurred locally and with the intention to restore peace and cooperation). Openness to state wrongdoings or disagreements with others in meetings.
7. Generous: It wasn't uncommon for a cyclist to offer me a free 6km bike ride home on the back of his bike, and truckers always refused money when I hitchhiked. As I made friends with one particular shop owner, he would always be so glad to see me that he would give me free candy or bottled water.
8. Energy. Rwanda's focusing on sustainable and renewable energy (geothermal, methane and hydroelectric projects).
9. Healthier, more natural diet without a lot of (bad) fat, sugar, and salt. As long as they stay clear of the sugar cane, African's teeth are usually spectacular. Same can be said for their eyes. Maybe cuz they don't have TV or light in the nights; the need for glasses is smaller.

***Possible Improvements***

1. Organization and communication. Do I need to elaborate? Poor organization leads to poor efficiency and lots of delays (lots). Poor communication leads to mistakes and wasted time, energy, and money.
2. Stereotypes. Their stereotypes of Americans/whites. The word "Umuzungu" translates as "white man" and "rich man." They believe America and Americans hold the key to their success and America is an easy life, with money growing on trees.
3. Saving money. When people were surprised that I could travel so much yet I owned the cheapest cell phone I told them it's because I would rather save my money and use it for traveling. Many people are used to just getting by, so when they get a surplus of cash, it's easy for them to just spend it on the cell phone with a camera, music player and internet. Of course, the added status symbol is an extra incentive.
4. Status Lifestyles. Alcohol and food is also a status symbol. Stereotypically, poor men drink water while rich men drink alcohol and are fat. To be rich and important tends to imply a riskier lifestyle.
5. Waste disposal: no garbage, littering, especially as more packaged products are being introduced. Human waste is all underground, not good for water table and not used for things like biomass to electricity. Also, many Rwandans don't compost their leftovers. We had a compost pile, but we never used it for fertilizer.
6. Amusement and Water Parks. Hello? Anyone heard of splash lagoon or a lazy river? Yeah, I could've used some of that for hot boring days.
7. Think! Critical and independent thinking is not always encouraged. Rote memorization and obedience to hierarchy is the norm. Historically, this limits productivity and business entrepreneurship and increases the chance of poor governance and blind acceptance (groundwork for the genocide).
8. Globalization. According to the book "Ishmael," Rwanda is a Leaver society becoming more and more like the Takers. The director of Environment and Water repeatedly told me over a drink that, "this world is ours!!" Every bit of land is farmed, threatening population, diversity of crops, and deforestation. As the number of tea and coffee farmers increases, they are transitioning from subsistent local crops to a fluctuating global market economy, which also lowers the value of their crops and increases foreign dependence.
9. Libraries. Few (or no?) public libraries outside of Kigali. Why not open the school libraries to communities?

I don't think the lists are complete and I don't claim that they're completely accurate or even biblical, but that's why I'm posting them here - to wrestle with these ideas and to hear your opinions too! Now that I'm back in America I am reminding myself that the experience is only half over...

"We must learn to prefer quality over quantity, service over profit, neighborliness over competition, people and other creatures over machines, health over wealth... economic health over economic growth... If we are to have such an economy, we must repair our country and our society... We must end waste and pollution. We must renew our urban and rural communities. We must remake family life and neighborhood. We must reduce indebtedness, poverty, homelessness, violence... We must take proper care of our children. We must quit treating them as commodities for the "job market" and teach them to be good neighbors and citizens and to do good work." - Wendell Berry, Peaceableness Toward Enemies

As I think about and prepare for the first day of my teaching stint here in Rwanda, I am beginning to realize the significance of education beyond that of just teaching the material. My "job" is to teach math and physics by completing the curriculum laid out for me before the year's end. It seems straightforward enough: prepare the notes in advance, organize labs and homework assignments, mix in some quizes and diagnostic testing for evaluation, and add a dash of class discussion here and there. But as I read Berry's essay, I am challenged to do more. Education is more than relaying information and making kids into successful adults ("successful" usually refering to economic status). Education is vital not only in teaching students the material, but also how to use the material to benefit our world and communities now while ensuring our health tomorrow.

