starting the store

Today we laid the first blocks on the store at the front of the property. The store will be for the selling of vegetables grown here at Mapepe. The front wall will have an access window for walk-up traffic. While helping the guys lay block and lay out the walls I learned so much from them. We covered various topics during our working together. They asked me about the US.

While trying to describe my job,home and family,I reflected. When describing my home,it made me appreciate it even more.While explaining the process we as males go through in asking a women to marry,I thought about my family.When asked if I had a car and I answered that I had 4,I thought of the abundance. Our cultures are miles apart yet we are all God's creatures.

I tried to grasp the idea of being hungry on a semi-regular basis. One of the workers said he is almost always hungry to some degree. I stopped mid-day to walk a short distance to our guest house for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I thought as I ate an often unassuming lunch.....this is pretty good. Every meal has been that way for me.I think of the people a stone's throw from me with very little. Everyone should come to a country where things we have at our finger tip are a fantasy for the poor.

Last year I fell while in this country of Zambia. I messed up my shoulder to the point of surgery upon my return to the US.If something to that degree happened to these people they would be in terrible way. Each worker told me of injuries or illness he or his family had suffered. They had no idea what a MRI or CT scan is. We often can choose the day before dinner we will eat the next night while laying in our private modern room hospital bed. These guys had never heard of a drive thru window at a fast food joint. Next time you feel slighted because they put pickle on your sandwich at the burger joint,whined over the under cooked bacon for breakfast,the cost of fuel or your pitiful lot in life...Come to Zambia !!!!