Hunger to me, is brown and green. While in Haiti we went to several areas of Gonaives where hunger prevailed. Brown doesn't relate to the color of their (the Haitians) skin so much as it does to the look of their country. The land has been stripped and in the cities there isn't a whole lot of greenery... just dirt. Dust covers everything. The market is nothing like our Dillon's or Wal-Mart. It's open-air so dust covers everything there as well... unless it's rained then you have to wade through stinky, messy, muck.
The green comes from the little kids we saw. So many of the malnourished ones (particularly in the feeding center) were sick. So the green running from their noses reminds me of hunger.
Orange too... for the color of their fading hair. I didn't know until that trip that even our hair color is affected by proper nourishment.
Smells - yes, there is a smell in my mind associated with hunger - but it's hard to describe - you just have to experience it.
Sounds - yes, "Monte! Monte! Monte!" Creole for "Liar, liar, liar!" It was yelled at me while teaching about Christ's love and sacrifice to a precious group of children. But that is a different sort of hunger all together.
Hunger is gray, like garbage cans that haven't been cleaned. Ever. When I worked in Over the Rhine in Cincinnati, long before the notion of making it look nice, it smelled like decayed watermelon thrown out the window. And it wasn't something you approached unless you had to. Dangerous. Contagious. If you looked a child in the eye, you might have to admit that you didn't want to give him anything, and Luke 16:19-31, the story of Lazarus was someone else's problem.
Hunger is white. The white flies that feast on the skin of the deep trash pit in Las Flores. The skin of the children who wade through the larva-feces agua breaking their brown flesh on stones and bottles. Hunger is the white now yellow now brown eyes of the men who lay in hammocks, the children who fall through the floors, the women who walk uphill pregnant wearing clothes far too tight or ten sizes too small. Hunger is the white of their teeth white with no decay because there is no food to chew. Hunger is the white of my open full refrigerator where i stand starving starving, I swear but can find nothing to eat.
Hunger to me, is brown and green. While in Haiti we went to several areas of Gonaives where hunger prevailed. Brown doesn't relate to the color of their (the Haitians) skin so much as it does to the look of their country. The land has been stripped and in the cities there isn't a whole lot of greenery... just dirt. Dust covers everything. The market is nothing like our Dillon's or Wal-Mart. It's open-air so dust covers everything there as well... unless it's rained then you have to wade through stinky, messy, muck.
ReplyDeleteThe green comes from the little kids we saw. So many of the malnourished ones (particularly in the feeding center) were sick. So the green running from their noses reminds me of hunger.
Orange too... for the color of their fading hair. I didn't know until that trip that even our hair color is affected by proper nourishment.
Smells - yes, there is a smell in my mind associated with hunger - but it's hard to describe - you just have to experience it.
Sounds - yes, "Monte! Monte! Monte!" Creole for "Liar, liar, liar!" It was yelled at me while teaching about Christ's love and sacrifice to a precious group of children. But that is a different sort of hunger all together.
Hunger is gray, like garbage cans that haven't been cleaned. Ever. When I worked in Over the Rhine in Cincinnati, long before the notion of making it look nice, it smelled like decayed watermelon thrown out the window. And it wasn't something you approached unless you had to. Dangerous. Contagious. If you looked a child in the eye, you might have to admit that you didn't want to give him anything, and Luke 16:19-31, the story of Lazarus was someone else's problem.
ReplyDeleteHunger is white. The white flies that feast on the skin of the deep trash pit in Las Flores. The skin of the children who wade through the larva-feces agua breaking their brown flesh on stones and bottles. Hunger is the white now yellow now brown eyes of the men who lay in hammocks, the children who fall through the floors, the women who walk uphill pregnant wearing clothes far too tight or ten sizes too small. Hunger is the white of their teeth white with no decay because there is no food to chew. Hunger is the white of my open full refrigerator where i stand starving starving, I swear but can find nothing to eat.
ReplyDelete