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Friday, October 28, 2011

Facing Hard Truths in S. Sudan

I wrote this last week when I was in Juba:
There are so many things we take for granted. Clean sheets. A mattress. Windows.  Toothpaste. Clean drinking water.  Yet here in Juba, I’m reminded every day of the bounty of my world and the inequalities that exist between the developed and the developing world.  I ride through the markets and look at the window at the women toiling away.  Many I see balancing a large load on their heads, a baby on their back and carrying heavy bags in the hot, morning sun as they walk along a dusty road.
This is their lot in life.  Mine is to drive in a car to work, stopping for a latte, with my child safely in a school or someone else’s care.  Today at the office, the coffee/tea lady came in with a baby on her back. I marveled at her.  How did she find this job? How far did she walk?  Was her child healthy? Later I saw that same baby peacefully asleep on a hard cement patch out near where the cars are kept. What fate will that child have?



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