My feet ached and as I sank into the chair at the side of the bed I looked down at my dirty, dusty toes engulfed in my equally dirty and dusty sandals. It had been an uneventful day -- just the usual power outages, traffic nightmares, the endless errands, and then the foraging for food for the night's meal. As I slipped those now priceless Walmart-special sandals off, I remembered reading about how Christ had washed the dirty, dusty feet of His disciples and the strangest thoughts flooded my mind.
If you could take away the hundreds of honking taxis and the cell phones (which every African, rich or poor, has) this little city of Sunyani would be very much like Israel at the time of Christ. Most of the streets are dirt and the people live for the moment, consumed with the prospect of what they are going to eat that night. The largest number of the population live in wooden shacks or unfinished cement structures much like old Jerusalem. There are no newspapers, street signs or addresses. Hundreds of little roadside shops are found on every street and corner, where they sell everything imaginable from produce to household goods to crude tools and anything else they can barter or trade for, as they probably did during the life of Jesus. There were no public restrooms in old Israel as well and the people then would have had to use the great outdoors, just like in Sunyani.
People walk everywhere and chickens and goats are found wandering on every street corner and at every intersection. Women, and some men as well, carry huge loads of anything imaginable here and there, from place to place. The Africans have never heard of flashlights (or at least they don't use them) and because it's cooler at night, adults as well as little children all come out after dark like cockroaches, scurrying about in the dark. It's terrifying to drive after the sun goes down because the town and all the streets are even busier than during the day and it's almost impossible to see them all until they're really close.
Most of the residents of Sunyani don't have electricity or indoor water. They cook outside over open firepits and haul water from wells for cooking and bathing as well. Where you live and the condition of your home is absolutely not even considered in their value system and no matter how humble your circumstances, strangers are always invited in and there's never any embarrassment. They are warm, loving and generous, and will share their fufu, even if it's the last food they have. We have never felt threatened in any way, but many do have a tendancy to steal if things are left out.
Life in Sunyani is primitive for the most part, and probably much like old Israel in many ways. The comparison was just a little too similar...and a little eerie. It was as if, just for a moment, I had slipped back in time -- back some 2,000 years. And then reality set in, and I got up and went and washed my dusty feet.
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