The Mama Grata

I read a story many years ago by a journalist who visited Africa. I don't remember where in Africa but South Africa keeps coming to mind when I think of the story. He said when he was there an elder instructed him to pay the Mama Grata before he began his daily journey. The Mama Grata, according to the elder, was the hungry, thristy, person or people on the road asking for money.

I don't know for sure if that was the exact title or if that was the meaning. But that's what it means to me now. And I do. I pay the Mama Grata on my journey in the day. The woman outside McDonald's, the man outside the bank. I do what I can. Of course not to every one who comes up and asks but someone everyday. I try to anyway.

We act like we know so much about what they are going through and how they got there. We don't. I remember once I was having lunch with a group of people and as we were walking out of the restaurant a man came up to me and asked me for money. I gave him two dollars and one of the guys from my group told me that I shoudn't have given him money because he had just saw that same guy a couple of nights ago arond the corner and he gave him three dollars. I wasn't sure what my associate's point was. What? So you gave him three dollars nights ago and that should what, last him a month? Fuck outta here. I can't even make my paycheck last from week to week and I have a place to live and food already stocked up.

It's also crazy when I hear people say that they don't want to give money because that person might go out and buy a drink. Take that dolla straight to the likka sto! (In my best old school church lady voice.) Well, helloooo. Seriously if I had to spend the night outside in the cold I would much rather a bottle of rum that will help me sleep over a double cheeseburger that will make me sick. My point is that we don't know what someone else has to go through to make it until the next day. We don't know. We judge, but we don't know.

Get in your car tomorrow and on your journey, say a prayer, give a smile, speak a kind word, give shoes, hand over a jacket, pay the MAMA GRATA!