Sloshing along a thin path in dress shoes and loafers, the dozen seminary students and I were taking a break from a day-long silent prayer retreat to appreciate the beauty, order, and creativity in God's creation together.  Instead of the typical "what a cool little purple flower" kind of comments you'd expect on a spring hike through a nature preserve, the following conversations that remind me this is, in fact, Africa:
 
-You know this green stripey worm?  They're prickly, but I'm not afraid of them.  Some people eat them.
 
-Mmm, this is a good spot to look for mushrooms.  They're so expensive in stores, but I remember finding them all the time as a child.  They're just like good meat. (From a Swazi).
 
-This one has a fruit in the fall that we eat in the fall in the Congo.
 
-This yellow-flowered plant is endangered now.  It fetches a very high price in Zambia.  Many traditional healers claim it can cure HIV.
 
-This plant you can feed to chickens when the have a cough, or mix with water and spead on a rash. (From a South African).
 
-What do you call those nice houses over there.  Suburbs?  In my country we call them "high cost."  There are no poor people in that kind of house.  (From a Zambian)
 
-In our country we used to have many nice forests.  Many of them were burned during the war to search for rebels. Now our church is helping teach people to plant trees again.  (From a Burundian).
 
-When I was little my father died, and I remember spending a long time out in nature like this, hiding just by myself.  At first I would pretend to talk to my father.  Then when I learned that God was my father, nature was where I learned to pray before anyone taught me.  (From a Rwandan who has not been home since the genocide).