Reflections on Barcott's It Happened on the Way to War, Prologue and Part I, #1.
Reading this book reminded me of conversations with my son, Huck. This young man, Rye Barcott, is serving in the Marines while at the same time running a NGO in Kenya. My son, Huck, is in the Navy, going to Medical School and running a startup web-based software company while being married and having a new son. Barcott learned Swahili so he go to Kenya. My son tried to learn Farsi and Arabic before he went to Afghanistan and brought back a translator. Both have fierce love of the military and patriotism, while being aware of all their negatives.
Barcott went with his family to Africa in high school and realized he wanted to go back later, including doing research to "give back." His mother encouraged his learning Swahili, because "research could be seen as being simply extractive" and "Learning a language was a sign of genuine commitment." (20) His language knowledge serves him well on his first visit to Nairobi where some local "hardcores" (7) are threatening, until he speaks to them in Swahili and Sheng, a mixture of Swahili, gangsta rap and local languages, which disarms them and brings him respect. This story reinforces my current desire to learn to speak Spanish well. Doing so is a way to show respect, both to the vibrant Spanish-speaking Presbyterian community, Nuevas Fronteras, and to family members from George's side of the family. Why hasn't this thought occurred to me and other Americans before. I find his word choice of "extractive" so meaningful. We who possess affluence, white privilege and education can so easily objective others and use them for our own benefit or entertainment. Making the effort to enter their culture on its own terms by learning the language seems a first step of respect.
Another powerful passage concerned Barcott's receiving advice from another young man who studied abroad as an apprentice to unique door carvers in Zanzibar Island in Tanzania. The advice was to be flexible and persistent in contacting people. "Reach out to a bunch of people and eventually a few, maybe five percent, will give a damn. That's enough, though. When they respond, you ca follow up and start pulling it together." I need to keep this in mind in any novel pursuits that need others' backing. This could be included in preaching to a church engaged in outreach and/or transformation.
Barcott writes about falling through the ice in a pond as a young boy (27-28) and coming close to dying. He returns to the spot and has an experience of light and God, and realizes how close he came to dying. He then goes through a period where he has a premonition of dying young, by age 30, but sees this as freeing and leads to an intense life. I wonder how many young soldiers and suicide bombers both have any such mindsets as he describes.
Barcott, Rye. It happened on the way to war: a marine's path to peace. New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2010. Print.
