When i'm out there i'm thinking of everything to write..then i get into this little box and it disappears,like the 21 cows that got electricuted by a single lightening bolt under a tree, zim getting more lightening i am told than any other country in Africa. i am sure that is intriguing to you, yes?
Today a meeting with the five high density (slum) district head coordinators...foot soldiers each one of them, discussing at first what they'd accomplished this month, or hadn't...workshops, outreach, networking, visits to bedridden patients,relatives, funerals, hope, laughter, joy, hardships, despair,it is all the same, one huge smorgazborg of life at its fullest..these people work tirelessly voluntarily, when asked why..one man, part time actor, full time when he is not working with ICA satallite hanger upper...lost four brothers, he is the fifth, another woman the same with three sisters...everyone has someone in their family, husband, wife, neice,next door neighbour, rampant, pendemic..they can't not do this work, her face shines with light, that that she has a chance to learn how to prevent this carnage, teach people, assist, doing everything she can to try to stop it, get a handle on it...unstoppable passion, devotion.
Huge. it is their life here...fully...non stop, never ending...impossible for me to comprehend, even being here. Moving from one family tragedy to the next, with such humanity, humbleness, joy, laughter, i'm not kidding...openness you don't see so often at home...living so close the the edge..
Leaving next week..just when i get settled, used to how things run here, how they work, get to know and trust a few people well, moving on..
it's a bit clearer now...going from one country to the next, seeing,living, comparing,hopefully adding to each situation, giving to the next what i learned from the last...All the work through the years tied up in being here..drawing from every experience, things just come, falling into place..insights, ideas, knowing a bit, just a bit, learning patience, sitting back and observing, the experience of someone else leading, taking the back seat, learning way more than when i am the driver...
Such insight, such human experience, such knowledge. so much hope, care, prayer. With so little. Pure Survival. Where to get sadza, rice, potatoes for tonight's dinner? Not where, (there's lots of food around for those who can pay) but how? Everyday things get worse. Sanctions; no foreign money this year, for Anti-retroviral Aids meds. 45,000 people on it; 600,000 not.
Gawd it's depressing..and what is the answer...??
Gerald's father told me this morning that black ants in a row travelling along on the cement of a patio are looking for a place to go down before rainy season; if they dont they will die. Down is under the earth, where they have been storing food for months, like squirrels, or chipmunks which they dont have here...hardly any dogs. too costly to feed. One cat. 298 chicks born last week and growing everyday in the garage where i am living, the doors tightly closed keeping it hot and unbearably smelly; ready for chow by December...lots of cows, goats, sheep outside town. Old people bent in two hacking at the fields with ancient tools tossing corn seed into rainy season, back breaking, hunkering down. Women in skirts. Me too.Swinging along. Tomorrow, another workshop on HOme Care...then on to the village and caves....
have a great weekend...I think it's Thanksgiving...happy bird. back Monday...