Greed, slothfulness and poverty

I am at a loss as to how to describe the last few days of mum's visit. I am so moved by our experience that my head is still buzzing.

Mum, Janelle and I visited the families of a number of sponsor children who are supported by several Brisbane schools and families. The sponsorship money pays the children's school fees, which includes books, uniforms, and meals during school time. The sponsors were so excited for me to be visiting their kids that they loaded me up with the most wonderful presents to deliver to the children, and we set off for a day of meeting and greeting.

Despite living in extreme poverty, with barely enough money to put food on the table, these children are the most happy, well behaved, delightful little munchkins you could ever hope to meet. They LOVE school, and work so so so hard to better their education. I fell in love with the families of every single child we visited, and walked away from each home with a broken heart that I could not be of more help to them. I would think:

"Moses' family must leave their home - a one room shack- to a smaller place because they cannot afford the rent...but the annual rent probably isn't more than a few hundred dollars for the whole year, if that! I should just offer to pay their rent, considering that I have been known to spend that amount on a [insert expletive here] splurge in Brisbane in just one night!"

But then we would arrive at the next house, where Hemedi's mother lives (also in a one room shack) with her own 4 children, plus 4 of her sibling's children- none of whom can afford to go to school, and I think:

"Why don't I just sponsor the eldest boy to go to school so that they have more than one child getting an education???"

Seven families later, and I've mentally spent my whole salary...and I realise that while you can make a difference to ONE family, there are so so so so so many special people who are fighting for their survival, and it is impossible to help them all.

But then I put mum on the plane yesterday morning and then went to the lodge in my lunch break so that I could have some quiet time to process everything we'd seen. I was lying on my sun bed in my bikini like a fat lazy toad with a cappuccino (the cost of which could probably feed one of those families for a week), and I thought to myself.... "You greedy, disgusting wanka [pardon my French]. Your whole life is full of so much luxury, and waste, and slothfulness-even here in Africa!!!" It is such an overwhelming feeling of helplessness. Sometime's it's true what they say "ignorance is bliss"!

In saying that, our visit was not in vain. I had the privilege of meeting my sponsor child for the first time, and let me tell you - she is even cuter in real life than in the photos I have seen!!! She is five years old and is just the chirpiest little angel. And she's a CHILD GENIUS (she takes after her Aussie mum! ;-)). I'm going back next week to play with her :-) We were also able spend time with the families and children so that we can return to Australia armed with information about the sponsorships, to fortify the commitment of all of the Australian sponsors who have been such tremendous support to these children for the past 4 years.