Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Broad Brush Strokes...

Back from Rwanda, back on-line, back to blogging. I'm including several posts which I wrote over the last four days and I'll indicate when they were actually written. Hope it won't be too confusing.

Written on 22 July:
Here we are in the Nairobi Airport, all checked in for our flight to Kigali. Time ahead to just relax...sit...read...write...process. No rushing...time & space to breathe. A lovely cappuchino, a clean bathroom...such small "luxuries" seem huge in this country of startling contrasts...modernity smack up against the primitive...
  • Maasai herdsmen driving their cattle down up-scale suburban streets in search of green grass for grazing...
  • herds of goats grazing along high-speed highways...
  • women clad in traditional khangas bearing babies on their backs or burdens on their heads alongside women in business suits and high heels, talking on their cell phones...
  • cars, SUVs, matatus, and buses creating traffic patterns which make Western hairs stand on end, intermingled with pedestrians, people on bicycles and motorbikes, and men pulling heavily-laden carts by hand to deliver products to their slum communities...
  • beautiful, modern, fully-stocked shopping centers, surrounded by small outdoor stands where people peddle vegetables, fruits, used shoes and clothing, charcoal, paraffin, and other essentials to eke out their small living...
  • luxury restaurants rivaling America's finest, where waiters bring heated towels for diners to wash up before eating and tables are set with starched linens, fine china, and sparkling crystal, while not far away women cook ugali (corn meal pudding) on open fires for the family's one meal of the day, often eaten from the pot with less-than-clean fingers.
Perhaps such contrasts exist everywhere, even in America, but somehow they have not seemed as startling to me at home- because I have been accustomed to them and am less likely to SEE them? I know food pantries are stretched to the breaking point in every U.S. city but we have food pantries! And do we have 10% of our national population facing starvation in the foreseeable future? (I do hope...trust...believe, though, that this summer's trip will make me more sensitive to those in need in my own community and less likely to make comparisons between the poor here and there.) Just as our governments and political systems cannot really be put side-by-side, our ways of living are in many ways so disparate that comparison seems ludicrous (like comparing apples and oranges). And Kenya has had self-rule for less than 50 years, while we Americans are among the world's "teen-agers", with more than 225 years under our belts.

I would just hope and pray that we can do a better job as role-models, sharing our best with the developing world rather than exporting our worst...we, who have given the world the electric light and the wonder of flight can certainly contribute more than fast food and genetically-modified seeds and product-advertising T-shirts. And surely we can step out of our paternalistic, overbearing stance of "the U.S. knows best" long enough to learn from and appreciate the Kenyan focus on family and community, their amazing art and music, their resiliency and determination and near-mysterious ability to find joy in the midst of hardship. After all, UBUNTU! I am because you are...we are all in this life enterprise together. This is one world, one planet, and we are ONE!

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