A Peak Into Another World

Last week, Mindie and I attended a CHE conference. CHE stands for Community Health Evangelism (or Education – depending on the context). We traveled 8 ½ to the south of us – to what is called the Forest region here in Guinea. It is a beautiful place – one of the first to have the gospel, many years ago. Colleagues of ours, with CAMA services, have built a hospital there and they hosted the event.

Originally, there were to be 25 participants, but this being Africa, 35 people showed up and were allowed to attend. There were 6 women – one Guinean and 5 expatriates -three from the US, one from Britain, and a Swiss German lady. So, the room was busting at the seams with Guinean men – formally educated, Christians, leaders. The conference was totally in French and was taught by a Togolese man named Daniel. He was an incredible educator with a gift at communicating and drawing in his audience - amazing to watch.

As we filed in and found seats, we were given our first assignment. We were paired up with another participant and asked to get certain bits of information – relating to family, occupation, etc, and also their favorite meal. We were then to introduce that person to the rest of the class. Mind you, this can be a little intimidating when you are a white woman, not from the country, with French language skills (not my mother language) that are deteriorating the longer I live in the village and try to learn tribal languages.

With every tribal language that I try to add, and with every month that passes that I don’t use my French, what I have acquired seems to fall out of my brain, which of course, I don’t notice until I go to Conakry every 3 – 4 months and then I try to use the French. OYE!!!! There are some words that I just can’t find in French when I am speaking – so it all gets mixed up with tribal words – and comes out like a stir fry of languages….. But again, I digress.

I was paired with Daniel – a blessing, because he knew what information I needed and graciously wrote it all on a piece of paper so I didn’t need to remember it all. As the introductions began, I knew we were in for an incredible view into the culture as EVERY man, without fail, introduced his person by saying, This is __________. He is married to only one wife, and has ___________ kids. It struck me that in the US we would never say, Hi, I am Jim and I only have one wife. I thought, Buckle up – here we go!

The whole three days were like that – finding nuggets of information and getting this wonderful chance to see the worldview of our African colleagues. We listened to them pray and sing, watched them do skits, heard discussions and arguments, and watched as ideas of development and education struck them in a new way. It was really fascinating! They were gracious with our communication skills, and allowed us to express opinions, which often struck them as odd – judging by the look on their faces.

One of the most interesting exercises to me was when we began to discuss what were the major issues in Guinea that were the causes of poverty, poor health, and problems here – the things that are perpetually keeping countries like Guinea in a third world status. As an expat and as a nurse, I have many things that top my list, but it was interesting what came from the other participants. We each had to pick up an object in the room and place it in a line on the floor – noting with it one of the problems that we see. Daniel then wrote down the issues.

Frankly, it was a little discouraging to see such a LONG line of things that need to be battled. Things like lack of education, malaria, lack of clean drinking water, alcohol, malnutrition, diarrhea, sorcery, drugs, a mentality of poverty, brain drain (educated people leaving the country and never returning), and corruption, etc. topped the list. We then had to choose what we thought were the top three issues facing the country and voted by placing a piece of paper on each issue.

The votes were then tallied and the top 5 problems were each assigned to a group to come up with solutions on how they could be solved. It was really interesting to watch. Here are the top 5 chosen by the guys: malaria, lack of clean drinking water, lack of education, female circumcision, and tatouage (which I don’t completely understand but appears to be a time when boys are taken out into the forest and initiated into manhood through drugs and sorcery.)

The last two really surprised me – not that they were issues, but that the Africans saw them as top issues. I was in a group assigned to tackle how to solve the problems of female circumcision and the discussion was very revealing.

By the end of the three days, I was mentally exhausted from all of the French and sitting and interaction, but came away with a new appreciation for what God is doing in this country and a new heart of thankfulness that He is allowing our family to be a part of it!