conversations with Asha

Every night before bed, and after the Mexican soap opera dubbed in really annoying (and too proper) English.., we sit down with Asha and talk about Kenya.. ; about Africa and the world.. 

Her witty look and bright smile accompany our conversations, and we stay up until late..

She tells us about that time when she went to Nairobi with other fellow citizens to demonstrate for the right to own land.. They managed to talk to the prime minister but they still ended up being tear gassed by the police..

She tells us about the first time she got malaria; and how scared Rachid and her were during the election riots of 2007, when they saw themselves surrounded by dozens of policemen outside the big Nakumat supermarket in town, as they were trying to buy and stash as much food as possible..

Today she went to visit one of the HIV positive women she helps, as part of her Saturday group. The old lady is taking her meds but doesn't have enough to eat so she's still getting weaker every day..

That makes me think of the kid at the orphanage who is infected.. (We don't actually know which one it is - and haven't asked, as i personally prefer not to know.. )

....my minds wonders off; thinking about what the future holds for all these children... What is going to become of the girls once they have to go out to the world......

Asha is buying food for her next door neighbor who lost her husband and is left with three small children.. and yet, she herself can't pay for her son to go on a field trip next week.. "How can I not help her? She is my neighbor..." She says it without trying to sound generous, simply stating a very simple fact; a truth by which to give and to live...

Africa is definitely messed up but things here are still real..
Laughter and sorrow; hunger and generosity; boredom and exploitation; life and death.. Everything is true to the core of its reality..

I can't help but ask myself how this is possible.. How can the world still turn around day after day with the weight of a whole continent on its shoulders? How can the world's most powerful men simply let this go on?
I understand it must be convenient to some heartless bastards..

... so much poverty and injustice...

the world doesn't care so Africa raise up!!!