I started this blog as a documentary about my project raising funds for Ketty, my young deaf friend in Eastern Province, Zambia. Truth to tell, Ketty’s fine……
…. she and I have grown closer in a most delightful way. She’s 11 years old now and the path that has unfolded for her appears to be very much one she would have chosen. She loves her school and as I hoped, it’s now an outlet for her intelligence
and ability to learn. I also grow closer to her family. Alice, her mother, is a dear friend, and even I am accepted by Alice’s mother, more of a traditional person where it’s difficult for people outside the tribe to be accepted. It’s an honour.
…. so now, as things groove along nicely, let’s change the tone of this blog a little. I want to start trying to paint a picture of life in this vast world of people who have very little. Vast as in two thirds of the world’s population.
ABOUT TEN PER CENT of the population of the world live in Extreme poverty. That’s defined as less than $1.90 US per day to live on. Now standards come up a bit in the East and Latin America, that leaves the vast majority in Sub-Saharan Africa…..
World Bank, IMF, UN World Poverty statistics.
Most of the people who have become my friends, in Eastern Zambia, live on the equivalent of $0.5 US per day.
That’s one third of extreme poverty rates. Get your head around that. 😂🤣 You have to laugh, otherwise you might just weep with sorrow for the miserable state we’ve allowed our beautiful planet, with it’s myriad beautiful people and cultures and colours and customs and all, to come to.
Ok let’s get positive. We can all work for change. That’s up to you, your choice, don’t accept moral pressure. I’m doing my bit, a little late in life I grant you, but the griping pain in the guts that hit me whenever I heard about poverty and starvation in Africa is a lot better now thanks. THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO!!!!
When I first went out, I hadn’t a clue what I was supposed to do. White people running useless projects for paying volunteers. OMG. There are also many good projects of course… saving lives. But not where I went. Spend time learning culture, customs. As people trusted you more then the way becomes clearer.
That’s the way of it, isn’t it? Relax, let Life show you the way. It always has anyway, you just didn’t see it.
Next post, I’ll tell you a bit more about what’s happening here, how people are living life now the tourists have stopped passing through on the way to the game parks because the world has closed down, everyone’s gone home, gone to bed, turned out the lights….
Ulingana 
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