Every summer I make a pilgimage to a select handful of DIG’s garden in Africa. By the time the trip comes around I am usually more than a touch exhausted as it’s always trailing an inspiring yet emotionally draining series of fundraisers and a hectic spring. So you can imagine how I felt this year when at 9pm the night before I boarded a plane for Zambia my computer’s hard drive crashed, I got the black screen of death.
So, after a restless night sleep worrying about all of the half written documents, I woke up with only one thing to do. I abandoned my computer for the summer and dug out my passport to make the 20+ hour journey across the world. And, as exhausted as I was when I stepped off that plane I could not have prepared myself for the weeks ahead of me. Without the obligation of the computer, I was free to choose Zambia. I didn’t have to keep one eye always awake to the West. I could let my out of office status reply to my emails, let my voicemail answer the phone. I knew it would all be waiting for me when I returned, but this one month was my time to be fully present in Zambia, and it was exactly what I needed.
If, after all, I am to spend the year charged with telling DIG’s story and making the connection for people as to why this work is so important and why their support is so desperately needed then I better believe it. I better be uplifted by it and feel it pulling me from the inside. With my responsibilities, I too often forget the beautiful simplicity of what makes DIG so great, and that is its people.
So thank you Zambia, Zikomo. Thank you for forcing me to put my computer down, shut off my cell phone and reengage with the people we serve. Thank you for making my daily mission to know you not just by your photographs but by your embrace. To know the inside of your homes and the tug of your children’s hand at the bottom of my dress. To memorize your laughs and your stories. To remember what it’s like to sit quietly and listen.
And thank you Catherine Magill, our project manager who has been living in Zambia for the past year leading our projects there. You have done an amazing job and you are my inspiration. You have tilled the soil alongside brave women and men and you embody so much of what I strive to be and what I hope DIG can continue to live up to. I was inspired by your work ethic and patience, your vision and flexibility. You, unlike so many have the rare ability to live out your life in a way few others would even have the courage to try.
Being in Zambia this summer, working in the gardens with my friends and co-workers I remembered what it was like to live without a computer attached to my side. I remembered what it was like not having to plan a fundraiser or write a grant, but to live and breath the simplicity of DIG’s mission. To know that there are beautiful calloused hands behind these vibrant gardens. And to trust the thousands of supporters back home who lift this work up that they will continue to be there, not because of something they heard at a fundraiser, but because they are moved by the miracle of a seed waking up. And because they know what it’s like to bite into a chemical free tomato and feel the power a nutritious meal activate their bodies and minds.
DIG is doing important work, and I believe in it’s power to transform. I believe it because it continues to transform me. When I got back to the states my computer had been fixed. A new hardrive was installed and my external back-up did just what it was supposed to, brought my machine back to life as if nothing ever happened. But it did happen, and I believe it happened just as it was supposed to. And again I am forever grateful.
Sarah Koch
DIG’s Executive Director