"Second Sight"

After one full day here in Sierra Leone, I am . . . amazed. Seriously - in the Caribbean there were so many breathtaking beaches/waterfalls/forests/flowers/natural phenomenons, but here the beauty is in the people. I never expected to ever go to Africa and I never understood what caused people to love it so much - I mean, dirt and poverty aren't so exciting, are they? But - I've heard people say it before and never understood - the people are so beautiful.

During the whole voyage we had training from a South African couple, and one thing I noticed that he said frequently, when he was trying to emphasize a point, was, "Do you hear me?" or "I hope you're hearing me." In other words, "I hope my words are doing more than existing - I hope they are really penetrating your heart and mind. I hope you hear me."

Similarly, people want to be seen - their existence confirmed, their humanity and worth acknowledged. That's something missing in many western cultures - certainly in my own. I know - I've waitressed for four years - how easy it can be to look at a person, to speak to them and interact with them and even serve them, without ever seeing them.

After supper tonight my ship family went for a walk to get into town a little bit - but we got no more than a quarter of a mile past the ship, because first one, then another of us would hang back talking to someone and the whole group would have to wait. :-) Always people were trying to get our attention in various ways, and the kids! My ship sister, Miriam, started talking to one of them when we left the ship, and by the time we had walked down the street and back, there were at least 25 of them walking with us. They wanted to talk to us, meet us, hear our names and tell us theirs, hold our hands - when we ran out of hands, they'd hold our arms, my skirt, whatever they could just to be close.

If I was sitting at home hearing someone else tell about a similar experience, I would nod and smile and think I understood because I had heard things like it before. And I would have been (and have been for many years) completely missing the point. Because it's not just about a nice "missionary" story, it's about real people, created by God, who look in your face and ask you to see them.