Reflections

I was taking my dog for a walk this afternoon and it reminded me of the Poisonwood Bible because they are living in nature-closer to nature than we could know. It was so serene. I loved it so much. It was quiet, and the sun felt amazing. However, after I dropped her back off at my house, I left for a couple of hours, and in that time she rolled around in a pile of dung-that's right. My curfew is normally 10:00 on school nights, and I got a call from my mom at about 9:15 telling me "get home now and bathe your dog." Angrily I grumbled...but eventually gave in. I came home and the dog REEKED! I'm not sure if that's how it's spelled, but she smelled TERRIBLE. So, giving her a bath, I was reminded of the people in the Congo. They don't have soap like we do here. I mean, I bathed my dog with Suave shampoo, and they don't even have that for themselves. We take so many things for granted here, it's embarrassing. Nobody realizes that there is another world out there: one that we choose not to see. We are exposed to things on the news, or maybe a commercial about some orphan way-the-heck away from here. But that doesn't mean that they don't exist. I talk about this a lot, but I went to the slums of Chihuahua, Mexico last summer, and it was scary. I mean, it's the place where they warn us about dropping to the ground if we hear guns-and even in the middle of the day! The people there lived in tiny, one-room houses with poor roofs. The houses they lived in were probably the size of my bedroom, no lie. And that's not even close to what it's really like in some places. Even though it was the slums, there are still worse places-and that's extremely hard for me to wrap my mind around.

Poisonwood Bible Title Meaning???

Since the first day that we recieved our poisonwood bible books i was always curious as to why it was called such, and what the significance of Poisonwood was. Early on in the book it makes a brief appearance when Nathan is afflicted with horrible rashes, when he does not heed the warnings of Mama Tataba. Since that section Poisonwood has been absent, at least until Judges. On pg 276 on Adah's section she say "TATA JESUS IS BANGALA! declares the reverend every Sunday at the end of his sermon. More and more, mistrusting his interpreters, he tries to speak in kikongo." and further on she states "Bangala means something precious and dear. But the way he pronounces it, it means the Poisonwood Tree. Praise the Lord, Hallelujah, my friends! for Jesus will make you itch like nobody's business." To me these quotes epitomize just how foolheaded and ignorant Nathan is, meaning that he has not taken the time to understand the natives and their culture, he is unaware that a word in kikongo can have different meanings depending on the way that it is said. And as far as the natives are concerned Nathan is preaching the GOSPEL OF POISONWOOD(hence why the book is called the Poisonwood Bible.) Anyways these are just my opinions on the meaning of the title, and i would like to know what other people's thoughts were?

looking at all angles..

Today's class discussion on how we all view things differently really got me thinking how things are viewed in the pwb along with today's society. In the pwb Nathan views the Congo Villagers from their outer appearance not their inner heart and all the things they do to benefit him. This is soooo much like today's society there are those certain people who view people by their appearance because it has become such a center of society. we need to look at all angles of everyone and everything to get the full picture and true meaning. have a great spring break everyone! :))