“Cultural shocks deep in the interior” – Pt. 1 missionary moment

Dispatched from the school of mission into the field for the first time, six of us traveled from Jos for 8 hours north, then far into the forest interior to reach the formerly unreached tribe of the Kamuku. There, the team crossed a river on foot before taking bikes to a mission base. On our arrival, the team was divided and I and my team mate took another bike further over land, crossing another river by canoe, and finally climbing up a mountain.

We met some native brothers who were already evangelized and who introduced us to the community. They seemed to have been informed of our mission and how to handle the matter, because we noticed that soon after they introduced us, these brothers quietly withdrew in order not to give room for us to leave with them and reject the people!

My first culture shock was at the river, where two young girls of about 15 to 17 years old came from bathing to gaze curiously at us. We were embarrassed because they were bare-chested, and while we tried hiding our faces, they appeared surprised at our shyness. After we lived among them for 6 weeks doing ministry, we realized that the young girls were proud to show firm breasts to men, and mostly wear only animal skins tied to the waist. They live in the middle of guinea corn and maize farms, and also farm beans, groundnuts and okras. These we enjoyed much because they were very generous with food to us. Every morning we had nothing less than seven plates of different meals left at our doorstep. They do not speak Hausa very much but Kamukanci; so, we reached out to them in Hausa using one of their people who interpreted voluntarily. We didn’t bother to learn their language seriously because we were only going to spend 6 weeks; nevertheless, we learned the basics.