Notes from: Monday March 26, 2012

As things happened, my water break with Paul at his roast pork eatery just round the plantain plants from the childrens’ home turned out to be quite a counseling session.  I have been going there every few hours for the last four days, as I‘ve been legitimately working hard, and have needed hydration and refreshment.  So I get my orange Fanta and water from Paul.  Paul is a large man in his 60’s with a grey beard and a compelling simple way about him.  He’s got a noticeably nice set of teeth, mind you Africans tend to have great teeth on the whole. 

He’s been cooking roast pork on his outdoor cooking stove since the time of Adam.  Actually, he referenced ‘Adam’ several times in our discussion.  Today, after finding out my age and being unmarried and without kids it was more than he could handle.  It was as if I had just confounded him with the most complex mindwrenching riddle that left him betwixt.  He stood firmly on the belief that the Creator has told us to multiply and produce.  Essentially he was encouraging me in the clearest of terms to ‘get with the program’.  I think, in his Ugandan accent and wording that is slightly off from how we say things, he was concerned for my wellbeing and cited a potential lack of wisdom on my part.  He wasn’t being judgmental at all and really seemed worried for me. 

I gave some haphazard attempt at defending myself suggesting that the world doesn’t really need more people right now.  This amazed Paul.  He correctly noted that the majority of the earth is covered by water and if God wanted it he could squeeze that water off and ‘poof’ there’d be more land in no time.  He went on to shred my lame attempt at convincing him to say that God has given us the program (reproduction) and if he wanted us to stop producing he would tell us.  Actually, I remember being struck at the time with the clarity of the logic here.  But Paul wasn’t quite finished with the whole overpopulation thing and he said that there are many ways in which God could solve the issue. 

He noted that God could grow the earth bigger thus creating more space.  He then quipped that Canada has vast amount of land that we don’t even use!  I said that this was true but most of it was uninhabitable.  Paul wouldn’t have any of it.  He seemed disappointed in my comment as if westerners always have excuses.  He then waddled down a path in his argument that mostly confused me.  He was eager to point out that if he has seven children and I was his brother (with not so much as a wife) and we were given a plot of land to live on -he giggled in amusement then  drove home the point-  it would follow that I’d hardly get any of the land and that he’d get the majority of it!  I agreed with him and said that if this were the case it wouldn’t bother me.  I could tell he was really mystified and it bothered him that it wouldn’t bother me.  It was a kind of up is down and down is up conversation.  Anyway he encouraged me to get a wife at least and to get things started.  As I was leaving I told him I’d have to give his counsel some serious consideration.  He was hopeful that should I return next year I’d be equipped with a wife and a small child.  I told him if that happened we name him ‘Paul’.  This idea fortified him to go and roast some more pork.