I found myself having trouble trusting Ugandans knowledge on certain things. (not trusting them as a person, just their knowledge on certain things)It was not like I consciously was thinking, "These people are stupid, I can not trust them." It was more like, I noticed after a few minutes that I was kind of disregarding what they were saying.
This has only really happened a few times, but I still would like to get rid of it. For instance:
I had a wound on my my knee that seemed to be infected. Esther is one of the Ugandan volunteer mothers at the baby home who has training as a nurse. (she is not a RN, but she is somewhere in the process of that) One day, a Western nurse, along with some other western women, came to visit the baby home and saw my knee. She, and the other women, started telling me some things I should do for it. I listened to them as if they were doctors themselves. Registering every word. And then I promptly followed their advice.
Later that day, Esther saw my knee and started telling me something I should do also. I noticed that, though I heard what she was saying, I was pretty much throwing it aside. I had already gotten my advice from a qualified Western nurse, who speaks my same language, so it was very easy to understand exactly what she was telling me to do. I don't need any Ugandan remedies from a somewhat qualified Ugandan. That is not what I was consciously thinking, but somewhere in the subconscious I'm pretty sure that is what was happening. A little later, after trying the Westerner's advice and not seeing any immediate results (which was not expected anyways), and after realizing my prejudice, I went back to Esther and asked again what I should do. This time I followed her advice, got the oinment she swears by, put it on my knee, and sure enough--healing occurred. I continued to follow her advice the next few days and my knee was all but healed.
I noticed I did this with other Ugandans that were telling me what to do for my wound. They were basically telling me the same at the Westerner, but I totally put their words in a different category. Now some of that is justified because 1. It is hard to understand their English sometimes, so to follow medical advice that you can not complete understand is a little unnerving and 2. I do think, if given the option of listening to an "expert" or "professional" in a certain area and a person who only has limited knowledge on something, I think most of us would choose the expert (most of the time).
But I do not want to just dismiss what people are saying because I can not COMPLETELY understand them, therefore they sound less smart; or because I simply do not deem them worthy to give advice on a certain subject. I want to hear people out. All people. Weigh their advice. Give it a chance. Try it out.
As I've mentioned in a previous blog, we can not really help that we have prejudices. All of us have them whether we admit it or not. Everyone.
The test comes when we decide 1. to try to be aware of our prejudcies rather them be ignorant and ignore them and 2. what we do with the prejudices once we have recognized them.
I'll be the first to admit i am prejudice about some things. And i'm always discovering another prejudice that disgusts me and brings me to my knees in humility. I will also admit that it is hard not to act on them. They seem so justified.
I simply continue to pray that the Lord will have grace on me so that I may have grace on others and continued to be humbled, and continue to turn from my hurtful human ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment