Thou Mayest

My time in Dar is coming to an end and soon I will be off to the mountain. My time spent here has been nice (besides the bed bugs) and I am glad I took the chance to see the city. I think it is best to take full advantage of everything an experience has to offer. That way you get the most out of it. 

Sometimes I say that my blog will be a short one and then I go onto ramble for a number of pages. So, even though I feel this may be a short one it probably won't. I would like to discuss some of the book I just finished because of the points that were brought forward.

Then again, I do have to run into town and buy my bus ticket back to Songea for the 26th of March (planning ahead is vital when traveling in Africa) and so I don't have much time considering the station is across town.

So, the past few days have been relaxing. Two days I spent just reading and resting while Raphael went to his sisters. I have met his family already and so I decided to hang back this time. While relaxing I made sure to buy some Ubuyu. They are these little red candies that are natural and picked from a tree. They are extremely popular in Tanzania. They are also extremely good. 

Enjoying the Indian Ocean

Friday, as scheduled, we went to the beach. A nice time and Ricardo, the Italian that was in Hanga briefly, happened to show up. He came to Dar to fly back to Italy. It was nice seeing him again and being able to hang out. I treated my friends to ice cream afterwards and it was everything and more. Man, I love ice cream and it has been far too long since I have had it!

I have noticed that the Indian Ocean is quite warm. When you run into the Atlantic it will give you a bit of a shock. The Indian Ocean was nice and relaxing yesterday. 

On the way back to the bus stand from the beach I passed by a KFC. You probably wouldn't have guessed this, but KFC is one of the worlds largest fast-food chains. I mention KFC not because of its presence in Tanzania, but because of the state of the building. This KFC I passed was unbelievably nice. In all honesty, it probably was one of the nicest buildings I have seen in Africa. 

Ubuyu, a nice tasty treat

This is worth mentioning because of how out-of-place this is. The majority of Tanzanians live in slums and undeveloped poor housing and right next door is a beautiful KFC. I just don't understand. Why? How? Something in our world needs to change.

Today, I will go to the bus station and order my ticket. The next few days will be spent in town and at Raphael's sisters. Then, on Tuesday he will head home to Songea and Wednesday I will fly to Arusha, Tanzania (nearby Kilimanjaro). 

One thing I do want to discuss in this blog, though, is the book I just finished reading. East of Eden by John Steinbeck was a great book which some of you may have read. For those who have not I won't spoil it, but just mention a few pieces. 

It's sort of difficult to explain, but the book is situated around the Cain and Abel story of the bible. In the story of the two brothers, if you did not know, Cain kills Abel. It is this wrath and sin that brings out a strong message in the book. 

Here is a snip-it from the bible's passage:

And the Lord said unto Cain, "Why art thou wroth? And why is they countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him."

*The Him at the end of the passage is sin. 

This stuff can be a bit confusing so bear with me. In the book the Hebrew word Timshel is used. This word is translated as "thou shalt" which we see in the above passage. We interpret this as a command. However, one of the characters in the book makes the point that it should not be interpreted this way. Instead we should interpret it as "thou mayest." 

I like this. This translation is much better and is what makes me want to write about it. The way I interpret "thou mayest" is that we should not let our sins destroy us. Thou mayest rule over sin. It's our choice that God has allowed us. I find this to be a very cool message. So many of us are constantly trampled down by our past sins and so many of us fear we are no good because of them. However, remember, thou mayest. You may rule over sin. All you have to do is choose to do so. 

As my favorite Christian music artist tobyMac says in one of his songs "it's never too late to get back up again, you may be knocked down but not out forever." "So get up, you gonna shine again." 

You the man, Toby. 

Furthermore, the book brings forth a similar message about perfection and its hold on us. We all want to be perfect (and thanks to Instagram we can filter our images so much that we just about can be). 

However, we aren't. We want it so bad that when we grow up and realize we are not perfect we begin to feel the exact opposite and we crumble. It's this massive disappointment that we too are burdened with sin (and just when we thought we may not be, shucks!) :)

No fear, though, my friends. This idea that we cannot be perfect makes us feel worthless and it should not. Just because you aren't perfect doesn't mean all you are is no good. That's just a goofy idea we all conjure in our head at one point. 

How is this a wind chill?

At one point a character states to the other "and now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good." (page 585) I see this as:

Once we drop this idea of perfection that only brings us to rock bottom upon failing to reach it, once we relinquish ourselves from this burden, we can be what we are meant to be. We can be good.

Rather than jumping from the top (perfection) of the ladder to the bottom (worthless), just take it down a step, homie. The best we can be is good and so go on and be that. 

All of you 25+ year olds have probably had this figured out, however for all of you younger ones - take heed :) 

I guess I wanted to write about the book's messages because I feel they are a good reminder. Also, they are good lessons and I am all about learning as many of those as possible. 

So, that is that. I hope this last part wasn't too confusing. I know it may seem a bit off topic from what I am doing here in Africa, but I thought it may be good to write about. Though, I have no idea how well I communicated it to you. Hopefully well enough. 

I better get going. Enjoy your weekend! Be good! 

Timshel!

Thanks for reading!