I awoke this morning thinking of this tribal chief that I met in the Central African Republic. This gentleman was all smiles when, after hours of driving on deeply pot-holed, single-laned dirt roads through the woods, we pulled into his village of Mbartoua-Ngangene. The chief is Muslim. There is one church in this town, the Lutheran Church. The Lutherans have built the school here as well. The only school. In a society that generally discourages the education of women, his daughters are Learning to read and write at the school. The smile on his face told us everything we needed to know. I’m sure he wondered why people would travel an ocean to support them. There is no electricity in this village, and there is no running water. This did not stop them from showing hospitality. They killed the fatted calf for us, and the chief invited us into his own home for a meal and conversation. It was a dear moment.
