The Fosters

I’ve been back in Canada for 2 weeks now and it’s been really interesting to see how my friend, Mwasembe, is taking in the developed world. Mwasembe is a translator from the Mbeya Cluster Project and he’s never been out of Tanzania with the exception of a trip to Nairobi several years ago. He has accompanied me here to help share with our partners how Bible Translation and language development are impacting his community.

Mwasembe boarded his first plane with me on July 21, a Boeing 767 which took us directly to London Heathrow’s brand new terminal 5. I’ll never know what was going through his mind. Watching him taking it all in reminded me of the movie, The Matrix, except I don’t know whether he was being ‘jacked in’ or ‘unplugged’.

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been taking him around Toronto and the surrounding areas. He’s amazed at things that I’ve never paid attention to. Mostly, he comments on the infrastructure here. Roads, bridges, highways, sky-scrapers, houses, water, electricity are among the things that he often mentions. He keeps asking who’s responsible for ‘this’ or ‘that’ and I find myself constantly referring back to our government. I’ve praised the leadership of this nation more in the last two weeks than I have in my whole life and the weird part is, Mwasembe’s questions force me to do it. The obvious thing to say is, “I take this country for granted,” and while we all know we do this, it’s one thing to say it but it’s another thing to really feel it.

I know Canada’s far from perfect but Mwasembe’s perspective on it has really helped me to appreciate it far more than I ever have.