wfn.org | Young journalists interview Krabill

[Beth Hawn]

Microsoft Mail v3.0 (MAPI 1.0 Transport) IPM.Microsoft Mail.Note
To:  'Worldwide Faith News'
Date: 1998-08-12 14:47
Priority: 3
Message ID: F9CA999FBA31D211AAB0006008075ABF
Conversation ID: Young journalists interview Krabill 

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August 12, 1998
Mennonite Board of Missions
Beth Hawn
219-294-7523
<News@MBM.org>

Young journalists interview Krabill for Mennonite Free Press

Cambridge, Ont. (MBM) - "You're representatives for the largest Mennonite   

paper in the world, the Mennonite Free Press," John McCabe-Juhnke said.
"You have a hot story - find out what the job of a missionary is like."

His audience wasn't exactly made up of hard-boiled reporters, cigars in
mouth and cameras in hand. McCabe-Juhnke, professor of theater and
communication at Bethel College in Newton, Kans., addressed the children
of Mennonite Board of Missions/Commission on Overseas Mission workers
at the Overseas Missions Seminar in Cambridge.

You wouldn't have known it to look at them, but this was their first big   
story - and these pint-sized reporters took their jobs seriously. Chewing on
pencils and swinging their legs, they proceeded to interview Matthew
Krabill, who spent 12 years as a missionary kid in the Ivory Coast.   
Krabill just graduated from Bethany Christian High School in Elkhart, Ind., and   
will spend the next ten months as an MBM intern in Benin.

The rookie reporters paid close attention to press-conference protocol.
"In true reporter form," McCabe-Juhnke said, "you must raise your hands   
to s peak." When called upon by Krabill, they asked him a variety of questions   
 - all intended to break their story wide open.

Questions ranged from topics such as Krabill's favorite food (atti‚k‚   
with sauce graine) to his favorite sport (soccer). The members of the press   
were curious about the living conditions in the Ivory Coast ("how did you live   
with no running water?") and Krabill's sense of his own African heritage   
("usually people from Africa are Black - why aren't you?").

Krabill shared with the press several anecdotes of life on the mission   
field - especially those concerning cross-cultural adaptation.

"I grew up in Ivory Coast with no one speaking English. Every Black   
person I knew spoke French or some ethnic language," Krabill said. "When we got   
back to the States, I was in a Kroger store with my father, and I saw an   
African-American speaking English. I yelled, "Daddy, there's a Black person
speaking English!' I had never seen anything like that before."

Krabill discussed the difficulties he had with moving between the Ivory
Coast and Elkhart, Ind. After having lived in Africa for the first eight   
years of his life, Krabill's family moved back to the United States for a few   
years.

"We went to 100 churches talking about Africa. I was tired of that,"   
Krabill said. "I wanted to get back to the place I called home - instead of
about it, I just wanted to be there."

A topic that warranted much discussion and many questions was that of
corporal punishment in the African public schools that Krabill attended.
"The teacher had a whip," he said. "I got hit a few times, and I was   
pretty scared of teachers after that." Krabill, however, did not get hit as many   
times as the other students did.

The interview period went smoothly, although some members of the press
couldn't always remember their questions when called on and a few were
more interested in the dolls they had just made than in scooping any
other Mennonite publications.

After Krabill left, however, the well-ordered press conference turned
into your typical elementary-school playroom. A few reporters did   
actually start to write the story.

Several of the reporters, however, turned immediately to more interesting   
activities such as charades. "It felt a little bit like school," said   
one, "But I liked hearing about things that were similar to where we live."

According to McCabe-Juhnke, this sense of identification was the
primary reason for creating the Mennonite Free Press. "Mostly the   
exercise was to give them a reason to get information - to get them to identify   
their own feelings about being missionary kids with someone who's had a lot
 of experience," he said. "That was more the objective than actually
publishing it."

Although the young journalists won't see their name in print just yet,   
the activity did make an impression on some of them. One said, "Maybe I'll be a   
reporter when I grow up."

* * *

Rachel Lewis