The following short essay was written by one of the people involved in distributing the contents of a past shipment of goods to Zimbabwe.
A lesson in humility
Last week we packed Pete’s small truck and set off for the Chiweshe area about 80 kms from Harare. Nearly 250-300 people were waiting for us. They sang, chanted, danced and we had speech after speech. The member for Parliament, the district administrator and all the chiefs for the area were all seated. Leonard our librarian gave them a 10 minute mini lecture in Shona and then Pete also added his 10 minutes in English with Leonard interpreting. After all this, it lasted for more than an hour…and then the clothes were unpacked from the bales and sorted in categories. It was so beautiful to watch how they were distributing the clothing. The orphans were first, next the oldest people.
I spotted a young boy looking very cold with inadequate clothing (it was a very cold day) and he could barely walk…I took him by the hand and helped him choose some clothing…all the school children cheered for him, seeing him in his new clothes….his smile was amazing and I will never forget the look of happiness on his face. Both his parents were deceased, and he was looked after by his grandpa who was blind.
I also saw an elderly lady sitting with her granddaughter and they too were cold with inadequate clothing. Those distributing the clothing found a sweater for the old lady, and a double layered jacket for the little girl, then they all spontaneously started dancing and singing in gratitude…the way of the African people…they show much emotion.
I felt so humbled by the people there and even though we could not meet everyone’s need that day, we knew it was a start to helping and outreach in the community.