Great workmanship in Tanzania

We recently returned from two and a half weeks away, mainly in Tanzania. For some of that time we stayed in a village called Mande, near Moshi, on the lower slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro. We were hosted by the parents of a friend of my husband, who couldn't stop telling us how much they liked having our company. They were great hosts, with a welcoming and open attitude and wonderfully hearty Tanzanian home cooking.

The famous Mount Kilimanjaro

It was a very peaceful place compared to busy, traffic-filled Kampala - except when all the village roosters were crowing in canon (which could start as early as 3am!), or when the pigs could see their food being prepared and started making excited and impatient grunting noises, or when some of the village ladies gathered in the front room of the house to sing hymns before studying the Bible together. Not all noise is unwelcome! One day they were singing 'How Great Thou Art' in Swahili and I went and joined in in English, which was wonderful.

As I stood outside one evening looking up at the black night sky with its brilliant stars, the first verse of that hymn (see below) immediately came to mind. God's workmanship is truly magnificent! We saw so much of the variety of creation as we travelled around - flat, dry plains dotted with small villages of mud huts; lush tropical forests with red fertile soil; rocky outcrops scattered over the landscape; looming mountains; rolling hills... We also had the opportunity to take a three-day safari to some of the nearby parks and we saw such a variety of creatures for the first time. Again, this reminded us of the grandeur of what God made with a word and to which he gave life and breath and everything.

One of many brilliantly coloured lizards we saw in Dodoma.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder

Consider all the works thy hand hath made;

I see the stars, I hear the might thunder,

Thy power throughout the universe displayed:

Then sings my soul, my Saviour Lord, to Thee:

How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

Then sings my soul, my Saviour Lord, to Thee:

How great Thou art, how great Thou art!

Of thunderstorms and instantiation

The wet season has arrived in Kampala, and we can expect to have a thunderstorm at least once during most days. The other morning there was an almighty one that woke us up around 6.30am and, as you do when half asleep, we started talking about meteorology and climatic expectations in the different places where we have lived.

Image from typicalugandan.tumblr.com

When thunderstorms happen daily and the rain lasts maybe half an hour and then the weather is clear again for most of the day, thunderstorms are not very newsworthy. You hardly hear anyone talking about 'the thunderstorm early this morning' because that's no different from the day before when there was one in the afternoon, and the day before that, and the day before that... When they occur only every so often, as in Sydney, it's much more noteworthy and may even make the news, and much of the conversation of casual encounters refers to the event - 'did you hear the thunderstorm this morning?', 'well, the rain was so heavy at our place that our guttering was overflowing!', etc.

It reminded me of Halliday's illustration of the difference between a language system and an instance (the 'cline of instantiation'), using the analogy of climate and weather (Halliday 1992: see also Halliday & Matthiessen 2004:26-27). Describing language from an instance perspective is like describing the day's weather: well, it was clear in the morning, then it clouded over and there was a thunderstorm and it rained for about half an hour, and then it cleared up again. This would be a fair description of the weather in Kampala on most of the days this past week. It's a specific description of a particular instance that you experience.

Describing language from a system perspective, on the other hand, is like describing the climate of a geographical area: it's a view of what the tendencies are over a much longer period, when you take each instance into account. For Kampala, there is not a great deal of difference in practice between what you experience on a given day, and what the probabilities are across a given year. The average maximum throughout the year is between 24 and 27 degrees C, with reasonably high humidity, and high annual rainfall (mainly concentrated in March, April and May, and then October and November). This climatic 'system' can also be described even more generally as a 'tropical wet and dry climate'.
The relationship between the instance and the system gives an instance its 'value' for those observing it. Hence, the 'value' of a storm in Kampala is different from the value of a storm in Sydney, and therefore the 'newsworthiness' of a thunderstorm is different for people in each place.

It's not as if thunderstorms here have no impact on everyday life, though. The main 'life impact' is that rain causes even greater havoc on the roads, worsens potholes, and makes it very unadvisable to try walking along any roads or going by boda-boda. So class might be cancelled if the teacher can't get to uni, all because of a systemically predictable thunderstorm!

Halliday, M. A. K. (1992). The notion of context in language education. In Le, T. & McCausland, M. (eds), Interaction and development: Proceedings of the international conference, Vietnam, 30 March - 1 April 1992. University of Tasmania: Language Education.
Halliday, M. A. K. & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold.

Humans and animals

I've been saying in other blog posts that humans are created in God's image (Genesis 1:26-27) and are communicative and relational. But we can also observe communication and relationship in some, if not all, animal species. The Genesis account makes it clear that animals are not created in God's image. So what is the difference between the kind of communication and relationships that humans and animals have? What is it about human communication and relationships that is special and particularly reflects our status as God's image-bearers?

I think it's love. When I think about what we see as relationships between animals, they are really utilitarian, rather than characterised by love. Animals enter into relationships with other animals mainly for procreation (only for very few is this an exclusive relationship) and for cooperation related to food sourcing etc. But the procreating kind of relationship is driven by hormones and instinct rather than love. While hormones and instincts are also involved in human relationships, humans are also able to override their hormones and instincts when necessary for the sake of another person. As far as I know, animals do not have the option of exercising self-control for the sake of another. As far as I know, they do not make choices which sacrifice their own desires for the sake of another, to put the other first. To do that would seem to go against the 'survival of the fittest' principle.

Humans' ability to have loving relationships that display conscious, deliberate self-sacrifice seems to me to be a direct reflection of God's relational character. God's deep love is supremely demonstrated in the way God the Father sent his only Son to die as a sacrifice for the sake of those he loved (see John 3:16 and 1 John 4:9-10), and the way God the Son willingly sacrificed himself for the glory and honour of his Father, because he loved his Father and wanted to obey him (see Luke 22:41-42).

A new year, a new name

After a long silence on my blog, I feel I'm returning having emerged from a chrysalis in which I've undergone some significant changes. Not so much to my form (I'm far from being a butterfly!) but to many of the circumstances of my life.

I got married almost three weeks ago, so now I have a new name (Mrs/Dr Claire Urbach), a new home and neighbourhood, a new routine, new responsibilities and joys as a wife, and I'll soon start a new semester of teaching while continuing the ministry training I began last semester.

We had a lovely time away on our honeymoon and stayed in some gorgeous spots along the north coast of New South Wales - the sunset photo below was taken from the balcony of our riverfront apartment at Nambucca Heads. If only we could have stayed there longer than one night!

 We were very excited to be able to get a close-up view of koalas in the wild at Port Stephens - not just one koala, but a koala with a baby on its back, descending a tree, walking across the ground, and climbing up another tree! Very cute. I wanted to upload a video here but it didn't seem to work, unfortunately.

 There were also some awesome goannas which we were fortunate to spot - this large one (a lace monitor, I think) at Rocky Creek Dam in the Byron Bay hinterland...

 

 ...and this one up a tree at the top of Mt Yarahappini in the Nambucca Valley region.

Previously my Dutch husband has been (jokingly) convinced that all famous Australian wildlife (kangaroos, etc) do not really exist and if you do see one it'll be either at a zoo or wildlife park, or in the distance in the wild, and is therefore just a person wearing a suit. But I think these sightings of koalas and goannas were sufficient evidence for him at least for the existence of those creatures. The jury is still out on kangaroos, though, until we see one that is not in a wildlife park or dead on the side of the road!