This is especially true in Rwanda. Here, the focus is on becoming a technological hub for East Africa and there is a strong incentive to move from a subsistence agricultural economy to a "knowledge based economy." And this change is evident in Rwanda's rapid economic growth, the value of higher education, the 2010 mandate that all classes be taught in English (not French or Kinyarwanda), the recruitment of international math and science teachers, and the improvements in infrastructure enabling an industry-based economy. With these changes in mind, may I reemphisize Berry's thoughts: education must be guided by a practical care for the world and a respect for morals. Science must be accompanied by ethics. Technology must be rooted in an awareness of our neighbors' needs and our future resources. Kids must become good neighbors before they can become good engineers, politicians, or doctors.

What do they need?

Okay, this one is a bit more on the philosophical side. There are two pieces of advice that I like, but they seem to contradict each other, and I'm wondering if they can be reconciled. One is a quote by philosopher/theologian Howard Thurman. The second is a homily of sorts from a book written by a monk in Colorado. If you have any thoughts, let me know!

"Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
- Howard Thurman

"There's a monk there who will never give you advice, but only a question. I was told his questions could be very helpful. I sought him out. "I am a parish priest," I said. "I'm here on retreat. Could you give me a question?"
"Ah, yes," he answered. "My question is, 'What do they need?'"
I came away disappointed. I spent a few hours with the question, writing out answers, but finally I went back to him.
"Excuse me. Perhaps I didn't make myself clear. Your question has been helpful, but I wasn't so much interested in thinking about my apostolate during this retreat. Rather I wanted to think seriously about my own spiritual life. Could you give me a question for my own spiritual life?"
"Ah, I see. Then my question is, 'What do they REALLY need?'"
- Tales of a Magic Monestary

Previous post's comments

Hey folks,
More posts on there way; in the meantime, the last post had a couple comments with really interesting questions and insights. They're worth checking out!

Thoughts on Poverty

Time flies! I haven't been dry on ideas to write about, but I have been pretty lazy about actually getting them down on paper/blog...

In my not so lazy moments I've been doing a little bit of leisure reading: "Energy Services for the Millennium Development Goals," a 116 page UN report addressing energy needs and approaches for developing countries. It really is fascinating. Last week I began to delve into it during my flight to CU Boulder, where I checked out their Environmental Engineering for Developing Communities program. These things said, lately I've been thinking about what it means to provide help for a developing country. How can we help them? What do developing communities really need? What does "poverty" or "third world" even mean? I have more questions than I have answers, so please, share your thoughts!!

I'll introduce my thoughts with a story. When I was in Nigeria two years ago, my friend and I met a pastor whose wife just gave birth to their son. He was radiant, and we began to talk about family and life in Nigeria and America. I commented on how wonderfully genuine the families were in Nigeria, and how its friendliness made it such a beautiful place. He agreed, but admitted that Nigeria was nothing like the grandeur of New York City, in which he dreamed of living. My friend and I looked at each other with skepticism... is it really worth sacrificing a beautiful culture for independent, impersonal skyscrapers?

Everyone is familiar with the basic third world needs: food, clean water, medicines, etc. Seems straight forward, right? But when you look into it, there is a lot more than meets the eye. Agriculture can be improved with machines, education and economies can be improved through electricity and computers with internet, and communication through cell phones. These improvements enable women to work and children to go to school. Infrastructure can be installed and buildings built, and the list of possible improvements goes on. These can all be very good, but I do question the motivations and the aims of these developments, both as a means of challenging my own convictions as well as ensuring the best for these communities. The big question I'm asking is, "what is our end goal?" What would the world look like if tomorrow all the objectives were achieved and everything was "developed" to a sufficient point so as no one was in poverty? Here are my meager ramblings:

#1 The UN report focuses on moving communities from poverty to the first rung of competitive global economics, which means training professionals, creating small businesses, and introducing modern technology. Should every world culture have computers? Can poverty only be eliminated through a globalized economy? Should all women in all cultures work? Should electricity and agricultural machines that help increase productivity also introduce developing communities to electronic entertainments, reliance on oil, specialization, and the replacement of human labor with technology? Our goal is not to "westernize" these cultures, but how do we develop communities without just making them more like us? Where do we draw the line between aid and assimilation?

