Want to do charity in Africa?

The biggest mistake many of my good hearted friends who would like to do charity in Africa make is making assumptions. These assumptions are of perspectives based on their own realities and almost absolutely independent of the community they work in or want to work in. Here are a few tips:

One: Poverty is relative – Just because I live in a mud hut does not mean I am poor. My ancestors lived in mud huts for centuries and they are just fine. The building materials are friendly to the environment, I use less and waste less. If you want to help me, help me because I asked, not because you decided I have problems. If you come to my village you will not find me crying wallowing in my poverty. In fact you will probably find me doing what I do – providing for my family the best I can. I am not on anti-depressants and I can assure you that there are people like me from wherever you came from – struggling to do this thing called life.

Two: Ask yourself truly what you are going to do in Africa. What is the goodwill you seek to do motivated by? Is it because your friends will think highly of you? Is it because you think that the people you are going to “help” need you? If that is the case, save you thousands of dollars for a plane ticket and volunteer at your local shelter, Samaritans Purse, Goodwill or whomever is working in your own community. Chances are you will understand the needs of your own home better than you will in foreign lands. If you just want to help elsewhere because you have the capacity then surround yourself with honest people who can help you understand the culture of the place you are going to. Understand the needs gap and then empower. Do not give hand outs – otherwise you're no different from the arrogant self serving idiot that thinks they can solve systemic problems that you can’t understand over a limited period of time.

Three: Don’t be a part of the problem – there is a saying – the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Without understanding the people you hope to serve, your efforts can end up detrimental to any progress towards the growth of these communities. Community growth and development has to occur organically with real lasting solutions. Yes, some of it is trial and error but you must be careful when dealing with human beings. We hear of several stories where donations have been pocketed by corrupt individuals never reaching or benefiting the grass root level.

Four: Be careful of your own self. This goes back a little to tip number two. Every human being sees the world through their own eyes built on their own personal, cultural and social experiences. It is not common to find a pet sleeping in their owner’s bed in an average African household because it is considered an animal and animals live outside – this may be viewed differently in some parts of the western world where sometimes there is a human like affection towards pets and pets are considered to be family members. This is just a small example where if one were to come into a foreign community with their own conceptions, the opinions would be inaccurately influenced.

Five: The media over the last 30 years has done a tremendous job of painting Africa as a hopeless, disease infested continent. When you go there you will find that there is everything – probably the largest resource of precious minerals in the world, skyscrapers, town and cities, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, night clubs, shopping malls, wild life, beaches… All colors of people black, white, mixed race, Asian heritage… All sorts of livelihoods, marketers, engineers, business people.. all sorts of institutions, universities, schools, libraries, a rich culture of art BUT that is not what mainstream media focuses on. So when you arrive on the continent and are fixated on that media perception, you interpretation can go two ways – positively or negatively. It is therefore important especially to us to appreciate the continent and its vast diversity and beauty and furthermore acknowledge it, because then, we will welcome you. We will not want to welcome you if it appears that you look down on us. We don’t need that and hence some of us are weary of foreigners. It is our nature to welcome strangers as we would our own and that’s how we got colonized.

So my good hearted friends that like to do charity in Africa – ask yourselves why? If you can answer honestly then bear in mind these few tips. Learn learn learn about the charity work currently going on and figure out whether you fit in that puzzle. If you are honest and realize that you are driven by an egoist need then just take a vacation in Africa – you will still be helping by promoting the tourism industry which provides jobs and livelihoods for many of our people, it is one of the largest income generating avenues for many African countries – you will have a good time and we will welcome you back happily every time.

Passion

Today was an interesting day. I thought I would dash to the gas station and get fueled up for the next day and then get back home and relax but that was not how it happened. You see, life is interesting – I had envisioned my evening in front of the telly having dinner and later take a walk outside but I spent most of the evening at the gas station trying to get my car to start. Now the irony is that I got home from work, then left to go across the road for gas with hopes of getting back in 5 minutes. If I had not moved, I guess I would have found out the next morning that the car was out of order and I would have had a crummy morning.

