100 Days

Today is our 100th day in Mozambique. In some ways, it is hard to imagine that 100 days have passed already. In other ways, it seems that we've been here a lifetime.

After a new president or prime minister has taken office, he or she is often asked to sit down and reflect upon the first 100 days of their mandate. Time to take stock.

Following that time-honoured tradition, I woke up early this morning and peeked outside. No media trucks. I checked my phone for messages. No interviews scheduled.

Just as well, I suppose. But that doesn't mean that I can't pause here and take stock of these first 100 days.

My temptation is to zoom out and look at the macro-view first. In what tangible, lasting way have I changed the continent in these first 100 days? Or at least improved the future of this country?

Sounds unrealistic, doesn't it? A little ridiculous. Yet that's the standard we hold our political leaders to, and one that has been engrained in me. Our western culture teaches us to "swing for the fence", and to "catch the big fish." We glorify large-scale success.

I beat myself up for not having solved an intractable, complicated problem that milions of people and billions of dollars have been chipping away at for generations.

A healthier perspective is to zoom in and focus on the micro-view. In what ways have being here had an impact on someone's life?

How have I moved the yardsticks forward for one person in Mozambique?

How have I moved the yardsticks forward for one person back home?

And how have I moved them forward in my own life?

Some skeptics may think that's a cop-out; that I'm lowering expectations to ensure that I'm able to meet them. I don't see it that way at all.

And the lady with the fruitstand down the street doesn't see it that way, either. The one who smiles and waves every day, and who is pleased to sell me tomatoes and green peppers, but only after she asks me about my day and if my parents are healthy.

I came to Mozambique to bring poverty relief through economics. I came hoping to leave lives in a bit better state. I came so that people might see that I love them because God first loved me.

And no doubt, I will leave having accomplished some of that.

But there's nothing more enriching in African culture than the value of personal relationships. (And that's a hard and tiring lesson for this introvert to learn!)

I would be foolish to try to fight poverty but forsake the poor.

What has changed in these first 100 days? Perhaps nothing so great as my perspective on people in poverty.