The Elijah Project
Susan A. Eames
Coconut Water
When Elijah fell from the coconut tree his life changed forever.
A kindly ex-pat called Chip heard about Elijah’s plight and organised a wheelchair donation. Now that Elijah could no longer harvest the coconuts for copra he needed some form of income, so Chip arranged a supply of trinkets for Elijah to sell to sympathetic tourists. But Elijah’s wife left him anyway.
Elijah lived in his wife’s village and her family exercised their right to reclaim the house. He now slept on the deck of his ex-marital home in his shiny wheelchair.
When Chip and his charitable friends heard about Elijah’s situation they confronted the in-laws, demanding that they show Elijah compassion. Baffled by their interference, the in-laws turned away from the foreigners, unable to express the complexities of their culture: a culture which deemed their actions not only acceptable, but expected, by everyone including Elijah.
So Chip and Co. branded the in-laws as cruel and heartless. They built Elijah a house on the edge of the village and modestly congratulated themselves for solving Elijah’s problems.
And they told people in their home countries about ‘The Elijah Project’ because people in the developed world should hear these heart-warming stories, shouldn’t they? Naturally, it wasn’t because they sought praise for being such wonderful, caring folk.
Meanwhile, Elijah sat in his shiny new wheelchair in his shiny new house with boxes of trinkets that no one wanted to buy, more outcast than ever before.
About The Author
Susan A. Eames left England over twenty-five years ago to explore the world and dive its oceans. She has had travel articles and short fiction published on three continents. After several fascinating years living in Fiji she has relocated to West Cork in Ireland. Susan blogs at: http://susan-a-eamestravelfictionandphotos.blogspot.ie
