The Missionary (by Jimmy Buffett)

Some of you … well, let’s face it, pretty much ALL of you … have been wanting to know exactly what I’ve been doing while I’ve been over here on the far side of the world. Admittedly, it’s hard to sum it all up. Each day has it’s own uniqueness. Each island I visit has it’s own character and personality. I live on “Island Time” here (which most of you probably understand because I tend to live on Island Time back in the states too, which drives most of you crazy!) which means that any schedule is open to change … and the schedules certainly do change! So, there’s not much consistency or normality to which to summarize exactly what I’m doing here. But, I’ll try none-the-less … just for you ;)
First, let me just say that my overall time here has been a rollercoaster of emotions, relationships, spiritual growth, spiritual warfare, and cultural adaptation. I have spent time at home in the city, out at base camp, vacationing in Singapore, and living out in the homes on various islands. Each occasion offers it’s own rewards and challenges. But, since the second half of my time over here as begun and it looks to be the busiest half with the most amount of travel, work, and island-stays, I will focus primarily on my times in the islands … especially since this is what it’s all about anyways.
Before ever going to visit any islands, the new group of ethno-tourists are brought to Base Camp where there are usually a couple days of acclimating to jetlag and having some meetings to prepare them for their work on the islands. During these meetings, they are taught about cultural awareness and appropriateness, typical religious beliefs of the islanders, and proper use of our national guides who do our translating.
The islands vary from being a few minutes away from Base Camp to up to a couple of hours away. Sometimes we take a ferry if it’s far enough away, but typically we take a long, wooden boat in which we are typically pretty cramped and often have the spray of the crashing swells against the bow and hull soaking us. There is typically a welcome party when we reach the jetty of the village to which we will be staying. The party generally consists of a group of women dressed in traditional clothing and playing hand-held drums while singing a welcome song. They continue to play and sing as we file everyone out of the boat and distribute the luggage accordingly. From there, we are paraded down the jetty to land and escorted to the local government building … typically no more than a few rooms big. There, we are officially welcomed by the local officials and distributed to the homes in which we will be spending the next three nights.
There are generally three or four tourists in a home including a guide. The entire first day is spent talking with our host families, along with any of the number of other neighbors who tend to wander in and out of the house, learning their names, relationship with one another, and asking general questions about life, culture, religion, and relationships.
Our meals are generally sitting on the floor and eating with our right hand … and let me tell you, eating with your hand, especially only one hand, is a true art form! The food always consists of white rice and some kind of fish. Often times there is chicken too, and there are usually some spices that are either already in the food or on the side that we can add. Many of the tourists can’t handle the spiciness of their food … personally, I love it! One thing to note is that the chicken that we eat was generally running around in front of the house earlier that day and the fish was likely caught no more than a day earlier. The food typically looks very unappetizing, especially when the fish is almost literally staring back up at you as you’re eating it. It’s a lot like those old cartoons where the cat takes a whole fish, sticks it in it’s mouth, and pulls it out with only the head, tail, and bones remaining. If you eat it right, that’s exactly what this fish looks like when we’re done eating. As repulsive as the food looks though, it’s generally quite delicious … at least, once you’ve gotten used to it.
The second day can be spent doing anything including talking, fishing, walking, playing sports, riding in boats, or doing whatever else our host family might suggest. Some families are more active and involved then others, so that plays a big factor. On one island, they have regular sailboat races and they invited the guys of our group to participate. That was quite an amazing experience! Certainly not a typical island event for us though. Usually the sports begin around 4pm and most of the village is involved. These villages are very communal in all their activities. It’s really quite sad to think of how individualistic America has become compared to the biblical ways these locals live in being the communal beings God created us to be. As a general rule, I don’t know who my next door neighbor is when I’m living back in the states, whereas these people are instinctively meeting together at the same place and at the same time every day as an entire village. We have a lot we can learn from these people!
One thing I should mention is that there are two bucket baths per day. It is required that we take one first thing in the morning and then one again in the evening after the sports. In the heat of the day we get sweaty and stinky enough, but when we’ve been playing volleyball or football (soccer for those back home) or any of their other sports, it’s easy to get pretty soaked with sweat and ripe smelling. Thus, the cultural two bucket baths per day. It’s really quite interesting the way these people don’t hesitate to throw their garbage on the ground or in the water yet they demand the cleanliness of regular washing.
The conversations we have with our families and the other islanders tend to get pretty deep and purposeful as early as the second day. What’s amazing is that their religion and culture are directly tied together, so there’s no stigma against talking directly and intentionally about their beliefs. As ethno-tourists, that’s why we’re there. So, as a result, we learn a lot about their beliefs and understandings and are able to share with them some of what we believe and why. This is truly the most amazing part of our times on the islands. By the second night our evening conversations often allow themselves to get fairly intense, although sometimes the people we’re with never allow us to go very deep at all. One of the key things we focus on is figuring out who’s a true seeker and spending most of our time with them. There’s no point in forcing a conversation with someone who isn’t interested in hearing or talking.
Day three will often be the day that we do our CD (Community Development) project. This can be anything from building a road to teaching English. Sometimes it’s just us tourists who are doing the work while other times half of the village will join in and help us. We like it when the latter of these two happens! We’ll usually do the CD project in the morning and then go back home for lunch. It’s not uncommon to take a nap after lunch for two main reasons: 1) It’s easy to exhaust ourselves and the evil one often uses fatigue to keep us from being focused enough to have conversations later on that night, and 2) Many of the locals will also be napping in the early afternoon because the heat of the day demands it. From there, it’s sports again in the later afternoon and then dinner.
After dinner, most of the islands will give us a goodbye party. The party can involve our host families dressing us up in their best traditional clothing. We are seated at the seats of honor and will watch their presentations on a stage they may have made in the few days we were there. They will have traditional dances, singing, speeches, and playing of their traditional handheld drums. Sometimes they’ll end the night by blaring the music and having a free-for-all dance with the whole village. Some of these parties will last a couple hours while others go well into the night. These are a ton of fun, but often prevent us from having time for last night conversations … so they are bitter-sweet experiences.
The next morning we have breakfast, pack our belongings, and meet as a big group. We say our goodbyes and are escorted back down the jetty on which we arrived. Sometimes it will be escorted by the drums that welcomed us while other times it will simply be a conversational stroll with our new friends. Regardless, the feel always changes between our welcome and our farewell from being greeted by strangers to being sent off by friends … sometimes with tears in our eyes. It’s amazing how close you can get to people, even people who don’t speak your same language, in a matter of a few short days. As we get on board our boat and motor away, there is a traditional Anderson goodbye as both the tourists on the boat and our new friends back on the jetty will wave frantically at each other until they are no longer in sight.
We often talk about our new friends the entire ride back to Base Camp, as well as discussions about how excited we are to be sleeping in a bed as opposed to the floor and taking an actual shower instead of a bucket bath. When we get back to Base Camp we have a day, maybe two, of debriefing from the previous island and preparation for our second island. Each tour will consist of two island stays, each three nights long, and generally each very unique from the other. During our time in between, we do our best to process what we’ve just experienced in the recent days past, prepare as best we can for what we’re about to experience in the days to come, and find a healthy balance between rest and play during the time in between.

Hopefully this has answered more questions then it has brought to your mind, but if there are any specific, burning questions that have been brought to your heart or mind from reading this, please feel free to ask. That doesn’t mean I’ll answer it, necessarily … but I’ll certainly try!