I go to Zambia every summer because my step-mom is the founder for the NGO, Mothers Without Borders. At MWB their main mission is to help OVC (orphaned or vulnerable children). An amazing organization. Changing lives not only in Africa but here in America as well.
While in Zambia I've had some amazing awakenings. The one I would like to share now is that we are all people.
Every volunteer group I've been with have all at one point praised the Zambians for their kindness and beautiful spirits. I found that they are only half right.
Zambians are very and beautifully spirited people; when the mazungus (white people) are around. They are like that for the same reason you don't yell at your kids when company is over. Same reason you clean up before a dinner with friends. You want to leave a good impression, and be a good representative for your house and family. Zambians do the same thing for their country because -this may sound negative- they want your help and money. And it works. They show us how kind and loving they can be and we feel more inclined to help them out of the hell hole that is their life. I'm not saying that is a bad thing, its not. That has just become a survival mechanism for most Zambians. Now how sad is that.
Zambians are not out of the ordinary kind. They have secrets like us, they have passions like us, they laugh and cry, they all want a better life for them selves, just like us. Some of them really are kind to our fellow man, just like some Americans. Some have done truly evil things in their lives, like some Americans have.
We Americans have a reputation to be loud, lazy, and rich. That's not fair to say. We are not all loud, lazy, and rich. Some are, but not all. Just like not every Zambian is kind and beautifully spirited people. How can you be beautifully spirited when you get drunk with the money that should be feeding your family. How can you be kind when you rape a little girl or boy. Both happen much too often in Zambia and other third world countries.
I don't know about you but I see that as an even bigger reason to help them. I think that when we help them with that in our minds, we are serving them with true love, not pity.
So next time you have the opportunity to serve someone either in your own community, or out in the world, remember, they are people too. They don't need your pity, they need your love.
