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Ubuntu

Sanibona from Howick, South Africa. I’ve spent the last week in mud huts full of family and love if not enough nutritious food, schools with windows and adequate materials missing, government offices with bureaucrats driven to make a difference but limited by any number of obstacles, NPO’s full of hope and vision but lacking the organizational or business skills to make the impact they desire, people working hard to build something better for themselves and their kids, others who’ve given up and just want a hand-out. In short, I’ve seen every variation on Ubuntu I’d see anywhere else in the world.

Ubuntu is the Zulu word for human nature,and while their word for it sounds different than ours, their nature is no different from ours. Ubuntu is universal. it is what Miranda noticed when she met three year old Amahle and Nomnekelo, who is six days younger than Miranda; they are really the same. they just don’t have the same opportunities, the same resources, the same support, the same paths open to them. Every new person I meet here; every new situation; every new obstacle and every new point of light, I am more aware than ever that we are, as U2 once sang, One – the same, but different. And because we are really all the same, it is important for us to share what we have with them, especially when we have so much. They deserve to have the same opportunities to become the best of their human nature. And the world is better off every time one more person has the chance to reach their potential and give their gifts to the world.

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