Last night, I took Christian and Hunter on a date to see the African Children's Choir (www.africanchildrenschoir.com). They were the most beautiful children with the brightest spirits I have ever seen! Most of these children (all between 7 and 11 yrs. old) are orphans and participating in this choir is a way for them to pay for their education and living expenses.
In Northern Uganda alone, the German Red Cross estimates that over 150,000 orphans are starving to death! There have been over 9.5 million refugees and millions of people massacred in the genocides of Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Darfur. I think that because these people live such different lives than us, and on the other side of the world, and maybe even because they are black, it is hard to believe that they are exactly like us. The children that are dying from starvation every day are the equivalent to OUR children, MY children, dying. The mothers mourn their children's deaths as we would, and when rape is used as a method of war, as it is in the Congo, the women feel scarred just as deeply as we would if that happened to us.
This is one of the reasons that I feel that the war in Iraq is less than noble in purpose. There are genocides that are going on TODAY and have been going on for many years, but our country has been slow in even acknowledging that it is occurring! We say that we are fighting for the freedom of others in Iraq, but if it weren't for the oil benefits to us, I wonder if we would feel the same. This is not to say that the soldiers are not brave and noble in their intentions, but I do feel that we went into Iraq on false pretenses. Why aren't we doing more for the people of Africa?! I desperately want my children to grow up and know of the vast world around them and that it is up to them to help those in need. I was so impressed that Hunter, who is 7, was spellbound during the entire 2 hour performance which included singing, dancing, and a brief history of what they have endured and continue to endure. At the end, each child introduced themselves and said what they wanted to be when they grew up. Without exception, they all wanted to be lawyers, doctors, or teachers. These children were the essence of innocence, beauty, strength, and hope. I felt honored to be in the same room as them and plan to continue doing as much as I can, with my family, to continue helping them. If they can live life with such joy, surely I can too!
Click on link below to see video of choir:
3 comments:
i love your post! i watched all of that video you posted. i think i would have loved that concert too!!! i agree with you on the war. I wish we were doing more in africa.
Thanks Maddie for the compliment! I love your parents blog so much and if you make a blog and your brothers and sisters make a blog I'll bet yours will be just as good as your parents. Maybe yours might even be a little better if you put more into it than your parents. I just love you. If your and my parents don't know and aren't looking, maybe I can sneak some candy into a little box and send some to you. Maddie, I wish I get to come see you for Christmas too and I hope you get to come in March or April again. Maddie, I miss your round, perfect, circle shaped face like the moon. I really miss seeing it. You're my bestest cousin in the whole wide world. I just like being with you so much, playing on the tramp, running around. I just miss you sooo much. You're so fun to play with just because of your personality and how fun you are to play with. I just love all my cousins and maybe if you're lucky I might love you a tiny bit more! I just wish I could live more near to you then about 100 miles away. Well, in 6 months we're going to move alot closer so we can just drive there instead of taking a plane and have sleepovers every weekend.
Love,
Britton
P.S. I love your smiling, special face and I just wish we could see eachother soon, soon enough. Love you, Maddie.
Wow, what an incredible experience. I can't imagine actually being there! How wonderful for you all.
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