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No Holds Barred: Thanksgiving in Zimbabwe
Seldom do I use the word 'life-transforming" because very few things in life are. True change is usually something that requires diligence, effort and often monotonous repetition. It doesn't come cheaply. But what I did this past Thanksgiving changed my perception of the world forever. As a volunteer with my friend Glen Megill's organization, Rock of Africa (a Christian relief effort), I travelled to one of the poorest villages in Zimbabwe, one of the world's poorest countries. Joining me was my daughter Chana, my friend, the writer and radio host Dennis Prager, his son Aaron and about seven Christian volunteers. We staged an outreach program, preparing a Thanksgiving feast for 500 villagers, to whom we then distributed mosquito nets and Bibles. Most importantly, we gave them seed that can produce shima, the corn flour that is the staple diet for most of Africa and which, for $25 a year, can literally keep a family alive. The feast consisted of 10 slaughtered goats, giant pots of cooked cabbage and shima. It would be difficult to convey the appreciation of the villagers for one good, hot, meaty meal. The people we met were gentle, beautiful and utterly poor. The village consisted of nothing but mud huts, the chief's homestead included. These people have virtually nothing. They live in tiny pen-sized huts, and one which we visited housed a hospitable but infirm man in his late 80s who reeked of urine. His 12-year-old grandson lives with him and takes care of him; his parents died of AIDS. The only luxury in the tiny dwelling was one mosquito net for the grandfather. Indeed, of the hundreds who came to our feast, only a few were young mothers and fathers; the vast majority had already been lost to AIDS. We saw scores of young children strapped to their grandmothers' backs in the African way. An entire generation has been wiped out by this killer disease, which is still met by denial in Africa. Most of the people we spoke to who lost relatives to AIDS told us that "they got sicker and thinner." They knew exactly what caused the ailment but would never pronounce it. Strict moral codes govern life in southern Africa, so a sexually-transmitted disease is rarely acknowledged. BUT AMID these serious challenges, the people exhibit unbelievable warmth. Are they happier than we in the West? I can't say. I have never believed in the supposedly ennobling effect of poverty, and I will not glamorize a life with so little. But what is undeniable is that they seemed far more satisfied, grateful and content than us. We in the West who are fortunate to be able to translate so much of our potential into something professionally and personally fulfilling are more often than not plagued by insatiable material hunger, rarely finding the inner peace which they seemed to possess. Balance at the link. Posted by: Besoeker 2009-12-02 |
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