Things I Learned From An African Priest From Tanzania...

The following is the true story of my day-long encounter with Father Albert, a black African priest. It really happened to my best friend, Doey, and me in August of 2011.

 I volunteered to spend the day with Father Albert and show him a little bit of Northern Indiana. I also volunteered Doey. We decided to take Father Albert to Shipshewana, Indiana for a cultural lesson about the Amish. It is a decision I will never forget. Several people have asked me to post our story on my blog so others may enjoy it as much as they have.

Father Albert (Fr. Al) speaks English very well.  His English is much better than my Swahili. He also speaks 5 other tribal languages. With 7 languages under his belt, he is willing to stop and listen intently to the Amish women gossip in Pennsylvania Dutch, in hopes of grasping the meaning. This also means I kept losing Fr. Al. A lot.

I gave Fr. Al rules. Rules to live by with the Amish. The main one being not to take their pictures up close. This in no way deterred Fr. Al from grabbing hold of a poor Amish woman , stroking her dress and admiring it, then handing me the camera while he held her in a bear hug. Oh yes. That woman was so gracious. So sorry Amish lady, but he is from Africa.

We went to the donut place on 20. It seems to be rather famous. They offer free coffee, but Fr. Al doesn’t drink coffee. Tea is his drink of choice. It is 85 cents. Apparently most people go for the free coffee because when he ordered the tea, the lady kept saying the coffee was free. He just stood his ground and kept ordering his tea until he got it. My kind of guy!

He then wanted to sit down to eat the yummy donut holes. So I said ok. He then went and sat at someone's table with them, so I sat too. Doey, on the other hand kept on walking. Traitor. Oh my word. Did I mention that this day stretched me in the "it doesn’t matter what other people think, only what God thinks" category?

On our way to E and S Sales, I had a firm talking to with Fr Al. (ever have a firm talking to with a priest where YOU are the one talking?!?) I said UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES was he to take a close up picture with the Amish! That it was against their faith. He thought this very odd, but saw I wasn’t backing down, so he agreed.  I thought we were agreeing to no pictures close up. Nope. He was agreeing to covert operations.

We enter the store. He starts to do a seemingly one person photo shoot of me. All throughout the store. While we are in the check out line, he takes picture after picture of "me." I then see his camera. The entire time he was shooting past me or included several Amish families in the photos. Father Al was NOT to be deterred from his pictures of the Amish!

The first woman from the first photo shoot at the bakery happened to be in line behind us at the second store. She glanced around nervously the entire time. I really am sorry Amish lady.

Fr Al got to witness me  purchase 22 pounds of butter. I explained that it was a great deal and he was so pleased. I then taught him all about Amish free samples. That was brunch.

We left the store and walked to the van to put our purchases away before looking around some more. We lost Fr Al to the horses and buggies. He loved them. He loved them so much that he almost got ran over by multiple cars. He took MANY pictures of those lil guys.

We found a hammock seat that looked fun, but hard to get in and out of, so of course Julie and I talked the 49 years old priest into hopping in it. It was great watching him plop in and shuffle out! I have to say that he was literally up to doing ANYTHING!

One Amish store had 2 train whistles mounted at their shop. Silly people. Fr Al and I went nuts.

We left E and S, and went to Ace Hardware, one of my favorite shops in Shipshewana. It has many of the same things as the fancy shops, at a much lower price. Fr. Al carried my bag of purchases. Such a gentleman! He was all about the good deals and seeing where the "real" people of the area shop.

We met up with Phil and Arneta at the Blue Gate for lunch. Fr. Al had fried chicken. I had him sit by the "talkers," Phil and me. Arneta and Doey sat at the other "nontalkers" part of the table. Doey’s water and lunch were both dropped by the server. Fr Al was so immediately willing to share his. So sweet. Doey got her own lunch and Fr. Al got to eat his entire half of chicken in peace.

