Life Back Home

Generally speaking, coming back home after 3 months in "paradise" is hard. The 4" of snow we had last night and the week and a half we went through without sunshine didn't help.

But weather aside, I'm left wondering if it was all a dream. I'm frustrated with myself for not being able to remember so many details of my time there - and am thankful for the journaling I did to record the memories, thoughts, challenges, and moments of learning that I was able to. It's a different world from the one I live in every day, and it seemed to vanish so quickly.

I think it would be much harder for me if I had spent more than just a couple of weeks in a rural area (like Coffee Bay). In Durban - as in so many cities around the world, I imagine - there's no escaping "Brangelina," Prada, Top 40 music, and Atkins.

The difference in Durban is that all of this is happening right alongside extreme poverty.

Which leads me to what is likely the biggest lesson I learned while there - my understanding of "poverty" has drastically changed.

In Minneapolis living in poverty means a family's income is less than about $15,000/year. Maybe you're on welfare or live in public housing. You eat canned food for dinner, buy clothes from Goodwill, and take the bus. Let me clarify that I am not arguing this to be a comfortable or fair lifestyle, I just mean to say that basic human needs are being met.

Poverty in Durban means that you have no income. Nothing. Your home is a shack made from plywood and corrugated metal in an informal settlement where you're crowded next to your neighbors. You have no water, no electricity, no toilet. You're malnourished. A quarter of everyone you know is dying from AIDS. Children are orphaned. Crime is abundant.

How do we deal with that? Not only how do we deal with that - but how do we deal with that from over here, across an ocean?

The bus route I took to the Y in the morning went down a road where a group of street kids slept every night. They would all be lying there on the sidewalk, huddled together - in the shadows of the buildings, the sun just starting to get hot. And I saw them every day - a constant reminder that life is really miserable for a lot of people in the world, a constant reminder that I must do something to help.

In thinking about all of this now I do feel overwhelmed - incredibly overwhelmed. And I remember a quote from way back at the beginning of this blog:

"From outside Africa it's difficult to see the trees for the forest. The raging fire looks too widespread to quench. The key is to look beyond the forest to the individual trees. If one person at a time is educated or cared for, an entire continent can be saved."
-Recah Theodosion


I know I promised it long ago but the 'Best of Durban' list is still a work in progress. Mostly, I made a preliminary list and lost it somewhere in between Durban and home. And, to be honest, it is kind of hard to think about all that is wonderful in Durban when it's snowing in Minneapolis. In April.

Once I get my photos online I will post that link here as well.