ITSHOLWCS Part 2: Community

Seven years ago, I was at a conference in Kenya. We got time to go out and do a little shopping in the market - which is one of my favorite things to do. In my time in Africa I got pretty good at bartering with people - and fighting them off when they were all yelling "Hey lady...come look in my shop. For you - good price!" I almost hit a guy once when he grabbed my arm. :) Anyway...I had found a shop that was selling all of these beautiful batiks and I found the one that I wanted. It is a batik of African tribes people walking - carrying water on their heads, babies on their backs - and all sorts of other things. It is done in vibrant colors - really beautiful. I bartered with the guy for a long time - never really did get him down all that much...but I didn't care. I wanted that one. So I paid too much money for it and left - the man with a smile on his face.

That batik now hangs framed over my bed. It is probably one of my most favorite things that I own. It reminds me of Africa. It reminds me of walking down the street and being absolutely amazed at the sheer volume of stuff that people can carry - on their heads! It reminds me of watching some of the young girls in the neighborhood, maybe 7 or 8 years old, carrying their baby brothers and sisters on their backs while they go to fetch water at the neighborhood well. It reminds me of walking EVERYWHERE and all of the friends that I met along the way. Good memories that even now provoke a lot of reflection.

The picture itself is of a group of people walking together. That to me is one of my favorite things about this picture and one of my favorite things about my time in Africa. More so in Bissau than in Ghana. We lived life together. Our doors were open - people in and out all of the time. Some people didn't even have doors. You never had to worry about the kids - b/c everyone in the neighborhood looked out for everyone else's children - not just their own. If I needed a cup of sugar - just yelled over to my neighbor and had it in seconds. When the rains came and the flooding threatened to level our neighbor's house - everyone is out in the middle of the night in the rain moving sand bags to divert the river. You sit on the porch of anyone's house and talk and sew and cook and laugh and cry and play with the kids and the animals. It is community.

When I was there I took that for granted. I didn't spend enough time in that community. When I did - it was very sweet and I look back on those times as my favorite memories. I miss it immensely now. And I have been thinking lately about the concept of community and what that looks like. What is and who are my community? Who am I walking life with? Am I investing in a community? Lots of questions running through my head without a whole lot of answers at this point.

I do know that I have a deep desire for community wherever I am. I have been created to be in relationship - so that desire is natural I think. But so much of the reality of community is the effort I put into it. And when I refuse to give of myself - that certainly isn't doing much to build that community that I so desire.