Sauk Centre — There is a saying that when you really want to be heard....whisper.
Last week I learned if you really want to be heard, you need to be a 6’4” African with a Nigerian accent and a wide grin.
Wherever Linda and I went with our guest Louis Iba, a journalist participating in a study fellowship with the World Press Institute at Macalester College, people wanted to hear what he had to say. Aside from being an imposing figure, Louis had much to say about a land and a life so different from our own.
Iba is part of a group of nine foreign journalists that will spend four months studying our news media, politics and culture. While they will be traveling to New York, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Houston, Detroit and LA, the organizers want them to spend some time on a farm and a weekly newspaper.
"So far, coming to Sauk Centre and visiting a farm family near Alexandria has been the best part of the trip. I feel like home here, people are so generous and the landscape is much like my part of Nigeria," Iba said.
We got an idea of the reality of today’s world when the tenth participant (in the WPI fellowship) had to cancel because his parents were kidnapped by insurgents.
Iba is a Pentecostal Christian living in county that is half Moslem, 10 percent pagan and 40 percent Christian. When the US invaded Iraq fanatic Moslems burned churches and killed 3,000 Christians.
“You never know what is going to happen. When the Moslems get stirred up many innocent people get caught in the middle,” said Iba.
Iba normally reports on the oil and energy industry. Nigeria is an oil rich country yet dictators and corrupt officials stole most of the oil money. Electricity is rationed so many manufacturers use gas engines to generate electricity.
Iba was surprised to learn we aren't like the Americans portrayed in movies. He wanted to write a story on faith in central Minnesota so we attended a Lutheran Bible study, an open house at St. Benedicts Monastery in St. Joseph, talked with an Amish Bishop and attended a Pentecostal prayer meeting.
“I’m so surprised that Americans have so many people in church and that there are so many strong families. This is so different from what we see,” said Iba.
“In America, you have so much freedom that you really don't know how to appreciate,” said Louis to a bunch of my coffee buddies.
“Nigeria has had democracy for only five years. When we vote, we don't really know if the ballots will get to the right place or be stolen by highjackers.
“In some villages, there are more votes cast than people living in the village,” he added.
Iba also noticed “Everything is big in America, big cars, big homes, big malls but most of all I have noticed Americans have such big hearts,” concluded Iba.
