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Title: Chameleon Days: An American Boyhood in Ethiopia
ISBN: 0618658696
Author:
Tim Bascom
Publicate Date: 2006-06-14
Publish: 2006-06-14
List Price: $12.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $5.49
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $9.60
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Ethiopian history
I have not read this yet, but have heard about it. We are glad to find any product that can help us understand our children's Ethiopian history and share with them as they get older.
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2: Sacrifice
These are the memories of the middle child of a couple who served as missionaries in Ethopia in the 1960's. Tim was 3 years old when he first arrived. The book covers his parents' tours of 5 years, making him 8 years old at the book's end.
It's hard to imagine such an observant 3 year old, but, this is a child living in a highly insecure environment. A perfect metaphor occurs at the start when Tim and his older brother arrive on Ethopian soil and run. Miraculously they stop at the edge of a cliff. They look down and shake from the vision of the drop off. Another missionary sees some baboons and thinks its great fun to scatter them, adding further terror to the boys still standing on the brink.
Just like that missionary who scattered the baboons, other than Mom, who from time to time says "He's too young", the adults seem to be oblivious to the obvious endangerment of the children.
Every time this family got in the Land Rover I choked. Similarly ominous were the times Tim left the campus of his boarding school... a school where the children are shown a secret basement "just in case".
The book gives a good portrait of missionary life and the state of life in these remote outposts at that time. While the author's point is to descibe his life (not elicit sympathy for missiary children), I could not get past the terror these children were exposed to. I would hope that people who contemplate this sort of work, and people who assign them will consider this book. The policy of sending people with such young dependents needs to be reconsidered.
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3: A different impression
Contrary to what other reviewers read in this book, I found it to be less an account of missionary experience (adequately written or not) than an account of being a very small child who was placed in a constant state of insecurity and anxiety by his parents. This was their choice of life, but they subjected their very young children to the consequences of their adult choices. That they placed their children in such constant disruption and uncertainty seems to me to be irresponsible. It seemed to me that they were very neglectful, selfish and even emotionally abusive. Does having a "calling" or a cause give permission to treat one's children the way that these parents did? The focus of this book was on this little boy's impressions of family, of his own emotional state and a child's perspective of some experiences. As a narrow view of political events or of missionary life affected that child's life, they were included, but it is mainly a story of a neglected, lonely and frightened child kept in persistent anxiety about matters of safety, security and family relationships. I don't know how representative this kind of neglect of missionary children is of missionary life in Africa or anywhere else, or whether it was unique to these two parents, but I found myself annoyed with these parents through much of this reading. It was astonishing to remember that for much of the time written about, this little boy was 3-4-5 years old being sent away to boarding school far away from his parents.
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4: Chameleon Days
I was transported through time as I read Tim Bascom's Chameleon Days, and I have been connected to one of my daughters in a new way as she read the book and had a glimpse into an aspect of my personal history that I have rarely shared. Tim Bascom's Bingham Academy experience occurred a few years after my own, but there was little difference. As he described each facet of life at Bingham, I relived my own experiences and shuddered again to think that there was any reason big enough to send small children away to boarding school. Thank you, Tim, for the opportunity to once again "see" the weaver birds' nests at Lake Bishoftu, and praise be to God for His loving care as we were away from our parents at such tender ages.
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5: boyhood from one perspective
The account was very critical of so many aspects of his childhood that one wonders if his memories are quite accurate. Thankfully we've read many more positive accounts of childhood missionary experiences. Not a helpful read at all.
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