JUGHEADS
Youth Juggling Company, LLC
5905 Concord Avenue
Edina, MN 55424
jugheads@comcast.net
or 952.926.0896

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October 1999

“An American Juggler in Africa”

With all the start-up hullabaloo last month, I neglected to write about my other exciting trip late last summer--8,000 miles away! From August 4-26, Wendy and I visited Kenya, Tanzania and France. My brother Jim Arneberg and his family are on a team of community development missionaries in the township of Mugumu, Tanzania. The team has spent the past 6 years learning two languages and living among the Kuria people in order to help them become more self-reliant in the wake of years of colonial occupation and Communist rule.

Far from being a sacrificial trip, we were treated by our Arneberg counterparts to guided tours of Nairobi, the Ngorongoro Crater, the Serengeti, and of course, their small village of 5,000 people (which is about a half day’s BUMPY drive from the nearest sizable city). When I juggled at roadside for some Maasi youth (pictured above), they began grabbing my hands, thinking that candy was up for grabs! Once my brother told them (in his fluent Swahili) that I wanted to give them a “show,” they enjoyed it.

I spread the juggling bug to the other members of the missionary team, and even their church choir (made up entirely of life-long Mugumu residents) got into the act! After we exchanged singing and juggling performances, the entire choir rushed the stage for impromptu efforts at the cascade and chin balance. If we ever return to Africa, my specific mission will be to use juggling lessons as a means of further breaking down barriers of culture, status and personality. Although even the richest Kuria people we met earned no more than about $3 a day (Tanzania is the 3rd poorest country in the world), their joy, generosity and kindness reminded me that one’s life does not equal the collective sum of one’s possessions and achievements. It’s about the relationships.