Paradise

Yesterday was the last full day for the Uganda 360 CRED team. It has been an amazing trip in so many ways, not least seeing a very diverse group of young people, from a range of backgrounds, each with their own set of ‘baggage’ and issues that they are working through, come together to make a strong, supportive team, who have been working for each other as much as for themselves, and even moreso have been working together for the good of the children and communities we have been serving.

It has been a transforming trip for the team, and there have been lots of very interesting conversations as they have been processing what they have seen, heard and experienced. Eyes have definitely been opened, hearts softened, and future directions reconsidered. A very good trip.

But the thought I want to share today relates to a song that they had on in the van yesterday as we were driving back from Maya, an area of rural poverty, to have a final visit with the Acholi Community, an area of urban poverty. The song that came on was ‘Paradise’ by Coldplay, and although I’ve heard it many times before, the words set off a new thought process yesterday.

I’m not brilliant with lyrics, but it talks of a girl who expected the world, but couldn’t have it, so she flew away in her sleep to paradise. It goes on to mention how the wheel breaks the butterfly, and tears are like waterfalls – so as to reinforce the hardness of the girl’s life, and how far she feels from paradise.

As I reflected on the people I’d just met at Maya, and those I would soon meet at Acholi, I wondered what paradise would look like to them. For westerners, I think paradise would include golden sandy beaches, blue sky, palm trees, everything taken care of etc. But to a child living in absolute poverty, can their imagination even stretch that far?

Can they think that far outside of their immediate existence, or would that be too painful a process – to dream of something they know is almost impossible to get? Would paradise for them be more along the lines of knowing that they could have 3 meals a day, water on tap, a non-leaking roof, a few changes of clothes, shoes that aren’t broken, cooking facilities that don’t involve leaning over a charcoal fire all day?

All things we take for granted, even assume as our basic rights, but for so many in the world, it is so far from the norm, and definitely not something to be assumed.

Maybe I need to ask some of the children at Acholi Quarters one day how they would describe paradise, and see what their answer is. I could be surprised, and discover that they have the courage to dream big, or I might find that their dreams are much more low-key, with much lower expectations of what the best is that could come their way.

In the meantime, maybe the challenge to all of us is to look for ways in which we can help others get one step closer to the paradise they dream of, and to put those ways into practice.