This country has captured my heart. I love this
country in all its beauty. I see it every day reflected in the countryside, the
lush green rolling hills and rice paddies with people knee deep in the water
harvesting their crop. Reflected in the houses with the vibrant coloured
exterior walls. Reflected in the cobblestone streets with zebu cattle being
herded down the street and row after row of market stalls. The pineapples for
sale jostling for attention next to hubcaps and bed frames, second hand shoes
hanging on strings, and huge mounds of rice and beans, tumbling out past the
footpath right onto the street. I never
get tired looking at the faces of the people. There is so much beauty within,
all I have to do is smile and they never fail to smile back.
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| Pineapple Stall with a view |
This country has broken my heart. This developing
nation is really hurting. I see it when I walk outside the house and see the
children playing in the smelly refuse and picking through it to find food to
fill their bellies. I see it when I peek over the wall and realise our
neighbours live in dirt floor shacks made of scraps of lumber and tin, with no
sanitation or running water. I see it
when I see boys sleeping on the footpath in broad daylight, cuddled together for
warmth, because it’s safer to sleep during the day than at night.
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| Children sleeping on the pavement |
Today I just
feel frustrated. Yes, I get to do cool things and take awesome photos and put
them on Facebook of chameleons that look like their praying and posing for
pictures against a mound of pineapples after going fruit and vege shopping in
the early morning light. That stuff is cool but some days I just wish I could
go back… Back to my former Aussie life
where I could watch TV in English, eat food that wasn’t rice and count down the
days to the Easter Holidays like everyone else.
What makes it
difficult is that I am wide awake… awake to the poverty, awake to the things
that could be changed in this country so that that it could thrive and become
more developed. Watching TV even if the Oscars were on doesn’t end the poverty,
in fact one of the reasons that I get so frustrated is that gap between rich
and poor gets wider as the TVs get bigger and bigger.
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| Biggest TV ever... in a shop about 200 metres from the sleeping boys |
What makes it worse
is when I hear people say. “Well I worked
hard for this TV I deserve it…” So my question is “do children on the street dressed in dirty clothes who sleep on the
pavement in broad daylight deserve that too?”
It frustrates me that the children begging on
the street now boldly come up to me to ask for biscuits because I gave some to
their friends… I’m not frustrated because they are asking- I give gladly. I’m
frustrated because a packet of biscuits doesn’t
change much- it might help for 5 minutes
to ease the gnawing pain in the child’s belly but it will take lasting long
term change to end poverty for these children and their families here. Families
do actually live on less than one dollar a day here in Africa- it isn’t just a
slogan used in a World Vision campaign it’s the truth.
.
Anybody that thinks being a missionary is
romantic is dead wrong. Being a missionary is darn hard work interlaced with
glimpses of His Majesty…
The
truth is I have culture shock on a daily basis. I miss being able to drink water straight from
the tap, I miss proper milkshakes made from fresh milk and served in a paper
cup. I even miss McDonalds even though I hardly ate there because at least in
Australia I had the option of buying a double cheeseburger every now and then.I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else
though.
In fact I’m seriously thinking of coming
home at some point this year for the sole purpose of earning a heap of money
doing supply teaching and raising a heap of awareness to pour it all back into
this country. To dream up wholistic solutions so that these children and their
families are enriched body, mind, soul and spirit.
There is only
one of me but if pint sized pimpled teenager called David could slay a giant
twice the size of him then anything is possible.
It’s not
romantic it’s better than that its life changing…
Thank you so much for opening my eyes to the plight of others and sharing your frustration so I to can try to understand. You are doing great things. While a biscuit may only cure the 5 minutes of hunger of a child, the kindness and non-judgement seen by them in your eyes will be held in their hearts and their memories.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much I appreciate your encouragement
ReplyDelete