Southern California reminds me to be thankful that I don’t
have to plan my day around potential traffic jams on the freeways.
Visits to Africa remind me not to take consistent flow of
electricity for granted.
As I say both, however, I do so with a sincere value for and
appreciation of both places.
While a two-hour power cut in the evening may indeed make
life inside a home unbearable, it forces life out onto the street, where
families pull chairs and various other furniture, candles and lanterns are lit,
and life on the street commences amidst the cool evening breezes. I didn’t
understand most of what was said tonight as we sat on a breezy street. The
father of the family, sitting next to me, occasionally translated the gist of
the Wolof-language conversation to me in French. There was singing. There was
laughing. The smells of blooming bougainvilla and fallen mangoes in the yard
filled the air. Moonlight flowed down. I can’t help but sense that everyone (me included)
was better off spending the evening on the street than in the stuffy house with
lights (the power came back on at 10:30).
Portable chairs are important in Africa. Anywhere I go,
people are always pulling together a few chairs or a few stools or benches for
an impromptu conversation. A friend’s son recently told me that our girls and
his sisters like to have a lot of “talky-talkies.” I think that Africans also
like “talky-talkies.” It reminds me in some ways of extended family
conversations on front and back porches and patios on hot summer nights in
Ohio.
Personally, I think we could all stand a few more
“talky-talkies,” with or without electricity.
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