On Poverty III: Nothing or Everything

While hanging out at the local cantina with the parishioners after Mass, one young woman asked me, “Brudda Bob, why haven’t you bought me a beer yet?” I responded in humor , “I’m a seminarian—I’m poor!” Truthfully, I didn’t have my wallet on me and figured that answer would suffice. She threw her head back and laughed, then said matter-of-factly, “You eat three times a day. You have a roof to sleep under. You are not poor.”

Africa: 1 ----- Bob: 0

Aside from a Chick-Fil-A coupon, I also use a Starbucks gift card as a bookmark (heaven forbid I own a real bookmark). The irony of this dawned on me today. No one here knows what a Starbucks is. A piece of plastic with a $15 worth in one part of the globe has absolutely no value here. A spiral notebook is worth infinitely more here than this gift card coveted by caffeine addicts. Families especially, in dealing with fees, uniforms, books, stationary, the ‘right’ to sit for exams, and ‘taxes’ that are arbitrarily generated by teachers to generate additional income, feel the pinch of paying for what is necessary for their children to simply function in school. It has put a lot in perspective.

One teenager, one of the rare few who have left the country, asked me, “Why are Americans so sad when they have so much? We have very little here but we are happy!” I didn’t really know what to say. I think the answer was contained within the question…to have nothing but possess everything. There is a childlike faith here in Sierra Leone, illustrated by a profound trust in the Lord, old and young alike. If we Westerners could learn such skill and vulnerability in the faith…well, maybe then we really would be rich.

-Bob
written 06/24/11