Tuesday I began working on a new project at Inyathelo: Philanthropedia. It's basically an encyclopedia about South African Philanthropy. They told me that they had been thinking about this project for about 5 years, so it felt nice to be doing something that was so important to them. It kept me really busy for the whole day. After work I was exhausted, but I knew I still had a lot of work to do, which included blog posts for class and transcribing the rest of the award videos for Inyathelo. Allison, Matt and I decided to go to Cocoa Cha Chi, a super cute restaurant by us. We were able to get a little work done and also got a delicious dinner. I had a chicken sandwich that was covered in a sort of BBQ sauce with olives, tomato, lettuce, and pesto on it. We hung out there for quite some time, just talking and getting away from all of the hustle and bustle of our daily lives here. Wednesday went by quickly again because of the new project I was working on, but the rest of the night was quiet. Thursday was Nelson Mandela day. Every South African is asked to devote 67 minutes of their time to doing some sort of service to their community. I wanted to participate but wasn't sure how. When I got to work I started my daily tasks and then was asked if I wanted to help some of the women with their service for Mandela Day. We made three massive trays of sandwiches, which we were then going to deliver to homeless people in our area. The first place we stopped was underneath one of the overpasses. There were about 3 cardboard box "houses" underneath the overpass. As soon as the children saw us with food they came running and grabbed about 7 sandwiches each. I saw that no one was coming out of one of the boxes, so we asked if anyone was in it. One girl ran over to the box and tried to wake up someone in side. Sure enough, another little girl crawled out of the box. As soon as I saw her, I instantly wanted to cry. This little child was so skinny that her clothes were falling off of her. She literally had to hold her pants up or they would fall down. She grabbed a few sandwiches, nothing excessive, and I kept telling her to take more. I knew that she would be saving those sandwiches for days to come, and even if they started to spoil she would probably still eat them. We walked away and moved on to the next people. We gave some to a man looking through trash, a man sleeping in the park, two homeless shelters, and finally a group of men who looked like they hadn't eaten for days. Even after seeing all of these starving people, no one affected me like the little girl. The hardest part about all of that wasn't seeing the starving people, it was knowing that even though you helped feed someone today, they would be hungry again tomorrow. Even though you helped a few people, there were millions more suffering. Something about that really got to the core of me, and it honestly broke my heart. The rest of the evening just wasn't the same for me. I had that image of the little girl implanted into my mind. I couldn't stop thinking about her. We went to dinner at Fat Cactus later that night, and I sat there eating my delicious food and drinking margaritas while that child ate half of her sandwich. I prayed for her later that night. Friday, was another day of work and nothing very eventful happened.
After reading this post I must ask something of you. I ask that you take time out of your day today to appreciate everyone and everything you have. Tell the people you love the most how much they mean to you. Know that we are blessed with such fortunate lives and surrounded by people who care. Think of someone you know, who could maybe use some help, and help them. Life is too short to be taking things for granted. I have come to realize that I cannot help everyone in the world. I cannot make a drastic change, but helping one person can be the best change of all.
xoxo,
Alexandra
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