What would you do for food?

This was the conversation that arose as Janine and I ate lunch today.  It wasn't about how much we were enjoying the veg fried rice and Haka mixed noodles at a beach side cafe (and I mean literally on the sand, on the beach), it was about the little girl who performed circus acts and then went around asking for money afterwards right in the sand in front of the restaurant.

Janine wrote a post about poverty, about it being in your face in the places we have lived over the last 4 months, and all the feelings it invokes, I did not weigh in, but here we go.

We watched as the little girl, maybe 9 or 10, helped her partner, likely her mom or older sister set up a tight rope from a few bamboo poles and yellow nylon rope.  She had a mallet and beat a big metal stake into the ground that served as her rope’s anchor.  She honestly had the poise and look of what I imagine John Henry having as he raced that machine laying down railroad spikes.

She started the show by doing contortionist acts, I wondered in my head whether being doubled jointed here was a curse or a blessing.  Her partner beat out a rhythm on a little drum, as the girl danced with a few gold bowls on her head and then climbed the bamboo pole and started her act. At first she simply walked across the line, then she walked with an old bicycle rim in between her legs, placing each step on the inside of the rim. The maneuvers continued to increase in difficulty as the 5 minute show went on.

At the conclusion, the drum stopped and the partner started breaking down the tight rope.  It went up in 5 minutes, the show lasted 5 minutes, and it was down in 4.  The little girl started making her rounds to the outer tables of the two beachside establishments.  I watched as she stood staring at a european couple that acted as though she was not there.  They looked intensely at one another, not saying a word to each other.  You could hear the words in their head formulating “If we pretend she’s not there, she will go away, and go bother that other couple eating the fish curry.”

She walked to the couple eating the fish curry.  Janine asked me if we could purchase another bottle of water to give them.  I had the same thought only moments earlier, so within a minute Janine was handing the girl a cold Aquafina to the response of “thank you,” and then she traveled to the next table.  That couple told her they “didn’t have anything” and the next couple gave her 10 rupees (20 cents).

We watched her slowly drink the water we had given her, then her partner lifted the bamboo poles on to her head, the little girl lifted a bundle containing the rope, stakes, mallet and other possessions on to her head, and they headed the 2 km walk down the beach to next group of beach shacks.

Janine and I sat at our table and continued what seems to be a pretty constant discussion of poverty.  How giving money is not sustainable.  How she is only being encouraged to keep asking for money when she receives it. I remarked how I wish somebody would give the girl a college fund, and how America truly is the land of opportunity, because people don’t walk on tight ropes on beaches in Florida just hoping to get enough money to eat that day.  In America, there is option after option to get an education, to get food, and to have some resemblance of a stable safe environment to live in.  That is not the case for many people in India.  Even the people we serve in Africa are in a better situation than that little girl and her partner seemed to be.

That little girl had no choice. Sadly, it’s doubtful that in the smallest state in India, Goa, with one of the highest Christian populations in the country, this little girl will know much else than performing for survival.  She will likely walk a tight rope until the day comes when its her turn to carry the poles and beat the drum.

Janine remarked that she would likely do the same to eat if she had to, she said she actually feared to think what she might do if she was actually starving.  The fact is that most likely anyone reading this post hasn’t been in that situation, and by God’s grace won’t be.  But the question for me is, what do we do for the little girl?

Do we just give her money, so that she will continue to walk the same beach, performing the same acts, for the children of the sun burnt tourists that watched her years before?  I pray not.  Money is not the answer to poverty as we have observed over and over.  Choice, education, and resources are the way to end poverty and give little girls, like the one who heart-breakingly provided our lunch time entertainment, an opportunity to live in the God given dignity you and I experience every single waking moment.

Feel free to weigh in with your thoughts and opinions. Thank you once again for taking an interest in our lives, as we pray for God to give us eyes to take an interest in the lives of others.  Grace and Peace.