April 2003

From The Far Side

A little girl of about a year and a half sits on the dirt floor of the cave-like mud brick hut where she lives with her mother and grandparents. In the house with them live their few chickens and a donkey. Flies are dancing around on her face. She is not fortunate enough to know the luxury of three meals a day, a daily or even weekly bath, or even clean drinking water. If she makes it to the age of five, she will be working in the fields surrounding her village, probably married by the age of fifteen.

Their neighbors next door are in a similar situation. They are a complete family of a father and mother with five children. They live in their home of about one-and-a-half by three meters, dirt floors, no running water, and no bathroom to speak of. Next door to them is essentially the same story, as it is for many in the communities of Upper Egypt. Besides this similarity of dwellings and impoverishment, there is another similarity that sticks out to the visitor. All of these dwellings have crosses over their front doors, pictures of Christ with hands welcoming and Mary the mother of Jesus smiling down upon them and all who enter. Though they may be impoverished in their physical reality, these people are wealthier than many in spirit and faith.

Hala and I traveled to Egypt from the 18th to the 27th of this month. Knowing that I would have to visit many of the organizations that are taking part in the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Joining Hands Against Hunger, I was anxious for Hala to visit Egypt and see for herself what I had been telling her about for a year now. Beside being constantly reminded of how blessed we are with all that we have—food, shelter and opportunity—Hala couldn't help but to recognize how important the Joining Hands initiative could be in creating change for the people she saw. It was her first trip to Egypt and to another Arab country. For her, as for most all non-Egyptian Arabs, Egypt represents the film industry and a cultural base. It is known that many in Egypt are impoverished, but she never realized the extent.

We also visited the garbage pickers’ community of Moqa'atam. In this area of Cairo, about 17,000 people live amidst the refuse of the city. For fifty years, these people have been collecting Cairo's garbage and recycling about 85 percent of it. Now, the government has come in and has contracted with an Italian company to collect Cairo's garbage. Instead of recycling Cairo's garbage, it will now be buried out in the middle of an unpopulated area of the desert. Not only is this an environmental disaster in the making, but it ends the way garbage collectors “bring home the bread.” They have no idea what to do now, their livelihood, no matter how bitter, is gone. Shocked at the living conditions, but even more shocked that the government was taking away an entire community's livelihood, Hala asked why this was happening. It was explained to her how this was part of the IMF and World Bank policy to open Egypt up to the new “global economy.” The Italian company will now be earning a profit of an estimated $6 million per month. The community, 95 percent Christian, has now been thrown upside down.

Egypt's realities are so many and so varied. We did have dinner out two evenings in very nice restaurants and visited friends in an upper-class area. For Hala, the contrast was immense and the memory will be forever.

Chris Doyle

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 156