I have no clue

I will readily admit I have no clue today. I have no clue what it is like to be hungry. One of the little first graders I work with has come to school w/o any snack the past few days and had been taking food (ok, stealing...) from the room and another room last week. I think she has no food in her house.

I have no idea what that is like. I am so blessed, but also, it is a curse. I can't understand what it is like to not know where the next meal will come from. This little girl is so sweet, I love her, but life for them is hard, I know. Downtown apartment, 5 kids (she's the oldest at age 6) and her mom is barely 24. Geesh. Right here in my own town.

Then I'm talking tonight with some of my friends from other countries, ok, developing countries, and they are sharing with me how hard things are. Wow, I can't even imagine. I am clueless as to what struggles most of the world goes through on a daily basis.

Lord, open my eyes. Open my experience. And yes, thats ridiculously dangerous, but how on earth can I work with street kids if I have no idea what it means to be hungry? How can I feed famine victims and refugees if I have always lived in peace and safety?

I was listening to a sermon from when Mama Aida was speaking at Oxford sometime and she was talking about how many of the pastors in the Bible school have had kids die of starvation, or relatives. She talked about it when I was in Pemba, too. I have no clue what it means to be truly hungry, and to want to feed a kid so much to risk crocodile attack to get a "black nasty bulby" waterlily bulb to eat.

I have no idea what it is like to be hungry and to steal food from another teacher's classroom. I also have no idea what it is like to receive a bag of snacks from a caring teacher (yep, i love the teacher i am working with because she does this for various kids) and maybe that's it for the weekend. I have no idea.