"Do They Have Hopes and Dreams?" (Warning: shocking picture below!)

Today we spent most of the day out at the Pygmy villages in the beating hot African sun. Our project was to help fill a hole with dirt and to help dig their latrine hole deeper. It was at 5 ft. and needed to go down to at least 20 ft. We all took turns pitching in and helping whether it was shoveling, pull up the bucket of dirt, or using the spud bar to dig up the earth. Muscles I never knew I had hurt today. But it felt good to labor for the Lord.

But as usual, that was not the part of the day that touched me or many of the other team members the most. We had brought a big ball, some bubbles, and a Frisbee in hopes of interacting with the kids. Slowly but surely, the kids and mothers would appear from their homes into the field we were working in.

I am struggling right now how to describe them to you. This is a whole different level of poverty. I have never seen children (and adults for that matter) so malnourished, dirty, and timid. Their hair has dirt and wood shavings all through it, their bodies have open sores that have flies crawling all over them, their belly buttons have umbilical hernias, and their bellies are so swollen they look like they could burst.

They came over and sat near us and watched us work. Then Valerie and Zac, as only children can do, started up our interactions with these kids. They had bubble wands for the kids to use and showed them how to blow bubbles. With their shy little faces, they meekly reached out to try this strange looking toy. But when they did, smiles would creep onto their faces reminding us that children are the same the world over. Then we got out a huge beach ball and played a game of the "kick the ball in the circle" that 4 of the pygmy children were brave enough to join in on.

As I watched them, I couldn't help but feel hopeless about the plight of these children. Their future is so bleak. I thought of American children and how if you ask them what they want to be when they grow up, they readily can tell you, "A doctor, a race car driver, a professional sports player, a teacher, a veterinarian….". They all have hopes and dreams. And I wondered, "Do Pygmy children have hopes and dreams?" Surely not the same as American kids. But I think they must. I think their dreams are probably things like not being sick, having enough food to eat, having a family, and being left alone by other Central Africans who pick on them constantly. When I thought of this, I was able to have a little more hope. Very soon, these people can have a latrine and well that can change the health of their whole village. Improving their health, will allow them to live longer and have healthier families. The hope for other Central Africans to treat them fairly is much harder a dream to fulfill. They talk down to them and make fun of them constantly. They harass them and ask us why in the world we would help these disgusting Pygmies. They say this in their presence. Whenever we are playing with the Pygmies, the other Central Africans from the village nearby try to steal the spotlight.

I don't know how to solve or work on this problem with the other villagers. But I know that while we are here, we will keep showing the love of Christ to the Pygmies without discrimination. We will do our very best to let them know these "boundjou" (white people) love them and that is because the love of Christ is flowing through us. The love of their Creator and Maker for them is the reason we do what we do. Pray that we will be able to begin conveying this hope and truth to them.

Laura Gibson

Tuesday, February 27, 2007