Rock of Africa<\/a>,
\nI travelled to Zimbabwe, one of the poorest country’s on earth to one
\nof it’s poorest villages. I, together with my daughter Chana, Glen, and
\nhis team, did an outreach program preparing a Thanksgiving feast for
\n500 villagers and then distributed sixty mosquito nets and Bibles. The
\nfeast consisted of ten slaughtered goats and giant pots of cooked
\ncabbage and a corn-flower mixture which is eaten throughout Africa. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I cannot begin to describe what it was like. It will take me a while but here are some immediate impressions. <\/p>\n
The people were gentle, beautiful, and utterly poor. The entire
\nvillage is built of mud huts, the Chief’s home included. G-d were they
\nthankful. They have nothing, no material possessions. They live in tiny
\npen-sized huts. But they smile and they exhibit unbelievable warmth.<\/p>\n
Young mothers and fathers seemed absent. So many have died from
\nAIDS. We saw scores of young children strapped to their grandmother’s
\nback in the African way. It was devastating to see an entire generation
\nwiped out. <\/p>\n
The children could not have been more polite and better behaved.
\nHundreds of them sat in rows on the floor. They ate every part of the
\nplate we served before them. I’m talking the stomach, the intestines,
\nthe vertebrae. They were thrilled to have a warm meal with meat. The
\nchildren sang for us and danced. <\/p>\n
The women were even more lively. Each ate with their hands which
\nwere washed just before the meal. There is no running water in the
\nvillage and water is fetched from a well nearly a mile away. <\/p>\n
The men and women sat apart. When the women, my daughter included,
\nserved them they curtsied, as women do by tradition before men. If a
\nwoman does not curtsy the man will not accept the food. All were moved
\nand delighted by the feast that was put before them. <\/p>\n
The most moving part of the day was when we distributed corn seeds
\nfor the families. These bags costs just $25 each. But they sustain a
\nfamily for a year. The Chief called out names of the lucky people and
\nthey came forward for the seed. They were glowing. Many of them kissed
\nthe bags as they picked them up. If a bag opened and some of the seeds
\nfell on the ground, the people picked up every last seed as if each was
\na diamond. <\/p>\n
We have much to learn from these people. The Chief exhibited a rare
\nhumility, even though he adjudicates the life of 350 homesteads. <\/p>\n
I learn about true thanksgiving today. Thankful to G-d that I live
\nin a country that does have this level of poverty, and thankful to G-d
\nthat I met so many of his beautiful children today in a totally remote
\ncorner of the world where I hope that my assisting them in being fed
\ntoday will lead them to a year of abundance and blessing.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\nWritten very quickly and with barely any communications tools. So
\nplease forgive any errors. Go to Shmuley.com and see pictures and video
\nof the African service trip.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am someone who uses the expression ‘life-transforming” very sparingly because very few things in life are. Change is something that requires constant effort and constant practice. It doesn’t come cheaply. But I will use the expression to describe what I did today, Thanksgiving 2009. As a volunteer with my good friend Glen Megill’s organization,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel"],"yoast_head":"\n
Transformation in Zimbabwe - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2009\/11\/transformation-in-zimbabwe.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transformation in Zimbabwe - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am someone who uses the expression ‘life-transforming” very sparingly because very few things in life are. Change is something that requires constant effort and constant practice. It doesn’t come cheaply. But I will use the expression to describe what I did today, Thanksgiving 2009. As a volunteer with my good friend Glen Megill’s organization,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2009\/11\/transformation-in-zimbabwe.htm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-11-27T09:28:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rabbi Shmuley Boteach\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Transformation in Zimbabwe - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/2009\/11\/transformation-in-zimbabwe.htm","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Transformation in Zimbabwe - Rabbi Shmuley Unleashed","og_description":"I am someone who uses the expression ‘life-transforming” very sparingly because very few things in life are. 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His book, Kosher Sex, was an international blockbuster, published in 20 languages, and his recent books on the American family, Parenting With Fire and Ten Conversations You Need to Have With Your Children, were both launched on The Oprah Winfrey Show.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/author\/dbigbee"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/rabbishmuleyunleashed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}