Steven Mgombi was ecstatic.
He and a friend had just used a mesh from a bed, used to ward off malaria-carrying mosquitoes at night, to carefully draw across a shallow pond and corral a mess of small tilapia-like fish.
…Which Mgombi then triumphantly showed to a nearby old man fishing with just string wrapped around a tin can, which he used to deftly cast a small baited hook far out into the water (but hadn’t caught anything yet).
Other residents of Maua, Kenya, were also at the pond – some doing laundry and dishes, others washing dented cars and still others just bathing. A few had soap.
We didn’t know on that day in 2008 what Steven and his partner would do with their catch, but in all likelihood, most of it would be sold along the side of a dirt street (although I’m guessing one or two might have been given to a family member to add to their porridge dinner).
So…
What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?
Have it all rehearsed for the “Let’s-go-around-the-table” exercise today? Family? Food? Happy times together?
Steven and his buddy seemed happy to just be alive.
So, too, was a small boy walking along a highway later that day, clutching a plain sheet of white paper.
It hadn’t been written on and, he said proudly, was so valuable he was hiking two miles to town and back to trade it for a potato to take home for his family’s dinner.
…Pass those mashed potatoes please. Need another dollop or two next to my turkey.
It was my first mission trip (made three) to Kenya with my brother Jim and his wife, Sue Owen, to build homes for orphans in an AIDS-ravaged rural community and work at a hospital desperately trying to serve nearly a million third-world humans.
And it changed my Thanksgiving forever.
Children orphaned by AIDS are cared for by their aging grandparents (Kenya’s version of social security), often living in squalor.
The hospital’s maternity ward uses donated fish aquariums with warming lamps for newborns (electricity is iffy though) and all the cooking is done over open fires (who needs electricity anyway?)…Women with open sores from AIDS lose their inhibitions and bare their pock-marked breasts to visitors because they want to say THEY WERE HERE AND WERE ALIVE! You don’t want to know what the hospital does with their unclaimed bodies.
…Whoa, pumpkin or pecan pie?
We could all use a little more perspective about this day around a table with our loved ones.
Kenya reminded me that the majority of the planet’s temporary inhabitants aren’t nearly as well-off as I am. I saw it in Africa; in war-torn southeast Asia, and even – too often – here at home.
Angler’s teeth are about to gnash as Pacific Northwest anglers face hatchery closures, budget challenges, increased license and tag fees, climate change, and a host of other glitches interrupting our fishing futures.
…But before you pass the green beans, hoping someone will eat them, take a moment before succumbing to social media to pound a chest and declare yourself entitled to more than one salmon per day – bear in mind it’s only by the grace of whoever you believe in that you’re not Steven Mgombi (happy as he was).
With all of its annoying distractions, we still live in the world’s most diverse and marvelous region. From ocean beaches to snow-capped mountains to desert expanses, with perhaps by far the greatest array anywhere of fish to catch and game to hunt, I cannot think of anywhere else nearly as magnificent. Need to be a little more thankful while dessert is being readied?
Be thankful your wife and daughter can join you on a fishing trip.
…And ask her to please pass what’s left of the cranberries.