Man Is Never Satisfied

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” - James Michener

Religion is such an integrated part of the people. It’s Sunday today and so far different sermons have been going on since 6am well into the evening. I think they have outdoor speakers in the field behind our house, people gathered in congregation there. The mellower gospel songs are really nice, sending so much spirit and soul through the air. The sound of many voices singing Hallelujah as I sit outside on a concrete block against the house in the sun, writing this. Watching the laundry sway with the occasional breeze, the neighbors white alter serving clothes and sheets with red crosses on them flowing with as much emotion as the voices gaining in momentum.

Going inside for super we sit on chairs embroidered with “God loves us all” and then bow our heads as Ma Josephine blesses the food on our table and the protection of the day. For the lord to look out over her daughters.

Religious undertones find their way into every aspect of life here it seems. When asking questions at work our boss responds “don’t worry, even the Disciples of Christ were confused at one point so why not us?” Or after a meeting “I have closed the meeting with a prayer in my heart. And its okay if you don’t hear it because god can and he knows we are done.”

In a conversation with an elder today we had a long talk (him mostly doing the talking) about the nature of man. One thing that stuck with me he said was “the reason God hides is that man is never satisfied”.

We sat in on a meeting with the executive of the Chobe Land Board and a few of their stakeholders to get a better idea of the organizations inner workings. Even though most of the meeting was in Setswana I found it interesting how much I could understand through watching the expressions, body language and tone of the interactions. After six hours of deliberations, debates, daydreams and doodling I was shaken out of my thoughts to the chairman asking for “our Canadian guest to now say the closing prayer.” I was greeted with an adrenaline rush being completely caught off guard and with no idea what a closing prayer is even to entail, stood up and rambled something along the lines of “Thank you lord for guiding us in the decisions we were able to come upon and for the meeting of our new friends here. May you guide our future deliberations and help us implement the solutions that were brought forth. For this we thank you our Lord. Amen”