Living in another country provides many opportunities to see life from another perspective. I encountered a couple of those moments today.
The first time occurred as I was checking Luke 4:33 with the Ikoma translators. When I'm checking the translation I read through it looking for areas that aren't accurate, aren't understandable or aren't natural ways to say something in Ikoma. In this case I was checking to make sure the translation accurately communicated that the evil spirit was inside the man and was speaking through the man. After I asked about it, one of the translators just laughed and told me people know about these types of things. He explained that people here are familiar with evil spirits and they would know exactly what is going on in this verse.
I have to admit it, I was a little taken aback. I know that spirits are very real and known here but the way he said it just surprised me. Back home, most people wouldn't say they are familiar with how demon possession works but out here it's a fact of life. It made me aware of how different our perspectives on life are.
The second moment that altered my perspective occurred during a meeting of the translation department. We were discussing a misunderstanding that had occurred a few weeks ago, trying to make the policy clear and resolve the issue. From where I was sitting, it seemed as if the Tanzanian translators did not agree with the policy because of cultural differences and could not see why it should be followed. However as the meeting went on it become clear that the real issue was how the translators had been told the policy, not the policy itself. They had been hurt by the way they were told and thought they were being punished. From a western perspective, we thought the guidelines and expectations had just been honestly explained. There was a cultural difference causing the conflict, just not the difference I expected.
I realized I still don't always know how my behaviour is perceived by Tanzanians, even after living here for two years. Everyone was involved with the same event and yet understood it in completely different ways. This happens even within our own cultures, not just between cultures. It was a good lesson for me on how to relate with Tanzanians and also a reminder that I usually only see a small piece of the picture.
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