From Zambia: Reality.

As week two begins the hardships that we see and experience seem to occur more and more. I feel like I have aged ten years in these past two days with the intense things that have happened. Poverty is something that is so easy to disengage from. When you live in a place like America, it’s very easy to see pictures of starving children in Africa and feel bad, but then very quickly forget about them. It is a simple thing to lose touch with those who are suffering from any types of poverty when you avoid it, or try and stay away from it. I am not saying this is a bad thing, but it is a very dangerous thing because once you become disconnected from people, compassion and the drive to help them can dwindle.

Anyways, what I have come to see here is that poverty, in whatever form it may be in, becomes so much more personal, and so much more heartbreaking when you start forming connections with the people who are suffering. In Zambia the unemployment rate is about 70% and I would guess is even higher than is reported. Abuse is also a serious problem here, and men beating their wives is common. I believe that suffering can do two things to a person, it can either make them feel very compelled to help others who may also be suffering, or it can harden a person. The more I work with the kids at Appleseed the more I care about them, and when poverty has a name and a face it is a lot harder to avoid. It is very possible some of my new little friends are experiencing abuse; I know almost all of them never have enough to eat and many have HIV. My heart aches for Lucky, one of our older orphans who has the saddest eyes I have ever seen, and for Dainuss another orphan who lived with her grandma until this weekend when we found out she was being beaten. Dainuss’s grandma took all her food and Dainuss slept on the streets of Bauleni that night. We found out Monday morning, and have been dealing with this aftermath since. Going to the police station, trying to find the grandma, trying to figure out what to do with Dainuss in the mean time… And this girl? She is about nine years old.

I know this is heavy and hard to read, and my intention is not to make you feel bad or guilty, it is okay to feel sad about it though. I keep reminding myself that the fact that these kids have this amazing school to go is SO good for them, the fact that they know every day they have a safe and loving place to attend where they will get fed and cared for is huge. I am so inspired by the Hoffman’s, they are two teachers from northern California who followed through with their vision of this school, and within a year have helped over 100 children, educating them and showing them that they are so important and cared for.

The thing is, poverty in whatever form it is, is not just in sub Saharan Africa, it’s everywhere, and sometimes it is just easier to see it in one place than another. I encourage you wherever you are to not turn a blind eye to the poverty around you, whether that means stopping to talk to a homeless person and not just pretending like they are part of a sidewalk, or really checking in with a friend that you may think is having a hard time, don’t hold back.

I am going to end with some Mary wisdom. I was really upset this afternoon because we went to the clinic to try and get Dainuss tested for AIDs and they wouldn’t test her because we didn’t have permission from her grandma. The thing is, her grandma had run away because the police were looking for her since she had been beating Dainuss. We explained this to the clinic and they wouldn’t budge, so Dainuss could not get tested, and the chance that she has HIV is high, as she lost both her parents to it. (We are going back to the clinic this week with Ken so I am sure we will sort it out). Anyways, Mary said to me, “sometimes days are worse than others, but you just have to be very strong and courageous to get through it. You have to look beyond.” So that’s what I am trying to do. Be strong enough to keep loving on these kids, and to keep hoping that their futures will be very very bright.

If you feel an inclination to help at all with the school or to sponsor an orphan, please, please do so. The twenty five dollars a month go directly to the orphans to get them clothes and food, there are no bogus administrative fees that the Hoffman’s take from it, and it all goes towards them. Other than that, keeping this school in your good thoughts and prayers would be fantastic. For more about RHOAppleseed.

Emma Shandy, UC Davis undergraduate, Human Development