Irony in Africa

Today, at the well in one of the villages there were a bunch of men working to fix the well.

(This is part of the Water& Sanitation program... we teach them how to fix the wells so they know what to do next time it breaks and we're no longer around.) They had this make-shift radio which was picking up some sort of signal. All of a sudden, in English, I hear "This is Focus on the Family with Dr. Dobson". I thought that was pretty neat that here we are in the middle of nowhere, a group of people had a mish-mash of wires that gave them a radio, and here's Focus on the Family sounding loud and clear.

But what made this ironic was what the radio program was about. Dr. Dobson always talks about family/marriage/parenting type issues and the issue he was going to talk about today on this radio was the issue many parents have trying to get their kids to eat certain foods. I thought to myself "how ironic that this is playing here in Malawi where most of the kids are malnourished even though the harvest has just passed". These people are experiencing the complete opposite of this issue Dr. Dobson was about to discuss... they're not fighting with their kids to eat food, they're fighting to get food to eat.

Another twist to this topic is that last night, Kristina and I went to eat dinner with one of the EI staff members and his family. He's been working for EI for a long long time. He's a local Malawian and told us that when he grew up (even though they appear to be 'well off' now), he's still very thankful for any food that's in front of him. He said 'any food to eat is a blessing and I'm just so thankful for it'. Then we get to the dinner table and one of his sons is missing. We ask where he is and they tell us that they're having trouble getting him to eat! He's only 6 years old and he's been saying stuff like "I wish I was Canadian so I can eat whatever I want to eat" and "Mommy, I want my skin to be white like a Canadian, can Jesus make my skin white?" I was shocked to hear this.

I guess this is our sinful ways of coveting what other people have and not being thankful for what we DO have. And it happens even here in Malawi, one of the world's poorest countries. Those who don't have food are thankful yet those who do have food want different food!

Hearing Dr. Dobson mention the issue of parents fighting with their kids to eat while standing next to kids who are hungry with noticeable malnourished stomachs and also hearing a kid say something like 'I wish I was Canadian so that I could...' has definitely been a big kick in the shins and a pull at the heart strings.