Its all about the Floor Polish....

Floor Polish

      Here in Swaziland Corine and I have a phrase for when the appearance of things seems to be more important than the actual substance, “Floor Polish”.  Whole treatises could be given on the making, application, and significance here of floor polish.  It is some waxy mixture between paraffin and mystery solvents, some probably banned in the developed world.  It is applied to all manner of surfaces here, home tiles, cement floor, and hospital walkways buffed to a slick sheen without concern for increased fall risk or litigation.  Large portions of preschool meetings have been devoted to obtaining the correct amount and consistency of floor polish.  This obsession with “floor polish” infiltrates many areas of life in Swaziland.  This is, mind you, the country with the highest HIV prevalence in the world.  It extends, from the capital where nurses and NGO employees (my people) exit shiny, washed SUVs with nails done and hair neatly coifed to give trainings, and pass out colorful expensive best practice manuals to the standard protocol posters and flowcharts that line hospital walls.  But, like the slippery glow of floor polish, most doctors and nurses in these outlying communities never actually follow these “best practices”, and protocols on the wall don’t actually result in patients getting even the bare minimum of competent care and compassion as they lay sick and dying of AIDs.  

     I have asked Corine, “why this obsession with floor polish.”  I have been fascinated with Swaziland’s history as a British protectorate, and many of the hold overs from colonial England; but Corine says the focus on floor polish is much more ancient than the Brits.  In traditional mud huts, women will make a mixture of cowdung that hardens to a brilliant shine with a nice grassy smell.  

   In our own rented home here in Swaziland, years of application of floor polish have meant a waxy build up that looks shiny and beautiful in the center of the room but with years of dirt and grime that have accumulated and are trapped in the corners, next to impossible to remove.  As Americans, Christians, and humans, we are devoted to form over function.  We care a lot about how things appear on the outside- “The floor polish”.  It’s made me think a lot about the sin that is hiding in the corners of my own life, and I am not a domestic goddess in any area as my mom and roommates would attest.

     As a visitor to Swaziland, I’m impacted by the incredible and basic needs of the people here, and as I observe where folks put their energy and what they think is important.  I hope I will have the same eyes when I return home to the U.S.  Job 13:28 says “So man wastes away like something rotten, like a garment eaten by moths.”  But God has called us in Matthew 22: 36-40 to “Glorify Him and to love our neighbors”.  Everything else is “Floor Polish”, cow dung