We Pray For Strength: A District Officer’s Prayer

We sojourned through the land and roamed its streets,

Ate its fruits, married its women and made families

We pitched our tent in their safest rock

We partook of its rituals, claimed them as ours

We even made laws and laid rules of our own

We appointed ourselves judges and lawyers

Though travelers, we claimed the land

We made ourselves exploiters-in-chief of the land resources

Drank from its wellsprings: till we could drink no more.

Drunk on its oil and saturated with its cocoa,

We journeyed through the land, conquering as we went

Taking with us indelible experiences

We lived in the land, loved the land and Indeed, the land loved us

We lived in the land as though it was home

Forgetting that we were but travelers from one end of the ocean to the other

But! Nothing lasts forever, soon it was time to go

Time had suddenly developed wings and eloped

Taking with it, all sense of time and urgency

We had forgotten our mission and sat to the feast the land offered

Now, it’s time to leave….

For the other side where no one has ever journeyed

Not knowing what we may face, we pray...

We pray for strength for the journey

For strength to subdue the land of our destination

Even with our protruding bellies and weary eyes...

We pray for strength