A Duck on the Highway
"That looks like a duck," I thought as I drove along the I-520 bypass around Augusta, Georgia. I was sure it was a piece of a big rig's tire that landed in an odd shape by the side of the road. But as I got closer . . . it was a duck. The oddity struck me. The duck stood straight up, facing the road, as if waiting for an opportune time to cross. As I always do, I wondered what God was trying to tell me. Should I "duck"? Was there going to be a bullet flying overhead? I shrugged all this off until I got to work and then forgot about the duck.
As always, I catch up on the news as I have my morning coffee break. As I was reading I read a story that stood out from all the others, in fact, it was as startling as seeing a duck on a highway.
Sania Khatun was a 12 year old student in Paraspur, India (125 miles north of Calcutta). Her family was very poor. Sania was used to not eating all day long and when she got home, she ate scraps left over from the families for whom her mother worked as a maid. It was a tough life. She, her mother, and brothers lived under a tarp, generously provided by the Indian government.
But on Friday she saw the other students eating a meal of rice. She wondered why she could not eat the rice and found out that the meal cost one rupee (two cents). Even though her mother was poor, she had seen her with more than a few rupees before. She determined to ask her mother for a rupee when she got home. Sania could almost taste the rice as she walked home that day.
She waited for her mother to come home from work and then asked the big question. "Can I have a rupee for lunch at school?" Her mother, a widow, perhaps overwhelmed from work and the prospect of surviving just another day in poverty in India, scolded her daughter. After all, her mother and her brother's combined income was around 20 rupees a day and there were so many other expenses.
The next day, Sania's mother, Jainab Bewar, left for work. Not sure if she was able to say goodbye to Sania or if she left so early that Sania was still in bed. Jainab Bewar left for her job in the city - she had to prepare the meal for another family's children perhaps. Perhaps she awoke the children and escorted them to the table. She watched carefully what was eaten and what was left on the plate, with the thought, "Ah, that will be a good portion to take home tonight. Won't Sania be happy with that?!" The day was another long one. There were houses to clean, children to feed, dishes to wash, and then . . . the long journey home. "Sania!" Jainab called as she got home. "I have an excellent choice of food to . . .," she stopped in mid-sentence. What an odd sight. "What is that?" As she drew closer in the dim light, she saw Sania hanging from the tarp roof, a sari tied around her neck and the other end around a beam that supported the tarp. She was dead.
Jainab explained to those who asked, "I did not give her the money because I did not have it." Two cents.
We know nothing more about Sania. We don't know if she was a good student, an obedient daughter, if she was prone to depression. But we do know she was hungry and she wanted two cents to eat a meal at school - just like all the other kids. At 12 years old she had spent many a year in poverty. She knew something about putting off wants and even needs. But there was something about that rice meal that day that made her think, "Why not me?" Perhaps her mother's scolding was nothing new or perhaps it was especially harsh. I can recall being angry when my kids asked me for things I knew I could not afford. But it was never really anger at the kids - it was anger at me - at the situation I was in. "I can't even afford to give my kids ______!" No parent feels good about not being able to afford their child's wants, much less their needs.
Like the duck in the road - this child's story hit me as something so odd that it had better wake up something in me. What am I doing for the Sania's of the world? How many more Sania's will there be until I do something? No more I pray. Today I will select a "Sania" from the list of children that need a sponsor and I and my family will assure that this "Sania" gets a meal at school or wherever.
To read the news story from the BBC News click this link.
To help feed a "Sania" visit the Compassion International ("Releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name") web site.
~GJH~(9-26-2005)
Note: This story is based on the news story but combines the facts with some fictional assumptions. ~GJH~