It finally got personal

All because I wanted to visit some Malagasy friends and work on language...

I went to visit my friends and language helpers this morning with a warning from my leader that they have had a funeral among their relatives and because of the travel and “funeral gift” they are lacking in money and may have their hands out.  Having seen their struggle with a money influx in the past I still wasn’t ready for what I encountered when I went today.  My language helpers (sisters-in-law) were both sleeping at 10:00 in the morning.  When I visited with the first she said she was too hunger and tired to help me with language today.  The second wasn’t as direct but explained that she had a headache and couldn’t help with language today, but would be available another day.  I had brought plastic water bottles (that they can sell) as payment for my lesson and gave them away anyway with a promise to bring more when I returned. 

The hard part about the morning is that I’m not supposed to just give gifts to anyone, it creates dependence.  Seeing their need, I had a “heart to heart” with my Malagasy Mama when I returned home.  I told her about the needs of the family and she explained that the problem is the Malagasy President.  Because of corruption there are not enough jobs for the people of Mada.  As a result, there is not enough money to go around.  Many people have food to sell but they can’t make money selling because many others don’t have the money to buy food.  Even the people selling food, who you would think have the highest likelihood of making money have a low income.  The reality is no one has money!

This is where my real frustration comes in.  How do you boost an economy like this?  How do you get the money to flow for the people of Madagascar?  I have heard about transformational development and micro-finance which are Kingdom strategies for helping people build confidence and learn how to manage money, but if there is no money to be had how do even these work.  The idea behind microfinance is to get a group of people together who become business partners and grown their money, but what can be sold here that can grow their money?  Who are they going to sell to?  No one has money? 

My mama suggested the idea of selling craft items overseas and I can see the value in this, but there has to be some way to grow money without outsourcing?  I don’t know.  This is where you come in.  What am I missing?