The Human Heart
I was recently reading a report written by Muadi Mukenge of Global Fund for Women. At one point she was describing a ‘school’ she visited on her way to the mineral mines in the Congo.
“Then we drive further to visit the nuns that are taking care of refugee orphans. We see the dormitory where the orphans sleep. It’s small and crowded — we must keep in mind that the nuns have received no grants, no government support. They have a field where they grow vegetables that are sold for profit. This profit was used to build a very modest school that when you look at it you can’t even call it a school. It’s made with mud by hand, with a dirt floor, the ceiling not taller than 5 feet and the room holds about 8 rows of old benches. Again, this was a moment that made us all speechless.”
I swear I can see this school in my head. I can see the nuns and their garden. See the hands of the community building the mud walls and I can feel the determination in their hearts.
These are the times where I am truly amazed by human beings, not to mention the value of education. When I went to school I was always hearing about the starving African children. I was supposed to feel a combination of gratitude and guilt. I also heard about how Abraham Lincoln used to walk 2 miles to school everyday and do his homework by candle light. I can’t say I wasn’t moved by this information because I was. I used to picture his feet being ice cold and how much he must have wanted to learn to do what he did. I really couldn’t relate.
But now, having seen the things I’ve seen I have to say I know I really and truly undervalued my education. I see the effects of ignorance all around me.
I see it in Sarah Palin as a form of willful ignorance. I saw it every moment of everyday of Bush’s presidency. I see it in governments, religions, society in general. The lack of education, the under funding of it, early pregnancy, low paying jobs, prison overpopulation, grinding poverty, spousal abuse, child abuse.
And yet there are these nuns in the Congo, way out there by the mineral mines, demanding that in their small corner of the earth the children around them get their fair share of knowledge in this world.