When Others are not so Blessed

So if you are willing, I'd like to know your thoughts on something. How should we should respond as affluent people in a world of poverty? (This blog does have a comments section after all.) I've never heard a satisfactory answer to this question and it's nagged at me for some time. It's not the kind of nagging that comes with much guilt but the kind that comes from having to live the answer to a question you don't know the answer to.

This question seems more stark since I've been in Africa but I'm not sure nearness or distance should change the answer. We all live out an answer in practice even if we don't have one in theory. Right now, I live in a third world country and I live a life somewhere between the world I came from and the general standard here. In the U.S. I drove a car, lived in a house with heat and a/c, washer and drier, microwave, and dishwasher and I ate out at mid-level restaurants pretty much when I wanted to. When I wanted to go somewhere, I bought an airline ticket and went.

In Malawi most people do not have their own vehicles, they live in thatched houses and cook over a fire. They don't eat much protein and sometimes don't eat much at all. When they do have enough to eat, it is a very monotonous diet. It's a small country but most people -- even in the middle class -- have never traveled to the outside.

In Malawi, I ride a motorcycle and live in a solid house with a refrigerator (a recent addition) and a hotplate. There are electric lights too and clean running water but no hot water. I eat all the protein my body wants but don't have nearly the variety of food I used to eat. I wash my clothes in a tub by hand and hang them out in the sun to dry. After five months of trying and waiting, I'm due to move into a more spacious house with screens (rat-proof and mosquito-resistant) on April 1st. It will have hot water too. I'm really looking forward to that.

So those are the facts of what I have done. On the one hand, I live a very comfortable life here. I look out for myself. I stay comfortable, clean, and well-fed. And I do it all without having to work very hard. This is way beyond what most Malawians will ever have. On the other hand, I could have a lot more if I hung onto my old job, moved up the ladder, and spent it all on myself. For the moment, I'm caught somewhere in the tension between the fabulous world of American luxury and the dire world of African poverty.

I haven't done it much, but today I did the American luxury thing. I drove to the lake with my roommate Dominic. We swam, ate a good meal, drank pop, read, walked on the beech, and rested. We did what tourists do. We packed as if we were driving through a harsh desert, making sure we had everything we'd need to get from this side to the other without having to stop. Then we got on the motorcycle in our comfortable suburban neighborhood and drove through a picturesque country full of the tell-tale signs of poverty and suffering until we reached the resort. Along the way we dodged goats; drove past hundreds of children wearing dirty, ragged clothes; saw picturesque women struggling under balanced loads of wood, water, and food; and men pushing colossal loads up hill on their bicycles then careening down the other side. We drove past bellies bloated from malnutrition and parasites. We just whisked past all the suffering on our way from one pleasant place to another. Going there for our own pleasure.

It is the choice I made. And since it is the best I know, I really don't feel guilty at all. I have been stressed and stir-crazy. I haven't gone outside Lilongwe in three weeks. There is a beautiful lake I haven't seen, so I went. It was a great day.

I think that how we should live as rich people in a world of poverty is an important question. And I don't think there is an obvious answer. As a matter of fact, most of the answers I have heard have some obvious problems. So I'd like to ask, if you're willing to share, what answer do you live in your own life? Are you comfortable with your answer? Do you feel guilty about it? Is there an answer you could live without feeling guilty?

I have a few ideas that inform my choices and I'll share them next week. But I would really like to hear what you think in the mean while.

Thanks a bunch.