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A review by liralen
Chameleon Days: An American Boyhood in Ethiopia by Tim Bascom
3.0
This is a book about growing up in Ethiopia, but not really: far more than that it is about growing up in a missionary family in Ethiopia, which is a different beast altogether.
Very young when he moved there, the author lived in a mission house, went to an American-run boarding school, and had almost no interaction with native Ethiopians who were not connected to the mission or the school. I don’t fault Bascom for this — again, he was young — but it must have made for an upbringing both exotic and sheltered.
One thing I will credit the author for is managing to impart a great deal of information about the political climate of the time — much of which I am sure he did not understand until long after the events of this book — without losing the point of view. Some of their time in Ethiopia was characterised by political tension and change, which made their time there rather more complex than it might have been.
Bascom’s parents went, as he tells it, out of a sense of duty and love and sacrifice. Bascom clearly admires them for it. It does not sound like an easy job, but it is tremendously interesting to see them struggle with so badly wanting to make a difference — and believing that this was where help was most needed — while at the same time wondering if they weren’t better missionaries at home.
Very young when he moved there, the author lived in a mission house, went to an American-run boarding school, and had almost no interaction with native Ethiopians who were not connected to the mission or the school. I don’t fault Bascom for this — again, he was young — but it must have made for an upbringing both exotic and sheltered.
One thing I will credit the author for is managing to impart a great deal of information about the political climate of the time — much of which I am sure he did not understand until long after the events of this book — without losing the point of view. Some of their time in Ethiopia was characterised by political tension and change, which made their time there rather more complex than it might have been.
Bascom’s parents went, as he tells it, out of a sense of duty and love and sacrifice. Bascom clearly admires them for it. It does not sound like an easy job, but it is tremendously interesting to see them struggle with so badly wanting to make a difference — and believing that this was where help was most needed — while at the same time wondering if they weren’t better missionaries at home.