Finding Simplicity in a Billion Stars

We are only half way through our trip in Zambia and I already have had the experience of a lifetime. From the second we stepped off the plane I found myself trying to explain to others how I am in fact not Jason (a former Gonzaga Student who visited Zambia), Chris Brown, or a relative of Barak Obama -_-. Perhaps I should have joked around with the people about who I am, but unfortunately sarcasm only seems to create more confusion than you really want to deal with. Not only have I found myself trying to explain my own identity while in Zambia, but I also have found myself as an example of American diversity to other Zambian people. When asked “do you have any Africans in America?,” a member of the group quickly replied to that question comically by saying “Why yes we do, we actually brought one.” Of course their response would be referring to me in which case all I can do is sit there, shake my head, and laugh.

While these few instances may have been a more light hearted thing, there have been many moments in which I have been unable to completely understand or at times even convey the many questions that constantly come across my mind. To make things even worse, the explanations that I do have for a small amount of these questions only give me what I feel as a partial comfort to the actual truth.  In other words these explanations are only patchwork to ease my mind for a short time. It’s only a matter of time before I find these patched up questions coming back to the forefront of my mind. Perhaps if I was a person who takes more steps to accurately reflect upon my day such as journaling, talking to others, or merely just laying still in my thoughts I could find more explanations that will ultimately find some clarity to these questions. Alas this would be something that I would personally find a bit of a stretch. Fortunately I was able to find a little a bit of clarity within the last couple of days.

This last weekend we got the privilege to spend time in a small town called Dipalata. To put it mildly, our experience there was quite humbling as the community lacked electricity, running water, and paved roads.  My initial experience with this community did nothing more than bring even more questions and even some undesired stomach issues that almost definitely detracted from my ability to enjoy the full experience of Dipalata. The timing for this sickness was the worst possible for me. Somehow through the illnesses that hit some at the convent in Zambezi, I was able to completely fight off all of them until we came to the one place where man really meets nature. Dipalata.  For me this whole trip just became the roughest part of my experience in Zambia and the pit toilets, mosquitoes, and very hot weather offered no comfort to me as the stomach issues continued to progress. Yet through the unfortunate circumstance of this experience I somehow found a moment of peace on this trip that I had not yet been able to actually experience on this entire journey. Now before you try to guess where this moment of peace was; no, this is not one of those moments of peace that you can find on the porcelain throne. This moment of peace gave me just a little bit of clarity that ultimately eased my mind a bit as perhaps a few of these questions that I had, whether it be one that I can articulate or not, were finally answered. That Saturday night, after we got to see some of the things that make Dipalata so beautiful, and a missionary’s house that gave us just a little taste of the life that we know back in the good ol’ USA, we found ourselves gathered around a campfire. The Gonzaga students and faculty and the community of Dipalata, began to sing songs and enjoy each others’ company. To be honest we mostly let them sing the songs as they had instruments and what sounded like an orchestrated choir singing to us while all we had were the good willed attempts of singing a few songs in Lunda and Luvale and some mash ups of American music, including a song by Smashmouth. Of course, my illness kept my singing spirits at bay, and all I found myself doing was watching the singing festivities occur in front of my eyes. This lack of participation somehow offered a silver lining. It made me very observant to what was going on around me, especially to the glowing fire in front of me and the bright twinkling stars hanging above in the night sky. For me, this was a moment of awe and wonderment as a sight like this doesn’t happen very often for us in the United States because of the ever-present light pollution. It was a moment to see the beauty of God’s creation. This complex night sky offered up a sight of a billion stars and cosmos that we haven’t even begun to fully understand as we study every heavenly body with a keen eye and yet when looking at it from afar it just all seems so simple.

After staring at this sky for a few minutes I caught my gaze moving back down to the singing and the campfire that illuminated all the smiling and happy faces of the people there. There was something different about everything in this moment. For this very instant, all of these happy faces and the accompaniment that each one of us shared seemed to break down barriers and worries that we so often keep on our minds. In that instant everything seemed so simple, and the only word that could be used for that very moment was happy. It was in this moment that I got reminded of something that too often I forget, especially when comparing our lives to theirs. Instead of looking at our lives and defining happiness by what we have, how comfortable we are, and our relationships, we just need to define our happiness by the relationships and communities in which we have. I’m not saying that I selfishly believe that the only way to define happiness is by the things that we have but it’s an unfortunate fact that we all get this very idea engrained into our minds by the very fortune of living in the United States. It is a blessing to be living in the United States but is also a curse as the country has become so much more materialistic and less about connections with others. These people in this poor community may not have everything that they could possible want or need physically, but what they do have is each other and that’s quite all right. They were happy before we got there and they will be happy when they leave. Even though we may be here trying to impart a little bit of our knowledge on to them what we really need to do is meet them at their happiness and that is to just create relationships with the people of Zambia.

Before I finish this post I also want to add that while in Dipalata we were honored to be given a goat as a parting gift. Needless to say, we are going to have one heck of a meal and his name is definitely fitting of his purpose. After some good thought we decided to name him Will Stew, we hope he will live up to his name. Kisu Mwane.

Chris Frager, Class of 2016