Tuesday, August 24, 2010

What do I believe?

I believe in one god. The father, the almighty. Maker of heaven and earth. We may worship him him under different names, using different rituals, and in a way that makes us want to fight each other over who's right. I believe that this God created us all basically good, but with the capability for evil, for choice is that which makes us human. This God knows everything, controls everything, and is everywhere. He is willing to forgive us of all sin if we ask him, because he is the embodiment of love. His concept of sin does not include laws made by man - sex outside of marriage is not evil unless done casually, without long term commitment. God does not discriminate against those who are not Christian. Muslims, buddhists, Sikhs, Jews, taoists, Daoists, and all others - if you truly seek the divine, you are part of his kingdom.

God does not tolerate those who place money above him. He is not with corrupt politicians, businessmen, soldiers, and laymen. He is not with those who look down on others, be it based on race, orientation, religion, or otherwise. He is not with those who have the ability to do good but refuse to do so.

God is with those who love mankind and everyone in it. He champions the cause of the terminally ill, the desperately poor, the refugee, the orphan, the widow, and the migrant worker. He stands up for those without food, water, shelter, clothing, or money. He exists inside those who need hope.

God rewards those who give and expect nothing in return. He understands and remits the cause of the suicidal. He is the force that rights an abusive relationship. Ultimately, he is the voice inside you that guides you everyday.

Praise him. Ask of him. Thank him.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Three cups of tea

Ever since I can remember, I have loved money. I like looking at it, touching it, earning it, giving it away and getting it as a gift, spending it both frugally and sometimes wastefully. It's like having a love affair with an inanimate object!

So what's the problem? We're in a country where it isn't that hard to make dough. From any age, those determined to make a salary can do it! The problem? There are people in this world who work twelve to sixteen hours a day, without access to 'essentials' like; clean, running, water, food, electricity, medicine, and transportation besides your own feet. We hear from every which direction that these people exist, that they need help, and that we can solve their problems with a small donation of money. That in of itself is wrong - "Give us the money and that guilty feeling in your stomach will go away." It's like feeding an addiction - every time you give, there's someone else out there who needs more.

I recently discovered an element of African spirituality that us Americans need but do not appreciate. "I am because we are" - Ubuntu. That means that your well-being is tied up in the well-being of others. Of your community.

My community exists all around the world. It's in Maryland, it's in Texas, it's in Alaska, It's in New Jersey, and It's in New York. More recently, that community has extended to Blantyre, Malawi, thanks to a mission trip I returned from less than a week ago. The kids I met there had magnitudes less money than I handled every week, yet they were friendlier and more polite than any New Yorker I've ever met! They were not cliqueish, they did not complain about problems with their life, and they were happy simply to be with us Azungu (white people).

My biggest fear was that once I left Malawi I'd forget these people and go back to my life as a vapid, soulless, self-absorbed teenager. Thankfully, I have not forgotten, thanks to a book called "Three cups of tea" that echoes principles I learned on the mission trip somewhere halfway around the world - In Pakistan.

It told me that you can't just send money, you can't just build a building, you can't just give people food and water or even dig WELLS and expect the problems to leave. If you truly want to make a difference in the world, you follow up with the community you made contact with, following their news and doing everything you can to make sure THEY can support THEMSELVES.

What does that look like for me right now? On the mission trip, I made friends with a kid my age named Grivis who lived in the big city of Blantyre. (other kids as well, but this is the big story) He'd moved out of his home village a few years ago, but he wanted to go back and construct a hydroelectric dam to provide power for that village - by HAND. It'd cost him some $2,000 dollars, about five years savings, to build it himself and attach a power grid to it, NOW - he didn't have anywhere near that kind of money or even the know-how to build the thing, but he was going to school at the country's only university, the University of Malawi, to take classes NOT related to electrical engineering (there were no seats available for those courses) just to borrow and read the books to make his project happen.

I'm going to do everything in my power to help him on this, but it's a deeper thing to crack than you'd first think - he needs to come up with tuition for University, transport to and from his hometown, labor to help him build the dam, and afterwards? He'll need to build his own house and start his own family within that village, hopefully becoming a leader in the process.

I'm not going to do all of this for him, no. I'm going back to Malawi soon. When I do, I'm going to watch and help the dam get built and I'll stay afterwards to ensure the health of the community. Do I expect to be easy? no. Do i expect it do be done on a timetable schedule? no, this is Africa we're talking about here. Do I expect it to make a difference in the community I've become a part of? Yes, because I'm there to STAY.

In your everyday life, never forget that you are what your community is. Be good to your family and they'll reciprocate. Be good to your boyfriend or girlfriend and they'll do the same. Take INTEREST in the hopes and aspirations of your friends, help them if you can, and they'll remember you when it's your time to shine. More importantly, when they have crisis and struggle, even in the everyday rat race, TAKE NOTICE. Support them emotionally and make sure they know someone out there ALWAYS has their back - they'll do the same for you. And at the end of the next stage in your lives, you'll look back on your success and remember how the community helped you.

America, it's time to stop being individuals. It's time to stop insisting on doing it YOUR way, by YOUR rules, on your own time, because of your nature. That was for a time when the fastest way to communicate was snail mail that took days or weeks to send and recieve - NOW is the time to take advantage of the channels of communication, the ease of transportation, and the massive amounts of wealth and resources that we wield. In Malawi, the exchange rate from US dollar to Kwatcha is 1 to 150; it costs 50 Kwatcha to buy a bottle of Coke. A fisherman's weekly salwary is 1000 Kwatcha, or six dollars, yet HE will often give more than half of his salary to support his extended family, or to take care of his aging parents who live WITH him rather than in exile at some nursing home. His brother, often a farmer, will give him some of his crops when fishing doesn't work out so well even if HE'S got little food to spare.

THAT is community. When one has surplus of nothing, yet gives out of what they have. When someone's busy but they carry their neighbor's infant on their back and watch out for them. When brothers and sisters teach their younger siblings right from wrong and look out for them when their parents work in the fields - using their own minds and bodies to entertain them when something so simple as a soccer ball or a jump rope doesn't exist.

That kind of community doesn't exist here. It exists in a world where children beg Azungu for plastic water bottles; their only meat eaten on Christmas and national holidays. The people in that world are smarter than us because of one fundamental thing: they know what their community is.

Do you?