The Website of Miah and Michelle Collins

Hi,

My name is Ezekiel and I come from Zimbabwe. I’m part of the J-Life ministry team 2010. It’s a team comprised of people from different parts of Africa going through training from January to April.

One of the exercizes we go through is called African realities. We were placed in teams where we had to go through the hardships that other people in Africa go through. Some were made to live like single mothers, some ex- prisoners, some illegal immigrants. I was assigned the identity of street kid and had to live like this for the next three days.

I was really touched to hear that most people in Africa barely use $1 a day, and I truly believe that. It reminded me of situations that many families went through in Zimbabwe in 2008-2009. In that period, my country was facing a period of political change that left the whole country with a trail of povery that no one could explain. The basic markets people went to could not even keep up with the prices of commodities due to scarcity. The shops in towns were empty, completely empty. If you could find something, it was extremely expensive. Just a can of coke was equivalent to R100, or $12.

With a previous season of doughts and mismanaged Agricultural seasons, the people in the villages were the most severely affected by the situation. They did not have produce and at the same time did not have the money to buy the expensive food that was now being imported. I went to a village called Buhera for a funeral and there I got to see this painful reality firsthand. There, the whole village came to the funeral, not because they knew the person, or to pay their last respects, but to get a decent meal (which was now rare). Life there was now unbearable, and this is one of the many untold stories. In some parts of the village, people were surviving on wild fruit. Chiefs had to take charge of certain areas in order to allocate fruit to families. They would make rosters and take turns to come and pick the fruit from the trees for their families. And families would go for days without eating! Whatever they picked on their turn is what they had to survive on until their next turn to pick from the tree.

This is how harsh life can be here. This is one of the situations in Africa. My experience of African realities made me think again about how I can play a part to bring change in other people’s lives and how I can change. How much effort am I putting in to help people in my country?

I must admit that it felt good to get my phone back and to go back to normal life after three days of this exercise. But other people don’t have that, what they are and how they struggle will remain until someone with a heart intervenes....