Choose Joy!
Last week I struggled a lot with missing my “old life” and all that entails. I miss my friends and family so much, but I also miss: Caribou coffee, the convenience of life in America, English as a first language, our sweet pre-school right down the road, Redstone chopped salad, Target and deals for a dollar, living on auto pilot, gas stations that take debit cards, baseball at Bennett Park, friends dropping by, dinner at Snuffy’s, land lines and home phones, cell phones that have endless minutes, familiarity, the library, 100+ channels and DVR, chocolate chips, glass cake plates, china teacups, a big, beautiful house with a HUGE yard, public parks and walking trails, and so much more. Even though I know many of these things that I’m missing are shallow and trivial I was still missing them. Don’t get me wrong my life here is good, VERY good and there are many things here that I didn’t have in America. But despite that, I had a week of “missing”. And in the midst of my longing for a different life I kept telling myself that I should stop looking back and look forward instead, but somehow I couldn’t force myself to do that. So as He often does, God in His mercy and good humor placed people in my life to “re-prioritize” the things that REALLY matter.
I guess I could say it was mostly because of my empragada Gloria. She’s is a joyful woman probably in her early 30’s who has two children (8 and 6)and a niece (13) who lives with her. Gloria’s been working for us for about 3 months. When she came to interview she was very nice. Happy, smiley, positive, chatty and overall made a good first impression. I interviewed several other women, but there was something about Gloria that I kept coming back to and comparing others to. She had this spark about her that was really attractive. So I hired her and have never once regretted it. During the time she has been working here we have spent many hours talking and she has shared things about her life. Here are a few of the highlights; earlier this year her husband left her for another woman and he now lives on the other side of town refusing to help with his own children, her jobless sister came to her house and asked to live there (while providing no additional income to the family), Gloria’s house has gaps in the roof so every time it rains the water comes in the house and soaks the ground – which is where they sleep. They don’t have any beds; just grass mats to sleep on! They have windows and bars, but no glass or screens (read between the lines – MOSQUITOES!). Every morning she arrives at my house by 8 after she cooks breakfast for her family (over a fire outside), cleans up (no running water in the house), takes her kids to school and catches a chappa to my house. After she leaves my house at 3 she goes home and cooks dinner and saves enough of the food to give her children for lunch the next day. She only buys meat for the family on holidays (so about 4 times a year) and feeds her children shima (corn meal and water) and greens almost every day. Despite these hard circumstances she comes to work every day looking clean and pressed usually laughing or singing while she chats with the guard outside. Every day she CHOOSES joy in spite of her difficult life! But that’s not the story, this is. On Saturday morning at 5 AM my phone rang. It was Gloria and she sounded very upset. She explained to me that her youngest daughter was very sick and she needed to take her to the hospital, but didn’t have any money. She asked (actually the verb she used was requested) if there was any way I could help her. Of course I said yes, but we were leaving for South Africa so I would leave money for her with the guard. Would she be able come by and get it? She said yes, thanked me profusely and promised to call after the doctors told her what was wrong. Later in the day I got a message from her that her daughter had malaria (for the second time in a month) and was very, very sick. She was throwing up (malaria meds need to be taken with juice and quality food which she didn’t have) and acting strangely because of the high fever. She asked me for help. I said of course and asked if she could come to my house so we could talk about it. She came over Sunday afternoon and we talked. I asked how I could help. She said she wondered if I could loan her some money and then take it out of her pay. I said I would raise her salary and pay her in advance and give her some extra. She cried and cried and kept saying, “Thank you so much, thank you so much you are a gift from God!" Then I took her to my pantry and filled a market basket with food and juice for her family. A few hours after she left it began to rain. I sat in my house and thought about her family – sitting in a cold, wet house with a sick little girl. It rained all day Monday (which was a holiday) and was very cold. And you know what? On Tuesday Gloria showed up singing and telling me that she was good thanks to God!
Suddenly my homesickness seemed MORE than trivial. I looked into the eyes of a woman who lives in extreme poverty and still choose to say life is good! Do me a favor today, when you’re given the choice in your circumstances – CHOOSE JOY if only in honor of Gloria!
I guess I could say it was mostly because of my empragada Gloria. She’s is a joyful woman probably in her early 30’s who has two children (8 and 6)and a niece (13) who lives with her. Gloria’s been working for us for about 3 months. When she came to interview she was very nice. Happy, smiley, positive, chatty and overall made a good first impression. I interviewed several other women, but there was something about Gloria that I kept coming back to and comparing others to. She had this spark about her that was really attractive. So I hired her and have never once regretted it. During the time she has been working here we have spent many hours talking and she has shared things about her life. Here are a few of the highlights; earlier this year her husband left her for another woman and he now lives on the other side of town refusing to help with his own children, her jobless sister came to her house and asked to live there (while providing no additional income to the family), Gloria’s house has gaps in the roof so every time it rains the water comes in the house and soaks the ground – which is where they sleep. They don’t have any beds; just grass mats to sleep on! They have windows and bars, but no glass or screens (read between the lines – MOSQUITOES!). Every morning she arrives at my house by 8 after she cooks breakfast for her family (over a fire outside), cleans up (no running water in the house), takes her kids to school and catches a chappa to my house. After she leaves my house at 3 she goes home and cooks dinner and saves enough of the food to give her children for lunch the next day. She only buys meat for the family on holidays (so about 4 times a year) and feeds her children shima (corn meal and water) and greens almost every day. Despite these hard circumstances she comes to work every day looking clean and pressed usually laughing or singing while she chats with the guard outside. Every day she CHOOSES joy in spite of her difficult life! But that’s not the story, this is. On Saturday morning at 5 AM my phone rang. It was Gloria and she sounded very upset. She explained to me that her youngest daughter was very sick and she needed to take her to the hospital, but didn’t have any money. She asked (actually the verb she used was requested) if there was any way I could help her. Of course I said yes, but we were leaving for South Africa so I would leave money for her with the guard. Would she be able come by and get it? She said yes, thanked me profusely and promised to call after the doctors told her what was wrong. Later in the day I got a message from her that her daughter had malaria (for the second time in a month) and was very, very sick. She was throwing up (malaria meds need to be taken with juice and quality food which she didn’t have) and acting strangely because of the high fever. She asked me for help. I said of course and asked if she could come to my house so we could talk about it. She came over Sunday afternoon and we talked. I asked how I could help. She said she wondered if I could loan her some money and then take it out of her pay. I said I would raise her salary and pay her in advance and give her some extra. She cried and cried and kept saying, “Thank you so much, thank you so much you are a gift from God!" Then I took her to my pantry and filled a market basket with food and juice for her family. A few hours after she left it began to rain. I sat in my house and thought about her family – sitting in a cold, wet house with a sick little girl. It rained all day Monday (which was a holiday) and was very cold. And you know what? On Tuesday Gloria showed up singing and telling me that she was good thanks to God!
Suddenly my homesickness seemed MORE than trivial. I looked into the eyes of a woman who lives in extreme poverty and still choose to say life is good! Do me a favor today, when you’re given the choice in your circumstances – CHOOSE JOY if only in honor of Gloria!
posted by Sniders in Africa at 5/04/2006 09:36:00 PM
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