What is Normal in Poverty
This morning I woke up, back to the normal routine of life. Though normal is not normal any longer. I reached into my pants pocket to find a Dum Dum wrapper, you know, those little yummy lollipops. This took my mind on a whirlwind back to the day and time when I put that lollipop wrapper into my pocket. I began to ponder what normal meant to 80+ kids that we spent the day with on Saturday, November 13. You can read the events of that day at Saturday – November 13.
We asked about normal life when we talked to our Compassion sponsor child’s mother. She is a young mom, age 22, with a 3 year old child. She’s been married for five years. We talked about our kids, shared photos and talked about normal life. Our conversation turned from normal to stark-reality when we asked the mother about her life history. She dropped out of school at grade 5, currently works as a day laborer (doing various jobs such as cooking, cleaning, building roads, etc…), lives in about a 12 x 8 room with 3 people, that we could see, pays around $8 dollars a month for rent and struggles with a hot-tempered husband. This is a little of what normal look likes for their family.
We made our way to our other sponsored child’s home. He grabs our hand and takes us through narrow dirt paths through a small village, spotted with urine and goat droppings. The village was surrounded with muds homes and tin rooms. People sit outside: some working; women carrying large amounts of grass, small tree branches or teff (a local wheat used to make injera an Ethiopian bread).
Some use mules to do this type of work. We arrive at his house to be greeted by his welcoming mother of 7 children. She’s preparing coffee for us as well as popcorn and roasted chick peas. We enjoy our conversation with her through translation. She enjoys seeing a photo of herself. We often forget that many of them do not see a reflection of themselves whether in a mirror or photo so this is quite a treat. She is a proud mother and works hard to care for her children.
She lives in about a 12 x 20 mud home. The oldest son lives in a separate ‘house’ – about the size 7 x 6 room. They have goats and a few chickens just outside their doorway. I’m not quite sure where their bathroom is. Maybe a latrine is built somewhere. I’ve recently learned that in extreme poverty, in some parts of Africa, flying toilets are used. A flying toilet is the name for the use of plastic bags for defecation, which are then thrown into ditches, on the roadside, or simply as far away as possible. This is simply shocking to me, but is hard reality for some.
It’s somewhat hard to imagine or to get a sense of what poverty looks like unless you experience it first-hand. Let me try a visual. Many of us have gone camping. Now imagine if you will, having to live your entire life in the some exact campground. Place that campground in a rural area, sharing it with hundreds of other people. People of all walks of life from young to old. You live with very little resources. Without running water. With cattle roaming. When raining seasons come it produces thick mucky mud to wade through, while other seasons produce hot dry dusty days. Without a bed. Without electricity. Without a convenient store or access to over-the-counter medication for the seasonal flu, cold, headaches, day-to-day wounds. Without the means to fill a clean glass of water. With very little opportunity to make a decent wage. This…every day…for the rest of your life.
This is normal life for some in our world. Where mothers do not look into their babies eyes in fear that they might lose another child. Where some don’t even give a name to a child and just call them ‘the little escapee’ until they think they really will survive. Where HIV takes the lives of many through years of suffering. Where a mosquito bite can kill because many cannot afford the cost to treat Malaria ($0.08 to $6.00 US dollars). This is their normal.
In the midst of normal life there is hope. There is prayer. There is God. There is contentedness. “I have learned to be content in any and every circumstance, whether well fed or hungry…” – Philippians 4:12. Will you pray with us? Will you be an answer to prayer and help those who live in poverty?