REVIEW #33: SHOOT ME FIRST

Shoot Me First
By Grant Lock
Broad Continent Publishing, 2011

WHAT IS A FARMER FROM KIMBA DOING IN PAKISTAN AND AFGHANISTAN?

One ordinary day on their farm in Kimba on the Eyre Peninsula, Janna Lock poses this question: ‘Grant, do you think there could be more to life than sitting in a tractor and going round and round a paddock until you meet yourself in the middle?’ This question was the catalyst for an adventure they were completely unprepared for, but they proved themselves equal to all the challenges they faced in their new life serving God for twenty-four years in Pakistan and later Afghanistan. They had to face all the usual difficulties such as language barriers, separation from their children during the school terms, coping with the frustrations of a foreign administration, isolation, haggling in the markets, offers of marriage for their teenage daughters and countless other cultural shocks that are both physically and emotionally exhausting, all while struggling to understand their neighbours and make themselves understood. It is the cross-cultural aspect of their lives that is so fascinating and which Grant writes about so engagingly. He created an amusing way of recounting some of the more bizarre conversations such as his  neighbour’s plan for Grant’s daughters to marry his sons. Since Angela was only thirteen at the time and her sister, Maria, only eleven, Grant did remarkably well to conduct the conversation in a civil manner, without betraying his disgust. He recounts both the conversation and his thoughts in the following way:

My mouth: ‘Akhter Jhi, I am truly honoured that you should make this suggestion.’

My brain: ‘What! You’d have to be joking mate.

Akhter: ‘And then my sons could live with your daughters in Australia.’

More stunned silence.

My mouth: ‘That’s very interesting, Akhter Jji … er, very interesting.’

My brain: ‘Now I get it, Akhter. This is the big forward plan to marry yours sons into the West, then get a sponsorship and end up there yourself. Very Clever.’

And so it goes on. With the following observation to finish the chapter:

The tea’s gone cold, and so has our ‘friendship.’ As I clip-clop home, I wonder what Angela and Maria will say when I tell them about their first marriage proposal.

And then there are the toilets! When they visited Mithi (where they ended up serving for some time) Janna learnt that, not only do you ‘get microwaved because there’s no roof,’ but you have to ‘squat on a couple of blocks and everything goes on the floor.’ Moreover, when she was about to leave, it was ‘all being scraped into the street through a hole in the wall.’ Quite and experience, and the reason Janna insisted she would only move their if Grant built her a decent toilet! They also learnt that the people of Mithi were so poor that they were reduced to using human dung for cooking, instead of cow dung, which their friend assured them makes ‘the cow stuff smell like incense.’ These kinds of details really open your eyes to just how flexible and open one needs to be living in a different culture. My own experience of living in Bangkok for three years and having to take my own toilet paper to school and use a squat toilet pales into insignificance with the adaptations they had to make, especially the extreme heat and lack of household facilities.

Hearing about the political situations in both countries was also eye-opening. The constant battles between different groups and the changing loyalties and the role of Russia and America, as these power struggles played out helped me understand that I could never understand what is going on in either of these countries. I was left feeling the same thing after reading Stan Grant’s brilliant book, With the Falling of the Dusk. (See my review of this book, if you are interested.) Just to give you an example of why I have thrown my hands in the air and said, ‘Too hard!’ here is just one passage demonstrating the complexity.

‘In the big picture, Pakistan fears encirclement by India. They fear a pro-India Afghanistan would mean two borders to watch. They claim that Afghanistan is part of their backyard, and it’s Islamic, not Hindu, so India should keep out. But India has had good relationships with Afghanistan, particularly the northern non-Pashtuns. And India knows that if the Taliban and al-Qaeda succeed, they
will promote more Islamic terrorism in disputed Kashmir and in the rest of India. Access to regional trade, minerals and gas also come into the equation. If the northern non-Pashtuns end up with greater control in Afghanistan, India would be in a happy position.’

And there is so much more! Grant makes the point that the West might be better to see their role more as serving the people in these countries, rather than winning them over. He says that in forty-five years of serving the people of Afghanistan, the International Assistance Mission (IAM) ‘has worked under the rule of King Zahir Shah, under the communists, the mujahidin, the Taliban and the government of President Karzai. All have been aware that IAM was not a protagonist in any of the conflicts, but was there serving whoever sought help, irrespective of caste, political, religious or tribal affiliation.’

All in all, I found the book to be riveting. I simply couldn’t put it down. On reflection, I would like to have read more about their prayer life and the way God worked in them and the opportunities they had to share the gospel, but their lives were inspiring and gave a very realistic portrayal of what it was like to serve overseas for so long and the difficulties in settling back into the Australian cultural milieux. I experienced that myself after a year in Italy and three years in Thailand, so I can only imagine how hard it must have been for them after such a different and prolonged experience of living in a very different land. One of the points Grant made was that, whatever happens in the future, whether the Taliban return or who exerts power, he feels confident that there presence gave many of the people they met the experience of living with hope and I would add a tremendous model of self-sacrifice. i’ll let you discover for yourself the context of the title, ‘Shoot Me First.’ It makes a dramatic introduction to the book and foreshadows the strength of character these two cockies from South Aussie would show in their unwavering commitment to the Pakistani and Afghan people they served.