12:00pm 9.9.09 Lodwar
There was a New York Times article that just came out discussing the emergency state the Nation of Kenya is facing. The reporter had just spent a week here investigating a lot of what we have been seeing in Lodwar these past two weeks. The issues of Drought, poverty, corruption and death are all listed in this article and have been witnessed first hand by our team. But we continue to see God working in all these peoples hearts a they deal with the extremes of poverty and drought. The thing that I question is how this faith in God is separate from the financial contributions of these religious groups. JR had told us of a group of people in the interior who only support the faith that brings them the resources to live. They feel there is no love if there is no food given. That was such a strong moment for me here in Lodwar, where everywhere we go we are meeting new people who want us to help them. We meet them and get to know them and then they become comfortable with us and proceed to ask us to sponsor their children, pay for their book publishing and generally give them money. Sometimes this progression takes days of meetings and sometimes the relationship is quick in growth, within 10 minutes in come cases. It made me resentful and angry at first but I slowly came to the realization that I might do the same thing if I was in their shoes. Here come the white men who have helped various people in our community, maybe today will be my lucky day. If we think about similarity in our lives in America I only have to think of scenarios close to my profession of acting. If I don't have the money to make a picture I negotiate with producers to lend me the money. In America its business and savvy negotiating. Big hotel/casinos go up in Vegas every year by selling financiers their profit ideas and investment goals. In Kenya, lives aren't profitable, their expenses. In Kenya it's called begging and handouts and it's negatively looked down upon. Why? We are all trying to survive and the religious organizations have been the source of life here in these small villages. Why shouldn't they ask for support. Why is there shame involved?
The drought is not the only reason for lack of water in this area. The institution of dams in the Northern areas of Kenya, Southern Ethiopia, has caused an immense water shortage the for the Rift Valley. These dams are being built for irrigation and power in the north but are constructed with out any thought of the havoc it wreaks in this region. When we visited the lake yesterday the pastors wives told us that the plans for Ethiopia to build their dam on the River Omo will result in this lake slowly disappearing. They pray to God and hope He will stop it from happening. I just listen in shock and despair. Its hard to argue that God may not do anything about it because you are arguing against their coping mechanisms. If they don't have their extreme unwavering faith, what are they left with?
We were discussing this last night, the idea that the faith they possess is a bit overzealous and impossible to a lot of us. They put in Gods hand everything that happens to them here. Whether its the drought the sickness or getting work each day. They pray and hope for the best while the worst slaps them int he face everyday. But what else is there when they have such an extreme incredulous lack of power over their lives? They depend on outside forces to give them what they need because all they know resides in a Land that has been depleted of its resources. What do they do? What are our words of advice having never been faced with even a day of what these people put up with?
That's what been so frustrating with the Solis Foundation. Although this people are survivors in the worst possible conditions, their imaginations can not fathom some of the business ideas that could be of some benefit to them. So they continue to produce ideas for selling the same old thing in a town full of replicate stories who are going out of business, for lack of demand. We have all been affected by this in ways some of us still don't understand and haven't felt. But the question looms of what to do with that knowledge. What is our next step, knowing that we are only on person, one small group, one small church? How doe we move forward, and know that whatever we do is a small piece of sand in a termite hill compared to the problems facing not only this town but the majority of the countries in Africa?
We move forward, we press on, we look forward to drinking and dancing in Nairobi. We live each day with this reminder or we forget it eventually in the hustle and bustle of our life in LA. I hope for the former and pray for God to provide me with the way, the heart and the courage to persist. I awake with a new found goal each day to bring relief one step at a time to the people I have grown to love and cherish. I hope for my basket enterprise., my jewelry exporting and whatever else my feeble soul can turn into fortune for these people. I've seen it happen, I know there's a way, I just don't understand how to get there yet.
How do I return home to a life that surrounds me with excess? I move ahead with my plans of massage, of acting, of grabbing money to make a living so I can create a business that makes a living for other people. I will be committed to this idea to this new way of intentionality in my life. I will exercise everyday, eat whatever amount keeps me surviving and no more, I will drink in limited amounts and I will commit my life to t organized aid to the friends that need me. In both LA and in Africa. God calls each of us to provide a better life for someone else and that will be my focus.
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