To Africa and Back by Hannah

To Africa and Back by Hannah - April 2022 Scholarship Essay

Will I ever see this place again? I wondered as my feet compelled me to stop on the airstairs. I looked one more time at the sun rising over Nkhoma Mountain. The sight was gorgeous, and at that moment I felt desperate not to leave and afraid I would never come back. I also felt as if my purpose in coming had not been accomplished and wondered, at that moment, why I had come.

I was an idealistic 14-year-old girl when I first saw a video of children in an African country. I had found my purpose; helping those children. Before long, I had found an opportunity to travel to Malawi, Africa with a team of 20+ other teenagers through an organization called Teen Missions International. I spent close to 6 months gathering funds and prayer partners, buying supplies, sharing my planned trip in churches, and enduring an insanely grueling training in the swamps of Florida.

All my hard work seemed to pay off when we pulled into the first village we would be staying in for a week and a crowd of children followed our truck; singing, laughing, and yelling “white people, white people!” in their dialect of Chichewa. We set up camp right away, and our official mission started. In that first village, we were going to wash children’s feet and give them shoes as well as build an elevated goat pen to help keep the village's main livestock safe from roaming predators. But I remember the moment I first saw a stone house floor covered in used and worn shoes we had brought with us as my first warning that maybe this trip was not quite what I thought it was.

To help set my experience up a little better, let’s talk numbers. I raised close to $3,000 to pay for my trip. That covered my food, shelter, clothing, training, the share of the shoes and materials we brought across seas, and extra for a couple of days of tourism. Multiply that times 20+ members, and that trip cost $60k+. Next, let me share what we accomplished in helping the people we went to minister to.

We gave approximately 100 Malawi children new socks and used shoes. Shoes that would likely not stand up to their harsh environment for more than a couple of months. We built one unfinished goat pen standing on pillars of cement hand-mixed by inexperienced American and Canadian teenagers. We dug 20 garden post holes by hand with machetes and placed wooden posts in them, but ran out of time to finish the fence. And then, once a day, we gave a show with songs and stories and evangelical props, spending more time on that than any other project.

To sum up, American and Canadian churches and families gave $60k to build half a goat pen, half a fence, give 100 children shoes for two months, and bring salvation to a Malawian chief. A lot of this may have been lost on the teenagers of the group, but this begs the question: shouldn’t the adults know better? And if they do, what was the real purpose of this trip?

And the answer to that is Colonialism. From the very beginning of the Church's conception, the more radical Christians have been known for their need to push their own way of life and belief on others. Whether it was the Spaniards in Cuba, Puritans and the Wampanoag, Feminists with the Indigenous Women, or mission trips to third world countries, Christian Missions have a history of portraying themselves as the “visible saints, exemplars of ideal piety in a sea of persistent savagery.”

The focus through all of our training was on the religious aspects. We had to pray a lot, were told how the fate of African souls was on our shoulders, and spent hours memorizing and reciting verses. We had to build everything the hard way, cook the hard way, and live in unhealthy conditions in order to share in Christ’s suffering. Rather than teenagers ministering to a people who had physical and basic needs to be met, we were sent out on a fanatical crusade. And we took all the $60k our communities had scrimped together with us.

So if I left Africa not having ministered as I thought I was coming to, what did that experience teach me, if anything? Aside from the emotional turmoil from a grueling trip, and trauma from aiding in colonizing a section of Malawi, I actually came away with two very practical lessons. One, if I want to help children in another country, I send my money straight there to an organization that I have thoroughly researched and know is actually helping improve lives. Secondly, and more importantly, I have learned that my actual services stretch the farthest in my local community.

How can I best help families and children in need? Donate money, time, and food to a local food pantry. Give resources to homeless shelters. Give someone short on money a ride, a meal, or a trip to the store on my dime. Babysit for a single mom, feed grieving people, and take health measures to keep others around me safe. The little 14-year-old girl who just desperately wanted to help, now really can.