At 8:35 a.m. on Wednesday, Togo will experience a total eclipse of the sun. I wish I was there.
Schools and businesses will be closed. Newspapers are predicting that bad things will happen. Officials are asking parents to keep their children indoors so their eyes won't be burned. But I predict people won't heed the warnings. They will be in the streets in villages throughout Togo, Benin and Ghana, not to see the eclipse, but to beg the sun to come back out. They will take metal pots and spoons and beat them together to frighten away whatever is causing the darkness. They will beg the sun to return.
I recall sitting outside one night many years ago and looking at the moon with Papa Samuel.
"Did you know men have walked on the moon?" I asked.
"Yuh?" (That's Watchi for for real?) "I heard stories about that," he said. "But I didn't know it was true. "
Another time I tried explaining to Dodzi how it could be dark in Togo and light in America. "This flashlight is the sun and the soccer ball you are holding is the earth."
"Oh, I understand!" she said, looking at the soccer ball in her hands. "The white parts of the ball are light and the black parts show where it is dark."
It is difficult to understand things for which we have no framework. There will be many Kossis and Akossiwas who will not understand the eclipse tomorrow. Many of them have never been 20 miles from home. How can they imagine something 93 million miles away? I want to pray for people in Togo, and India, and Brazil, and Mongolia tomorrow-- many of them will not understand. Many of them will be genuinely afraid.
What a blessing to rest in the hands of the one who hung the sun in the sky, the one who set the earth spinning around it. Let's enjoy the ride.
2 comments:
I couldn't understand what all the excitement was about, but after all was said and done, I'll have to admit that it was pretty cool.
Instead of people banging on metal pots, the streets were virutally deserted this morning. Murphy had bought special glasses at the pharmacy for observing the eclipse, so we had a good view. Still, even as it progressed, it only seemed to be getting slightly dimmer outside. We still wondered what the big deal was. Then, at about 9:15 a.m., it got really dark, like late dusk. At that point, you couldn't see the sun with the special glasses, but we did dare to catch a glimpse with the naked eye and it was cool -- a dark disk surrounded by the glow of the sun. Within what seemed like 2-3 minutes, the sun came back out. It was a cool show. Special thanks to the Producer.
Thanks for the report, Anthony. I've got to say I'm disappointed there was no banging-- that was one of those cool things about culture I learned early on, but never got a chance to see it in action. Does that mean Togo is becoming more westernized? Or that my culture teacher was pulling my leg?
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