Untukmu Para Pengunjung

I've learned to welcome unexpected visitors to my office rather than to panic about the work I won't get done while they are here. Yesterday I had two such visitors. One was an older white man. His wife had just collapsed in a clinic next door and so he came in saying he just wanted a place to sit down and collect himself. He started asking me questions about the meaning of life and told me about all of the people in his life he has lost to death. The other visitor was a young guy in his early 20s. He lives in the townships and he is one of our department's heroes - working with orphans and vulnerable children in spite of severe economic hardships. He was telling me about how last month he had really contemplated leaving the country for greener pastures. But he doesn't want to abandon the children in his area. He is working, and therefore supporting his parents, his brothers and sisters as well as many relatives and he is really feeling the pressure. He also started crying as he talked about the many friends he lost in the month of December. He said in that month he received a funeral message on his phone each day. Each day of that month he learned about a different friend or family member who had died. "I'm crying now, but at the time you don't even have time to cry. You know you just have to accept it, because another message will be coming soon. But it's very difficult to face death again and again and again."