A nod to Bob Geldhoff

My wife and I delivered food to the church yesterday. Not to the church directly, as we had a confounding experience last time. Instead of giving the ox we’d brought to the poor, the church sold the ox for its own purposes. I can understand that, but our goal was really to feed poor people, so this time we took the food onto the church grounds and gave it directly to the poor.

I’ll say this – I’ve got a little better understanding of Bob Geldhoff’s position at this point. Not that I think feeding the poor is a good way to develop a country, but to sit there in front of people and watch them eat, so orderly, but clearly so hungry, broke my heart. We fed about forty people a good meal of injera, meat sauce, and tella (a local brew). Forty people at one of the wealthier churches in a city where the poor probably eat better than in a lot of places in Ethiopia. The only term that comes to mind is, “drop in a bucket”.

The actual process was pretty simple. We drove onto the church grounds and found an area where many of the old women were located. Our maid informed a group of other women at the front door to the church that we had food and they soon ambled to our location. The line was very orderly; new arrivals were instructed to go to the back and wait their turn. From there, we simply went down the line passing out injera and meat sauce to each person. This was then washed down with tella.

So anyway, Geldhoff bashers of Ethiopia, (and if I’m honest, I must admit that on occasion I’ve made at least a minor crack in his direction), I think there is some truth to what Mr. Geldhoff is saying. The “get angry about it” may be his unique approach, but it does kind of rip your heart out when you stop to realize how many people are hungry and just how little any of them can do about it.