You know when you were a kid and you were having problems getting down those last few bites of green peas that your mom is trying to stuff down your throat? And all you remember her saying was "There are starving children in Africa... EAT!" And somehow when she said that you didn't feel anything at all? You just felt sick at the thought of having to eat one more spoonful of dreaded peas? We have all probably experienced something similar, and in the very least we've heard those words. We've maybe had a good laugh after someone said it, and responded with a cocky "Great! Then mail it to them!" You all know what I'm talking about, right?
I am not the most poignant person you'll ever meet, but those words "There are starving children in Africa" are words that have actually always hit home with me in a major way. They are hitting home even harder with me, right to my core in fact, when I read about the famine in Africa right now that has been caused by drought and many other factors such as years of strife and war and instability, and general insensitivity towards that continent's plight. Recently I heard someone self-righteously say "Well excuse me, but don't you think those people would grab a clue and stop having babies??? I mean, what ARE they thinking??"
Africa has always struggled, but these days I am really very cognizant of the situation. Pictures of children that look like skeletons, stories of women who have been raped while living in refugee camps, reports of wide-spread disease and sickness infecting masses of people.... i just can't stand to listen to it anymore! It is breaking my heart!
And on the other hand, I feel so strongly about it that I can't not listen to it. This has always been a subject that has torn my heart out and takes very little to bring tears to my eyes. I am at a loss for words when I think about the devastatingly awful situation that Africans are being forced to live in. Especially right now my heart goes out to Somalians who are crossing the borders into Kenya and Ethiopia in search of food, in search of a place to rest and call home, but instead who are finding refugee camps that have long ago burst at the seams and have stopped receiving food and aid of any kind.
What's more, it absolutely makes me think of what a spoiled, snotty-nosed, obese and whining and complaining continent we live on! I can not believe the dramas we create for ourselves, the "woe-is-me" syndrome that everyone seems to go through almost every quarter of the year! These days all I can do when I read about the starving people in Africa is feel incredibly guilty. And I think to myself how friggin' good we've all got it, and no matter what stage of life we're at, whatever else is happening in our lives, that we have no idea, absolutely NO IDEA, how bad our friends in Africa have it. We lead a sheltered existence, and we have a sheltered mentality. We are so bloody lucky it's sick.
So this evening as we stop in at the grocery store lined with columns of food, on our walk home from our day job that automatically delivers money into our bank accounts every two weeks,, and then slip inside our safe and security-pass-only condos, and hide behind closed doors and eat our dinners on our pretty, shiny white dinner plates with our pretty, shiny silverware (some of us will most likely over-eat our dinners!), and then afterwards, while we slide a pair of comfy fuzzy slippers onto our feet from our closet full of clothes and accessories and linens, and choose from a multitude of high-def channels on our big screen tv's, or surf the extreme high speed internet (which here in Canada is even faster and better than what I was forced to endure when I lived in Spain! Oh! The horror of it!).... let's all stop and think about what's happening over there on the other side of the world. Send some love and some light to those people. And for god's sakes, give thanks for what you've got while you're at it! Remember how fortunate you are. Remember that none of us will ever, no matter how compassionate we are or how much we educate ourselves, understand what it must be like.
And eat a piece of Humble Pie for desert.
Charleen xo
