The Sahara Is Tough

"I grew up in Libya in abundance and I believed my people lived in similar conditions. My father never told me.

This is pure hunger. Life in the Sahara is hard. It's tough even for the young people so how can the elderly take it?

I can't  stand the way my people are living here. People here can't even bathe. There is no light or electricity. No phone network to stay in contact with the world.

At night it is really cold here. People living in this desert are constantly getting sick.
A lot of illness. They don't have hospitals,  they don't have medical tests.

People get used to it but my God this Sahara is tough. This Sahara is tough.

(Mahamad Hassan Tuareg in Sahara Desert)

Sacred Drums For Worship....

"One guy comes up to me, buzzing with enthusiasm: “You know, when they play those big drums for village ceremonies, it usually makes people go into a trance. But today there was no trance when we played them!” Wow! I might have thought twice had I known this was a risk. However, I’ve studied trance quite a bit and – as a general rule – when the object of worship and the heart of the worshipper change, then trance will not occur. It’s a big issue in redeeming ‘pagan’ music for church worship and one which has caused some churches to fear even trying to play local drums. With time, though, all of these can be redeemed for God’s glory alone."

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture: Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

Africa Scenes

"As I edge my way around one of the more acute bends, Mrs Kwadi lets me into a secret: “Rob, the road back down on the other side is even worse than this.” Great! That’s something to look forward to then.

We reach the top and the road flattens out. We’re on the Danyi Plain, one of the prettiest parts of Togo. Even the villages you pass through seem well-ordered, pleasant places: square buildings made of earth, but with tin roofs and tidy wooden shutters, blossoming red flame trees, friendly stalls selling fruit and vegetables, pretty yellow hedgerows and majestic palm trees – it all seems very civilised."

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture: Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

Stone Dry Hearts

"While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits.  And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men's hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism."
  
... Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929)

Story Allows Wisdom To Be swallowed

"Story is the palm oil with which wisdom is swallowed. "

(Yousufu,  Guinea , West africa. Heard on BBC Podcast about Eola and how story was used to spread messages.)

Rewards and Rules

“You don't have to play by their rules if you don't require their rewards.”

~ William P. Young

Can You Tell Time In Africa

"There are still a good fifteen minutes until the scheduled start time, so it is impressive to see around half of the participants here already. But these are educated folk who can read, write and tell the time; three skills which cannot be taken for granted here. Of course, I wouldn’t even be here today if everyone in Sokodé were already literate."

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture: Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

Africans Are Generous With Their Time.

"Further on, three ladies carrying large bowls on their heads are walking by the roadside. “Labaalé!” These three know a place where there is a market and where we can most certainly try out some chouk. After a lengthy conversation, of which I understand precisely three words, Evan gets out and opens the back of his car. The ladies put their bowls in the boot and, somewhat uneasily, get into the back seat (as Ken squeezes into the front with Evan and me). I wonder if this is the first time they’ve ever ridden in a car. Quite possibly. We turn off the main road and along another bumpy track, parking almost immediately. Evan asks the ladies whether they need a lift back to where he picked them up. “No, we can walk back from here,” they say. Helping a foreigner is almost a duty of honour in this part of the world, and these three women – in spite of all the day’s hard work – were still happy to put themselves out to help three strangers. Amazing."

( Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture; Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

We Use Drugs Because We've Lost Each Other.

“People use drugs, legal and illegal, because their lives are intolerably painful or dull. They hate their work and find no rest in their leisure. They are estranged from their families and their neighbors. It should tell us something that in healthy societies drug use is celebrative, convivial, and occasional, whereas among us it is lonely, shameful, and addictive. We need drugs, apparently, because we have lost each other.” 

― Wendell Berry, The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

The Day I Discovered I Was Not Stupid

This makes me sad..... and angry...

"Every once in awhile I’ll read something that forces me to read faster and faster and faster and… SQUIRREL!… and faster and faster and faster and…. SQUIRREL! When I was young I’m not sure they had a label for my reading comprehension disability. I was just called “stupid” or “lazy” or “an attention seeker”. I would get so distracted so easily during reading time, but because my brain was going a million miles an hour, noticing everything there was to notice in a room full of humans, I ended up acting up and getting kicked out. Eventually, it was suggested that I leave the only school I’d known – the only friends I’d known. I was sent to a different school for my last year of public/primary education and put into a “special” class of 6 kids who were all special/slow. The excruciating social stigma of being a “special” kid in a new school was the start of my downhill slide that lasted 30 years. I soon figured out that if I could make ‘em laugh they would forget that I was “special.” Thus, the Village Idiot was born! Only as I approach my 50th birthday have I begun to allow myself to accept the fact that I AM “special”. Not stupid – lazy – attention seeker special, but special .....

(Drew Marshall.  Www.Caminoconfessions.com #6)

Black Sheep Of The Family

"I’ve been the proverbial black sheep of my family for as long as I can remember. I can vividly recall the first time my father said he was proud of me. Probably because it wasn’t that long ago. I put my parents through hell for so many years. Mom died before I had the chance to show her I could be good at something. Dad is 83 now and the reality is, he won’t be part of my life for much longer. I’m terrified of screwing up and putting on that black sheepskin one more time before he’s gone."

