Hunger in Kenya

Tonight I was cleaning my room when I came across World Vision's summer magazine. The cover story was about hunger in Kenya, so of course I opened it and started reading the article. Before I even got to the article though, I came across a story about a Texas church running an ad in the paper apologizing to the community. The headline proclaimed "We were wrong." Under the headline it stated, "We live in the land of plenty, denying ourselves nothing, while ignoring our neighbors who actually have nothing. We sat on the sidelines doing nothing while AIDS ravaged Africa." So true! I'd have to say that I don't exactly ignore our neighbors who actually have nothing, but it's so easy to get caught up in "me" and not share my plenty with others. When questioned why the church ran an ad in the paper, the pastor said it was because the people that they have hurt are all outside the church so it wouldn't make sense to just acknowledge this injustice among their church community. This also got me thinking...are we so busy trying to reach and please everyone in our church community that we're missing the bigger picture? What about the global community? What have we done for them lately?

OK next page...in the "why i love being a child sponsor" section a woman makes the comment "I know that had my sponsored child's family seen our circumstances, no matter how bleak they appeared to us sometimes, it would have seemed to them a life of privilege." In case you don't know, I'm a child sponsor through World Vision (hence, the magazine laying on my bedroom floor...oh and my roommate, Erin, works for WV...the headquarters are in the city where I live so I actually know quite a few people that work there) Anyway, I digress...I sponsor a lil guy in Ethiopia named Abdo. I could hear me making that same statement. Let's be real...I live a life of privilege! This really helps put things in perspective...

I could go on and on and on...but I do have to plug the WV Experience AIDS National Tour. It came to Puyallup last year, and I went to it. I HIGHLY recommend it. It turns out that the kid I was (you're assigned a kid's story at the beginning of the tour) is really from Uganda. How interesting that almost exactly a year later I'm going on mission to Uganda. For more details go to: www.worldvisionexperience.org

HaHa so I'm finally getting to the hunger part...to better understand the global food crisis a writer and photographer spend 5 days with a family in Kenya eating only what they eat. The first day they are there the family wants to kill a goat in honor of their visitors (i.e. so there is more to eat). They finally convinced the family that they really just want to eat what the family typically eats. After some debate, one of the men agrees but says that they will have to take something with them when they leave to remember them by. These people hardly have anything and they want to give these 2 Americans a gift?! Why am I so selfish sometimes when I have more than enough? I probably wouldn't even notice if some of my stuff was gone. It reminds me of a quote that I keep on my vanity mirror by Mother Teresa, "The less we have, the more we give. Seems absurd but it's the logic of love." Guess some of us (probably most of us) are still figuring out what love is!

Kari, the writer, comments, "It occurs to me that when you don't have food, you always think about getting food. When you have plenty, you dream up ways to make it taste better." and/or you don't think anything of it because you have it and/or you want more because it tastes so good! Ever happen to you? Now that I've called it to your attention you're thinking about it and you know it's true! Haha so if you know me at all you may be thinking, "You're always thinking about food and you have food" which is true to an extent but really I'm not...I just enjoy food and I tend to joke about how much I love it! Sorry I don't know if that makes sense, but it made sense in my head...

Get this...turns out that the family in this article is Catholic! Small world...speaking of the global church! Hmmm...they dance when they bring up the collection to the altar...hmmm African liturgical dancers?!? ;) (that was for the staff at St. Vincents)

I'm not going to explain the whole article, but it is amazing how much hunger affects other areas of your life: sleep, school, thinking, dreaming, physical activity, health, etc. I believe you can check out the whole article and even watch a video at www.worldvision.org/magazine. The title of the article is "Five Days of Hunger."

Y'know I constantly had to remind myself throughout that article that guilt and remorse aren't going to feed hungry people. Being more aware of the nearly 1 billion hungry people in this world, trying our best not to waste food, and sharing our resources with people who truly are in need are steps we can take to battle hunger. I could feel something stirring inside of me as I read this article. It made me even more excited for my trip to Uganda; although, I think this experience will stretch me more than I can imagine...

So my room is still a mess, my sheets aren't dry, and it's past my bedtime; yet I'm still living a life of privilege. I feel like sharing some of what I read and my thoughts are just two little things I did today to raise awareness of this very real global issue.