I like to think that I know how to take care of myself. Before I came to Nigeria, I lived in an apartment, paid bills, cooked (and baked with passion), and took care of myself for the most part. One could even think that I was an adult.

At least a couple times a day here, I feel like a child ­ incapable of taking care of myself. Yesterday, I dropped my wallet into a cement wall. It’s a long story that ended happily for me (I had my wallet), but not so happily for the wall (it had a couple holes in it). Tomorrow, I’m going to do my laundry, which includes a long process of fetching water from the well, washing each piece of clothing from hand and then line drying it. I get really embarrassed if anyone else comes by when I¹m washing, as my technique has some room for improvement and I’m not really sure if my clothes are more than rinsed.

Luckily, there are generous people surrounding me, helping me out ­ poking holes in walls and the like. Maybe taking care of myself doesn¹t mean being totally self-sufficient and incapable of living on my own. Maybe the real lesson in how to take care of ourselves is how to take care of each other.

This is something that I learn everyday from the kids at the Gwaimen Center. The older kids help take care of the younger kids. When one of the young kids crying, one of the older ones are quick to wipe away their tears and comfort them. From my first moments at the Center, this amazed me.

Pictured here is Dorcas, who is eleven years old and attends primary school in Kwoi. From the second that she leaves school until they leave the Center around seven, Dorcas is with Precious, the child on her back. She¹s always taking care of her.

I am learning. Life in Nigeria is teaching me great and complicated lessons about justice, about AIDS, about poverty and how to fight it. But mostly, I’m learning life lessons. If we all took care of each other like Dorcas takes care of Precious, maybe I wouldn¹t have to learn about AIDS and poverty.

-Anne Batchelder

Anne is a ONE member, as well as the former ONE Deputy Field Director, and co-founder of the Gwaimen Center in Kwoi, Nigeria

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 11:29 am and is filed under Gwaimen Center, Anne Batchelder, Nigeria. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.