A co-worker came back from the field on Monday. She’d been in the field for about a month, her return kept getting delayed because of hold ups in the rice shipments. She’s been overseeing a relief effort in a remote, rural area and yesterday the two of us had an interesting conversation on the conditions there. She asked me to please share what it’s like with the people I know in North America. I told her I would do my best to tell her stories. But how could I tell her that even if I told them most people wouldn’t care? Or it’s not that they wouldn’t care but caring without action, what’s the point? Not to blame them (myself included) but we’re so inundated with information about world crises that I think most people just throw their hands up and walk away or tune it out or choose to focus on their small circle of influence bc what happens “over there” isn’t their problem.
She shared how many of the villagers are finding rice crops to be too difficult to grow. Either bandhs will come and raid their crops or wild boars will destroy them. The people are hungry and so many are beginning to turn to growing poppy crops. Honestly, can you blame them? If my family was hungry and I could do something about it, I think I would do almost anything…
So, what response are we to have? Honestly, I don’t know. This is where relief & development work gets sticky. It’s never just one issue or problem. It’s an entire swirl of problems with the poor caught in the middle. The violence & unrest caused by militant groups. The harsh environment. The demand for opium. The immediacy of hunger. The challenges of a remote location. Where does one begin?
My co-worker leaves today to return to the field. I admire her dedication. I’m nervous about 2 weeks in a village, less remote than hers, and she’s returning after being gone for an entire month. More than that, she’s doing something that most of us never do. She’s doing something.
People wonder why I’m so passionate about world geography, history, and current events, about knowing where places are and what has happened and is happening. One of my proudest moments at seminary was when my friend Alex told me he was reading A People’s History of the United States, after I’d harassed him about his getting through high school without taking a single history class!!! Maybe it has something to do with my mom’s love of maps or my dad’s passion for history (“you’ve never heard of ‘operation market garden??!’what are they teaching you in school antonia??”) or with having lived in southern California for 2 years and having met many (not all! but many) people who know little about their neighbour to the north 
But I also think it’s because if you don’t know, it’s easy to feel let off the hook. It’s hard to care about some people living in some remote village somewhere. It’s hard to understand when you don’t know the story of a people. But, having visited my share of remote places, it’s hard to NOT care once you know. Once you’ve seen. Once you’ve met people. Once you can place it on a map.
As I said earlier, I plead guilty too.
But now I’m here. So what do I do?
What do I tell my co-worker? What do I tell the participants in the urban project who are already asking about me and when I’ll come back? When I return to North America how can I do justice to the things that I have seen and experienced here? 3 months is nothing. It’s just enough to snag your heart and then rip it out when you have to say goodbye.
I don’t really have any answers. This is just my soapbox for the day
Thoughts? Comments?
PS – For you keeners who want to know…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Market_Garden
