Searching for the Light

There is a saying "It is always darkest before the dawn".

Whoever wrote that must be talking about a place that is far from here. I have come to the realization that there is very little light here, and there seems to be an over abundance of darkness.

The past week seemed to bring a little light. Last Wednesday we had the launch of the Nike ball in Dagahalley where we all played soccer and volleyball against the local teams--it was so much fun and refreshing to remove ourselves from the role that we normally possess. The kids loved it and there was an enormous turnout from the community.

But today. Today. Humanity is dark. I have said it before and it is a realization that is sad, and true, and real. I listen to these stories day after day after day about kids beating other kids, about the protection problems that stem directly from the peers in the neighborhood. Imagine walking down the street and seeing a deaf boy being stoned by a group of 20 other kids. Imagine the adults standing there complacently, never defending, believing that the deaf ones deserve it. Or a child who is mentally disabled being tied up for 3 years continuously, her family cleaning off the feces and urine from her body instead of letting her free. And this is normal, this is what they believe is right. Standing over this child who has gashes and scars on her legs from the three year family imprisonment reciting the Koran, because that's what they think is going to cure her. I sit listening to them tell this story, normal as can be, thinking in between questions YOU PEOPLE SHOULD BE IN JAIL.

But today took the cake. I don't know why it keeps blind siding me. I guess if it did anything other than that I should worry. There was a child, 12, who looked like she had had a lobotomy. Had a hard time walking on her own and would constantly fall asleep with buckets of drool coming from her mouth. And there were her mother and sisters. Three women, all grown, who were helpless in the fight for their child, their sister.

She is the first case of what I would classify as torture that I have seen here. Repeatedly pushed into fires, burns all over her body, by other children. She has scars, and fresh wounds, places on her legs where other children held her down and placed a burning log on her leg. It was sick, and sad. The sisters are helpless, the mother has no idea what to do. There is no male in the family who is grown, it is three women who are residing on their own, trying to save this child. The sisters can't defend her, not in this society. If they do, they will be beaten as well. No one is the champion, there are no angels here.

I came back to the office and sat with my boss and pleaded for a fast track, to get her out of here before someone kills her. They treat her like children in the US treat ants with magnifiying glasses--see what happens when they set it on fire. There are so many people in the US who will prostrate themselves on the ground in front of the headquarters of Gillette and fight for the rights of animals, no animal testing, save the god damned rabbits. What about these people? Who is doing the same? Us? Barely. Resources are pathetic, cases are backed up, people slip through the cracks. How, in American society, have animals stepped slowing in front of the human strife throughout the world? Is that an overstatement?

It probably is. But it's my birthday, and I am pissed, and someone needs to be incensed.

This is experience has been essential for me. It has taught me that not everything is like peace corps, where comminities love you, can't wait to make soap, think handwashing is the best idea ever, and basically exude joy. Here, you see the other side. It's reality, which makes me sad, but it's an important reality for people to see. That things are hard. And not hard like "I don't have enough loan money to go to Cancuun this winter" but hard like "I am 24, watched both my parents be murdered, and I have been taking care of my 6 brothers and sisters since 1992".

I sat with a girl in this very situation yesterday. And you know what I thought as the dust storm raged (RAGED) outside, I thought "I wonder what you would be like in America. Where you would be." maybe it's hokey. Again, I don't really care. It's what goes through your mind when you see people whose luck fell on this side of the line.

But in the world of these posts, what's new?

Yeah....not much.