Thursday February 17, 2011
2011 A-Dollar-A-Day-ChallengeI woke up this morning to the sound of rain on the tin roof. This is probably one of my favorite sounds and I wanted to cuddle up in my blanket and sleep for hours. Then it hit me. That precious commodity falling from the sky could be my next bath water. If I catch enough of it, I may not need to walk to the stream for water today. As soon as I finished these thoughts, the rain stopped. It amazes me the shift of thinking that occurs when you have close to nothing. In my western world this falling water is the source of my enjoyment and in my third world it is the source of my survival. As my feet hit the floor this morning it was as though they had adjusted to the hard cracked earth below. Maybe it was because they too are dried and cracked and rough. The overwhelming pain and bruising has turned to tough and calloused feet ready to accept the challenges the day might bring. As my feet have now embraced this third world lifestyle, so have I. The first 3 days of this challenge I focused a lot on what I did not have… the HAVE NOTS… if you will. But last night as my body and mind were weary and tired something unexpected happened. I was reminded of the scripture, I think it’s 2 Corinthians 12:9 that says, my power is made perfect in your weakness. It reminded me that God does have a purpose for everyone… even the poor. As a woman living in the third-world I may not have shoes, food, or a Bible but I, like every other human being have the ability to focus on what I do have. Nothing can separate me from the love of God… nothing can keep me from sharing that love with others. I can always focus on the HAVES. It’s only when the HAVE NOTS are held more closely than the HAVES that you lose hope. That’s what happened to me on day 3. I had lost hope and I was broken. I had focused so much on what I did not have and I allowed those things to completely surround me. The source of hope seemed so far off in the distance that I could no longer access it. In my exhaustion and weakness, and by the grace of God through last night’s devotion with the girls, the Lord taught me that our feelings should never be as strong as our faith. My feeling of hopelessness in what I HAVE NOT could be replaced by my faith in God for what I HAVE. So today I move forward with a fresh perspective, choosing to hold closely what I Have and slowly by slowly pushing what I HAVE NOT far into the distance until I can no longer access it. This shift in thought has given me hope to press on. After breakfast this morning I went to work sewing buttons onto the new school uniforms. This work is very much like what a woman might do to earn $1 a day. My work quickly became monotonous and the attempt to keep my mind off my hunger by keeping busy failed. Soon enough though lunchtime rolled around and the ugali was super hot and moist today. I took a huge hunk and ate it more quickly than usual. My stomach filled quickly with the super starchy substance but my craving for something with taste lingered. After lunch we headed to the corner with our 10 shilling each daily allowance and prayed for something good like ripe mangos. As soon as my feet hit the road I noticed far less pain. I don’t know if it was the calluses, or if I had just become accustomed to the pain, but it did not hurt near as bad as the previous days. Maybe it was my shift in attitude from concentrating on the HAVE NOTS and focusing on the HAVES. All I know is that we walked faster to the corner. When we arrived we got some stares and questions about why we were not wearing shoes. Our answer is always that we can’t afford them and we are living on $1 a day. They usually laugh and one lady even offered us her shoes. It’s nearly impossible for them to believe a mzungu doesn’t have money or shoes. Today at the market we were overjoyed to find ripe bananas 4 for 10 shillings, and 2 mangos for 10 shillings. A banana has never tasted so good. We were discussing our 6 pieces of fruit and how excited we were to get so much for so little. But the reality is those 6 pieces of fruit cost us a ¼ of a days salary. To me it was worth every cent (shilling) but in the western world we would never consider spending ¼ of a day’s wage on a handful of fruit. It just really put things in perspective. After returning to Tumaini I worked on sewing buttons until dusk. My fingers tired from sewing and my mind tired from processing this adventure I took a brief moment to rest as the sun disappeared below the horizon. I’ve watched the sun set from this very spot many times. Whether I’m worth a million dollars or if I don’t have a cent to my name, the sun goes down just the same… putting a beautiful exclamation point on this God given day. The gift of today is priceless and the beautiful sunset was a reminder that in God’s eyes we, both rich and poor, have equal opportunity to give to him our 1st fruits. What will you do with today?
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