A Story For Robyn Hanson

This story, the kind of thing that happens a lot around here, is in response to a comment that Robyn made to a prior blog post.

One morning whilst in the north, I occasioned to find myself taking a 30 mile ride into the bush on the back of a flatbed truck laden with cargo and locals who had been shopping in town. We sat or stood packed between crates, jugs of cooking oil, chickens, and a very valuable solar panel.

My traveling companions had found it funny to highlight to the locals how different I was, my being the first white person they had ridden in the back of a truck with. 'He does not eat with his hands', 'Without lotion his skin will turn bright red in the sun', 'He has never taken a wife', and the final, most shocking one, 'He does not know the lord and does not believe in god'. The Ugandans in the truck gasped and looked at me like a devil worshipper. The friendly woman beside me looked at me with pity. The children hid their chickens from my gaze.

Satisfied that she had alienated me, my companion started singing a gospel song and many of the travelers joined in. I, of course, didn't know the words. After a while the song was finished and my companion decided to twist the knife; "Adams, surely you know ONE gospel song. Why don't you sing it with us?"

In that moment of clarity I started singing 'I Still Haven't Found What I Am Looking For' by U2. Though I didn't know all the versus, and I mixed up the ones I did, I knew enough to lead everyone, church choir style, through the song. We sped through the savannah, under fluffy clouds and the bright equitorial sun, barely interrupted by the huge bumps in the road, whole-heartedly blasting the words of Bono to the countryside.

When we finished, the woman beside me, who had been so cold only moments earlier, turned beaming and said "Adams, I cannot believe that you do not know de lawd, your spirit, it is so whole! I can tell"!

-A-