So I have just returned from my first trip to Africa, and my first major experience in a third-world environment (although the PC term these days is “developing world”). Here are a few observations I have:

**I was looking forward to experiencing the truly African way of community, specifically, the way they take care of one another and share their resources. And I did observe this in many ways. But I was also sad to see how often the poor are victimized by the government and a growing number of those who are only able to gain material things through burglary and exploitation of the poor. We have ways in the USA that our government exploits the poor, and we have thieves and greedy people, but it especially saddens me that such things happen in poor places like Africa. You would think that their common need would encourage them to work together, not to hurt one another.

**In Zimbabwe, the national currency has the highest inflation rate in the world, and the simplest products like food and gasoline can be astronomically expensive due to the value of their money. Paper cash is sparse, so even if you have money in the bank, you may not be able to access it. The electricity goes out country-wide every week or so, and running water has been out-of-service in most of the country for some time now. The infrastructure is falling apart and some of the basic human needs like food and water are being threatened. How can the people expect to make a living without these basic needs? How can country experience economic growth without the resources necessary to do it? How can people feel content and satisfied in life when they are confronted daily with hardship?

**It’s interesting how quickly you can forget or change your mind about a first impression. For example, many people in Africa, especially Zimbabwe, live seemingly very destitute lives. But one’s first impression is of a child with tattered clothes, dirty hands, and blank expression can slowly be changed by the child’s exuberance when singing, or his response to receiving a hug, or the way he paints a picture. The child may be destitute, but he is still a child like any other boy his age - he wants to have fun and wants to be loved.