For the sixteen years we were in Toledo, and the year before that when we were in Regina, Saskatchewan, we had vehicles with cruise control. Our car here is nice, but it does not have cruise control. I find it a bit difficult to hold it to the speed I want.
Sitting on the right side of the car, driving on the left side of the road, needing to watch not only the other cars, but for the goats, cows, and people who may be in the road occupies a lot of my attention. Sometimes I am not able to watch the speedometer and the signs alongside the road very well. For the most part, I can just go with the flow and not go too far wrong. But today I was caught doing 72 (45) in a 60 (37) zone. The police rarely have cars. They just drop off four policemen at the side of the road. One mans the camera. One steps in the road and stops the offenders. One collects the money, and one is the senior officer who decides who is to be fined and who can be let off with a warning.
I really did not think that I had been speeding, so I asked to see the picture. It was correct. I joked with the cameraman, saying, “You should have stopped the guy in front of me.” You could see with the naked eye that the other guy was going just as fast, but the camera had not gotten a “lock” on his car, so they only caught me.
So, I walked over to the senior officer and the money clerk and admitted “I guess I was going faster than I realized.” The senior officer asked, “How old are you?”
How would you have reacted to that question?
I was rejoicing inside. I knew right away what was coming next. I replied, “Next month I will be 64.”
He smiled back and said, “This will be a warning. Try to be more careful.”
What did my age have to do with it? All over Africa the aged are respected, and I am old by Swazi standards. In Eswatini it is official policy that people over 60 should not have to wait in line. Security guards at government offices are told to take anyone over 60 (there are not that many of them) to the front of the line. When anything is being distributed (like our ID cards a few weeks back) the items are sorted by the age of the recipients and oldest are served first.
Perhaps a few of you may wonder, “What does this have to do with the work?” It is simple.
Books written for use in America emphasize youth. If the book is intended to teach respect for elders, the concept must be introduced almost as a novel idea. Books written for use in Africa must sometimes deal with different issues. But even when it is the same issue being discussed, the issue must often be approached from a different (even an opposite) direction.
I had not totally forgotten the African view of age, but it was not in the forefront of my mind while living in America. It is kept in the forefront of my mind here. That fact will help me write better than I would have if I had tried to write from America.
“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord (Leviticus 19:32, ESV).
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