The Beauty and the Cause

Today I’m joining with Mocha Club and hundreds of bloggers to explain why ‘I need Africa more than Africa needs me.’ Mocha Club [www.mochaclub.org] is a social media venture that allows people to build teams of their friends and family to support projects in Africa–each team member gives up the cost of two mochas a month, or $7, and makes a huge impact on individuals and communities.

Here’s what that sentence means to me:

I think that we westerners have had a mistaken perception of ourselves in relation to Africa. We know of the problems on the continent, but they seem very far away. We’ve been asked to help on TV ads and at concerts. We tend to see images of starvation, of militant ravaging, of desolation, and of poverty, and we define the land by the pictures. And we either give something and think of ourselves as heroes or we carry on as if that place does not exist. But there is so much more.

Africa is 54 different countries, each with its own beauty and its own problems. We all have our beauties and our problems. The stories I’ve heard through MC of the strength of individuals and communities, the renewal of hope after horror, has affected me more deeply than my $7 a month could’ve possibly affected them. See, my gift contributes but theirs profoundly affects. My heart has been widened, my love has been stretched as I’ve seen the faces of the boys and girls in the orphanage in Darfur that my money has helped build. And strangely, giving does not build pride in me and what I’ve done. It only makes me realize that life is more than its exchange rate among cultures; sharing is God-woven into our beings.

I get more excited the deeper I trek into this cause: to see Africa portrayed for the beautiful land it is, and to see its people live well. The cause is to inspire partnership over pity, and MC has some things up its sleeve. Share your thoughts in my comments section and check back Dec 1^st to see what Mocha Club is doing about reforming the image of Africa in this country.

Blog Action a little late…

So, I missed Blog Action Day, and I’m really bummed about it. Therefore, I have decided any day is a good day for some blog action, and this year’s topic, poverty, is something that could use one more post (even if it’s late!).

Here are my thoughts: As we United States inhabitants are now unable to peel our eyes away from CNN and the gloom-and-doom economy news it provides, I have been struck by the sheer numbers of people who honestly think we have it bad. Here, “bad economy” might mean people don’t eat out three times in a week. In Haiti, “bad economy” means people don’t eat at all. If you have any of these things…

…you are outright wealthy compared to most of the world. Not to mention that if you own a car, you are among the 7% of people in the world who do. We have no right to complain.

Now, I’m not claiming that poverty doesn’t exist in America–that would be an absurd statement. But I will go out on a limb here and say that more Americans are in a position to help the truly needy than are not. Helping doesn’t mean solving the issue of world hunger single-handedly. It simply means doing what we can—and maybe admitting to ourselves that giving up a cheeseburger this week so that a child could go to school doesn’t even really qualify as sacrificial.

So, here are some of my favorite ways to get involved ending poverty, here and around the world:

The Mocha Club : The cost of two mochas a month can give 7 Africans clean water for a year.

Kiva : Loan money (any amount you can, no matter how small) to entrepreneurs in small villages around the world.

Feed the Children : Buying this bag feeds a child school lunch for a year–which helps keep them going.

Confessions of an Ex-Perfectionist

Responsibility is not dependent upon perfection.

Success and significance are not one and the same.

For 19 or so years of my life I’ve weighed these beliefs. After two and a half years of college and several jobs and internships I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no glory in perfect scores or performance gained by failing at relationships.

I am a Clemson junior enrolled in five classes this semester. My heart is in two of them. In the other three, though I know I’m subconsciously picking up on valuable information, most of the time I feel like I’m wasting otherwise better-spent time. Lately I’ve been finding myself wanting to forsake homework and testing perfection for the sake of doing something significant with my time. Thus, this past Friday I drove to Anderson with some friends and played in the rain with the children of low-income families in a run-down apartment complex. I should’ve been writing an essay for my French class. So irresponsible yet so exhilarating. It was better than an A.

Perry Noble asked this question today: “Who do you most admire and for what quality?” Do you spend more of your time trying to be like that, or going through the motions of what will lend the the generic title of “success” ? Significance far outweighs it. The question I’ve been asking myself is: In what ways is my life and work significant beyond myself, and how is it exactly that I can tell?

Any thoughts?