In this line of work, it’s easy to get caught in a web of cynicism that binds you tight, wondering whether you’re actually making any difference, any headway against the monster of poverty.  It can be difficult to sleep when you add up the costs of flights, accommodation and food, and weigh that against the distance it could go in buying seed or pumps for hungry and thirsty people.

But this past week, we had the (strangely) wonderful experience of being made partially redundant.  We had been asked to look at assisting a community with another hydram.  Their community had expanded significantly in recent times, and water was running short for these folks on a hill.  So we arrived, armed with GPS, altimeters, sunglasses and clipboards – a perfect picture of external consultants, experts of nothing local.  We made our way down to the new hydram location, and found not one, but four hydrams plodding along, clicking and clacking, spraying their water and doing their thing.

And our chuckle was added to their thumping and splashing, a beautiful cacophony, an unusual orchestra.  We laughed at our shallow importance and our small, meagre efforts; and we smiled with joy at the Good News in front of us.  We gave thanks for President Jokowi and his rural agenda, we stood amazed at the impact of government done well.

Later we re-climbed the hill to discuss where-to-next, and were greeted by a rusted ambulance with no sirens or lights flashing.  A mother had given birth that morning to a still-born, and so we sat in silent reverence while her cries and the cries of her family rang out.  Poverty doesn’t dull the senses to heartache; it just makes it a more regular experience.

So celebrate with me our partial redundancy this past week, and keep working – in the multiplicity of ways that you already are – towards that day ‘when God himself will wipe every tear, and death will be no more.’

Sack me by Christmas, I pray.

A metaphoric picture of the difference a small NGO and a government can make; the small hydram in the background was part of Amos Aid’s previous assistance.