On the way out to some meetings today, we saw my old friend Ernesto. We pulled over to stop and talk a few minutes. Ernesto was a long-time worker at the mission compound where we rent a small house and when we moved here, we simply 'hit it off' and used to talk quite a bit. We've visited at his home, know his family, and count him as a friend. As I talked with him today, I recalled our afternoon discussion not so long ago.
Ernesto had decided he didn't want to work anymore. He wrote a letter to his boss explaining that his back was bothering him and he had decided to stop work for a couple of years and he hoped that they would hold the position for him. We invited him to sit with us and talk about why he was doing this and from that discussion, we learned the rest of the story.
Well, the short story is that he would work all month to receive his pay. He would then go home and the family (extended) would be waiting and by the time the day had ended, he no longer had sufficient money for the next month, if any at all. In the culture, the debt is not to credit card companies but to everyone you know basically, and if someone has a job, the people line up to try and get some of the pay on pay-day. What pushed him over the edge was that they had a medical situation that required going to the hospital and receiving some treatments. Because he had a job, the hospital expected him to pay more, but he didn't have any money because the family had all run off with it. So, he couldn't get the care he needed and so he decided that it just wasn't worth it to work. So, if he didn't have a job, and he didn't have money coming in, the people wouldn't be lined out his door on pay-day, and he could simply do other things here and there. And, they would be able to get the treatment they needed. Finally, the family beggars would over a two-year period find someone else to be their provider and maybe he could start working again.
Interesting concept.
Wanting to "fix it" (isn't that just the way we Westerners think?), we asked if there was something we could do to help him through the medical problem and Ann, of course, wanted all the gory nursing details. But, that wasn't the point of the story, he didn't necessarily need or want the help, it was a sympton of the greater problem.
I asked him how would he feed and care for his family as that was his Biblical mandate, and he said that they would survive somehow and that he was confident that God would provide. I don't doubt this because I know him to be a very resourceful and talented individual. I asked him why he couldn't just say "no" to the line of people and he shrugged his shoulders and said something in Shanghanna that I think was along the lines of 'you just can't possibly understand,' which is probably true.
I've heard others talk about this - if you have a job, everyone comes after you for money - and it results in a kind of equalizing across society. The twist of it is that it is also considered to be a great honor to even be asked to help and the cultural expectation is that you help with whatever you have today for tomorrow will take care of itself. In a subsistence society, it is how many can continue to subsist through the strong relational ties within the community. It makes it very hard for people to improve their lot, keep their business growing, provide jobs, etc. It's like the story we hear about Eastern conformance societies where if someone stands above the crowd, you get a hammer and pound them down like that old carnival game where the peg pops up and your job is to pound it down level.
Today I understood a little better. He now has a very part-time job driving a truck between here and some cities in the north. The times are very sporatic and so no one knows when he is going, or when he is coming back. He gets paid by the job and so there is no regular pay-day. That gives him a little better chance of having money to feed his family through the month. He doesn't work nearly as much and doesn't have to admit to having a 'regular job'. God has provided and he is happy and thankful. But it is difficult to wrap my Western mind around all of this.
I've written before of how incredibly generous the Mocambicans are as a people - this might just paint a picture of the other side of that generousity.
I was happy to see him today and to know that he and his family are doing well. He promised to come sit and talk like we used to so we can practice my Portuguese and we can just enjoy a wonderful time of fellowship.
And I will continue to ponder the culture God has allowed us to live in; trying to discern those things that matter, those things that don't, and teaching the truth of a God who loves us beyond understanding and who desires a personal relationship with each one of us. Our Creator trancends these cultural distinctives and through real personal relationships with Him, the culture will change to be more like what He desires. I doubt any of us has a true vision of what that might really look like.
We are simply to trust Him.
Blessings to you.
" But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." 1 Tim. 5:8
"The LORD is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him." Na 1:7
"And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need." Acts 2:44
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