".....But I know, A change is gon' come, Oh, yes it will."Wait..it's already here. If you'd told me five years ago, hell, even LAST year, that millions of people would storm the streets of ANY capital city of ANY country on the African continent to demand that a corrupt, greedy, cruelly indifferent leader resign, I would have called you puredee batshit crazy.
I've just seen too much mind-twisting, gut-wrenching, soul-shattering poverty, neglect, and thievery over here. I've seen too many people accept it as the just the way life is. I've watched too many people stuff themselves into too many crowded matatus, headed to a job that pays less each month than I've paid for a pair of boots, working 8 hours or more every day just for the privilege of barely surviving, forget about educating their children or buying medicine.
I've seen children playing on fresh graves in IDP camps in Northern Uganda after decades of war, and I've seen them lying on the hard, drafty dirt floor of the Great Rift Valley in tattered tents in Kenya after election-related violence, and each time, I've lost a bit of my faith. I'll admit it. It is just so hard to keep believing in justice and heavenly intervention when you see children suffer. It's so hard to believe that one day, things will get better, and that mean people will get what's coming to them.
I'm not a fool. I realize that the proud elation in Egypt has already been replaced by harsh reality. I realize getting rid of Mubarak was not a panacea. I know there are even scarier, greedier, meaner demons than him walking the Earth, and they'd gladly take the reins if they got a chance.
I guess all I want to say is, I'm just so very glad I got to see what's happening Up North in my lifetime. May the rest of the continent get in on the gettin' while it's good.
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