give them hope

I was having a one way conversation (is that an oxymoron?) with someone the other day and when he asked, how long are you going to be in Kenya? For the third time I told him “about 12 days”. Then this guy proceeds to tell me “don’t try to change them, their happy”. Huh, was all I could think. Then he said “and don’t try to change the church, their fine down there”.

What was he saying?

It only gets worse.

He then said “their millionaires down there, they have so much cattle”. Then he proceeded to tell me the truly disgusting part….the sexual practices of the “tribes”. He explained it as, “the boys having to be a certain age” for sex, the girls getting “clipped”, and “then having sex in front of the whole tribe”. He knew this because of being to “warrior camps”.

Why would he say this?

I was really stunned to what he had said and I was really mad at myself because I didn't get in this persons face to argue with him. But I also know confronting this person on what he said would only make a bad situation really bad. So I let it go.

But the deal is, how many more think that way? How many really don’t give a rip?

I know having this drive to help those that have no hope, is not for everyone. But to be this callused and that out of touch from someone that should know better, really was disturbing to me. In fact this event took place about a month ago and I have tried to write about it four times. But all attempts have failed because I was so mad and couldn't’t get my head around his comments.

I could really launch into a four page rant on why I reject everything he said, but I won’t.

This I will say, I am not trying to change anything or anyone. The very last thing I want to do is bring/force our western culture on anyone. The change that needs to take place must come from within a culture and or a person. I believe the best way to spark change is just to offer someone hope.