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This evening, November 22, at 7:00 PM ET.

Pineapple Story Commemoration

We did a presentation at Grace Mennonite missions conference in 1991, where Otto was one of the main speakers. Always enjoyed hearing him speak, then, and also in later years when we were involved in the same events. He has a way of expressing the frustrations of the pioneer missionary that makes it really interesting, maybe especially for those who lived through similar events. (Our experiences with stolen pineapples didn't involve the adults so much as the children. I remember one rag-haired rug-muffin who is now a mother of five or six children of her own. I do hope her children are better taught than she was.)

When I was a youth, Otto spoke at my home church, a conservative Mennonite (most similar to Midwest or Mid Atlantic) church. I remember generally being very inspired by his talk and his story-telling ability...there was however, even at that age, some negative pangs regarding how he described the indigenous people. He would routinely refer to this or that chief as the ugliest person he ever saw. "I mean he was ugly." It was played for laughs...but it didn't sit well then with me and still doesn't. Probably he used this to describe tribal practices around piercings, painting, etc but...

Just an aside, but it is interesting that the event host is "Gill Bates" - who I assume is the alter ego of "Bill Gates."

joshuabgood wrote:When I was a youth, Otto spoke at my home church, a conservative Mennonite (most similar to Midwest or Mid Atlantic) church. I remember generally being very inspired by his talk and his story-telling ability...there was however, even at that age, some negative pangs regarding how he described the indigenous people. He would routinely refer to this or that chief as the ugliest person he ever saw. "I mean he was ugly." It was played for laughs...but it didn't sit well then with me and still doesn't. Probably he used this to describe tribal practices around piercings, painting, etc but...

I hadn't remembered that sort of thing, I guess. When we arrived in Brazil for the first time in 85, we spent a couple of days at a Wycliffe mission base before we moved on to the language school. Different missionaries invited us for meals, and we will always remember how shocked we were when one of the older men said "Sometimes I just wanted to shoot the Indians." But years later, we know that that man loved those people perhaps more than any other missionary I know. He said that after having told how the people would have all-night services, and if he went to the outhouse, they would follow him there to be sure he didn't go home & sleep.

Living in a village for months at a time in an open house, and with other houses close enough to hear your neighbor snoring (AND his radio going full blast at 3 or 4 AM) will give most people a different perspective. You have to be able to laugh about it in order to survive all of that. Social practices are not the same, and there is not the same attitude toward privacy that one is accustomed to in Western society. It's not really a matter of "respect", either, although having someone (with a cold) empty their nose or throat on the wall inside your home, or just hold a baby out at arm's length while they wet all over your floor - those things can try the patience.