Rising Tide and Sinking Ships

My friend Joyce and I had lunch today at the no-name Indian buffet place. As we were eating, she told me of a woman she met while awaiting my arrival. The woman begged her for money, and Joyce said she could give her money but that having a job was more sustainable.

The woman replied that she had been offered a housekeeping job for 800 shillings (about $11) a month. Her husband had just passed on and she had to pay rent of 700 shillings per month for her 7 children. She reluctantly returned to the woman to try and negotiate, only to find out that someone else had taken the job.

Such is the spiral of poverty and vast unemployment: without skills, a person is easily replaced by another. Education and training is necessary to differentiate and separate oneself from the fray. Yet oftentimes one must pay for these services, or even if they are free, one must be earning something to pay for rent… let alone school supplies and uniforms so that one’s children will have a better opportunity.

I listened as Joyce finished her story, saying goodbye to her and hello to me; turning from the one without to the one with. Perhaps like you, my heart broke within me, leaving my chest feeling hollow and my body helpless. Yet unlike you, I walked out of the restaurant and passed the very same woman. I had heard her story and yet I did nothing.

What could I have done? I’m asked every week to find someone a job. I work in a development agency that’s trying to create wealth. On a macro level, I know what needs to happen as far as investment in infrastructure, micro-financing, skills training... globally, a rising tide in my mind.

And then I look out in the neighboring bay at the sinking ships, the ones with gaping holes, incapable of repairing themselves and resources an ocean apart. As the tide rides, will all that’s left floating be yachts surrounded by flotsam and jetsam?

Those who say, “I love God,” and ignore their brothers and sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother and sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.” ~ 1 John 4:20

I can tell another’s story, but I cannot create one of my own.