May 1, 2007

I can't eat, sleep, drive, or move a finger without seeing their faces. They fill my thoughts and dreams; they haunt me. Their gaunt figures, their dirty hands and feet, their eyes crying out "Do you see me?". Potbelly children run the streets with no shoes or shirt. Men and women and children lay dying in their beds from AIDS and malaria. Maybe they'll eat today, maybe not. No one really knows for certain. The women that are able wake up very early in the morning to be the first to draw water so that its cleaner. Once everyone starts getting their water, the filth will be stirred up and it won't be as clean. She will then walk around 2 miles back home, carrying a 20 gallon jug on her head. She may do this as many as six times a day. The children are taught to fetch water when they are as young as five years old. When they turn six, they are taken into the fields and taught to farm. When they are seven, they are able to work on their own, perfectly capable of farming and drawing water. You may ask why? People in Africa do not know who will die first or when they will die. The children cannot be dependent on their parents to keep them alive when the parents aren't able to keep themselves alive. Because of the high rate of deaths, each person must be able to take care of themselves, no matter if they are 5 or 50.