WorldWalk-Peacetour covered more than 2000 miles along the western coast of Africa. It was a real culture shock sometimes, but not necessarily in a negative sense. Quite often they learned from their relationship with local people.
by FERENC IVANICS
As I was looking for a dentist in Málaga, I saw a beggar on the street, his knees bent backwards, but he wasn’t disabled only physically: his eyes were telling me about a mental problem, too. I gave him a couple of cents and thought about the guys in El Aaiun...
El Aaiun is the largest city in Western-Sahara, about 200.000 people live there. So it’s a rather small city judged from our western point of view. You can hear many bad things about living in Africa, or living in the poor areas of Africa, and you can be sure, Western-Sahara is poor enough. But these poor africans treat their mentally disabled fellow-beings with profound empathy, in a peaceful manner, with compassion.
Whem we were in El Aaiun we often spent our spare time in Cafe Roma. The locals welcomed us kindly and we chatted with them for hours, so we learned a lot about their lives. We can’t forget the way they treated the mentally challenged. These people aren’t allowed to be full members of the company, they are not able to take part in the conversations, but they were accepted, the healthy members of the company shared their coffees, teas, cigarettes and tables with them. And at least one person was always keeping them company. They tried to bring them back into ordinary life.
Once a very confused man arrived. He was mumbling constantly, but his words made no sense. A member of the company stood up and tried to ask him, where he lived, what was his name. It wasn’t easy, but he was repeating the questions for an hour or so, and finally he was quite sure about the name and address of the confused man. Than he called a taxi and paid the ride home for the man.
We found the tact, attention, thoughtfulness and respect that was shown by the people of El Aaiun really humane. This is far less common in our western culture. We know the principles of solidarity with disabled people, but instead of treating them in a peaceful way, we build special institutes or train professionals to take care of them. They can’t take part in our everyday life. I think the example shown by our friends in El Aaiun is a good example of brotherhood and friendship and is one of the very essences of peace.
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