I digress however… this story is about a 16 year old two weeks shy of graduating from high school. He works at the convenience store and is always so kind to me. I must describe him – he is about 5ft 6 Inches, red head, pale with a ton of freckles. He has a punk rock hair cut (I would say) - it’s probably the latest fashion right now for kids his age… After getting gas, I tried to start my car but it just wouldn’t cooperate.

Now, I knew nothing about this young boy except that he worked at the gas station. When he saw that I was having car trouble, he came out and began helping me investigate the car problem. He took apart the battery terminals as well as the connections, cleaned them out and did a number of other things to try and get it to start. I could tell that he clearly knew what he was doing so I asked him where he learned to do all this. He said it was his hobby and furthermore, his own car, which at this point was pulled up to my car for a jump start - was a re-modified creation of his own. The child blew my mind. As we kept talking I couldn’t help but notice his speech impediment – I later found out that he would be graduating from a private school that I think serves children who have different academic needs.

This is the thing that I learnt from my young friend – if you are passionate about something just do it! You must be the number advocate for your talent - the Number one believer. Don't wait around for someone to push you or the magical signal from the winds(i.e. whatever is making you procrastinate). If you are a good writer, singer, shoe sales man, just do it because your talent is a gift to the world and in turn a shift to manifesting your reason for being here on earth. This boy knew his cars and knew them really well. I hope that he becomes a super car engineer or whatever the highest ranking position in the car world is – scratch that, I hope that he fulfils his heart’s desire in whatever work his talent will lead him.

So, I am passionate about writing - I got my butt of the couch and wrote this piece recognizing that it is important to do what you are passionate about – in this context, it will surely do you and us good.

The journey continues

Once in a while I get to a place where I feel peace and I am peace and there is no distinction between who I am and what I feel. The who I am is what I have after many years cultivated through my own ideas and societies ideals of what I should be. These distinctions between how I feel and who I am is different. How I feel is difficult to describe in words but simply put, I am here. There is usually silence in my mind. I am not thinking about what I need to do or how things will turn out or running through my mental checklist. I am just sitting or standing, or washing dishes but not thinking. Just doing. In those moments, I feel happy and free. These moments are short lived – at least for now. Then the dreaded switch goes on and I begin to worry about things that have not even happened, things that might happen, things that happened. When the switch goes on, I am no longer here. In those moments of silence there is clarity but I have no need to solve possible situations or lament on things that happened. In this place of silence, there are no problems. When I think during these moments, it is because I have taken my mind and used it as a tool to do something. My mind is not running wild, it’s more like a computer and my true self, the peaceful me, is the user. I use my mind to execute what needs to be done and I do it and finish. The work created when I am in this space is often splendid. In that space, I know the answers to whatever questions I have – not the logical questions, the questions that plague me in life. Am I doing the right thing? Am I happy with my job? Should I move? Am I doing what I was meant to do. In that space I know the answers and when I remember, I take the opportunity to answer those questions. The problem is after the dread switch goes on, I forget the answers and I forget all the solutions and its back to worrying and lamenting. The worrying doesn’t normally seem “bad” but it’s tiring. I am often exhausted after a full day of worrying about what people think of me, how important I am, how so and so did me wrong and all the rest of the time wasting thoughts yet I rarely make the connection between my exhaustion and how I arrived at my moment of tiredness. I just get home and think – jeez – what a long day – yes, of course it was long. Time flies when you are having a good time, paying attention to what you are doing and doing it to the best of your ability. The day is really really long when you are not present and constantly look at the clock, meaning you are not paying attention to what you are doing and you’re probably not doing something you enjoy. If you pay attention to what you are doing and do it to the best of your ability even if you don’t enjoy it per se, time will go by and that means you will be present in what you are doing and not worrying about possible problems or past resentments. The journey of getting back to myself, peaceful self continues…