When the 2010 World Cup was to be held in South Africa, the Johannesburg airport began to undergo major renovations. A new, stunning mural read: If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. –African Proverb. The cooperative in Kantolomba beautifully models this.
Eugenia, one of the older members of the cooperative, recently collapsed on the property. She was rushed to the hospital. In the days that followed, as the medical folks worked to find out what was wrong, the rest of the team wanted to be by her side. “When one is sick,” Theresa described, “it’s like we are all sick. We want to be together.”
Knowing how expensive it is (relative to local economic standards) to take the mini bus into town, we asked Theresa how so many cooperative members got to the hospital. “We walked,” she said. That’s a two-hour walk.
“We broke up into two teams,” Theresa said. “One day one team would go, the next day the other team. If you go by yourself, you can’t do it. It’s too far. You get tired. But if you go together, you don’t notice the distance. We crack jokes and tell stories and have a good time the whole way. We enjoy it!”
What a recipe for all of life! Let’s walk together, tell stories, crack jokes. Let’s remind each other how much we care, how much what happens to one of us, happens to all of us. And when something does happen, as it will, we use it as an opportunity to walk together and continue to enjoy ourselves.
The good news: Eugenia is back home, resting and recuperating, soon to be back at the Living Compassion property.
In gasshō
jen