(Drew Marshall. Www.Caminoconfessions.com #8)

Africa - I Can Do Only So Much

“You’re going to the armpit of Africa,” the prim doctor said, as I rolled up my sleeve for the first injection. “We can only do so much for you.” She was as thorough as she was adamant."

(To Timbuktu For a Haircut. Rick Antonson)

People Love When I Am Alone

"I absolutely love being by myself! Others tell me the same thing. They really like it when I’m by myself as well."

(Drew Marshall. Www.Caminoconfessions.com #7)

Labels That Kill Souls.. for Fifty Years

This makes me sad..... and angry...

"Every once in awhile I’ll read something that forces me to read faster and faster and faster and… SQUIRREL!… and faster and faster and faster and…. SQUIRREL! When I was young I’m not sure they had a label for my reading comprehension disability. I was just called “stupid” or “lazy” or “an attention seeker”. I would get so distracted so easily during reading time, but because my brain was going a million miles an hour, noticing everything there was to notice in a room full of humans, I ended up acting up and getting kicked out. Eventually, it was suggested that I leave the only school I’d known – the only friends I’d known. I was sent to a different school for my last year of public/primary education and put into a “special” class of 6 kids who were all special/slow. The excruciating social stigma of being a “special” kid in a new school was the start of my downhill slide that lasted 30 years. I soon figured out that if I could make ‘em laugh they would forget that I was “special.” Thus, the Village Idiot was born! Only as I approach my 50th birthday have I begun to allow myself to accept the fact that I AM “special”. Not stupid – lazy – attention seeker special, but special .....

(Drew Marshall.  Www.Caminoconfessions.com #6)

A Lifetime of Talking Too Much

"I’m just loving shutting up. It’s honestly been simmering inside of me for quite a while. My entire life has been filled with too much talk. From myself as well as those around me. I’ve been noticing that most of us, when we talk, fill the air with… more air. "

~ Drew Marshall - Practicing silence one day a week for six months, then walking the 800km Camino De Santiago pilgrimage in silence on his 50th birthday.

www.Camnoconfessions.com Day#4

When Your Song Has No "Ti"

The Nawdm People of Northern Togo

For you musicians...

"Most of the genres are also accompanied by clapping, sometimes just a straight beat, other times very syncopated. As they sing through more songs, I notice that many of them are hexatonic. This means there are six different tones in the scale, rather than the Western seven, or the more common African five. Upon further analysis, it would seem that the seventh degree of the Western major scale is missing, so theirs goes: do-re-mi-fa-so-la-do."

Bare Breasted Culture Is Indeed a Fascinating Thing

I have literally seen it all in Africa. You do not even notice anymore.

"That reminds me of an amusing cultural story told by my mate Eric, a missionary in West Africa. Eric was visiting a village in his early mission days and saw three African ladies preparing a meal together. “Could I take a photo of you, please?” he asked (it’s always good to check first). The ladies looked at each other doubtfully, then one replied: “Wait a moment – we don’t have our heads covered. We must cover our heads before you can take your picture.” And with that, the three ladies removed their tops and wrapped them round their heads, ready for the photo! In great embarrassment, all Eric could do was to take a ‘pretend’ photo of these three bare-chested ladies and thank them for their trouble. True story. Culture is indeed a fascinating thing!"

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture: Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

Don't Waste Much Time Defending Your Ego.

Best line I've read in weeks... "Don't waste much time defending your ego"

"Whenever you are offended, it's usually because your self-image has not been worshiped or it has been momentarily exposed. The false self will quickly react with a vengeance to any offenses against it because all it has is its own fragile assumptions about itself.
Narcissists have a lot of asserting and defending to do, moment by moment. Don't waste much time defending your ego. The True Self is untouchable, or as Paul puts it "it takes no offense" (1 Corinthians 13:5)."

~Richard Rohr

The Dream You -That God Doesn't Know

"Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the man that I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him."

(Thomas Merton)

$19 Per Minute.

Yep. $19.50 a minute when i was first in Ivory Coast.

"I think back to the early 90s when I was first in West Africa, teaching missionaries’ kids. There were no mobiles and even phoning home conventionally cost a small fortune and often had a delay of up to seven seconds. Now, I can text the UK for around ten British pence and the message arrives almost instantaneously. Amazing, really."

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture: Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

Mission Driving Skills

At 4:29 in the morning, i laughed out loud in recognition. Sorry Lynn Rayner

"The number one rule to remember on the roads here is as follows: there are no rules. Who has right of way? Answer: whoever has the courage to forge on and fill the gap before the other person gets a chance. Crazy, but kind of fun once you get used to it!"

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture: Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)

Pretending is Exhausting

"The ego doesn't want to surrender to its inherent brokenness and poverty. Yet the truth is, realizing your imperfection is the beginning of freedom and grace. There is such freedom in no longer pretending to be something we're not."

~ Richard Rohr

God Gives Back To Missionaries

"People often say to me: “Rob, it’s such a sacrifice, what you do,” and in many ways it is. But that’s not to say that missions work isn’t also fascinating, enriching and – on many occasions – just great fun! What you give up back home before coming on the field, God gives back to you in so many different ways – and more."

(Rob Baker. Adventures in Music and Culture : Travels of an Ethnomusicologist in West Africa)