When I had asked what he wanted to order, he was hesitant, unsure of the menu and the food, so I explained things for him. When asked what he wanted to drink, he almost yelled, "MOUNTAIN DEW!" definitely no hesitation there!

 When we were walking out of the Blue Gate, Doey and I crossed the street, then noticed Fr. Al was not with us. My reaction? "Oh no! We lost the Father! Well, at least we still have the Holy Ghost!" At some point in the day, I had started going a little loopy.

We reclaimed Fr. Al from watching a nearby horse and proceed to the van. We get in, but another car had parked extremely close to us and we were hard placed to even get out. Once we did, a moron came at us the wrong way and we couldn’t drive forward. Doey was driving, so she slammed the van into reverse and hit the accelerator. We went FLYING backwards down the road. I was a tad nervous, but Fr. Al seemed to take it all in stride. Perhaps he thought this was normal. Perhaps he thought it was customary. Perhaps he felt completely comfortable with Doey and trusted her backwards-driving skills. I have no idea. All I know was that I felt MUCH better once we were moving FORWARD again!

We went to the flea market next. We wandered around about half of the market before we left due to an approaching storm. During the majority of this time, Fr. Al held my hand. Yep. i was out hand-holding at the Shipshewana  flea market with a 49 years old African priest. Andy, my friend that was hosting him, had told me that he is from a very affectionate culture, so I was prepared. Doey later told me that she was laughing her butt off.  Here I was, thanking God that he was holding MY hand and not trying to hold DOEY’S hand, and here she is laughing! She also informed me that I was a lovely shade of red the entire time.

While at the flea market, Fr. Al met another Amish woman and sat RIGHT NEXT to her. As in almost on top of her. He then proceeded to strike up a conversation. That went south in a hurry. As he stroked her dress (he was infatuated with their dresses), he asked if she had been to Africa...her: "No, we dont travel much, but I have heard of it." Fr. Al: "Are you a nurse? We need nurses." Her: "No. Amish don’t usually go on to higher education. We are not worldly like you." Fr. Al: (in disbelief) "What?!? Why?!?" Her: "Because we aren’t supposed to be worldly." Fr Al: "Who says so?!?" Her: (no answer) Fr. Al: "Well that seems stupid. You are in America, where there are universities everywhere and you don’t even use them. That is stupid!" Me: "Well now! Father Albert! We had better be going or we wont see all of the market before the rain, and I’m sure you want to tell the people back in AFRICA all about the market! (Insert fake cheeriness and urgent glances at Doey here )" (mouthed to the Amish lady sitting in shock: "I am SO SORRY!!!!") I guess when I gave the warnings for the Amish to watch out, I should have specified the Amish women, huh?

We did a quick stop at the cheese factory, but they were finished making cheese for the day. Fr. Al bought a few things that struck his fancy and we were off to the rectory to return Fr Al.

We exchanged email addresses (as if y'all are surprised), hugged, took pictures, hugged some more, hugged to the left, hugged to right, held hands and did a final round of hugs.

Father Albert was such a pleasant man to meet. Always happy. Never complaining. Always hoping to meet people that would help support this mission hospital through prayer or financially. What started out to be a favor to a friend, became an educational experience that I will never forget. Sure, I was embarrassed, nervous, scared, uncomfortable and humiliated a time or two, but I wouldn’t trade that day’s experience for the world.

The average annual income in his country is $500.  This means we spent half of the average yearly income on that day. How sobering. His mission runs a hospital; open to anyone that needs it. It is the only one for a hundred miles. People walk 100 miles to visit his clinic, which specializes in women, infants and children. He is an amazing man, with an amazing heart for the people of Tanzania. If you are interested in helping Father Albert and his mission, please let me know.

Until then, remember, JP was just fine with a 49-year-old  African priest holding my hand all day, but THAT is where he draws the LINE!  Good thing I have a hubby that understand other cultures.... we shall save the “Russian males kissing other males on the lips” custom for another day..... 

As Mark Twain said, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it solely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the earth all one's lifetime."  

~Annie