#2 On a more philosophical note, perhaps my question poses no real answer. Not because it is impossible to meet the objectives set out by the UN and eradicate poverty, but because the definition of poverty will always change over time. The global poverty scale is measured by monetary value per day (extreme poverty equals less than $1/day USD). Of course, this must be relative to the rest of the world's living standard. What used to be the norm is now considered poverty. In the future, will those with land line phones, bulky slow computers, and gasoline powered cars be poor? There must be some distinction between cultural poverty and subsistence poverty.

#3 Is it accurate to define poverty by monetary value alone? I think that money is just one factor, albeit a major one, that affects poverty; but at the core, it should not define it. Money is merely a tool by which we reach more fundamental needs: nourishment, safety, freedom, and fulfillment, for example. While these are more difficult to quantify, I think they need to be considered in order to properly address poverty. In a general sense, I would define poverty as anything that oppresses people from meeting these goals, whether it's monetary, social, political, emotional, mental, or spiritual. For example, Nigeria has been ranked the friendliest country in the world, yet America's divorce rate can't boast the same accolade. From my own personal experiences, and many others, those with less are usually more thankful and of all things, generous, than those with more. From this point of view, poverty is all around us. Which leads me to my last thought...

#4 The gospel. I'm finding more and more that all throughout the Bible poverty is viewed by this holistic perspective. Yes, the gospel is about spiritual freedom, but at its core it is also a social and physical message. It's about feeding the poor, caring for orphans and widows, and sheltering the homeless. Moreover, it calls us to serve the broken-hearted, to live in an interdependent, accountable community, to care for the environment, to commit to sacrificial love, and to heal the sick. And these are not just practices that Christians are supposed to do; they are the change, restoration, and reconciliation that define the Christian faith. And so I think the Bible has a lot to say about poverty, about getting rid of oppression. And I think it's a good place to start laying a foundation for how to address poverty.

All that said, there are still a lot of questions, and a lot of room for interpretation. Here are my thoughts. What are yours?

Awe

I remember a speaker last year say that there are something like a dozen emotions that humans experience, and the one least experienced is awe. Awe. I don't quite know where I'm going with this post because it's hard to describe, but I think 'Awe' sums it up. This past week, I've been overwhelmed by a sense of awe, mainly through my classes as we study nature.

Unlike previous semesters where we just took notes and regurgitated formulas, we're delving into topics that don't have known solutions; they still fluster scientists and engineers. I look back in history at how scientists encountered and solved problems that today seem trivial, yet here we are with a plethora of our own questions, the answers somehow all linked together beautifully to describe the universe. I am in awe at how amazingly intricate, complex, and yet simple nature is. I am in awe by the depth of nature.

By my senior year, we've practically run out of variables to use. We've called upon the English and Greek alphabet, using capital and lower case letters, subscripts and superscripts, and still we joke in class that we'll need to switch to the Hebrew alphabet soon. This is especially true in my Flight Dynamics class. Every day he introduces new variables, new quantities that detail a requirement that must be met for flight. I paused yesterday after class and realized what a miracle it is that an airplane can even fly. Moreover, nature goes about its course - birds fly, gravity keeps us planted, we breath in and out - without ever knowing all the details.

Naturally, more questions come to mind. How trustworthy are our instincts? Is the pursuit of knowledge the only way to understand truth? I'll leave the philosophy open to discussion :-P