Set the World on Fire

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good things ever dies.”                                                                                                                                    -SR

Hope.  Ask many, dare I say most, refugees and they will admit that they have all but lost hope for their future.  I have sat down with many people to have heart to heart conversations about the topic of hope.  It can be so simple, yet in the context of a refugee camp it can be so very complex.  How can one have hope for the future if there are no job opportunities or prospects for higher education?  Civil war, gender based violence, political unrest, persecution and the most ferocious brutality that makes you question the very soul of humanity has driven these people away from their homes and into refugee camps.  They have fled their respective countries hoping for a brighter future complete with freedom and safety.  

Parents hope to raise families where opportunity lies, where children can grow up to be doctors and lawyers and men and women are not reliant on handouts from others but instead on their own conviction and hard work.  If there is no foreseeable future beyond surviving today where does the hope lie?  As an internal optimist I have always encouraged hope and positive energy but my message often falls on deaf ears here in Dzaleka.  This is understandable when I consider the troubling truth staring me in the face.  Very few refugees are resettled and an even smaller number are given higher education scholarships to universities inside as well as outside of the country.  During one of these intimate conversations one man spoke up with certainty in his voice, “Africa holds my destiny, I don’t.”  From the time I spent with him I came to the conclusion that what he meant was that resource poor Africa has already decided his fate.  It has been engulfed in war, raised corrupt dictators, forced people to leave their homeland, denied democracy, complicated investment, thwarted infrastructure and business and hindered education for all.  Africa has set him up to fail.    

Without touching on the consequences of colonialism, the cost of Africa’s and the international community’s actions has prolonged the vicious cycle of helplessness, reliance, poverty and suffering.  The hardest pill for me to swallow is that many youth in camp are not able to hold on to the idea of hope.  Nothing breaks my heart more than looking into a child’s eyes knowing they have given up on themselves and their future.  I know that every child harbors that flame of curiosity and imagination that if given oxygen can set the world on fire.  When I dig deep I believe the source of my love for working alongside youth is their ability to hope and dream despite the challenges of their reality. 

With the odds stacked against us we persevere.  I for one refuse to give up hope for a brighter future.  I want to help supply the oxygen and not deplete it for I believe that no good thing ever dies.  I believe that is why so many people in camp are religious.  If faith in their god is the only place they find solace and answers to their problems then let there be that belief in a higher being that can provide comfort, consolation and dare I say it…Hope!

Futbol at sunset in Dzaleka Camp

DF:  Doggy Dip Days in Lilongwe.  What is doggy dip you ask?  Doggy dip is a designated day every week when all of the dogs in the city are rounded up and taken to a central location where they are bathed by their owners/hired help in a pool of flea treated water.  Dogs of all shapes and sizes are marched down to the dip, some willing, some not, some hostile, some not and then plunged into the pool.  You know it’s doggy dip day when all the leashed dogs are violently shaking water from their coats and are wet to the bone revealing their wiry frames.  Clean, tick and flea free doggies, thanks to the Lilongwe laws mandating doggies to dip.