Half Way To Heaven
Joseph is the happiest and the most humble man I have ever met. He is always, always thankful and positive. My life is made a lot easier here because of him. He is very efficient and there is no ‘manjana’ attitude to been seen on Joseph. For Joseph ‘now’ is always better than ‘later’ and he quickly peddles to far away villages to make appointments for me, finds out the prices for sewing machines
and treadle pumps or what ever I am interested in. His monthly salary as a Pentecostal priest is 1500 kwacha - £ 7.50. How he feeds his wife and 3 children is a mystery to me, but he never asks money. He never asks anything, except how he could help.
I have been wondering how to reward Joseph for the excellent
work he is doing for me and for the community. I have visited his home, so I
know that practically anything would be welcome as a gift.
Joseph was very pleased today when I gave him a wall chart of divisions.
“Wonderful, I can teach my children tonight. My daughter is very bad at mathematics, this makes it easier for her to learn.”
The poster will also cheer up their empty walls, even if it won’t frighten the mice away. But that is Blessing’s job anyway.
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I asked Joseph if it is ok for me to write this and send to the Heart of Africa readers.
He laughed happily –maybe slightly surprised that there was anything to write about, but typically for Joseph, had no objection for it.
It is a week after the previous and I asked Joseph how is the new bed?
“It is wonderful, I feel like being half way to heaven when lying on it.”
It reminded me to be thankful for being ‘half way to heaven’ every night and not to take it for granted.