I was 16 years old, and had just arrived in the USA. John asked me my favorite sport. I replied, “football.” When I learned that he also loved “football,” we launched into an animated conversation that became quite confusing. Only when I remembered that the word “football” in the USA was used for a sport…

A few nights ago a visiting pastor from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (let’s call him Rev. Basua) came to my room in Bangui, CAR where I’ve been visiting, to tell me a story about witchcraft and to show me his accompanying home-made video. The story concerned his brother-in-law (let’s call him Nzuzi), a…