As I was riding the chapa (minibus) today, I had a couple of those aspiring-anthropologist moments where I just wish I had a couple months to spend as the guy collecting fares, or the driver, or something, because there’s altogether too many interesting things going on in a chapa for them all to go unrecorded somewhere. The people with chickens or big bricks of soap or 20-packs of little Cheeto-y snacks that they bought downtown and are taking home to their peripheral neighborhood to sell; the people who manage to fit a piece of aluminum siding or about 10 pipes under peoples’ feet for a construction project at home; the teenage guy with his earphones on, blasting some music that’s trying to compete with the trance beat the radio’s pumping out; and me.
I love chapas. How could you not want to study such an amazing little microcosm of Mozambican society?
I’d also love to have an extra year or two just to really throw myself into learning the local indigenous languages, Sena and Ndau—I know how to greet people in both, but because of all the work to be done at Care For Life and at church, I haven’t really had the time I’d like to really throw myself into them. And then there’s the mud-brick house I’ve been dreaming of building in one of the villages we work in every since I got here…why’s life gotta be so full of stuff that there’s never any time for the most intriguing bits?
1 comment:
You know, my dad has often given me good advice on that one: "don't let the scheduled unimportant things crowd out the important unstructured life events." He's often talking about family life when he says that, but I think it applies pretty well to taking the time to slow down a bit and do what's important to you (though not necessarily "productive" in the eyes of critics). Which is why I'm taking a year and a half off from Provo to grow as a counselor and human being elsewhere. I am young, after all, and could use experience. Or so they're always telling me! Man, I wish I looked older than 15 sometimes, so people could take me seriously, but anyway...
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