It took me a while to get my children to stop saying "I am starving!" when all they wanted to say is "I am hungry". I am not usually sensitive to a hyperbole, but that one has always bothered me. I have been very hungry, and I am convinced so have my kids, but starving? I doubt that. One of the things I am always grateful for, is when I do feel that hunger, and I get irritable and frustrated, I know it is a temporary problem which I will fix if I stop what I am doing, or find a spot to buy food or warm up the food that I have available for me to eat.
If you think of the amounts of times you have been "starving", can you imagine what someone on the street is going through, when they are begging? Why are beggars treated with such a lack of tolerance? I have even heard advice of "don't feed the local beggars, else they won't leave". Why on earth would it make sense to let someone suffer, if you are in a position to give them a hand? You don't even have to cook a special meal, just share what you have left. I am of the impression that people with food, throw away a lot of it, so tell me if I am wrong!
Fanie is an old man, who is always on my street during the day. I am not sure where he lives, but he has somewhere else he calls home as at night he is never around, and there is a change of the guard in terms of the guys that act as car guards, offering "parking advisory services". He has such a cheerful nature, that when he is having an off day, I can immediately tell, as his level of enthusiasm is very low. At times he has had one drink too many (ok most of the time ) but it is not my place to judge him. Giving him food leaves me feeling better about myself and gives him one less thing to worry about.
He speaks SeTswana and SeXhosa very well, and at first he spoke to me in SeXhosa as he made the assumption seeing my car as a CA registration in Joburg, that I am from Cape Town and therefore Xhosa. It was only when I heard him speaking to Martha (one of the car guards on the street) in SeTswana that I realised him and I were not even communicating in our preferred languages. I get to know him more and more everyday, as we talk. I can even tease him about the soccer score when I know Pirates has lost as that is the team he supports. We are on on a first name basis, where he even calls me Thibos, a derivative of my name (used affectionately).
His frailty though is something that bothers me and I can see how I am protecting myself from attachment to him, as I honestly don't know everyday whether I will see him again. He has a very upbeat day, and a down day at a rate of knots. The little breakfast I had set aside for him yesterday morning for instance, I gave to a beggar at the corner of Oxford Street and Bolton road, as Fanie was not there when I left for work. I know him, yet I don't know him. I want to help him, but I don't want to get "involved".
South Africa is a great country if you have a job. When you have no job or source if income, I think it is harder than most countries in our league, as the state support is lacking. Those of us privileged enough, can't be so cold as to not know the homeless man or woman that roams our streets. Let's not judge the guys at the traffic lights, or worry that giving them money they only end up buying alcohol or glue to sniff. Sniffing glue, or drinking alcohol is a coping mechanism for someone and that is the path they have chosen to deal with their life's options (or more lack of options). Who am I, or you to judge that person for how they choose to utilise your helping hand. How much do you think you would change your world, if you simply stopped judging and started giving?
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